#Where GPS Fails, A Shape-Shifting Cube Can Guide You Home A Yale university engineer builds a small cube that acts as a tactile compass for the visually impaired
(or those caught in the dark). Compasses and GPS help people without disabilities find their destinations every day,
but are of less use to the visually impaired, or even sighted people in the dark.
and indicates the direction a user should go to reach a set destination, and rotates in real time to indicate turns ahead
or that the user has drifted off course. The current iteration isn sensitive enough to keep somebody on the sidewalk instead of a nearby street
but will keep up with the turns and directions normally provided by a smartphone or in-console GPS.
No single technology used by the cube is new. Instead, it relies on existing and mature navigation systems and haptic feedback for the directions,
indicating only where the user should go. It provides no other visual cues or any audio component
and Payment Is accepted Lyle & Scott partners with Barclaycard to make seamless digital payments through the right sleeve of The Contactless Jacket.
Didn bring cash or a credit card with you? No problem. As long as youe wearing the new lifestyle jacket from Lyle & Scott,
you can pay for anything. The Contactless Jacket has a built-in bpay contactless chip integrated into the right sleeve cuff allowing the wearer to swipe to make payments.
Barclaycard has been working on digital secure wallets and has released wearable payment devices like a sticker, fob and wristband.
However, this is their first partnership with a fashion brand great introduction to the world of fashion
and seamless payments. his collaboration with Lyle & Scott shows the potential of wearable payments
allowing users to turn almost anything into a contactless way to pay, Barclay Digital Consumer Payments Managing director Mike Saunders explained.
He also added, he combination of the heritage of a brand like Lyle & Scott with the latest payments technology from bpay will further advance contactless payments as being the easiest
and quickest way to buy everyday thingse it a morning coffee, quick trip to the supermarket,
or a bus trip across town. he Contactless Jacket was launched in September 2. It is available in True Black and Admiral Blue colors.
and the bpay chip to make contactless payments Wearers can buy anything £30 and under in the U k. Wearers can add funds to their digital wallet using a mobile app or through an online portal.
Take for example the Nymi Band that allows users to pay with their heartbeat. One can only pay
#The Blind Are Seeing the World Through Artificial intelligence Aipoly uses machine vision and text-to-speech technology to identify
and describe photos of everyday objects to visually impaired users. There no doubt that smartphones make our lives easier.
As smartphone technology becomes more sophisticated with each passing year, however, it worthwhile to ask:
are these helping devices truly serving the needs of every person who requires assistance in their daily lives?
Aipoly is a smartphone app that acts as an intelligent assistant to the non-sighted user Students at Singularity University Silicon valley-based benefit corporation, educational program,
When a user snaps a picture in Aipoly, the image is uploaded automatically to Aipoly servers,
where it is analyzed and tagged. This allows a description to be sent back to the user
which is then read aloud using text-to-speech. From reading street signs to allowing blind parents to be able to answer their children questions about their surroundings,
Aipoly can offer convenience and an improved quality of life to its users. Some early testers of the app, including Rob Turner,
President of the Silicon valley Council of the Blind, describe the impact Aipoly could have on their lives:
When I walking around it would be wonderful to have access to street signs, maybe even just being able to get a perspective. ey,
What kind of car is this? s a blind person you don really think about the things that you might be able to see
Singularity University estimates that two-thirds of the visually impaired people in the world will become smartphone users in the next five years, making technology like Aipoly essential for this growing market.
Those who are interested in contributing can sign up for the beta on the Aipoly website. The team welcomes both the sighted and non-sighted to participate
The device is designed to detect syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis, the most common in the category,
Details on how it works are few and far in between but doing such complicated tests within such a small device could be more fact than fiction.
The website reveals the ring will have a built-in retractable needle. Using electricity, it will block pain receptors
so it can draw blood painlessly. Using capillary action, blood will naturally flow through tiny tubes without the need for a ridiculously tiny (and expensive) pump.
The Hoope website mentions ntibody detectionas the method for testing. In these type of tests, reagents bond to specific proteins formed by the body under attack from an infection.
The final bond will have a specific electrochemical behavior which can be detected by the device and assessed as a positive or negative result.
