One day robots will replace humans in certain jobs.
Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, thinks robots have their work cut out for them if they want to replace people. “There’s something about humans that technologists always forget,” he said. “Humans are creative and unpredictable.”
Continue reading… “9 robots that are actually stealing our jobs”
Paddle
You probably carry around a few gadgets. You probably have your smartphone, maybe a tablet or e-reader. You may also have a fitness band or even a second smartphone. That’s a lot of stuff to carry. Imagine instead having just a single gadget that you deform physically into different shapes to suit your needs. (Pics and video)
Continue reading… “Paddle – an incredible shapeshifting smartphone”
Futurist Thomas Frey: I’ve always loved ideas and I think it stems from the fact that I’ve had so many to choose from. But it wasn’t about the sheer number of ideas I got to play with. Rather it was finding that one truly remarkable gem, the golden epiphany, hiding in amongst the others.
Stem cell therapy could be used to help older patients recover from muscular injuries.
People become less able to bounce back from injuries as they age. This is a problem that adds risk to many of the common medical procedures the elderly face. At the same time, stem cells’ greatest promise is to allow people to produce new, healthy tissue to recover from illness or injury. But because stem cell therapies remain cutting edge, they have largely been used to target life-threatening problems such as heart failure.
Continue reading… “Stem cells repair and strengthen muscles in aged mice”
The Maker Movement Encompasses all kinds of activity from traditional crafts to high-tech electronics.
In recent years, one of the more significant trends is the impact of technology on homemade manufacturing. The Maker Movement, a diffuse entrepreneurial community, has been using open source design to drive a telling resurgence in American manufacturing. Encompassing all kinds of activity from traditional crafts to high-tech electronics, linked by the adoption of digital tools, not just for design, but increasingly for manufacture through 3-D printing, technology has transformed DIY enthusiasts operating on their own at home into real communities.
Continue reading… “Homemade goods could become the global brands of tomorrow”
Bringing business class travel to driverless cars.
Countries from the U.S. to Singapore will likely have self-driving cars on roadways by 2020. These road-aware vehicles will theoretically do away with nearly all traffic collisions and reduce traffic congestion. Auto designer Rinspeed, however, has fixed its considerable talent on another aspect of the autonomous car: just what to do with the passengers. (Photos)
Continue reading… “Rinspeed’s driverless car concept brings business class to the road”
Programmers use existing language regions of the brain to understand code.
Computer programming is a deeply complex but relatively new human activity. Its young age has lent itself to countless battles and hotly debated topics that despite the many compelling arguments presented, we seemingly have no definitive answers for. All that is about to change: An international team of scientists lead by Dr. Janet Siegmund is using brain imaging with fMRI to understand the programmer’s mind. Understanding the brain offers us the chance to distill these complex issues into fundamental answers.
Continue reading… “Neuroscience of programming: Understanding programmers’ brains”
Arthur C. Clarke predicted the iPad and online newspapers in 1968.
Arthur C. Clarke declared in 1964, “trying to predict the future is a discouraging and hazardous occupation,” and yet he got it astoundingly right in his own predictions, including his 1968 vision for the iPad. Isaac Asimov predicted online education, Douglas Adams predicted ebooks, Ray Bradbury predicted that we would reach Mars (though, so far, we’ve only done so with robotic extensions of ourselves), and Jules Verne envisioned the hi-tech Nautilus “at a time when even a can-opener [was] considered an exciting new concept.” In fact, science-fiction authors have a formidable track record of predicting the future — but why? (Video)
Continue reading… “Science fiction writers are really good at predicting the future”
The only way to run a no-manager company is very publicly.
Ryan Carson broke the big news when he was presenting Treehouse’s latest numbers to investors. In the middle of the presentation, one investor stopped and asked, “Wait, who reports to who?” “My co-founder [Alan Johnson] and I just kind of looked at each other and laughed,” says Carson. Then they fessed up. “We said ‘No one reports to anyone.’”
Continue reading… “Do companies work better without bosses?”
Next generation of wearables needs to focus more on keeping users engaged in the long-term.
Companies such as Sony, Pebble, Meta, LG, Garmin, Razer and others introduced at least 10 new wearable devices at CES in January. Yet despite the enthusiasm in the market, the dirty secret of wearables remains: almost all of the current generation of products fail to drive long-term, sustained engagement and behavior change.
Continue reading… “3 critical factors wearables need to be successful”
World’s first 3D printed exoskeleton.
Amanda Boxtel suffered a vicious skiing accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down in 1992. Doctors said she would never walk again. This week, with the help of the world’s first 3D printed exoskeleton that gives her the ability to climb out of her wheelchair and walk once again she proved the doctors wrong. (Video)
Continue reading… “Paralyzed skier walks again with world’s first 3D printed exoskeleton”
Kinetic Vest
The Kinetic Vest is no ordinary vest, it uses the innovative Klymit NobleTek, a type of insulating technology that uses argon gas to keep your body warm. (Photos)
Continue reading… “Kinetic Vest by Klymit keeps you warm with argon”