Impact Lab – Page 310 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

How a jetpack design helped create a flying motorbike

March 25, 2022

The Speeder is powered by four small jet engines

By Ben Morris

At around the age of 12, David Mayman tried to build a helicopter out of fence posts and an old lawn mower.

Needless to say, it did not go well. His contraption didn’t fly and he was made to fix the fence.

“I was brought up in a way that I guess challenged me scientifically… I was always told that nothing’s impossible,” he says.

Perhaps he got a bit ahead of himself during his childhood in Sydney, but as an adult Mr Mayman, has built innovative machines that really do fly.

After selling his online listings business Mr Mayman developed a jetpack, which in 2015 he flew around the Statue of Liberty.

Augmented Reality, Science & Technology News

Google May Have Found The Tech To Take AR Smart Glasses Mainstream

March 25, 2022

Google May Have Found The Tech To Take AR Smart Glasses Mainstream

BY SANJIV SATHIAH
Google has acquired Raxium, a Californian-based start-up that is developing microLED display technology for use in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headset displays. The purchase was uncovered by The Information and has not been publicly announced, though estimates place the total cost of the deal at around $1 billion. As far as acquisitions go for Google, that’s not especially large; however, it could play a significant role in the company’s plans around AR and VR devices that it is said to have in the pipeline.

A number of companies – including Meta, Apple, and Xiaomi – are known to be investing in the technology, all developing AR wearables that some consider to be the ‘next big thing’. Samsung is also investing heavily in microLED technology, and launched the world’s first microLED TV in late 2020. Although there hasn’t been much in the way of leaks regarding a possible Samsung microLED-based headset, it seems likely that it, too, is working on something in this space as well.

Medical Breakthrough

Cell fusion ‘awakens’ regenerative potential of human retina

March 25, 2022

Cross-section of a retinal organoid, showing the location of different types of neurons such as ganglions (red) and Müller glia (green).

by Center for Genomic Regulation

Fusing human retinal cells with adult stem cells could be a potential therapeutic strategy to treat retinal damage and visual impairment, according to the findings of a new study published in the journal eBioMedicine. The hybrid cells act by awakening the regenerative potential of human retinal tissue, previously only thought to be the preserve of cold-blood vertebrates.

Cell fusion events—the combination of two different cells into one single entity—are known to be a possible mechanism contributing to tissue regeneration. Though rare in humans, the phenomenon has been consistently detected in the liver, brain, and gastrointestinal tract.

A team led by ICREA Research Professor Pia Cosma at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and funded by Fundació “la Caixa” has now found that cell fusion events also take place in the human retina.

The researchers tested whether cell fusion events could differentiate into cells that turn into neurons, which would show potential for tissue regeneration. The team fused Müller glia, cells that play a secondary but important role in maintaining the structure and function of the retina, with adult stem cells derived from human adipose tissue or bone marrow.

“We were able to carry out cell fusion in vitro, creating hybrid cells. Importantly, the process was more efficient in the presence of a chemical signal transmitted from the retina in response to damage, resulting in rates of hybridization increasing twofold. This gave us an important clue for the role of cell fusion in the retina,” says Sergi Bonilla, postdoctoral researcher at the CRG at the time of publication and first author of the study.

Science & Technology News, Space Flight

How Long Does It Take To Get To The Moon?

March 24, 2022

By Noah Zelvis

At some point, mankind stopped looking at the Moon as some impossible object in the sky and started to decipher the science behind making the journey there. Since that time, many spacecraft have made the journey successfully to the Moon. In this article, we take a look at how long it took different types of craft to get to the Moon.

Augmented Reality

Adobe Unveils New Augmented Reality Shopping Tool

March 24, 2022

Adobe’s new tool will be launched at Adobe Summit this week

By Patrick Kulp

The prototype is designed to make it easier for consumers to picture products in their living space.

Adobe is debuting a new tech designed to make it easier for retailers to embed augmented reality (AR) shopping options into their websites.

The enterprise software giant announced a tool that allows consumers to point their phone at a product image on an ecommerce site—and then see the item rendered three-dimensionally in their living space. Adobe says the true-to-life size precision—and the ability to pull multiple products into the same view—set its AR service apart from others on the market.

The tool is still undergoing internal testing and is not yet available to outside retailers. Unveiled during the annual Adobe Summit this week, it comes after AR shopping saw a surge in popularity during the pandemic as virtual try-on—and other at-home product testing served as a substitute for store visits.

AI

NHS rolls out AI tool which detects heart disease in 20 seconds

March 24, 2022

Study found the machine analysis had superior precision to three clinicians.

By Tammy Lovell

The NHS has rolled out a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool which can detect heart disease in just 20 seconds while patients are in an MRI scanner.

A British Heart Foundation (BHF) funded study published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance concluded the machine analysis had superior precision to three clinicians. It would usually take a doctor 13 minutes or more to manually analyse images after an MRI scan has been performed.

The technology is being used on more than 140 patients a week at University College London (UCL) Hospital, Barts Heart Centre at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and Royal Free Hospital. Later this year it will be introduced to a further 40 locations across the UK and globally.

Robots

This snake-like robot will search for water on the moon

March 23, 2022

The ouroboros—the ancient symbol of a snake swallowing its own tail—generally represents infinity and the natural, endless cycles of the universe.

By Northeastern University

But for members of Northeastern’s Students for the Exploration and Development of Space club, the ouroboros-like design of their moon-destined robot is merely practical—the robot can slither like a desert snake across the loose soil of the moon and, when needed, connect head-to-tail to form a wheel that can tumble down the steep slopes of the moon’s craters.

Any metaphors for the unity of the solar system or the orbit of the moon around the Earth are happy coincidences.