Likely, the testing segment will be modular and single-use. The drawn blood will be deactivated using chemical compounds so there is no infectious waste after.
At the end of the entire Hoope process is a smartphone app that connects to the ring display the results,
explains the condition, and recommends nearby doctors and facilities for treatment. Although shrinking the chemistry can be easy,
the biggest challenge for the device could be the testing method. Blood testing is used often only
when testing for HIV infection and herpes. Other STDS are tested by confirming virus or bacterial presence in swabs or sample tissue from the patient.
Because it tests for antibodies, which is a bodily response, there is timeframe for false negatives.
However, due to Hoope wearable design and likely affordability, tests can be done easily on the go-go and in a minute once a day
overall minimizing the possibility of an undetected infection. The startup team is headed by Kazakhstani Damel Mektepbayeva,
a biotechnologist who has helped developed stem cell-based treatments for ischemic diseases. The Hoope idea originated from a NASA camp where Damel team bested 80 other scientists in developing an impactful product.
#Expanding Smart Windows on a Global Level Raising $150 million USD in a recent late-stage series F investment,
electrochromic window company View has major plans for the future. Operating on small bouts of voltage that travel through a metal oxide coating within the dual pane windows,
ions effectively dance within the glass and hit the electrochromic material to achieve tint-controlled windows.
The process is claimed to reduce energy bills by up to 20 percent a year by enabling buildings to regulate temperature within rather than resorting to air conditioning
and the subsequent costs associated with it. With only 100 installations to date (and preparations being made for 100 more View had been around for five years before installing its first window.
Humbly raising funds while simultaneously conducting research and development, the windows are constantly being perfected to meet modern day technological needs.
Now equipped with a personal IP ADDRESS, very view window is controllable through the internet. The windows can now talk to the lighting and HVAC system,
and on a more global level it could connect to the future smart city and smart grid, says CEO Rao Mulpuri.
Window building is populated a relatively industry as anyone strolling through New york city can imagine. ee raising capital
because we need to grow, says Mulpuri. o get 10%market adoption worldwide, wel need to build another 500 plants like the one wee already built.
By these means, the latest influx of $150 million is said to be going toward the expansion of View manufacturing capabilities beyond that of their $100 million USD manufacturing plant in Mississippi that boasts more than 200 workers.
Keep your eyes peeled for future news regarding the company direction, perhaps their windows might make their way to your home or office soon r
#Behind the Walls of the Largest Indoor farm in North america Farmedhere is the largest indoor vertical farm in the United states,
with 90,000 square foot space that all follow an eco city-and resource-friendly technique. Farmedhere, located in Chicago, raises its plants with a technique called aquaponics.
Plants grow without soil, directly in water kept nutrient-rich by fish. Using the technique, the farm yields both fishes and plants for harvest.
Vertical farming takes its name from growing plants on top of each other, often on tall racks indoors. These rooms are controlled climate to conditions that maximize the growth and yield of crop.
A major advantage of vertical farming is the sips of water it needs. Farmedhere for example, uses just 3 percent of water traditional farming methods might use.
Because the farms are enclosed, pesticides are unnecessary while the LED LIGHTS make sure there is enough unlightall-year round.
Their website reads: Farmedhere produce is grown indoors in urban facilities, away from the bugs, diseases, pesticides,
and weather that impact most produce today. Our vertical growing technology and local distribution methods reduce energy use, travel time and costs tremendously,
making this model one of the most sustainable ways to guarantee access to fresh, healthy produce in city centers, in any season.
Local farming also means fresher produce. Their products travel only a few miles compared to the thousand-mile journeys most agricultural products make.
Right now, Farmedhere raises certified organic basil, baby kale, baby cabbage and microgreens with up to 15 times as many crop cycles a year compared to traditional farming.
Right now Farmedhere is able to supply to around 80 retailers in Chicago. PSFK has reported previously on vertical farming on the opposite side of the world.
Most of which are developed in countries where abandoned tech megafactories are finding a new purpose in vertical farming.
Another startup in Japan is planning to build a fully automated vertical farm l
#Amazon Wants to Bring Augmented reality to the Streaming Services Game With its recently-published patent for AR smart glasses,
the Internet giant introduces a new, disruptive element to watching video There no doubt as to the potential for augmented reality to change how we interact with our future world.
