Tag Archives: new ideas

2016 – The Year of AI

Well the long festive season is over and I’m back at my desk after a well deserved break and contemplating this New Year with renewed energy, vigour and excitement. This is going to be a great year for ideas and making new connections and sharing common visions to discover your purpose. Which leads me onto my first topic of the season and one which is going to make a lot of ripples in knowledge based industries.

Microsoft has hailed 2016 the “Year of AI,” according to its annual trend list. Microsoft asked 16 members of its technology and research team to forecast the biggest breakthroughs for 2016, and AI was the area generating the most excitement. Virtual assistants, conversation assistants, AI-enabled user interfaces and customer service AIs were some of the user cases described.

The tech giants see this era as an important step to focus on artificial intelligence, and they’re predicting major breakthroughs in 2016 — we shall see more evidence of this technology’s rapid advancement from deceptive to disruptive growth phases as the year progresses..

In 2015, artificial intelligence went mainstream. Major tech companies including Google, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter made huge in roads into AI, almost all of technology research company predictions included AI, and declared that AI-driven technologies were the next big disruptor to enterprise software. This makes it likely that in 2016, new inventions will increasingly come to market from companies discovering new ways to apply this wonderful technology versus building it. With game changers now having access to cost effective quality AI platforms to create new products, we’ll also likely see an explosion in new startups using AI.

Smart machines will assist employees being more productive, not replace them. Analytics industry leader, Tom Davenport, predicted that “smart leaders will realize that augmentation—combining smart humans with smart machines—is a better strategy than automation.”

Business leaders will be given the choice to use these intelligent vehicles so that AI sourced information has the option to present solutions and explain how they arrive at their answers to common problems and allow better, more efficient decisions be made as part of a companies growth.

AI-powered applications will start to infiltrate companies other than technology firms. Employees, teams and entire departments will champion process re-engineering efforts with these intelligent systems whether they realize it or not. As each individual app eliminates a task, employees will automate many of the mundane parts of their jobs and assemble their own stack of AI-powered apps. Teammates eager to be competitive will follow, along with team managers who are looking to execute on cost-cutting efforts.

With innovation progressing rapidly within large organizations in sectors such as retail, finance and pharmaceutical will focus even more efforts on remaining competitive and discovering the next big thing by forming innovation hubs. Innovation laboratories have existed for some time, but in 2016, we’ll begin to see more resources devoted to innovation and more technologies discovered in these think tanks actually implemented across different company functions and business lines.

2016 will be a big year for AI. But what is even more significant, 2016 will bring about a major shift in the perception of AI. It will cease to be an intimidating, hypothetical set of notions and theories and will be better understood and accepted as more people realize the advantages of AI to supplement what we do to make our lives even more rewarding.

To your Success in 2016

Steve

Jeans That Fit – At Last

Retail is going through a radical transformation and online purchasing has seen incredible exponential growth over the last 5 years as our lifestyle becomes more mobile online. Many start ups have started to experiment with how the market will play out next – but the most fundamental area that needs addressing are “returns” and that 15 lost minutes( in the dressing room) when sizing becomes a real problem on hitting your bottom line on customer refunds. A smart US start up “LikeAGlove” hopes to close that gap & to demystify online clothing shopping using a smart fabric. Its sensor-equipped, conductive fiber-woven leggings discreetly measure a woman’s figure and create an accurate digital representation of her figure. Shoppers can then instantly browse clothing of their choice in the exact sizes that will fit them.

This is a very important step up as a game changer ; Because of the large variance in women’s sizes between designers, it’s difficult to find a good selection of right-sized clothing online. LikeAGlove’s sensor-packed leggings make measurement accurate, private and, fundamentally easier. I see this company moving forward and partnering with other online retail disrupters out there ( maybe even me) with new ideas that get away from traditional bricks ‘n’ mortar shopping.

The company is hopeful that they’ll be able to expand the technology to include other types of clothing, like tops, dresses, and more.

If you’re in search of some seriously high-tech leggings that will simplify your search for your perfectly fitting pair of jeans, search no longer. Just grab a pair of LikeAGlove leggings.

