Edison, NJ — (SBWire) — 02/19/2020 –The 3D-Printed Footwear Market has witnessed continuous growth in the last few years and is projected to grow even further during the forecast period of 2020-2026.
Continue reading… “3D-printed footwear makes growing popularity and emerging trends”
For more and more people, work appears to serve no purpose. Is there any good left in the grind?
Bullshit, like paper waste, accumulates in offices with the inevitability of February snow. Justification reports: What are these? Nobody knows. And yet they pile up around you, Xerox-warmed, to be not-read. Best-practices documents? Anybody’s guess, really, including their authors’. Some people thought that digitization would banish this nonsense. Those people were wrong. Now, all day, you get e-mails about “consumer intimacy” (oh, boy); “all hands” (whose hands?); and the new expense-reporting software, which requires that all receipts be mounted on paper, scanned, and uploaded to a server that rejects them, since you failed to pre-file the crucial post-travel form. If you’re lucky, bullshit of this genre consumes only a few hours of your normal workweek. If you’re among the millions of less fortunate Americans, it is the basis of your entire career.
Continue reading… “The Bullshit-Job Boom”
Apparently, smartphones really do have everything we need, from cameras to calculators to flashlights to even… matchsticks?
You read that right. But instead of shooting flames out of a port, your phone can now create fire by activating a Bluetooth-enabled scented candle called Candle Touch, currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Said to be the world’s first smart-connected real-flame candle, the device has an electronic base that connects to a scented coconut-wax candle body. At a press of a button using the accompanying iOS/Android app, the base sends a current up a wire, which ignites the cotton wick like magic.
You’ll never have to risk getting burned ever again. Plus, you’ll have a neat party trick to show to all your friends.
Continue reading… “You can light this candle with your phone, and it’s officially the future”
The demonstration represents a new-generation of micro-reactors.
An innovative nuclear plant that runs on lower waste fuel hopes to be online by 2022-2025.
The plant’s creator, Oklo, joins startups around the world working to innovate safer, smaller nuclear power plants.
But experts suggest that Oklo’s timeline is unrealistic with years of nuclear approval process ahead.
An experimental nuclear reactor in Idaho could be the first of its kind in the United States: a commercial reactor providing power using fuel that reduces nuclear waste. The small power plant could power about 1,000 homes and can run almost autonomously for 20 years.
Continue reading… “One of the World’s Tiniest Nuclear Plants Is Coming to Idaho”
Artist’s concept of a laser weapon in action
The US Navy has successfully installed its first Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) laser weapon aboard one of its warships. During dry-dock operations, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) received the stand-alone laser system, which is designed to blind the sensors on Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).
The ODIN laser isn’t the first to be deployed on a US Navy warship. That honor goes to the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Laser Weapon System (LaWS), which was deployed on the USS Ponce (LPD-15) in 2014. However, this experience by the team behind LaWS at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren Division provided the expertise needed to complete the development of ODIN.
Continue reading… “US Navy deploys first anti-drone laser dazzler weapon”
Graphic image of a thin film of protein nanowires generating electricity from atmospheric humidity. (Ella Maru Studios)
Soon having to replace batteries or spend time recharging your phone could be a thing of the past. Scientists in Amherst are developing a new technology that will use the moisture from the air to create a charge.
The device is still in early stages having only been made public on Monday on the UMass website. It uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in the air and could have significant implications for the future of renewable energy, climate change and the future of medicine.
In layman’s terms; “We are literally making electricity out of thin air,” said the laboratories of electrical engineer Jun Yao. “The Air-gen generates clean energy 24/7.”
The latest automaker to experiment with alternate ownership models
Car subscriptions: they’re totally a thing! The latest automaker to test the waters on subscriptions is Nissan, which just launched a new, two-tier service in Houston, Texas. It’s called “Nissan Switch,” and it will feature a variety of models, including the all-electric Nissan Leaf Plus, the Titan pickup, and the GT-R sports car.
Nissan Switch has two tiers: the $699-a-month “Select” plan, which includes the Altima, Rogue, Pathfinder, and Frontier; and the $899-a-month “Premium” plan, which includes the Leaf Plus, Maxima, Murano, Armada, Titan, and 370Z coupe. The GT-R sports car is available to either Select or Premium customers, but includes an additional $100-a-day fee and can only be taken out for a maximum of seven days.
