A London-based startup has combined some of today’s most disruptive technologies in a bid to change the way we’ll build the future. By retrofitting industrial robots with 3D printing guns and artificial intelligence algorithms, Ai Build has constructed machines that can see, create, and even learn from their mistakes.
Continue reading… “This is what you get when you give a 3D printer artificial intelligence”
What will Iowa’s farms look like when the combines and tractors drive themselves?
How will Des Moines’ banking and insurance sectors fare when supercomputers run financial markets?
Where will Iowans live when a self-driving car can take them anywhere with the tap of a smartphone?
These are the kind of questions Thomas Frey ponders.
Continue reading… “Futurist Thomas Frey predicts farming drones, driverless streets”
There will be two million electric cars on the road by the end of 2016.
Despite low oil prices, plug-in electric vehicles (EV) are charging forward worldwide, with more than 2 million expected to be on the roads by the end of 2016, according torecent market figures.
Around 312,000 plug-in electric cars were sold during the first half of 2016, according to analysts at EV Volumes — a nearly 50 percent increase over the first half of 2015.
Continue reading… “Electric car market is growing 10x faster than its dirty gasoline equivalent”
What is being hailed as the world’s first commercial regular drone delivery service is beginning drop-offs in Rwanda.
The operation uses fixed-wing drones that automatically fly to destinations in the central African nation.
Continue reading… “Zipline begins commercial drone deliveries in Rwanda”
Graphene just keeps getting better and better. The so-called super material – a one-atom-thick layer of carbon that has proven to be incredibly strong, flexible, light and conductive – has now been fed to larval silkworms which then created “mechanically enhanced silk”.
Continue reading… “The future of wearables: Silkworms fed graphene produce ‘super silk’”
Rumors of bitcoin’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. According to a site tracking “bitcoin obituaries,” the media has proclaimed the seven-year-old cryptocurrency dead more than 100 times, yet a recent resurgence has led to a tripling in bitcoin’s price over the last year. It has survived price crashes, cyber heists and community infighting, but bitcoin’s biggest threat may still be lying dormant: quantum computers.
Continue reading… “Will quantum computers kill Bitcoin?”
After conquering e-commerce, Jeff Bezos is working to take over the physical world, too.
Everything old is new again. Nearly one year after announcing plans to open its first brick-and-mortar bookstore, Amazon, having conquered e-commerce, is now planning to establish a beachhead in another corner of the physical world: convenience and grocery stores. The Wall Street Journal reports that the small storefronts would be stocked with perishable grocery items like milk and produce, and would allow for curbside pickup of groceries. Customers could also possibly use their smartphones to order nonperishable goods like cereal to their homes for same-day delivery.
Continue reading… “Amazon Reverse-Engineers the Neighborhood Grocery Store”
Loren Lim is a student and an inventor. He designed an award-winning kitchen appliance, which helps people with one hand, as well as stroke victims, be more independent. He was inspired to create the product by his late uncle, who had suffered a stroke himself. Lim is now going to visit IKEA’s headquarters in Sweden to discuss manufacturing opportunities.
Video credit & Article via: Mashable
For those who prefer the comforts of home to pitching a tent in the great outdoors, a new innovation could make you rethink roughing it. The past few years have seen a new suite of products take the camping world by storm, offering high-tech, if not downright luxurious, alternatives to the basic nylon-and-metal tents of the past. One standout is the self-generating tent, a futuristic shelter conceived by Korean designers Shim Jieun, Won Boram, Oh Seobin, Kook Soo Jeong, and Seok Jiyoung.
Continue reading… “The Future of Camping Could be in This High-Tech Tent”
When it comes to stitching together complex garments, dexterous human hands are still far superior to rigid robot arms.
Much of the garment production process is already automated, from picking cotton to spinning yarn to cutting clothes. Some specialist machines can even sew buttons or pockets. However, no commercial robot had been able to piece together all the different materials to create an entire item of clothing, like a pair of jeans or a t-shirt.
Continue reading… “Clothing made entirely by robots is getting closer”
A craft beer company and an ad agency brewed up a brilliant idea to save marine life if six-pack rings end up in the ocean. Are you aware that 80% of the plastic humans throw away ends up in the oceans? The sad reality is made worse when one learns that, as a result, billions of pounds of plastic are now swirling in convergences in the seas. In fact, 40% of earth’s total ocean mass is now covered by plastic.
Continue reading… “Beer Company Invents Six-Pack Rings That Feed, Rather Than Kill, Marine Life”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai thinks we are now living in an “artificial intelligence-first world.” He’s probably right. Artificial intelligence is all the rage in Silicon Valley these days, as technology companies race to build the first killer app that utilizes machine learning and image recognition. Today, Google announced an AI-powered assistant built into its new Pixel phones. But there’s a pivotal downside to the company’s latest creation: Because of the very nature of artificial intelligence, our data is less secure than ever before, and technology companies are now collecting even more personal information about each one of us.
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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