The list of benefits to purchasing an electric car has long included cleaner air and cheaper fuel, and now the American Lung Association (ALA) has added another to the list: government savings.
Continue reading… “Electric cars better for the environment and they save us billions”
Spinach is no longer just a superfood. By embedding leaves with carbon nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone.
After sensing dangerous chemicals, the carbon-nanotube-enhanced plants send an alert.
Continue reading… “Nanobionic spinach plants detect explosives”
Tech behemoths Google, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon announced this week that they are teaming up to develop new standards for Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s a much-needed move. Soon AI will change everything from warfare to our bodies. But we don’t want to become slaves to the robots, so how do we stop the Terminators?
Continue reading… “AI: A five-point plan to stop the Terminators taking over”
Traffic lights are finally getting smarter in Pittsburgh.
Thanks to a new pilot program from the tech startup Rapid Flow Technologies, Steel City now boasts 50 intersections whose stoplights are running artificial intelligence software known as Surtrac that reduces wait times on empty or lightly-traveled roads.
The artificial intelligence that beat human players in Go can now learn from its own memory. Google’s DeepMind AI, according to its programmers, is now capable of intelligently building on what’s already inside its memory.
Continue reading… “The Dawn of Synthetic Reason: DeepMind Can Learn From Its Own Memory”
Robots are now just as good at transcribing speech as humans.
According to a paper published yesterday, a team of Microsoft engineers in the Artificial Intelligence and Research division reported their system reached a word error rate (WER) of 5.9 percent, a figure that is roughly equal to that of human abilities.
Continue reading… “Microsoft’s speech recognition is now as accurate as a human’s”
In the early morning hours of October 20th, an 18-wheeler tractor trailer pulled into Colorado Springs, Colorado, bearing 50,000 frosty cans of Budweiser beer. Normally, this would not be a noteworthy occurrence, but this truck was driving itself, marking the first time that commercial cargo was shipped by a self-driving vehicle.
Continue reading… “Uber’s self-driving truck company just shipped 50,000 cans of Budweiser”
NASA recently tested drones to serve as unmanned air traffic controllers, according to Recode.
The tests, which were conducted at the Reno, Nevada, airport, are part of a larger research project spearheaded by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop an unmanned air traffic control system.
Continue reading… “NASA is testing air traffic controller drones”
Leanna Garfield/Business Insider
If you’re an amateur cook, roasting a rack of lamb or baking fresh bread in an oven can feel daunting.
New parents rejoice. An innovative baby sleeper aims to teach parents more about their infants and become a “member of the family.”
Continue reading… “$1,150 crib automatically calms crying babies back to sleep in minutes”
Stretched, trijet 50-seat configuration to be tested by subscale supersonic demonstrator
Guy Norris Los Angeles
Boom Time
More than half a century after development of the Concorde was launched, progress toward economically viable supersonic airliners has proved elusive. But now a Silicon Valley-backed startup says the ingredients for a successful, small, faster-than-sound airliner are in place, thanks to a new wave of enabling technology and a market primed with the need for speed.
Since first unveiling plans earlier this year for a 40-seat, twin-engine, supersonic transport, Denver-based Boom Technology has revised and fine-tuned the design that will cruise at Mach 2.2 for the same ticket price as subsonic business class. The aircraft has since been stretched to seat up to 50 and is now reconfigured as a trijet to permit immediate use on long overwater routes.
Continue reading… “Potential Mach 2.2 Airliner Market Pegged At $260 Billion”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.