I’ll be watching this company closer as I have a few ideas of my own that compliment the whole social shopping experience.

Hope the size works for you.

To your success

Steve

Your Heads’ In The Clouds

This post will literally blow your mind …And I mean ….Literally!
It has been predicted recently that not far from now, our opportunity & capacity for learning and gaining knowledge will grow exponentially to stratospheric heights.

” In the 2030s,” said Ray Kurzweil( a brilliant scientist from Google), “we are going to send nano-robots into the brain (via capillaries) that will provide full immersion virtual reality from within the nervous system and will connect our neocortex to the cloud. Just like how we can wirelessly expand the power of our smartphones 10,000-fold in the cloud today, we’ll be able to expand our neocortex in the cloud.”
Having your head in the clouds” will no longer be a term used for ridiculing unrealistic thinking.

Just give a thought to it for a moment ……2030 is only 15 years away…
Directly plugging your brain into the internet? Upgrading your intelligence and memory capacity by orders of magnitude?
This post is about the staggering (and fascinating) consequences of that possible future.
The implications of a connected neocortex are quite literally unfathomable. As such, any list one can come up with will pale in contrast to reality… But here are a few suggested ideas to get the ball rolling.

Head-to-Head Communication
This will deliver a new level of human intimacy, where you can truly know what your lover, friend or child is feeling. Intimacy far beyond what we experience today by mere human verbal exchanges. Forget email, texting, phone calls, and so on – you’ll be able to send your thoughts to someone simply by thinking them.

Yahoo on the Brain – Instantaneous knowledge at the speed of thought!
You’ll have the ability to “know” anything you desire, at the moment you want to know it. You’ll have access to the world’s information at the tip of your neurons. You’ll be able to determine complecated maths formulae in seconds. You’ll be able to navigate the streets of any cities, naturally. You’ll be able to hop into a helicopter and fly it perfectly( no mean feat). You’ll be able to communicate in different languages effortlessly.

Scalable Intelligence
Just imagine that you’re in a bind and you need to solve a problem (rapidly). In the future world, you’ll be able to scale up the computational power of your brain on demand, 10x or 1,000x, 10,000X… in much the same way that algorithms today can spool up 1,000 processor cores on Web Servers.

Living in the Virtual World
If our brains can truly connect at high bandwidth, you will be able to circumvent our current sensory internal organs (eyes, ears, touch) to the point where brain’s sense of reality can be driven completely by a computer gaming engine – a multimedia world. Likewise, the connections would exist in the motor cortex of your brain as well. When you move your limbs, picture a corresponding set of virtual arms moving perfectly in the virtual world.

Extended Immune System
Ray goes onto suggest how we already have intelligent scientific devices, the size of blood cells that kill disease. They are called T-cells. They can recognize an adversary and attack it; In the future, nanorobots will be able to communicate wirelessly, download applications when new pathogens arrives, and attack cancer, cancer stem cells, bacteria, viruses, and all the disease agents. They can also work on metabolic illnesses like diabetes. They could also protect healthy levels of everything you need in the blood, including nutrients, and basically heal and fundamentally replace weakened organs.

Downloadable Expertise
The old derogatory saying “Jack of all trades, master of none.” Will be a thing of the past as we will become experts in everything – We’ll be able to do anything. Need to perform unexpected emergency surgery? Just download the ER doctor program. Need to learn a new foreign language? Download it. Want to repair your old car motor engine? Download the mechanic module. In fact, you probably won’t even need to download it (which takes up memory), you’ll probably just “stream” resources from the cloud.

Expanded and Searchable Memories
We’ll be able to always remember everything that ever happened to us (because we’ll store our memories in the cloud), and we’ll be able to search that memory database for useful information. When our memories will become searchable, we’ll also be able to make them contextual by cross-referencing our diaries, journeys, mediacal info, current news, weather conditions, and anything else that might be relevant to that particular moment in time.

A Higher-Order Existence
Ray talks about how a connected neocortex will bring humanity to a higher order of existence and complexity – expanding our palate for sensation, culture, humour, creativity, expression, and individuality. He says, “We’re going to be funnier. We’re going to be sexier. We’re going to be better at expressing loving sentiment. We’re going to add more levels to the hierarchy of brain modules and create deeper levels of expression. People will be able to explore very deeply some particular type of music in far greater degree than we can today. It’ll lead to far greater originality, not less.”

