Important Innovations

DARPA's Underwater Intelligence Agents It's almost too good to be true.  The US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency - DARPA - is deploying fish and other marine life as underwater James Bonds.  The research project is called the "Persistent Aquatic Living Sensors Program".  DARPA wants to gather the responses of living marine life like shellfish to underwater vehicles.  The data would be relayed back through a hardware network that also gathers and interprets the fish responses. Aquatic Surveillance This research is no tall fish tale.  DARPA is a global epicenter of innovation.  It created the internet, GPS, cloud computing and much more. Its mission is to provide the US military with overwhelming technological advantages.  DARPA scientists believe that monitoring marine life's reaction to their environment will better track enemy manned and unmanned vehicles.  They plan on using crustaceans, mollusks and certain types of fish as a s

Innovative Helmet Technology Fights Sports Brain Injuries A pediatric neurosurgeon has developed a highly engineered helmet that starts to fight sports brain injuries.  Dr. Sam Browd of Washington is the innovator.  He and his engineering team at VICIS have created a multi-layered helmet that mitigates rotational and linear impact force. Cushions Like a Car Bumper The helmet is called Zero 1.  It's a softer, stronger helmet that works like a car bumper.  The outer shell is composed of flexible polymer that cushions the impact.  Zero 1 earned top spot in the NFL's 2018 helmet test for the ability to reduce impact forces that lead to brain injury.  The VICIS team of professional athletes, engineers and neurosurgeons spent 3 years and $20million on R&D to develop the helmet.  They recommend it for professional athletes and student athletes in high school and college.  VICIS plans on developing a smaller, lighter helmet for younger athletes in the near future.  A number o

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction.  But it's a fact.  NASA is developing autonomous tiny drones, the size of bees.  NASA's Marsbees  will explore the planet Mars for any signs of Martian  life. The drones are cutting edge robotic innovation.  NASA views them as potentially leading the way for the eventual colonization of Mars. Swarming Marsbees Marsbees is an extraordinary, artificial intelligence (AI), drone development NASA project.  The tiny drones are shaped and sized like bees with one exception.  Their wingspan is much larger.  The wings are the size of cicada's.wings  They're designed to fly through Mars' thin atmosphere with speed, distance, agility and duration.  They handily outpace NASA's cumbersome rovers.  Rover Curiosity landed in 2012 and has only travelled 12 miles. Wireless Transmissions The drones are steered by artificial intelligence.  Like satellites, they transmit data to scientists wirelessly.  NASA plans on launchi

How's this for a dream vacation?  You're in a tropical resort and diving underwater with cutting edge robotic geer.   Your swimming robot is video recording the marine life and ocean surrounding you.  Later, from your boat, you launch the swimming robot with imbedded cameras into the sea to glide along to places you can't reach.  The robotic tech live streams, video-recorded images.  You and your ship mates enjoy the oceanographic display above water.  It's possible and has just been developed. FIFISH P3 - Swimming, Video Recording Robotic Innovation FIFISH P3 is an underwater explorer drone with highly advanced video, video streaming and photographic capabilities.  It can record high quality video and highly professional photographs at depths up to 328 feet.  QYSEA of Shenzhen, China developed FIFISH.  They call it the first truly professional underwater robot.  And it's an award winner.  It's the recipient of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 In

Global Food Fights Increasing food supplies is one of the world's most pressing needs.  The supply-demand equation is so dire it eventually could lead to global food fights.  By 2050, world population will increase by 34% to 9 billion. Most of it in the third world.   Food production has to increase by 70% to keep pace.  Meat production has to double to 470 million tons. Billionaire Bill Gates' Solution - Go Meatless There are several important innovations that begin to address the global food shortage.  One novel idea comes from Microsoft's Bill Gates.  Go meatless.  The concept is to produce lab grown meat and meat substitutes that taste the same as the real thing.  Gates financially backed a company  Beyond Meat that produced the 1st meatless burger, made from peas.  There's an added benefit in going meatless.  25% of world emissions come from food production including meat.  Going meatless could reduce climate change. Robot Farms Robots and drones operat

Flying, Driving Drones From the MIT roboticists who created the world's first flying monkey comes flying, driving drones.   Roboticists at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a quadcopter drone with wheels.  It drives and flies autonomously.  The drones can swarm in groups.  And they can do so without colliding with each other.  There's an important innovation breakthrough here.  Current drone robots that are good at one form of transportation aren't good at another.  The MIT drone is good at both flying and driving. Flying Monkeys This same team of roboticists previously created a robot called the "flying monkey".  The monkey flies, runs and grasps objects.  But it isn't autonomous.  The researchers program its paths.  It can't safely travel on its own.  But it has served as a foundation for the roboticists next iteration on their innovation theme - flying, driving drones. Flying Cars The MIT sc