This flexible graphene supercapacitor design can store 10 times more energy than comparable existing technology
Supercapacitors can charge almost instantly, and discharge enormous amounts of power if needed. They could completely erase the Achilles heel of electric vehicles – their slow charging times – if they could hold more energy. And now Chinese and British scientists say they’ve figured out a way to store 10 times more energy per volume than previous supercapacitors.
A team split between University College London and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has released a study and proof of concept of a new supercapacitor design using graphene laminate films and concentrating on the spacing between the layers, the researchers discovering that they could radically boost energy density when they tailored the sizes of pores in the membranes precisely to the size of electrolyte ions.
Using this design, the team says it’s achieved a massive increase in volumetric energy density. Where “similar fast-charging commercial technology” tends to offer around 5-8 watt-hours per liter, this new design has been tested at a record 88.1 Wh/l. The team claims it’s “the highest ever reported energy density for carbon-based supercapacitors.”
Continue reading… “Researchers achieve a 10x supercapacitor energy density breakthrough”
A Zapata researcher works on one of the company’s quantum computing algorithms.
Startups are helping companies write software for quantum computers. It isn’t easy.
Zapata Computing, a 30-person startup in Boston, creates software for quantum computers. But when a customer has a problem it would like to solve, one of Zapata’s first steps is to figure out how much it can avoid using a quantum machine.
That’s because quantum computing is, like the tiny particles that underlie the technology, in a paradoxical state: It has arrived, but it isn’t quite here. Quantum algorithms theoretically will be used for such transformative purposes as cracking encryption, simulating chemical reactions, and optimizing financial transactions. But the quantum machines that Google, IBM and other companies have so far put online for people to use aren’t up to the task. Their limited number of quantum bits, or qubits, are unstable: They can’t encode a lot of data yet.
Continue reading… “Writing a quantum algorithm? Avoid using a quantum computer”
The HTC Proton concept rendering
It’s still a work in progress
HTC just announced updates to the Vive Cosmos, its lineup of consumer-ready virtual reality headsets. But it’s also testing a more streamlined mixed reality device codenamed “Project Proton.” While the Proton is just a prototype, HTC shared concept images of its design, shedding some light on the company’s goals.
The Proton headset seems functionally similar to the upcoming Cosmos XR. Both are built for mixed or augmented reality experiences, but unlike Microsoft or Magic Leap’s mixed reality glasses, they use passthrough video instead of transparent waveguide lenses. (So basically, you’re looking at a VR-style screen, but it shows you live video overlaid with virtual elements.) But where the Cosmos XR looks like the Cosmos VR headset, the Proton looks more like ski goggles or — to put it generously — very large sunglasses.
Continue reading… “HTC is prototyping an AR headset that looks like sunglasses”
Escherichia coli bacteria, coloured green, in a scanning electron micrograph.
A pioneering machine-learning approach has identified powerful new types of antibiotic from a pool of more than 100 million molecules — including one that works against a wide range of bacteria, including tuberculosis and strains considered untreatable.
Continue reading… “Powerful antibiotics discovered using AI”
Fear of losing your job to a robot is nothing new, but is it time the conversation shifted?
For as long as there have been robots, there have been fears they will take people’s jobs. The rise of the internet of things (IoT) echoes these concerns. An engineer no longer has to monitor a machine or switch on a bank of lights, IoT sensors can do it instead. Smart devices may not be an answer to the global talent shortage, but they’re starting to impact the work employees do.
The likes of heating, lighting and maintenance are already being automated, reducing routine tasks and eliminating others, in offices and factories around the globe. Demand for IoT is changing the role of facilities managers in a way that mirrors how self-service checkouts disrupted customer services in supermarkets or automatic doors and monitoring systems have affected guards and train drivers.
“The increased deployment of data-driven technologies is raising social, legal and ethical questions about the impact on people and their everyday lives. It’s vital that we find ways to engage with employees and the public, as well as identify the issues so they can be addressed,” says Julian David, chief executive of techUK.
Thought leaders are keen to highlight the strong demand for IoT isn’t going to lead to mass redundancies or answer post-Brexit talent shortages, an aging demographic or lead to less work for humans. Instead the focus is on IoT helping people do jobs better, with more productive and added-value tasks, empowered by data, redefining employment in the process.
Continue reading… “Could IoT help fight the talent shortage?”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.