While this future may sound imaginary to many, let’s remember that exponential technologies are initially deceptive, before they become disruptive.
And today, there are many labs around the world working on molecular machinery, that allow us to edit our own genome, and brain-computer interfaces (through cortical implants and in the field of optogenetics).
So what if these fields of technological progress double every 18 months? In 15 years (2015 – 2030), we will have a 1,000-fold improvement over today. What does a future one thousand times better look like? Perhaps it’s what Ray predicts…
If this future becomes reality, connected humans are going to change everything…You’ll be able to fulfil your potential in every area of your life!
We need to discuss the consequences in order to make the right decisions now so that we are prepared for the long-term.
This is the sort of conversation that really lights my fire and one I’d like to explore further within a mastermind group. So come and join me.

To you all “slipping the surly bonds of earth” and soaring amongst the clouds

Steve

Download apps at the speed of light!

Fujitsu has developed the world’s first 300 GHz band compact receiver with an internal antenna. It’s capable of high-speed wireless communications at a rate of several tens of gigabits per second — over 100 times faster than current mobile technology. Radio signals with a frequency greater than 100GHz, called the terahertz band, allow for increases in usable frequency range and communication speed of more than 100 times compared with the 0.8-2.0 GHz range used by current mobile devices. Now, Fujitsu has developed technology that combines a receiver-amplifier chip and terahertz-band antenna with a low-loss connection. This has made it possible to reduce the receiver’s size to one tenth that of previous receivers, making use in mobile devices possible.

One of the main hurdles was that existing high-sensitivity terahertz-band receivers consist of a receiver-amplifier module and separate antenna, with a specialized component called a waveguide to connect them, which makes for large receivers. The most effective way to miniaturize them is to build the antenna directly into the receiver-amplifier module and eliminate the waveguide. Modules with built-in antennas are built by connecting the antenna and the receiver-amplifier chip through an internal printed-circuit substrate, making a waveguide unnecessary. The problem then is that the most common materials for printed-circuit substrates for high-frequency waves are ceramic, quartz, or Teflon, but when used in the terahertz band, there is significant signal attenuation and loss of receiving sensitivity.

Why is this important: Imagine visiting a download kiosk at an event hall, station, bus terminus, shopping mall or theme park and being able to instantly download 4K or HD video straight to your smartphone. Fujitsu envisions “split-second data transfers between mobile devices and split-second backup between mobile devices and servers,” according to Next Big Future.

Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories will begin field trials of multi-gigabit-per-second, high-speed data transfer using this newly developed compact receiver, aiming to commercialize this technology around 2020.

This will dispel the common frustrations felt from ‘on the hoof’ downloads from highly expectant video hungry consumers.

These are the topics that interest me; Sign up and join in with what could be!

To the next

Steve

Turn Smog into Gemstones

I’ve just supported a great innovation on Kickstarter. The Largest Air Purifier Ever Built that Sucks Up Smog and Turns it Into Gemstones!

A very clever designer Daan Roosegaarde has unveiled the Smog Free Tower, a 23-foot air purifier that captures smog from the outside air and turns these smog particles into gemstones. The tower purifies 30,000 cubic meters of air each hour, and each gemstone is the product of roughly 1,000 cubic meters of air. Roosegaarde is currently raising funds via the crowdfunding site Kickstarter to cover the travel costs of transporting the air purifier to major cities like Beijing, Mumbai and Paris, with smog gemstone cufflinks and rings as backer prizes. So I’ll be getting a small cube to remind me about how I’m helping the planet by purifying the air in inner city environments.

The process taking place inside its walls powered by 1,400 watts of sustainable energy, which is comparable to a water boiler, and the studio says it hopes to one day integrate solar PVs into the design to power the process—which works not so differently than some ionic air purifiers. Roosegaarde explains; that the way it works is by charging the Smog Free Tower with a small positive current, an electrode will send positive ions into the air. These ions will attach themselves to fine dust particles. A negatively charged surface -the counter electrode- will then draw the positive ions in, together with the fine dust particles. The fine dust that would normally harm us, is collected together with the ions and stored inside of the tower. This technology manages to capture ultra-fine smog particles which regular filter systems fail to do.

