Year: 2018

Impact Lab > 2018
Internet, Latest Trend, Legal Issues, privacy, security

The ‘deep web’ may be 500 times bigger than the normal web. Its uses go well beyond buying drugs

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The dark web is a hidden portion of the internet that can only be accessed using special software.

TOR, or The Onion Router, is a popular anonymous browsing network used to connect to the dark web.

While the dark web offers anonymity and a way to bypass internet censorship, it is commonly associated with illegal activities such as the buying and selling of drugs and other contraband.

The so-called dark web, a portion of the hidden internet, is usually associated with a host of illegal activities including the buying and selling of drugs, firearms, stolen financial data and other types of valuable information. The selling point? Total anonymity.

Continue reading… “The ‘deep web’ may be 500 times bigger than the normal web. Its uses go well beyond buying drugs”

Award Winner, New Inventions, Robots

Award-winning robot travels through water pipes to detect leaks

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It sounds unbelievable, but each day around 20 percent of clean water produced in the world is lost as the result of leaky pipes. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, this amounts to an estimated 6 billion gallons of clean water per day in the U.S. alone. The problem is exacerbated by current detection technology, which means that most of the leaks are either not found or discovered too late, after they’ve already caused sinkholes and burst pipes.

A new soft robot may be able to help, however — and it’s just netted the 2018 James Dyson Award, a design competition to celebrate up-and-coming inventors. The award-winning creation is the work of recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doctoral graduate You Wu. Called Lighthouse, the low-cost bot is designed to travel through water pipes on the hunt for leaks before they turn into major problems.

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facebook, Human Behavior, Latest Trend

More than 1 in 4 Americans have deleted the Facebook app in the past year, according to a new survey

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Facebook has had a year full of controversies over misinformation and the way it provides access to user data.

A new study from Pew taken shortly after the Cambridge Analytica scandal found that 26% of Americans had deleted the Facebook app from their phone in the last year.

Continue reading… “More than 1 in 4 Americans have deleted the Facebook app in the past year, according to a new survey”

3D Printer, Biotech, Medical Breakthrough

Researchers 3D print prototype “BionicEye”

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have 3D printed a light receptive array, consisting of silver particles and semiconducting polymers, on a glass hemispherical surface. The printed material can convert light to electricity, and the researchers hope that it could one day, with more research, end up serving as a bionic eye.

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3D Printer, Architecture, drones, Housing

Five technologies changing construction

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Technology is changing every industry, but what are the top technologies accelerating construction?

The construction industry, in general, suffers from a traditional hesitancy to embrace nascent technologies, caused partly because projects take years to plan and complete. Recently, however, progressive construction honchos have begun to harness and realise the potency of tech – whether it’s virtual reality, autonomous drones, artificial intelligence, concrete three-dimensional (3D) printing and much more.

Thanks to incredible tech advancements, great value is generated by optimising efficiency and productivity – at every stage, from planning to construction. Indeed, many within the industry predict that in a decade a building site will look very different. Here follows five of the most game-changing technologies in the construction world.

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3D Printer, Architecture, Engineering, new technology, Science & Technology News

How to 3D print a bicycle bridge? Study discusses Dutch concrete printing project

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In 2017, the world’s first prestressed 3D printed concrete bicycle bridge officially opened to cyclists. It was created by the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in collaboration with construction company BAM Infra, and was installed in the Dutch village of Gemert. The bridge was part of a research project that involved the development of a giant concrete 3D printer, and now the researchers involved have published a paper on the project, entitled “3D Printed Concrete Bridge.”

The bridge was designed to replace an existing structure over a small local canal. The structure is 3.5 meters wide and spans 6.5 meters. It consists of 3D printed elements that are rotated 90 degrees after printing, then pressed together by post-tensioned prestressing tendons.

Continue reading… “How to 3D print a bicycle bridge? Study discusses Dutch concrete printing project”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Business, Employment, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Over 9 out of 10 people are ready to take orders from robots

If you are unhappy taking orders from your human boss, you might be more inclined to take orders from robots, according to a new survey.

The AI, machine learning, and data science conundrum: Who will manage the algorithms?

There seems to be a large gap between the way people are using artificial intelligence (AI) at home and at work. Although almost three quarters of us use AI in our personal life, only six percent of HR professionals are deploying AI and only one in four (24 percent) of employees are currently using some form of AI at work.

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Automation, Electric Vehicles, Employment, Transportation

Autonomous driving will support, not displace truckers, study says

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Autonomous trucks have been in the development stage for the last few years.

DETROIT — It’s been long speculated that autonomous driving technology will widely displace one of the most common jobs in the U.S., truck drivers.

Goldman Sachs, for instance, predicts that as autonomous vehicle technology peaks, as many as 25,000 trucker jobs could be eliminated per month or about 300,000 annually. But a new workforce study from the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti Township is saying: Hit the brakes.

The study, commissioned by ACM and led by Michigan State University and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, concludes that automated technology will “largely support truck drivers instead of replacing them” for the next decade.

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Biotech, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Medicine

A potential boom is coming in anti-aging drugs

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As the average age in developed economies rises in the coming years and decades, one of the next big economic disruptions may be in anti-aging medicines, according to a report by Citi.

Why it matters: Already, the anti-aging market is about $200 billion, and the new boom could be in drugs that slow, reverse or prevent age-related disease, Citi says. On the other hand, if people are aging more slowly, and diseases are slowed or prevented, then other drugs, treatments and surgeries, which earn billions of dollars, may not be necessary.

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AI, Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Business

How Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are revolutionizing logistics, supply chain and transportation

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Forbes Insights research shows that 65% of senior transportation-focused executives believe logistics, supply chain and transportation processes are in the midst of a renaissance—an era of profound transformation. But of the most visible forces of change, perhaps none carries more potential for innovation and even disruption than the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and related technologies.

AI, ML and associated technologies promise to enable leaders to focus IoT and myriad other data feeds on achieving greater optimization and responsiveness across the whole of their logistics, supply chain and transportation footprint.

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Aviation, Breakthrough Thinking, new technology, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Record-breaking Perlan 2 glider soars ever closer to the edge of space

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The Perlan 2 glider in action during a record-breaking flight last week.

Airbus’ Perlan 2 glider is continuing to push the limits of engineless flight, hitting a succession of record altitudes throughout the last week, culminating in a unprecedented 76,000-ft (23,000-m) climb on Sunday.

The overarching objective of the Perlan project is to harness what are known as stratospheric mountain waves to soar upwards to the edge of space without using an engine. These powerful airstreams are created when winds collide with tall mountain ranges and are diverted upwards.

The Perlan 2 engineless glider is built to leverage these waves with an ultralight construction that tips the scales at just 1,100 lb (500 kg) when empty, and a generous wingspan of 84 ft (27 m). Following its maiden flight in Oregon in 2015, when it reached an altitude of 5,000 ft (1,524 m) after being released from its towplane, the team promptly set its sights on far, far greater heights.

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