Impact Lab – Page 472 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Automation, Housing, New Inventions, Record Breaker, Robotics, Science & Technology News

Hadrian X brick-laying robot ups the ante to 200 blocks an hour

June 17, 2020

The Hadrian robot was created by Australian firm Fastbrick Robotics (FBR) and is named after the UK’s Hadrian Wall

Back in 2015 we looked at an interesting approach to automated construction in the form of a brick-laying robot, capable of putting together full-sized homes in just two days. The engineers behind the Hadrian X have continued making software improvements and have now announced a new record brick-laying speed, which they say makes the robot commercially competitive with manual workers around much of the world.

The Hadrian X robot was created by Australian firm Fastbrick Robotics (FBR) and is named after the UK’s Hadrian Wall. It features a telescopic boom that mounts to an excavator or truck, which is fed a 3D CAD model of a house and goes about placing bricks along with mortar and adhesive to build out the structure.

While the team has concept demonstrator robots designed to one day achieve laying rates of more than 1,000 bricks an hour, on the practical side things have been a little more slow-going. Software upgrades to the Hadrian X have seen it go from laying around 85 blocks an hour before the COVID-19 pandemic, to around 150 blocks an hour, and then onward to up over 200 blocks an hour.

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Business, communication, Coronavirus, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

7 ways companies can deliver better virtual events

June 17, 2020

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” — William Shakespeare

Audiences still want what audiences want: content, community and connections. There are seven ways businesses can deliver what their audiences want through live events delivered virtually.

What happens when that stage no longer has a jumbotron, special effects, and a state-of-the-art sound system? How do you amplify your pitch and your prospects when front row, center stage seats go virtual? While the context has shifted, the demand for events that create connections and convert leads into sales haven’t.

“Audiences still want what audiences want: content, community and connections,” reminds Bari Baumgardner, an event planning veteran and founder of SAGE Event Management. “The question is how to deliver what audiences want through live events delivered virtually.” To stage a performance that leaves your audience wanting more – and results in revenue and raving fans – create a backdrop for success with these leading practices.

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Electric Vehicles, Environment, Health & Fitness, Report, Science & Technology News

New study : Every electric car brings $10,000 in life-saving benefits

June 17, 2020

Converting all cars and SUVs in the Greater Toronto area into electric vehicles would cause 313 fewer deaths per year, an estimated social benefit of $2.4 billion. That’s the high-level finding of a study published today by Environmental Defence and the Ontario Public Health Association.

EV drivers cite numerous reasons for ditching a gas car and buying an EV: lower operating costs, high resale values, quick and quiet acceleration, and mitigating climate change. But what’s more compelling than saving human lives?

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Boeing, Military, military drones, Science & Technology News

The U.S. Navy wants more robot submarines : Study

June 16, 2020

Orca Submarine Robot Submarine U.S. Navy

Cheaper and better?

What the United States Navy wants and what the United States Navy will be able to afford in the coming years is unlikely to match up, and as it continues to address increasingly powerful Chinese and Russian navies, this could give a lot of people many a sleepless night. China is currently testing out the Shandong, its first domestically-built aircraft carrier while Russia continues to bolster its fleets in a slow but methodical manner.

As the same time President Trump cut the Navy’s shipbuilding budget by $4 billion, according to the 2021 budget request outlined earlier this year, the Navy would acquire 44 vessels through 2025—down from a planned 55 vessels.

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AI, Healthcare, new technology, Science & Technology News

Eye, robot: Artificial intelligence dramatically improves accuracy of classic eye exam

June 16, 2020

The classic eye exam may be about to get an upgrade. Researchers have developed an online vision test—fueled by artificial intelligence (AI)—that produces much more accurate diagnoses than the sheet of capital letters we’ve been staring at since the 19th century. If perfected, the test could also help patients with eye diseases track their vision at home.

“It’s an intriguing idea” that reveals just how antiquated the classic eye test is, says Laura Green, an ophthalmologist at the Krieger Eye Institute. Green was not involved with the work, but she studies ways to use technology to improve access to health care.

The classic eye exam, known as the Snellen chart, has been around since 1862. The farther down the sheet a person can read, the better their vision. The test is quick and easy to administer, but it has problems, says Chris Piech, a computer scientist at Stanford University. Patients start to guess at letters when they become blurry, he says, which means they can get different scores each time they take the test.

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Analysis, Coronavirus, Employment, Latest Trend, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

6 charts that show what employers and employees really think about remote working

June 16, 2020

Remote working has meant many people are skipping their morning commute.

COVID-19 has lead to more and more employees working from home.

98% of people surveyed said they would like the option to work remotely for the rest of their careers.