I think this was an important project to get involved with because it demonstrates another example of how creative thinkers are transforming scarcity into abundance. This architectural feat appeals to me as its a blindingly obvious solution to a growing problem; your born with a fine set of lungs – it makesense to keep them clean. Unfortunately us humans through our industrial endeavours have polluted certain areas of the planet through the need of our ever expanding consumption of stuff; and this innovation marks a turning point to give something back to our congested communities. Environmentally it ticks many boxes and will set the scene for other concepts to support its success through crowdfunding, DIY innovators and other material based sciences. This is a project which has immense scalability; Can you imagine giant versions of these towers sucking in huge amounts of polluted air with the residue being used in the building industry or other sectors as a sustainable material.

This is truly exceptional and an example of an idea I get excited about and want to discuss. This really lights my inner fire. I hope this encourages you to comment & contribute about what could be next.

To your success.

Steve

Smartphones become Solar Panels

Transparent Batteries That Charge in the Sun Could Replace Smartphone Screens –

A group of smart Japanese techies have managed to improve the design of a transparent lithium-ion battery so that it’s now able to recharge itself when exposed to sunlight without the need for a separate solar cell.

The transparent battery was first developed by the researchers, led by Kogakuin University president and professor Mitsunobu Sato, back in 2013. The electrolyte used for the battery’s positive electrode is made mostly from lithium iron phosphate, while the electrolytes used for the negative electrode include lithium titanate, and lithium hexafluorophosphate a stronger chemical bond at subatomic level.

Those are all common ingredients used in Li-ion rechargeable batteries, but the thickness of these electrodes are just 80 to 90 nanometers, which allows a lot of light to pass through and makes these batteries almost completely transparent. Imagine that! Where else could this technological discovery be applied.

But by changing the chemical makeup of the negative electrode, the Japanese researchers have found a way to make these transparent batteries now recharge themselves in the presence of sunlight, or other bright sources of illumination, say a lamp or street light.

This is important because future iterations of this battery could become smart mirrors for buildings and vehicles that can auto-dim when it’s bright outside during the heat of the day, but also store power as they’re recharged by the sun. And as an extension of that idea, one day your smartphone’s display might even serve as an additional battery, using sunlight to charge the device whenever you’re outside.

Harvesting energy is becoming more and more portable. Have any ideas to join in the discussion?

Whats the next disruptive vision that will enter the solar market place?

To the next

Steve

Tallest Lift on The Planet

It appears like a special effects design out of a Star Wars epic.
But engineers have drawn up plans to build an elevator that would lift astronauts and their craft 12 miles into the Stratosphere.
The idea is that they would take off at higher altitudes there-by burning about 30% less fuel than at ground level cutting costs significantly for manned space flight.
The firm Thoth Technology Inc ( http://thothx.com/ ) has been granted US & UK patents for its “space elevator” which would travel at 7mph up a freestanding tower.

It’s an important breakthrough because…

In the patent the firm explains that blasting off from the ground requires vast amounts of kinetic energy because the propulsion systems are weighed down with fuel and must counter atmospheric drag.

When using their new design at higher altitudes less “expulsion mass” exists working against gravity and lower ascent speeds can be achieved with less fuel in the stratosphere as drag is vitually elimated .

Conventional rockets take off vertically – shedding various modules as they get higher before turning horizontal to enter space. The elevator would eliminate this stage altogether with take offs from a launch pad flying off horizontally. Space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refueling and reflight.

Mind blowing and exciting stuff which will herald a new era of space transportation.

These are the topics I want to discuss in our mastermind group. Please opt in and strike up a conversation. Any Space Junkies out there that want to explore some new ideas?

