Originally published on LinkedIn January 5, 2017
Although written just over two years ago, this article is being published for the first time in the spirit of CES 2017. This piece and its part II, should have at least one section you find interesting. The topics include tech agriculture, printable cosmetics, flying cars, soft robots, wearable tech, medical tech, 3D printers and more. “Tomorrow’s Technology Today” or more appropriately put, Yesterday’s Inventions are Today’s Technology. The words which remain constant in both are technology and today. Given that; today, is what matters most and all we have a minor degree of illusionary control over. The Wright brothers flew a plane successfully in 1903; however the root and concept of an aircraft, or flying object can be traced to Africa with the Saqqara Bird, as well as the golden plane amulets by the Mayans in Central America. It took thousands of years to see the aircraft idea soar in reality, hence the inclusion of the unused title “Yesterday’s Inventions are Today’s Technology.” Enough history and its juxtaposition with the present. As we all know, today always becomes yesterday, and tomorrow becomes today. Hopefully the featured companies, tech and individuals awaken your creative juices; in order to fuel your passion to create, or do something you like in 2017 and beyond.
Robots for Surgical Accuracy
Bertin Nahum is the Founder & CEO of Medtech, a surgical robotics technology firm that designs, develops and markets robots which assist surgical procedures of the central nervous system. Medtech is a public company listed on Euronext. Bertin created ROSA a surgical robot assistance which acts as a GPS to map the cranium for precise surgical execution. ROSA also helps surgeons when operating on ailments such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and generalized dystonia. As published by Chicago Tribune and European CEO “Bertin Nahum’s status as a “revolutionary high-tech entrepreneur” is surpassed only by Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and James Cameron, according to the 2012 Discovery Series ranking, which picked out the Senegal-born French national as deserving of unreserved praise in his field.”
Gesture Control and the Future of User Experience (UX)
The future of computing by John Underkoffler, the co-founder and chief scientist of Oblong Industries. Most people haven’t heard of, and may never know John Underkoffler, however a huge proportion of those people may have heard of, and seen Tom Cruise’s 2002 Minority Report movie. John was the science adviser and creator of G-speak, the interactive interface which Tom cruise used. It’s called Spatial Operating Environment; to put it simply, it’s a way for humans to interact with computers using gestures as commands to execute functions, and manipulating graphical content onto different surfaces. Oblong’s vision and next step is to make G-speak ubiquitous; on laptops, desktop, Televisions, microwave and more. G-speak is somewhat in the same space as Microsoft’s 2020 future vision and Thalmic Labs.
P.S. I want and need these gloves. Watch Microsoft’s video below.
https://youtu.be/dyMVZqJk8s4
Thalmic Labs
As the video depicts, Thalmic focuses on consumers and applications which work well in everyday life. Given the company’s circa $15.6 million in funding it has the resource and backing to make this new form factor work. The novel technology works by detecting what’s underneath the skin. It’s accuracy stems from being able to measure electric signals the body generates each time it’s about to command a function through a gesture. The MYO band interacts with machines seamlessly. At the retail price of $199, we’ll probably be seeing a lot more of this Canadian firm in the future. More here
https://youtu.be/oWu9TFJjHaM
https://youtu.be/ozLaklIFWUI
Beginnings of Wearable Robots aka Soft Robots
Rebecca Kramer a scientist at Perdue University may have just ushered us closer to a new era. One which will enable us to have, and wear robots in our clothing. This is far from the clunky exoskeleton being tested for military application. This is soft robots being stitched into clothing. Rebecca must be doing something special and serious, as she has secured funding from NASA.
Drone: The Zephyr
Most people have heard of drones, or at least seen them on television. They range from the U.S. military predator, to Amazon’s proposed delivery version, to selfie drones and other fun drones etc. Different drones have different applications e.g., agriculture, surveillance, natural disaster and movie filming drones. The one that caught my eye, and I believe befits this article is the Zephyr, a solar powered aircraft. The Zephyr is technically referred to as HAPS: High Altitude Pseudo Satellite System. According to Airbus technical director Christopher Kelleher, it simply means, it can do what a $2 billion observation satellite can do from 65,000 feet as compared to 250 miles, using less fuel and resource. The Zephyr flies at an altitude above the weather, and it has the potential to technologically disrupt the communication, weather and surveillance industries. For now, Zephyr’s primary focus is to bring the internet to landlocked and remote parts of the world via drone satellite technology. It’s ostensibly having a cell phone tower in the sky.
HYVE 3D: The Future of 3D
When it comes to 3D, a professor at the University of Montréal, who’s also the principal designer is pushing the envelope. Tomás Dorta’s technology HYVE 3D, which means Hy-brid Virtual Environment 3D is changing the paradigm of how we think about 3D. The technology allows the virtual world to merge with the real world in real-time if need be, and there’s no need for a headset or goggles. HYVE-3D projects 3D images onto huge spaces, which facilitates real-time collaboration. More important, it’s the real you being physically present in the virtual world, it’s immersion without obstruction. The cost of the equipment is about $50,000.
If you enjoyed this article and it moved you enough to do something, then say something. Happy New Year!
Part II Coming Soon; flying cars, cosmetics, city of the future and more…
