Atkinson Cycle Engine
Toyota has developed two hyper-fuel-efficient small-displacement gasoline Atkinson cycle engines: a three-cylinder 1.0-liter and four-cylinder 1.3-liter which will be introduced across the range from next year in 14 different variations. The smaller engine will deliver 78 mpg in the Toyota Aygo, an improvement of 30 percent.
Continue reading… “Toyota develops Atkinson Cycle engine that delivers 78 mpg”
Glow-in-the-dark highway.
Light-absorbing glow-in-the-dark road markings have replaced streetlights on a 0.3 mile stretch of highway in the Netherlands.
Continue reading… “Netherlands debuts glow-in-the-dark roads”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Google’s Director of Engineering, Ray Kurzweil, has predicted that we will reach a technological singularity by 2045, and science fiction writer Vernor Vinge is betting on 2029, a date that is ironically on the hundredth anniversary of the greatest stock market collapse in human history.
Continue reading… “The Singularity and Our Collision Path with the Future”
Mark Cuban invests in PowerPot.
The PowerPot is an awesome device that charges your phone by boiling water in a pot. The device has just become the next hot thing, thanks to its appearance on ABC’s hit reality show, “Shark Tank.” (Video)
Here’s a speed test conducted at a coffee shop in Seoul using its free WiFi.
South Korea is a connected country. There’s free WiFi just about anywhere you go, even at the airport. And if you travel a lot, you know free WiFi at an airport is nearly impossible to come by. Not only is there free WiFi everywhere, but that Internet is much, much faster than what you typically get in the U.S.
Continue reading… “South Korea’s internet speeds blow away the rest of the world”
Dowling College main administrative and faculty offices building.
On Long Island, New York’s south shore on the Dowling College campus, a fleet of unused shuttle buses sits in an otherwise empty parking lot. A dormitory is shuttered, as are a cafeteria, bookstore and some classrooms in the main academic building.
3D printed house.
In Shanghai, China, the WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Company claims to have 3D printed ten houses with inexpensive industrial scraps in 24 hours. (Photos)
Continue reading… “Chinese company 3D prints 10 houses in a day”
Ninety percent of the news could be written by computers by 2030.
Software is writing news stories with increasing frequency. In a recent example, an LA Times writer-bot wrote and posted a snippet about an earthquake three minutes after the event. The LA Times claims they were first to publish anything on the quake, and outside the USGS, they probably were.
Continue reading… “Robots are writing more news than you think”
Ideas Box
Easy access to information is something most of us take for granted. In some parts of the world however just being able to browse a few books is nearly impossible, especially for people who are refugees or victims of a humanitarian crisis. Immediate living necessities including clean water, food, shelter clothing and medical care in these situations are the primary concern. (Video)
Continue reading… “Ideas Box – a ready-made library for humanitarian crisis victims”
Just e-mail ourselves 3-D printable files of our stuff.
Janne Kyttanen, a Finnish designer and creative director of 3D Systems, has vastly improved on the concept of luggage. He thinks we can just e-mail ourselves 3-D printable files of our stuff. If we go by his new project Lost Luggage, the era of suitcase-schlepping may soon be over.
SpoonRocket
There are dozens of services operating in and around San Francisco like – Homejoy for cleaning, BloomThat for flowers, Postmates for courier service, SpoonRocket a gourmet meal-delivery service, and on and on. Most of them provide cheap, convenient amenities at the tap of a smartphone app. Few of them are profitable on a corporate level. And together, they’ve formed the backbone of a strange urban economy: one in which massive venture-capital injections allow money-losing start-ups to flourish, while providing services that no traditional, unsubsidized business can match. It’s an economy built on patience, and the hope that someday, after the land grab is over and the dust has settled, a better business model will emerge.
The inFORM
The inFORM–a shapeshifting display that you can reach through and touch–was meant to be a sort of digital scrying pool through which MIT could imagine the user interfaces of the future. Currently on display at Milan’s Design Week, the inFORM’s successor (called, appropriately enough,the Transform) is a scrying pool too, but instead of helping us imagine the interfaces of the future, it’s here to teach us what the polymorphous furniture of tomorrow will be like instead. (Videos)
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.