3D Printing Rocks Heavy Metal The promise of  3D printing.  Experts call it "the next industrial revolution" that will disrupt industries.  They also forecast exponential growth.  For 3D printing that future just got a lot closer.  According to experts at MIT, 3D printers can now manufacture metal objects quickly and cheaply.  3D metal printing is a game-changer for manufacturing. 3D Printed Plastic 3D printing has been utilized for several decades.  But until now the printing substance of choice has been plastic.  Consumers and businesses globally 3D print clothing, glasses, toys, jewelry, dentures and even artificial organs.  Other substances, particularly metal, have been too expensive and slow to 3D print. New Technological Take-off for 3D Three leading companies, GE, Markforged and Desktop Metal are deploying new technologies that make 3D metal printing practical.  Their new technology printers create lighter, stronger and more complex metal parts tha

Smarter Sensing Cities Building cities smarter by using advanced digital technologies as their design and operating base.  It's a concept promoted by the World Economic Forum at Davos. Their specific reason is to impact and reduce accelerating climate change. A staggering 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings.  Lighting, heat, cooling and power for homes, office buildings, schools and hospitals account for 1/5th of global emissions yearly. Looking for Energy Miracle World Economic Forum officials believe smarter cities are a key factor that could change that.  Microsoft's Bill Gates is part of a group which has created a fund to invest in climate change solutions through technology.  As Gates puts it "we need an energy miracle".  Meanwhile, a company called Sidewalks Labs is putting the smarter cities theory into practice.  Sidewalks is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet. Non-fossil fuel energy will power it. Toronto Project

Electric Cars  Wirelessly Powered by Charged Roads It's an environmental dream come true.  Battery charging highways that wirelessly power electric cars as they drive along.  Imagine the additional mileage that would provide electric vehicles. Imagine how widespread use of electric cars would cut carbon foot prints globally.  Bottom-line:  electric cars would be a long distance practicality. Game Changing Innovation Research Stanford University has the project on the road.  Researchers are working on a new wireless power system embedded right beneath the surface of the road.  The wirelessly charged roads would power the electric car while it moves along the highway to its destination.  This important concept could result in widespread use of electric cars. New Wireless Charger Stanford researchers have produced a wireless charger that does something other wireless chargers don't.  The charger automatically calibrates the radio wave frequency.  That's t

Important Innovations Impacting Global Needs On Wednesday May 16, 2018, we will blog our first news post on important new innovation addressing the world's most pressing needs.  Every Wednesday thereafter, we'll provide similar posts to detail the innovation solutions to globally pressing issues.  These will be presented in a very understandable and accessible manner. Some of the global needs and breakthrough innovations designed to solve them include: Feeding the world's burgeoning population Climate Change Dwindling supplies of clean water and arable land Disease cures and treatments Environmentally clean and autonomous transportation Artificial Intelligence Breakthrough robotics Technological journeys to space and other planets As journalists, we strongly believe in the importance of clearly communicating the issues that humanity faces and the exciting innovations designed to make our world a better place. We will also on regular basis blog li

Helicopter Cars Your dream commuter car is coming to your driveway.  TFX, the prototype flying car that takes off and lands like a helicopter.  It's brand new automotive and aviation innovation. You vertically take off from your driveway and land vertically in your office parking lot.  It also drives like a car on the road.  One of the selling points of the helicopter car is you can avoid and take-off from traffic jams. Electric and Autonomous TFX is autonomous, electric and fuel efficient.  Vertical takeoff and landing means no need for an airport.  Chinese owned company Terrafugea says the vehicle will be on the roads and in the skies within ten years.  Company founder Dr. Carl Dietrich and his team of MIT engineers created the world's first FAA and NTSB approved flying car The Transition.  They designed and engineered the TFX. Pushing Flying Car Technology Skywards Meanwhile, NASA and Uber are teaming up to make electric flying cars operational within six years.

Robot Workforce By 2030, the robot workforce could replace nearly one-third of US workers.  That's 70 million Americans out of their jobs in thirteen years.  Clearly, automation is disruptive innovation, dramatically changing the American workplace.  And, the US isn't alone. Global Robot Workforces McKinsey Global Institute forecasts the automation labor revolution.  They predict virtually every American worker will need retraining overtime.  Furthermore the robot workforce will replace some humans at every stage in their careers.  McKinsey forecasts technology could replace 375 million employees worldwide by 2030.  Like the US, Germany and Japan will see at least one third of their workforces disrupted.  Interestingly, the disruption is less for China.  12% of their jobs will go robotic.  The reason is Chinese wages are comparatively less. More Key Findings by McKinsey for the Robotic Workforce by 2030 Jobs most at risk are repetitive tasks, such as assembly l