Emerging Technology

Its been a busy few months since the video dropped. I've been keeping odd hours and the days are all starting to blend together like a badly mixed Margarita. I guess its the price for chasing success....work long hours and get little rest. To combat the rigors of daily life I took a few weeks off to celebrate my birthday in Thailand. I'll write about that experience next time. 

While most of us are trying to figure out ways to make our lives easier. There are a few ingenious men and women who have achieved that goal. A few individuals made life easier for themselves by developing technology that can help all of mankind. Below are some emerging technologies that will change peoples perception...on what can and cannot be done. There was a wise man who said the "impossible" doesn't exist. Impossible problems are only impossible until the right mind provides an acceptable solution. (I'm paraphrasing a quote from Nikolai Tesla.)

Concept Plastics take the old adage..."One mans trash is another mans treasure." to a whole new level. The Colombian based company builds new low cost homes from discarded plastic that isn't being recycled. The waste plastic is melted down then remolded into Lego style bricks. The bricks are cut into various sizes, which are then built into homes. Their goal is to make housing affordable for all families while helping the environment.



The media is always talking about how expensive raw materials and energy costs are to manufacture almost anything. The Solar Sinter Project, provides a solution by utilizing the most abundant energy source on Earth...sunlight. The engineers took a 3D printer and refurbished it with solar panels and glass molding machinery. Sunlight is used for raw energy and to power the device. Sand is used as the building material to produce glass objects created using 3D the printing process. 

This device is only a concept project meant to get a dialog started on how people think about energy and resources. All that aside...its a pretty cool toy. Who doesn't want an authentic crystal sand castle...or glass sword?

Last but by far the most interesting is the Bioo Lite. This amazing little gadget uses a houseplant to charge your phone. I know you're thinking..."This dude is crazy". You are correct....I am. BUT I'm also speaking the truth. Bioo Lite, uses the natural process of plant photosynthesis to provide electricity to your phone. What makes it so amazing is all you need is a phone, USB cable and a plant. 

The technical aspects and materials used in the Bioo Lite are explained in the video. So far the Bioo Lite is one of the most environmentally safe way to generate electricity. By the way, the plant is not damaged by charging the phone and no plants were harmed in the making of this video.   

Portable Tech

It's back to school season. What better way to start it off than seeing new tech that will  make studying easier?

For everyone whose ever needed a printer on the go, there's now a printer so small it can fit in your pocket. This portable tech was designed by former students at the Jerusalem College of Technology, who were annoyed that no printer was small enough to carry around. They researched portable printers and came to the conclusion it was better to design there own. 

The pocket sized printer will soon be available from Zuta Labs and can be operated by your smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. By using bluetooth technology you can wirelessly print anything a full sized printer can do. It's shaped like the droplet colour icon use by most printers to measure ink levels. The tip of the teardrop is aligned with the corner of the paper and it prints from there. Once it's activated a hatch underneath the printer slides open, revealing the inkjet.

Using an omni wheel system that allows it to move in multiple directions, the machine rolls across the page, printing in grey-scale. When it reaches the end, the device moves down the page and continues on to the next line. The printer utilizes a high resolution optical sensor to control movement, speed, and location of the documents being printed. The inkwell is capable of printing 1000 pages before needing to be replaced, and the battery allows continual use for about an hour. Currently the machine will print 1.2 pages per minute at a resolution of up to 192 dots per inch. 
 

The dimensions of the pocket-sized printer are almost as impressive as its performance. Measuring ten centimetres high and 11.5 centimetres in diameter, it only weighs 300 grams and fits into the palm of a your hand. Made from polycarbonate and available in black or white, each pocket printer has a thin illuminated blue strip to indicate when it is switched on. This is truly a printer for someone on the go...and it will be available for commercial use soon.

Future Tech

A US company with a branch in Taiwan recently revealed a prototype transparent phone. The new phone is composed of a conductive glass that is toughened to resist scratches and shattering. It’s thinner and twenty-five percent lighter than an iPhone 5, and features a larger 4.3 inch screen. Both front and backsides of the phone can display images but it can only be touch activated from one side.