Success is yours for the taking

Steve

Are you a “Disruptive Talent” – How to Challenge the Norm

During my long career in the commercial world ..I’ve always felt a bit of a square peg in a round hole. And may have come across to me colleagues as a bit of a maverick that doesn’t toe the party line & play corporate politics. Maybe that’s why I experienced a few redundancies along the way as I was deemed too dangerous for the business. Maybe I was born in the wrong era or just joined the wrong companies as doing things differently just was’nt the done thing! . …I succeeded anyhow!

But now there seems to be many square pegs that have bucked the system and have succeeded in their quest to “do things differently ” But not only that, the system ( ie the so called commercial world ) has come to respect and embrace these game changers as HR departments encourage the flow of talent as part of the employee mix.

“The term disruptive talent is an interesting rebranding of people with an identifiable character, people who we have all been working with for many years to try to help them better understand the impact they have on others,” says Mr Duff, who is a partner at UK business psychology consultancy Pearn Kandola.

“We do a lot of coaching people like this, people who are very bright in a particular role, very inventive and creative, but who have no chance of fitting into the wider culture of the business. How ironic!

“As a result, other people in the organisation cannot cope with the amount of antagonism and disruption they bring with them. That is why people who you can classify as disruptive talent tend to instead start their own businesses.”

Sir Richard Branson, who has an estimated net worth of £3bn ($4.5bn) has certainly thrived running his own businesses and is a classic example of a disruptive talent that has broken through red tape & politics.

He says: “I think anyone who sets up a business is to an extent a disruptive individual, because starting a business is simply someone thinking ‘I can do it better than anybody else, and I know how to do it’.

“For that idea to succeed you have to be doing it in a disruptive way, otherwise you’re just doing the same as everyone else and you are going to fail.

“When I came up with the idea of starting my airline and space company, people gave me every reason why I shouldn’t do it. In the end you have to be a leader, you have to give it a go.”

This belief in your own idea and that burning desire in your gut that tells you that you need to do this ; is one example of being disruptive; challenging the norm & ignoring the naysayers.

Carving out your own path completely blinkered to others criticism and ignorance is part of the challenge we all face in life. But its the hard part that makes it good. Being a maverick is cool and looking for new answers to do things better is what builds your character and allows you stand out from the crowd. Too many times, when leaders think deeply about a problem or challenge, they are merely doing what they have been socialized( ie fitting in) to believe is the right way to think about a problem or process, and it is very difficult to break this habit. All great business innovations and inventions in history have come from people who have not bought into this logic. Consider Steve Jobs. Who would have thought that a computer could have color? Or graphics? Or be a piece of furniture or art? We need to be conscious of our surrounding culture and be able to step out of it so we can produce original thinking.

Another great example is take a look at the success of Amazon. They fundamentally deconstructed the traditional relationship between a reader and an author, but kept its essence in place; the author writes a book and the reader buys the book. What was fundamentally restructured was how these two events occurred. Gone was the bricks n mortar bookstore to be replaced by an electronic one; traditional stock was replaced by one of the most efficient just-in-time supply chains imaginable. Then they followed that by restructuring the traditional physical book into an electronic platform that cut down on the weight and exponentially increased the number of books that could be purchased and carried efficiently by a reader. This sort of fundamental deconstruction and reconstruction is possible in every business sector; it simply takes a different way of thinking.

Share this post with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above as this is the stuff I want to discuss.

To your success

Steve

Marty Mcfly would be proud ——— HoverBoard comes to life

We’ve all seen the trilogy of Back to The Future …we’ll those crafty scientists at Lexus tech have finally come up with a design that may just bring a dream to reality. The race has been on to develop a hoverboard by many companies over the years with a few falling short of production and application. But now in 2015 seems the year that hurdles have been overcome.

This Hoverboard is called Slide by Lexus and has been teased in a viral video released on you tube to millions of fans. Apparently more videos will be released during the summer.

The Hoverboard “uses magnetic levitation to achieve amazing frictionless movement.” with the added benefit of “liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors and permanent magnets combine to allow Lexus to create the impossible.”

The ‘Hoverboard’ by Lexus has of course got tech geeks excited all over and if you’re a ‘Back to The Future’ fan, you are likely one of those who got excited by the teaser video. I know my 7 year old son was who is a keen skateboarder.

