Impact Lab – Page 636 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

3D Printer, Architecture, drones, Housing

Five technologies changing construction

September 7, 2018

Technology is changing every industry, but what are the top technologies accelerating construction?

The construction industry, in general, suffers from a traditional hesitancy to embrace nascent technologies, caused partly because projects take years to plan and complete. Recently, however, progressive construction honchos have begun to harness and realise the potency of tech – whether it’s virtual reality, autonomous drones, artificial intelligence, concrete three-dimensional (3D) printing and much more.

Thanks to incredible tech advancements, great value is generated by optimising efficiency and productivity – at every stage, from planning to construction. Indeed, many within the industry predict that in a decade a building site will look very different. Here follows five of the most game-changing technologies in the construction world.

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3D Printer, Architecture, Engineering, new technology, Science & Technology News

How to 3D print a bicycle bridge? Study discusses Dutch concrete printing project

September 6, 2018

In 2017, the world’s first prestressed 3D printed concrete bicycle bridge officially opened to cyclists. It was created by the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in collaboration with construction company BAM Infra, and was installed in the Dutch village of Gemert. The bridge was part of a research project that involved the development of a giant concrete 3D printer, and now the researchers involved have published a paper on the project, entitled “3D Printed Concrete Bridge.”

The bridge was designed to replace an existing structure over a small local canal. The structure is 3.5 meters wide and spans 6.5 meters. It consists of 3D printed elements that are rotated 90 degrees after printing, then pressed together by post-tensioned prestressing tendons.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Business, Employment, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Over 9 out of 10 people are ready to take orders from robots

September 9, 2018

If you are unhappy taking orders from your human boss, you might be more inclined to take orders from robots, according to a new survey.

The AI, machine learning, and data science conundrum: Who will manage the algorithms?

There seems to be a large gap between the way people are using artificial intelligence (AI) at home and at work. Although almost three quarters of us use AI in our personal life, only six percent of HR professionals are deploying AI and only one in four (24 percent) of employees are currently using some form of AI at work.

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Automation, Electric Vehicles, Employment, Transportation

Autonomous driving will support, not displace truckers, study says

September 6, 2018

Autonomous trucks have been in the development stage for the last few years.

DETROIT — It’s been long speculated that autonomous driving technology will widely displace one of the most common jobs in the U.S., truck drivers.

Goldman Sachs, for instance, predicts that as autonomous vehicle technology peaks, as many as 25,000 trucker jobs could be eliminated per month or about 300,000 annually. But a new workforce study from the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti Township is saying: Hit the brakes.

The study, commissioned by ACM and led by Michigan State University and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, concludes that automated technology will “largely support truck drivers instead of replacing them” for the next decade.

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Biotech, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Medicine

A potential boom is coming in anti-aging drugs

September 5, 2018

As the average age in developed economies rises in the coming years and decades, one of the next big economic disruptions may be in anti-aging medicines, according to a report by Citi.

Why it matters: Already, the anti-aging market is about $200 billion, and the new boom could be in drugs that slow, reverse or prevent age-related disease, Citi says. On the other hand, if people are aging more slowly, and diseases are slowed or prevented, then other drugs, treatments and surgeries, which earn billions of dollars, may not be necessary.

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AI, Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Business

How Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are revolutionizing logistics, supply chain and transportation

September 7, 2018

Forbes Insights research shows that 65% of senior transportation-focused executives believe logistics, supply chain and transportation processes are in the midst of a renaissance—an era of profound transformation. But of the most visible forces of change, perhaps none carries more potential for innovation and even disruption than the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and related technologies.

AI, ML and associated technologies promise to enable leaders to focus IoT and myriad other data feeds on achieving greater optimization and responsiveness across the whole of their logistics, supply chain and transportation footprint.

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Aviation, Breakthrough Thinking, new technology, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Record-breaking Perlan 2 glider soars ever closer to the edge of space

September 7, 2018

The Perlan 2 glider in action during a record-breaking flight last week.

Airbus’ Perlan 2 glider is continuing to push the limits of engineless flight, hitting a succession of record altitudes throughout the last week, culminating in a unprecedented 76,000-ft (23,000-m) climb on Sunday.

The overarching objective of the Perlan project is to harness what are known as stratospheric mountain waves to soar upwards to the edge of space without using an engine. These powerful airstreams are created when winds collide with tall mountain ranges and are diverted upwards.

The Perlan 2 engineless glider is built to leverage these waves with an ultralight construction that tips the scales at just 1,100 lb (500 kg) when empty, and a generous wingspan of 84 ft (27 m). Following its maiden flight in Oregon in 2015, when it reached an altitude of 5,000 ft (1,524 m) after being released from its towplane, the team promptly set its sights on far, far greater heights.

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Agriculture, Animals, Farms, Green Friendly, Inventions

World’s first floating dairy farm could be wave of the future

September 4, 2018

Floating farm project leader Mink van Wingerden beside the floating dairy farm plaform being built at Merwehaven in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

“It’s a logical step to produce fresh food on the water.”

You’ve heard of offshore drilling platforms and offshore wind farms. Now a Dutch company is developing what’s being called the world’s first offshore dairy farm. Plans call for the high-tech, multilevel facility to open this fall in Rotterdam, a port city about 50 miles southwest of Amsterdam.

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Analysis, Google, Money Talk

Google now provides a big data view of Etherium blockchain

September 4, 2018

Internet search giant Google has added ethereum to its big data analytics platform BigQuery.

Making the announcement in a blog post on Saturday, the company said that, while an API exists for commonly used functions such as checking transaction status or wallet balances, it’s not so easy to access all of the data stored on the ethereum blockchain.

The post continues to say that “perhaps more importantly,” the API doesn’t allow for viewing blockchain data “in aggregate.”

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Alternative Transportation, Breakthrough Thinking, Engineering, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Can we get into space without big rockets?

September 4, 2018

Since humans began putting satellites into orbit in the 1950s, we’ve relied upon big, powerful rockets to escape Earth’s gravity and get into space. But big rockets have a major downside, in that they make space launches expensive. Case in point: NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, which is scheduled for its maiden flight in December 2019, will cost an estimated $1 billion per launch, according to a 2017 report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). Launch costs for SpaceX’s far more economical Falcon Heavy, which launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center in February 2018, still range between $90 million and $150 million for a fully expendable, maxed-out version, according to CNBC.

For decades, however, visionaries have looked for ways to get into space without relying — at least not primarily — upon rocket power.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Children, Futurist, Robots, Science & Technology News

Kids will build ’emotional bonds’ with robots and ignore their parents, futurologist predicts

September 3, 2018

Children will soon have their own ‘cute’ artificial intelligence-equipped robot toys and will pay more attention to the machines’ advice than guidance issued by their parents.

That’s the warning from futurologist Ian Pearson, who was speaking at an event by the tech firm Beko held at the IFA 2018 conference in Berlin. He said robots would be commonplace in our homes within the next 15 years. But parents will be concerned to hear that he believes they will have a greater influence on ‘educating and training’ children than their own parents.

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Biotech, Breakthrough Thinking, DNA, Medicine, Nanotechnology

Genetically engineered bacteria paint microscopic masterpieces

September 3, 2018

Scientists have used genetically engineered bacteria to recreate a masterpiece at a microscopic scale. By engineering E. coli bacteria to respond to light, they’ve guided the bacteria like tiny drones toward patterns that depict Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It’s not artistic recognition they’re after. Rather, the researchers want to show that these engineered organisms may someday be used as “microbricks” and living propellors.

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