But not everything is positive, with workers finding the biggest challenge is ‘unplugging’ from work.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce, and half of all “information workers”, are able to work from home. Though the number of people working partially or fully remote has been on the rise for years now, the COVID-19 pandemic may have pressed the fast-forward button on this trend.

With millions of people taking part in this work-from-home experiment, it’s worth asking the question – how do people and companies actually feel about working from home?

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Computer Security, Coronavirus, Employment, Internet, Science & Technology News

30% of remote employees admit to having an online account compromised on a work device

June 14, 2020

A OneLogin survey covered how employees are using work devices for a variety of other things.

The transition to working from home has been rocky for millions of people as they adjust to transitioning workplace policies into the privacy of their own home. According to a new report from cybersecurity firm OneLogin, people are using work devices for much more than work, even after they’ve had accounts or passwords compromised.

The company’s 2020 COVID-19 State of Remote Work Survey Report features a global survey of 5,000 employees who started working remotely since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Of those surveyed, 30% have had a corporate device breached and only 10% changed the password afterwards. Half of organizations globally have not established cybersecurity guidelines regarding remote work according to the survey and US remote employees use work devices to access adult entertainment sites more than any other country.

Half of UK respondents had not changed their home Wi-Fi password in the last two years, compared with 36% overall, and 25% never changed their password while 45% of US workers have given their work passwords to their child or spouse, compared to 13% in the UK and 9% in France.

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Coronavirus, Employment, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

How the pandemic has created new demand for older workers

June 14, 2020

Amid the horrifying loss of jobs brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been one countervailing force: an urgent demand for medical and technology professionals to return to work from retirement or a career break.

Returning physicians and nurses, along with technologists proficient in the “ancient” COBOL coding language that many states still use in processing unemployment claims, are helping society — and this has put these “relaunching” professionals in the spotlight. More than ever before, they are being embraced and brought back to work as fast as they can make themselves available.

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Amazon.com, communication, Home Technology, Science & Technology News

Now all your home’s Alexa devices work like an intercom

June 14, 2020

Amazon’s ‘Drop In’ feature now works across the entire house.

Amazon Alexa users can now use the “Drop In” feature to talk with all of their Echo devices at once, Amazon announced on its blog. Previously, Drop In messages could only be sent to one other Alexa-enabled device at a time — a user with an Alexa device in the bedroom could “drop in” on a device in the kitchen and have a two-way conversation.

Now, you can use a device to send a message to all Echo devices in the house at once. This could be helpful with asking group questions like, “Does anyone want anything from the grocery store?” according to the Amazon blog. To start a group Drop In conversation, you can ask Alexa to “Drop In everywhere.”

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Science & Technology News

This artificial window can mimic natural sunlight

June 14, 2020

For those living in major cities, one of the tradeoffs is often a lack of windows. It would have been somewhat bearable, if only a certain pandemic isn’t keeping us from going out to get some much-needed sunlight.

A startup called SunnyFive, which is under Samsung’s C-Labs incubator program, might just have a bright solution. Their product is an artificial window designed to mimic the full spectrum of natural light. Although it doesn’t come with a view, it can, however, change the angle of the light that shines through, as though the actual sun is moving and casting shadows in your home.

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Driverless vehicles, Engineering, Science & Technology News, Transportation

Get on board the Sea Train

June 14, 2020

DARPA’s Sea Train concept hopes to enable a convoy of medium-sized unmanned vessels to travel across the ocean without refueling, before splitting up to conduct independent operations. (Courtesy of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

Imagine the following scenario.

Four medium-sized U.S. Navy vessels depart from a port along the United States’ coast. There’s no crew aboard any of them.

About 15 nautical miles off the coast, the four vessels rendezvous, autonomously arranging themselves in a line. Using custom mechanisms, they attach to each other to form a train, except they’re in the water and there’s no railroad to guide them. In this configuration the vessels travel 6,500 nautical miles across the open ocean to Southeast Asia. But as they approach their destination, they disconnect, splitting up as each unmanned ship goes its own way to conduct independent operations, such as collecting data with a variety of onboard sensors.

Once those operations are complete, the four reunite, form a train and make the return journey home.

This is the Sea Train, and it may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is investing in several technologies to make it a reality.

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Coronavirus, Employment, Science & Technology News, women

Work-from-home is the new feminist frontier

June 14, 2020

More moms are working from home than ever before in history. Without child care and school, it’s been a struggle. But many are also realizing that pursuing their careers while being present with their kids has its benefits, too.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was rare: An estimated 7% of employers offered permanent work-from-home options. Today, mid-crisis, that number has exploded to 57%. While the transition was ugly and disruptive, employers are now warming up to the idea, and some are making work-from-home options permanent.

On a large scale, this shift would have dramatic impacts on the economy, the workforce, real estate, the environment, and more. It would also be a game changer for working moms.

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