Just ask Facebook, Google and Microsoft. With its promising application to video games and other in-real-time experiences, its no wonder the biggest tech players in the field are eager to explore AR possibilities.
And, as revealed by its new patent for augmented reality glasses it looks like Amazon wants to take a crack at it as well,
albeit with a different goal in mind from the rest. According to the patent, Amazon glasses look to specifically enhance the experience of streaming video.
Mentioning one of the biggest issues with the xperience with portable devices, like tablet devices, is the lack of ability for consumers to immerse themselves in a tablet experience,
such as watching a movie on an airplane, the glasses look to enrich content in a way no other streaming service currently does.
They also o not allow a user to immerse in the experience implying that if youe watching video with them on,
they won change your entire environment so that it feels as if you umped into the show
(which is one form of augmented reality). Rather, the augmented reality experience only appears when youe watching the screen in front of you.
On top of this, Amazon also purports a more comfortable version of augmented reality as well, citing the headsets of other augmented reality devices as sually heavy,
expensive and uncomfortable to use for long periods of time. While Google glass may not fall in with that crowd,
it is true that simple glasses versus large headsets lend themselves to a more casual and pleasurable wearing experience, one
which would be ideal if you were watching video. The larger implication here is that Amazon glasses would be changing the landscape of video streaming by adding augmented reality to the mix.
If the glasses catch on and the majority of Amazon Video new, original content require the device for the full experience,
alongside hydro and wind, will help provide nearly half of Morocco electricity from renewables by 2020 with,
The Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou, a group of earthen buildings surrounded by high walls,
and more expensive than the photovoltaic panels that are now familiar on roofs the world over,
calculated that the world deserts receive enough energy in a few hours to provide for humanity power needs for a whole year.
The challenge though, has been capturing that energy and transporting it to the population centres where it is required.
Rabat, and generate 580mw of electricity, enough to power a million homes. Noor 1 itself has a generating capacity of 160mw.
Morocco environment minister, Hakima el-Haite, believes that solar energy could have the same impact on the region this century that oil production had in the last.
We import 94%of our energy as fossil fuels from abroad and that has big consequences for our state budget,
olar energy will make up a third of Morocco renewable energy supply by 2020, with wind and hydro taking the same share each. e are very proud of this project,
el-Haite said. think it is the most important solar plant in the world. ach parabolic mirror is 12 metres high
and focussed on a steel pipeline carrying a eat transfer solution (HTF) that is warmed to 393c as it snakes along the trough before coiling into a heat engine.
There, it is mixed with water to create steam that turns energy-generating turbines. The HTF is made up of a synthetic thermal oil solution that is pumped towards a heat tank containing molten sands that can store heat energy for three hours
due to open in 2017 will store energy for up to eight hours opening the prospect of 24/7 solar energy in the Sahara,
says Ahmed Baroudi, manager of Société dnvestissements Energétiques, the national renewable energy investment firm. But he says the project ultimate impact will go far wider even as far as the Middle east. he ultimate objective given by his majesty the king is Mecca. hether that ambition is achieved remains to be seen
and energy exports northwards across the Mediterranean remain a key goal, despite the collapse in 2013 of the Desertec project, a German plan to source 15%of Europe energy from North African desert solar by 2050. e believe that it possible to export energy to Europe
but first we would have to build the interconnectors which don yet exist, said Maha el-Kadiri, a Masen spokeswoman. pecifically,
and then start exporting. pain has prohibited itself new solar projects because of a lack of interconnectors to transmit the energy to France.
This could one day include water desalination, in a country that is increasingly being hit by drought as the climate warms.
much of it from international institutions such as the European Investment bank and World bank and backed by Moroccan government guarantees.
Undisclosed energy subsidies from Morocco unelected ruler King Mohammed VI, have prevented the cost from being transferred to energy consumers.
One month before launch, over a thousand mostly Moroccan workers are still racing to fix electric wires,
take down scaffolding and wrap rockwool insulation around steel pipelines. They bustle past in yellow and orange bibs,
working 12-hour shifts against a backdrop of the Atlas mountains. Harnesses with hammers and gloves strapped to their belts swing by their sides.