Because Lexus has opted for a superconductor, this creates a different kind of magnetic field, one that does not die away …….. more on the physics of this in a latter post.

Magnets aside, the Lexus video does not really tell us much about if and when the ‘Slide’ hoverboard will really hit the market. Lexus has clarified that it isn’t looking to build a widely available hoverboard just yet.

Lexus spokesperson Maurice Dumand said “Back to the Future messed my whole generation up. The world so desperately wants someone to mass produce a hoverboard. Let’s be frank, it’s not novel. There are other hoverboards. To a degree, we weren’t expecting [the reaction].”

In short, BTTF fans should calm down. While the Lexus hoverboard is ‘real’, it’s not hitting the stores anytime soon. Like with many exponential ideas they have a purpose to fulfil design improvements in current tech and this may only be an experimental process that Lexus is going through to bolster their market position.

On the other hand there is the Hendo Hoverboard>>>…

http://hendohover.com

The technology that allows this to happen is called Magnetic Field Architecture( MFA). This involves electromagnets attached to the base of the board that repel any non-ferrous (i.e. does not contain a significant amount of iron) conductive surface.

Greg and Jill Henderson, who are behind the Hendo Hover project, believe that the hoverboard is just the first of many innovations this technology allows. “It enables a new generation of lift and motion technology that will change the way we view transportation,” the Hendersons explained. “Additional applications for MFA technology are virtually limitless – from business, to industry, to healthcare, and beyond.”

The company is hopeful that a model will be on sale in 2015 – coincidentally, the year in which Marty McFly rode around on his own hoverboard.

Christmas comes early for teenagers the world over 🙂 The application of this tech is definately one to watch and is a cue for a future Q & A on those of you wanting to join in the discussion.

Comments welcome in the chat box below.

Enjoy

Steve

Brain Cells & Expanding Galaxies

According to a study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports recently , the universe may be growing in the same way as a giant brain – with the electrical firing between brain cells ‘mirrored’ by the shape of expanding galaxies.

The results of a computer simulation suggest that “natural growth dynamics” – the way that systems evolve – are the same for different kinds of networks – whether its the internet, the human brain or the universe as a whole.

Did you know that inside your body if you look at brain nerves endings under the microscope and observe the colourful patterns that appear, you can find structures and features that look strikingly like celestial bodies – millions of light years away? The universe is just as alive and complex as we are, in some ways…

Past studies by Dmitri Krioukov, a physicist at the University of California San Diego, showed brain circuits and the internet look a lot alike & are not too disimilar in function. But despite finding this similarity, nobody had developed equations to perfectly predict how computer networks, brain circuits or social networks grow over time,

Using Einstein’s equations of relativity, which explain how matter warps the fabric of space-time, physicists can retrace the universe’s explosive birth in the Big Bang roughly 14 billion years ago and how it has expanded outward in the eons since.

So Krioukov’s team wondered whether the universe’s accelerating growth could provide insight into the ways social networks or brain circuits expand.

The remarkable thing about this is that when the team compared the universe’s history with growth of social networks and brain circuits, they found all the networks expanded in similar ways: They balanced links between similar hubs with ones that already had many connections. For instance, a dog lover surfing the Internet may visit sites such as Google or Bing, but will also browse other websites or YouTube dog Videos. In the same way, neighbouring brain cells like to connect, but neurons also link to such “Google brain cells” that are hooked up to loads of other brain cells.

The eerie similarity between networks large and small is unlikely to be a coincidence, Krioukov said.

“For a physicist it’s an immediate signal that there is some missing gap of understanding of how nature works,”

It’s more likely that some unknown law governs the way networks grow and change, from the smallest brain cells to the growth of mega-galaxies, Krioukov said.

“This result suggests that maybe we should start looking for it,” he said

And the coolest thing about this is.. The Law of Attraction – could it really work ..is it as real as certain gurus suggest and is there a background science in another dimension that explains why certain events whether personal or global take place.

Could it be that when you can harmonize with the universe..things start to happen for you in the right order.

We’re made of the same stuff as the rest of the universe, and this just shows how close we resemble the cosmos: We’re all made of star stuff.

One to ponder over..Discussions welcome.

Best

Steve