The good news (aside from it being cool tech) is that its going to be sold cheaper than the iPhone 5. Although the company has yet to reveal how much cheaper. You don’t have long to wait for the answer. The new phones will be on shelves this year. To see the phone and learn more about the product check out the video below.

Controller Free Gaming

Have you ever imagined using your hands to control the character in your favorite game? Or moving a few fingers and turning down the television from across the room... like magic? Well now you can.

The good people at Thalmic Labs have created the "wearable gesture control device". Its a band that's worn on the forearm which allow the user to manually control electronics, such as video games, radios, RC vehicles, televisions and more with hand gestures.

When you see the demo video below its going to show the versatility of the device. By flexing muscles in the forearm, wrist and fingers users are given manual control over electronics in every type of environment including the snow. This is the tech of the future available now. Check it out.

Resurrecting the Dead

Tupac Shakur dead in 1995. His legacy is in the music which has endured and gained more popularity over the last 17 years. Recently at the 2012 Coachella festival a 3D (3 dimensional) hologram of Tupac was debuted performing along side west coast legend Snoop Dogg. The image was like a scene out of science fiction films. The hologram was so realistic it had viewers questioning if Tupac had been resurrected from the dead like Lazarus or was alive and had faked his death like Machiavelli.

The hologram costs a reported 10 million U.S. dollars to create. It was designed by a company out of London which uses a state of the art high definition camera to broadcast a 3D holographic image on stage. The hologram gives the illusion of a real person and is created from scratch. Which means they don't use revamped archive footage or old video. Instead they create the entire image and performance from scratch. 

This technology opens the door for artists and government delegates to give performances or speeches from a remote location while viewers believe they're seeing the real thing. The military applications for this type of technology are to numerous to count and not part of this post. But I'm sure if you watch the videos below you can come up with a few on your own. Check it out. 

Self Driving Cars

Google isn't just a search engine anymore. Since buying youtube they have expanded into music, merchandising, advertising and now automobiles. In 2010 Google began a project that would create autonomous automobiles. In other words cars that would steer and drive themselves. The idea sounds like vehicles seen in science fiction movies like I, Robot and Blade Runner, but they're real.

The plan behind the project was designed to give blind and disabled people a safe means of travel (aside from public transportation). They also believe autonomous vehicles would make our roads and highways safer for everyone. Since introducing this smart vehicle in 2010 Google has steadily improved the vehicles response time and performance. Now in 2012 they've completed more than 200 hours of real driving on the roads and the vehicle seems almost ready for mass production. Below are videos showing some of the test runs for these self-driving cars...like it or not the technology now exists where science fiction has become reality.

Future Cars

Modern car designs don’t stray far from the original design from the 19th century. The doors are fixed in place by two separate hinges attached to the body of the vehicle. Over the years some designers switched the locations of the hinges. Placing the hinges at the top of the car was the inception of the Lamborghini style wing doors. Placing them at the opposite side of the door frame, created the suicide doors. They were given the name because of their popularity amongst 1930’s criminals. They found suicide doors easier to open, when throwing victims from the moving vehicle.

Jatech offers a brand new design to automobiles. They offer luxury automobiles with a seamless drop down door system unlike any created before. The doors slide down and under the car out of view..literally disappearing. That may sound like a large claim but if you watch the video below it will prove it.

Super Earth Found

A planet with Earth like conditions has been discovered. The Planet was discovered by HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Planet Searcher) and has four times the mass of Earth. It's also close enough to its yellow sun to support life and since its close to its yellow sun the planet named HD 85512 B has a consistent temperature of seventy-seven degrees. It is a world almost four times the size of Earth and is located 36 light-years away in the constellation Vela.

The planet exists in what scientists term the habitable zone. This means its in the area around a star where water could exist in liquid form, which would make a potential planet livable. To date scientists have found more than 50 new planets and 16 potentially habitable ones. I posted clips from the news interview from CNN and other media outlets on this planet and other Astronomical discoveries.

Elenin Comet Causing Earthquakes September 2011

The world has natural disasters all the time, its part of our history. Over the last few years the disasters such as earthquakes, climate change and numerous others have increased in frequency and strength. According to a group of astronomers and scientists its because a comet or dwarf star with a mass greater than Jupiter has been flying towards the Earth.