Ubiquitous hard hats, safety shoes and ear plugs give the scene an air of theatrical camp. For Hajar Lakhael, a 25-year-old environment and security manager from Meknes
rehearsals are almost over and the blockbuster production is nearly ready for action. ee done the construction
"and"nanoparticle"are probably not terms you find yourself using in day-to-day interactions, but for the Univ. of Cincinnati (UC)' s Yoonjee Park, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Applied science biomedical engineering professor, these words are central to every conversation relating to her cutting edge research on drug delivery vehicles.
A relatively recent addition to the university, Park is a"top-talent"educator who was recruited for her leadership in a high-impact, high-demand area"in
which the university wants to continue to position itself as a global leader. The area in which Park has established herself as an expert is the field of study related to the creation and monitoring of delivery vehicles that carry medicine to specific locations within the body.
Park was inspired first to pursue this course of study when she saw the side effects of cancer and how the drugs used to kill cancer cells also killed other parts of the body.
Regarding chemotherapy she explains, "If you inject the drug intravenously it can go anywhere and everywhere,
which is why we get side effects like hair loss.""She hoped to find a way of sending drugs only to the specific area of the body that needed the treatment rather than inadvertently treating
In doing this, the medical treatment would be more effective and the patient could remain stronger during treatment.
Describing her work she says, "Usually I use nanoparticles for drug delivery vehicles, and we can attach image
and contrast agents to the nanoparticle to track the particle. Or the nanoparticle itself is the image and contrast agent
which makes a complex of the image and contrast agent with the drug itself.""In the course of time Park began to focus her efforts on those parts of the body that posed a significant challenge
or risk to doctors who are trying to reach that locale with medicine. Two areas that have been of particular interest to her are spinal discs and places within the eyeball, both
of which can be painful and risky to access with traditional methods. Since April, Park has been working with James Lin, director of the Skeletal Tissue Evaluation and Engineering Laboratory,
Using vehicles made with perfluorocarbons, Park and Lin have created bio-safe, durable, reliable vehicles that can be inserted into the discs
and traced via medical imaging. Lin says that these vehicles, described as"droplets, "enter the bloodstream
and are tracked"without opening up the body"to provide real time feedback and manipulation. Park says,
"We can see the dosage in our bodies and we can see the drug bio-distribution.
the vehicles can be popped"to systematically release the drug as needed. This technique allows for minimized invasive treatment,
Preliminary testing of the drug delivery procedure is being performed at the Laboratory Animal Medical Services (LAMS) facility on UC's East Campus. Currently Park is in the preclinical phase,
and resources for Park to pursue her research in tandem to her responsibilities as a professor.
In fact, it was the superb medical facilities she would have access to as a professor at UC that aided in her decision to accept the position at the university.
"says Park of her attempt to create an effective drug delivery vehicle, and she herself is no stranger to this work,
having spent a decade focusing on issues related to this project. Her Phd at Purdue University and her research at Boston's Massachusetts institute of technology were dedicated both to studying particle stabilization to avoid clogging arteries with the nanoparticles and drug delivery vehicles;
creating a vehicle that could be programmed to travel to specific destinations; tracking this vehicle with medical imaging;
and learning how drugs could be released time at the proper time. With the support of the Univ. of Cincinnati behind her efforts, Park hopes to be able to overcome the barriers that have slowed others,
and reach the success she has been seeking.""It seems like it's working! We've had lots of progress, actually,
"she says with a smile e
#Research method identifies stealth attacks on complicated computer systems Imagine millions of lines of instructions. Then try and picture how one extremely tiny anomaly could be found in almost real-time
and prevent a cyber security attack. Called a"program anomaly detection approach, "a trio of Virginia Tech computer scientists has tested their innovation against many real-world attacks.
One type of attack is when an adversary is able to remotely access a computer,
bypassing authentication such as a login screen. A second example of attack is called heap feng shui where attackers hijack the control of a browser by manipulating its memory layout.
Another example of attack is called directory harvesting where spammers interact with vulnerable mail servers to steal valid email addresses.
The prototype developed by the Virginia Tech scientists proved to be effective and reliable at these types of attacks with a false positive rate as low as 0. 01%.
