The claim that robotics is capital intensive is a myth.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote a much-discussed piece, a little over a year ago, on the discrepancy between corporate profits and labor compensation. Krugman’s column sparked a huge debate, and on the Times website alone readers left more than 1,300 comments. In his article he referred to robotics as a capital-intensive technology. The problem is, it isn’t true.
Continue reading… “Biggest myth about the robotics industry”
Technological unemployment
Futurist Thomas Frey has predicted more than two billion jobs will disappear by 2030 as a result of automation. Statements such as these strike fear into an already turbulent job market, but there are many who believe we should take solace in history. In their book, Race Against the Machine, Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee explain how the recent panic brought on by ‘technological unemployment’ – a term originally coined by John Maynard Keynes – is nothing new.
Continue reading… “The rise of ‘technological unemployment’”
Watson rose to prominence when the super computer ‘won’ US quiz show Jeopardy.
IBM is planning to invest more than $1 billion into Watson, its super computing platform. The company announced that the investment program will see a new business unit created for the technology, alongside a $100 million VC fund that will be used to encourage developers to create apps on the platform.
New York plans competition for 10 community microgrid projects across the state.
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has put $40 million in prize money behind his push to bolster the state’s post-Hurricane Sandy storm resilience with community microgrids. But will that be enough to overcome the regulatory and economic barriers that have challenged efforts to create microgrids in New York?
Continue reading… “New York plans $40 million prize competition to create community microgrids”
Future Robot’s Furo at CES 2014
One of the many robots featured at CES 2014 is Future Robot’s FURo-S that is a service robot with a simulated human face for a head. Carrying a screen, the robot is designed with advertising or shopping in mind, and reacts to people through its facial, gesture and voice recognition all with an emoting face.
Continue reading… “Future Robot’s Furo is an intelligent and interactive robot”
Deb Frey trying out the MantaroBot Telepresence Robot at CES 2014.
The MantaroBot TeleMe TelePresence Robot is a mobile platform where you can plug in your own Apple iPad, iPhone or Android Tablet. The TeleMe is plugged into Skype or any other audio and video conferencing application and allows a user to remotely interact with co-workers and associates and their environment.
Ascent Solar Technologies EnerPlex solar charging products.
Ascent Solar Technologies Inc is a developer and manufacturer of state-of-the-art, flexible thin-film photovoltaic modules integrated into off-grid applications as well as the EnerPlex(TM) series of consumer products. The company has debuted new additions to their EnerPlex product lineup, including the Surfr battery and solar case for the iPhone 5 and 5s as well as additional solar products and charging accessories, at CES 2014 in Las Vegas.
Continue reading… “Ascent Solar debuts solar powered battery for smartphones”
Self-driving cars and driver controlled cars are expected to hit highways around the world before 2025 and self-driving “only” cars (only the car drives) are anticipated around 2030, according to an emerging technologies study on Autonomous Cars from IHS Automotive.
Continue reading… “54 million self-driving cars expected to be in use globally by 2035”
Futurist Thomas Frey: “2014 will be the year the ’quantified self’ goes mainstream.” Those were the words Silicon Valley prodigy Marc Andreessen used in a recent article to describe changes about to happen to American healthcare.
Continue reading… “Eight Reason Why Future Computers will make better Decisions than Doctors”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4VRFuSyzzc[/youtube]
One day, Google Glass could enable some pretty incredible augmented reality apps. Its camera might recognize a person’s face, then scour the Internet for information about him or her, beaming that back to you in real time. It’s neat stuff for sure, but as this concept demo from Israeli software developer Infinity AR shows us (completely unintentionally): automatically digging up too much information about someone else can be downright creepy.
Continue reading… “How app designers can make the future of dating less creepy”
Futurist Thomas Frey published 33 Dramatic Predictions of things that he projects may occur before the year 2030. Here are a few of these predictions that could have some immediate impact on the field of human resources.
Continue reading… “Top 5 dramatic predictions for HR”
Kandi Technologies car vending machine.
The company, Kandi Technologies is based in Hangzhou, China. They want to challenge the idea of traditional car ownership. In a country where air pollution is a serious environmental and health hazard, the company has created a giant vending machine that allows citizens to rent electric vehicles on an hourly basis. With a fleet of more than 100,000, Kandi already has plans to expand to other cities this year.
Continue reading… “Giant car vending machine could steer people away from private car ownership”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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