The celestial bodies name is ELEnin and its been known about since 1965 and causing magnetic pole migration since about 2004. The research indicates that Earth will experience a polar shift around 9/26 to 9/27, when the Sun, Earth and this ELE (Extinction Level Event) object go into alignment on the autumn equinox. 

Below is a video giving detailed information about Elenin and its history with the Earth. What I like about the video is that it encourages watchers to conduct your own research. Then gives resources on how to do it. Whether you believe the video or not it never hurts to watch and be informed. I also added a few other videos in the subject to provide more info.
 

The Darkside of Seedless Fruit

 First off…all fruit contain seeds naturally. The purpose of the fruit is it to hold seeds and hopefully be consumed, digested and excreted to a new location. This germination symbiotic relationship happens in all areas of nature. Most commonly with bees and flowers. Seedless fruit is genetically modified fruit and has no place in nature.

The modifications are secret and patented by big named corporations. At first people assumed the fruit was created for convenience. Who wants to be seen spitting out the seeds of an orange or watermelon in public right? That tiny vanity made a niche market for companies to make a mutant fruit that has no seeds. It also took away the ability of the consumer to grow their own fruit. Say you brought a delicious bag of apples and decided you would grow some for yourself. With seedless fruit its not possible.

Seedless fruit takes away the ability to be self-sustaining. It makes you the consumer more dependent on the grocery stores for survival. When I was a kid almost all my aunts and neighbors had gardens where they would grow fruits and herbs. Everyone knew how to grow their own food and went to the grocery store only for necessities. Now most people use the grocery store for their only means of sustenance.

I’m not saying to stop eating seedless fruit, although if you eat natural its definitely more healthy. The only way to get naturally grown fruits these days is from local markets. If you buy it from a grocery store, it costs almost triple the price of the gen-mod foods… so it can be expensive. 

What I am saying, is for a fruit to be seedless it has to be genetically engineered. Its sterile, infertile and the lasting effects from its consumption are still being debated by scientists. So if you are what you eat, and you’re eating sterile and infertile food…what will happen to you?

3D Printers

Normally the only way you would see me posting about a printer, is if it printed money or played Hip-Hop music. Three dimensional (3D) printers are not your typical printer!

They make fully functioning scale models out of plastic and other materials from whatever design is placed inside. This technology is being applied to science, medicine, snowboard design, and even space exploration. These are the printers of the future. I posted a few clips below...see for yourself.   

Birth Control Lotion

For you people in the often considered fabled monogamous relationship. There's a new medical breakthrough that's going to make the need for condoms obsolete. 

Birth control lotion – contraception for women that’s not a pill, patch, but a gel. Women apply a small amount daily, rubbed anywhere on the body, like arms, legs, shoulders or abdomen. Similar to the contraceptive patch, the birth control "lotion" is said to release hormones directly into the skin. 

It has shown equal effectiveness as both patch and pill without the side effects of sickness, weight gain, or a muted sense of sexual desire. This is from a statement made by the manufacturer. If you want to know more check out the video below.

Meet the Jetsons

If you’ve never heard of the Jetsons its okay cuz the show is older than dinosaurs. The Jetsons were a family who lived in the future and would go to work, school and shop using Jetpacks. This was a revolutionary concept at the time cuz it depicted humans flying as the next step in technology.

We’ve now reached that point...in steps the Martian Jetpack. The Martin Jetpack is the world’s first Jetpack made for commercial use. Unlike the Jetpacks you see in the movies which use strings and other devices to assist with flying, this actually works. It consists of a gasoline engine driving twin ducted fans which produce sufficient thrust to lift the aircraft and a pilot in vertical takeoff and landing, enabling sustained flight. I posted a clip below, take a look cuz this is your future too.

Here is another Jetpack. This one is cooler cuz it's faster and looks similar to the ones worn in Japanese Anime. This is a powerful Jetpack that reaches speeds up to 300kph and has wings like a jet plane. Its completely developed and functioning but do to its many applicable military uses will most likely not be available commercially for another decade. Check it out!