The student-led team of 13 undergraduates recently won an award from NASA’s BIG Idea Challenge to further develop its design, which fulfilled this year’s competition requirements for robots that can traverse extreme terrains, such as the enormous craters on the moon’s south pole.

“We want to explore the Shackleton crater, which is massive—20 kilometers in diameter—because it might contain water,” says Matt Schroeter, the undergraduate bioengineering student who is leading the team.

“But if you want to send a robot into that crater, it needs to be really energy efficient because there’s no sunlight, no potential for solar energy.”

The tumbling-wheel design allows gravity to do most of the work on the way down to the base of the crater, saving most of the robot’s energy for the journey back. Once the robot is on level ground, it can unwind itself and resume slithering through the soil in search of water.

Robots

Kawasaki Bex: All-Electric Rideable Goat Robot That Can Carry 220 lbs. of Cargo, Fully Modular

March 23, 2022

KAWASAKI BEX: RIDEABLE GOAT FROM INTERNATIONAL ROBOT EXHIBITION

By Isaiah Richard

Kawasaki made a rideable electric goat, and the company released this for the world to see via the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. Instead of a bipedal human that resembles the method of humans by standing on their two feet, it stands on all fours. Unlike humans, the new Kawasaki Bex robot is a quadruped device that owners can modify to anything fully modular.

According to an online video posted via YouTube by Kazumichi Maruyama, Kawasaki’s take on the IREX 2022 event in Tokyo is to bring a rideable goat as its latest innovation for mobile machines. The device resembles the Ibex, a wild goat usually found in mountainous regions of East Africa, North Africa, and Eurasia.

Kawasaki named this the “Bex” and is a quadruped robot that walks on all four legs and has been a long-term project from the company since 2015. The Bex came from the Kaleido Program. Its focus is to give the world a robot that can perform multiple tasks by carrying the load and transporting it, even for mountainous regions.

Robots

Giant 180-ton robot trucks are mining gold

March 23, 2022

As global demand soars, extractive industries are embracing automation.

Written by Greg Nichols

A mining outfit in Australia is making a big bet on big robots. Following a recent proof of concept at a gold mine, mining contractor MACA will retrofit a fleet of 100 very large vehicles to create one of the largest autonomous heavy equipment fleets in the world.

This is a pretty significant rollout and a proverbial canary in the gold mine for the sector’s broader automation ambitions. With the world hungrier than ever for precious and rare earth metals, technology is increasingly called on to make mining operations more efficient and cost-effective while unlocking increasingly scarce resources.

Powering the new rollout is autonomous heavy equipment company SafeAI and its Australian partner, Position Partners. This new generation of autonomous heavy vehicle technology is a major upgrade from the first generation retrofits, which had limited onboard processing power and took a long time to see ROI in most cases. Early versions of autonomous vehicle technology in the sector also operated with closed legacy systems, preventing mixed fleets from communicating. Industries like mining have had this tech for 20 years now, but the lack of accessibility means it hasn’t really taken off yet.

Autonomy 2.0 is changing that. AI-powered and armed with multimodal sensors (lidar, radar, camera), these new systems have significant onboard processing power to reduce network reliance and enable fast decisions. It’s also open, interoperable, and vehicle-agnostic — meaning tech like SafeAI’s retrofit autonomy can be applied to any vehicle, at pretty much any age from any manufacturer.

Space

New funding to help develop space power station and create water hunting robot

March 22, 2022

New funding will help develop space power station and create water hunting robots

By Nina Massey

Projects include Rolls-Royce developing a power station for space that could allow water and breathable oxygen to be generated.

British space technology could help develop a power station in space, create a robot to hunt for oxygen and water in lunar rocks and tackle issues such as the delay in communication between Earth and Mars.

New funding will pave the way for pioneering approaches to energy, communication and resources, thanks to projects from the UK Space Agency (UKSA).

The projects include Rolls-Royce developing a power station for space that could allow water and breathable oxygen to be generated.

In addition to discovery breakthroughs, these projects will also ensure that people here on Earth benefit from new technology, including micro-reactor technology with the potential to support our net zero commitments

Another will develop new technology that can withstand the high radiation levels on Mars, while a third will build a communications tool for astronauts to tackle the delay in conversations between Mars and Earth.

AI

Salcit Technologies Researchers use AI to detect Lung Disease with a Single Cough

March 22, 2022

The validation and pilot deployment of this technology has demonstrated encouraging results for COVID-19, with over 95 percent sensitivity under laboratory circumstances.

By Dipayan Mitra

India researchers from Salcit Technologies have developed a novel application that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology named Swaasa to detect lung diseases in humans with a single cough.

The highly accessible smartphone application listens to the coughs of humans to accurately detect the condition they are suffering from.

Center for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) teamed with technical, clinical, and health systems expertise through Andhra Medical College and PATH, an international non-profit organization based in Seattle, US, to extend the capabilities of the AI platform and enable it in detecting COVID-19 along with tuberculosis as part of a consortium project financed by the FDCO.

“After the success of the UK-India Astra-Zeneca vaccine collaboration, our bilateral health tech partnership goes from strength to strength with this AI solution,” said Dr. Andrew Fleming.

Virtual Reality

Holoride’s in-car VR tech arrives in Audi vehicles this summer | Engadget

March 22, 2022

Virtual reality is coming to Audi vehicles. On Saturday, the automaker announced it would support Holoride’s in-car VR technology starting this summer.

In June, select Audi models with the company’s MIB 3 infotainment system, including the A4, A6, A8, Q5 and , will ship with the necessary software to sync with Holoride-compatible headsets, with the company planning to support the feature first in Germany, the UK and US before making it available in other markets.