%Their findings are reported in an invited presentation at the 22nd Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Conference on Computer and Communications security, Denver."
"Our work, in collaboration with Naren Ramakrishnan, is titled, nearthing Stealthy Program Attacks Buried in Extremely Long Execution Paths,?
said Danfeng (Daphne) Yao, associate professor of computer science at Virginia Tech. Xiaokui Shu, a computer science doctoral student of Anqing, China, advised by Yao,
was the first author.""Stealthy attacks buried in long execution paths of a software program cannot be revealed by examining fragments of the path,"Yao,
who holds the title of the L-3 Communications Cyber Faculty Fellow of Computer science, said.
Yao explained, "Modern exploits have manipulation tactics that hide them from existing detection tools. An example is an attacker who overwrites one of the variables before the actual authentication procedure.
"Over time, these stealthy attacks on computer systems have just become more and more sophisticated. The Virginia Tech computer scientists'secret formula in finding a stealth attack is in their algorithms.
With specific matrix-based pattern recognition, the three were able to analyze the execution path of a software program
and discover correlations among events.""The idea is to profile the program's behavior, determine how often some events are supposed to occur,
"Because the approach works by analyzing the behavior of computer code, it can be used to study a variety of different attacks,"Yao added.
Their anomaly detection algorithms were able to detect erratic program behaviors with very low false alarms even
#Researchers grow nanocircuitry with semiconducting graphene nanoribbons In a development that could revolutionize electronic circuitry, a research team from the Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison (UW)
Germanium is a semiconductor, and this method provides a straightforward way to make semiconducting nanoscale circuits from graphene, a form of carbon only one atom thick.
The method was discovered by UW scientists and confirmed in tests at Argonne.""Some researchers have wanted to make transistors out of carbon nanotubes,
but the problem is that they grow in all sorts of directions, "said Brian Kiraly of Argonne."
"The innovation here is that you can grow these along circuit paths that works for your tech."
"UW researchers used chemical vapor deposition to grow graphene nanoribbons on germanium crystals. This technique flows a mixture of methane, hydrogen,
it naturally forms nanoribbons with these very smooth, armchair edges,"said Michael Arnold, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison."
"The widths can be very, very narrow, and the lengths of the ribbons can be very long,
This high mobility makes the material an ideal candidate for faster, more energy-efficient electronics. However, the semiconductor industry wants to make circuits start
and stop electrons at will via bandgaps, as they do in computer chips. As a semimetal, graphene naturally has no bandgaps,
making it a challenge for widespread industry adoption. Until now. To confirm these findings, UW researchers went to Argonne staff scientists Brian Kiraly and Nathan Guisinger at the Center for Nanoscale Materials,
a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Argonne.""We have some very unique capabilities here at the Center for Nanoscale Materials,
"said Guisinger.""Not only are designed our facilities to work with all different sorts of materials from metals to oxides,
we can also characterize, grow and synthesize materials.""Using scanning tunneling microscopy, a technique using electrons (instead of light
or the eyes) to see the characteristics of a sample, researchers confirmed the presence of graphene nanoribbons growing on the germanium.
Data gathered from the electron signatures allowed the researchers to create images of the material's dimensions and orientation.
In addition, they were able to determine its band structure and extent to which electrons scattered throughout the material."
"We're looking at fundamental physical properties to verify that it is, in fact, graphene and it shows some characteristic electronic properties,
"What's even more interesting is that these nanoribbons can be made to grow in certain directions on one side of the germanium crystal,
"For use in electronic devices, the semiconductor industry is interested primarily in three faces of a germanium crystal.
where single atoms connect to each other in a diamond-like grid structure, each face of a crystal (1, 1,
1) will have axes that differ from one (1, 1, 0) to the other (1, 0,
new ways to deliver medicines and other applications. Most commercial robots are made stiff of hard plastics and metal parts.
But the supple robots under development could bridge the gap between today inflexible varieties and the more fluid and forgiving movements of animals and humans.
These machines work when operators pump them with gases or liquids. This inflation results in specific shape changes and desired movements.
To impart more versatility to the devices Stephen L. Craig and colleagues wanted to take advantage of the molecular changes that occur when a robot curls or twists.
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