Considering that the earthquakes in Nepal is currently such an big issue in the world, I found that it might be an appropriate topic. Because some researchers from California have created a device, called FINDER(Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response), that detects heartbeats of people and animals trapped underneath collapsed buildings etc. It can also differ between humans and animals.
The device uses microwave radar signals to detect heartbeats and breathing people, and the first time it was used was after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
How FINDER works; An operator sets up the device
in front of a rubble pile and hooks it up to a laptop. It takes
about 30 seconds to scan the area with microwaves. It sends a signal equal to about one-thousandth of a cell phone's
microwave output, NASA said. Any movement "reflects" back in the signal.
Humans are identified by their unique heartbeat and breathing signals.
The longer it takes for the signal to return, the farther away the body
is. The system works whether people are awake or unconscious, NASA said.
A person's chest moves
about 1 centimeter from breathing and 1
millimeter from a heartbeat, these tiny movements are similar to detecting the
very small changes of motion in a spacecraft.
This technology has been around for quite some time, however it's not until recently(or the earth quake in Haiti in 2010) that they started using it for this purpose. FINDER has been able to assist the other searching devices in finding surviving people, and has certainly helped saving lives.
In 2014, Dubai has announced plans to build the first climate-controlled city on
the planet. The area, constructed under a huge glass dome, will contain the world's largest shopping center, over 100 hotels, and a
wellness district for medical tourists.
What is a 'Domed city'? It is a structure that encloses a large urban area under a single roof. Under normal concept, the dome is airtight and pressurized,
creating a habitat that can be controlled for air temperature,
composition and quality, typically due to an external atmosphere that is inimical to habitation.
Domed cities have been a fixture of science fiction since the early 20th century, and may be situated on Earth, a moon or other planet.
With the announcment of the first domed city ever from Dubai, it is no longer a mystrious idea only occurs in the sci-fi novels, but becoming a reality. And the construction of the domed city in Dubai might just be the best opportunity for us to learn about this amazing invention. The city of Dubai is a popular tourist spot,however many are deterred from
visiting due to the city's scorching heat and dry environment, the temperature normally reaches 45℃ in the
summer.
UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh
Mohammed confirmed plans for the world's first
temperature-controlled city, named 'Mall of the World',
in early July 2014. The city will be made “to enhance Dubai's
tourist infrastructure as soon as possible,” he said.
So what will people living in the dome city actually feel? To control its climate, the area will be covered by a single
glass dome, which will be open during the winter months.
According to Dubai Holding, the Sheikh's property arm,
"tourists will be able to enjoy a week-long stay without the
need to leave the City or use a car. The 7 km long
promenades connecting all facilities will be covered during the
summer and open during the winter, ensuring pleasant temperatures
throughout the year". Inside the domed city will be a world’s largest mall and indoor
park, as well as a theater area and wellness resorts. It will
have the capacity to host over 180 million visitors annually.
The shopping area will be connected to 100 hotels and serviced
apartment buildings, with a temperature-controlled covered street
network between them.
While all these features sound fancy and exciting, the reality is, it is not yet clear when the construction of the project will
start, but the chief executive said that the structure
will need about 2.5 billion dirhams (over US$680 million)
“every year for the next 10 years". With all the uncertainty underlying, one thing is certain that building such a domed city requires constructors to overcome technical and financial difficulties.
Around the year 1980, two blokes called Robert E. Kahn and Vint Cerf were successful in creating a network of networks, which is now known as the Internet. The ways in which we use the Internet in today's world is almost infinite, but in the past three and a half decades or so the Internet has only changed so much.
Nowadays, we cannot think of a passing a single day without Internet and most of us are certain that it is true for almost everyone living in this world, however, that is truly a misconception. A staggering 4.4 billion people around the world still don't have access to the Internet, that is more than half, around 60% of the world's population deprived of this spectacular technology. However, the Outernet is now here to fix that!
So what is this Outernet? According to the Wikipedia, the Outernet is a global broadcast data foundation, which aims to provide access to content from the web through geostationary and Low Earth Orbit satellites. The best thing about Outernet is that it's available in any corner of the world for completely free of cost! Isn't that amazing? All you need is to create a signal receiver (dish) and once that's done you can connect your Wi-Fi enabled devices to connect to the Outernet. If you are not willing or able to create your own receiver, then you can just buy 'lantern', a device that connects to the space and enables you to access the Outernet.
So how does it work? The best way to explain would be to compare the radio with it. It works somewhat like a radio except the songs you listen to would be the information that you view is your smart devices. The lantern and the Outernet are infants when compared to the Internet. At this stage the developers are asking for our help to tell them what we need the most; information? education? emergency news? The Outernet has already gained wide recognition as the 'Humanity's Public Library', give it a few more years and people might slowly forget that Internet ever existed.
However, this concept is still very new, so we need to work together to make the world free from information poverty and censorship. Let's make our planet transparent and spread light equally over all of mankind.
Simply saying, an exoskeleton is a mobile machine consisting primarily of an outer framework worn by a person, and powered by a system of motors or hydraulics that delivers energy for limb movement. It is also called exoframe or exosuit.
When talking about exoskeleton, the first thing lots of people probably would think of is military exosuit soldiers. Because it is indeed commonly designed for military use, a powered exoskeleton can assist the soldiers by boosting their strength
and endurance, so that soldiers ar eable to carry heavy loads both in and out of combat.
However, similar exoskeletons could also be used to help firefighters and other rescue workers survive dangerous environments in civilian areas.In the medical field, exoskeleton technology can be used for enhanced precision during surgery, or as an assist to help nurses move heavy patients. And of course, we have to mention that exoskeleton can change the life of people with disabilities.
Lockheed Martin is a company that has expertise on exoskeleton technology. It has developed two main categories of exoskeleton, one for military use and one for industrial use.
Lockheed Martin has developed HULC to support the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) test program. HULC stands for Human Universal Load Carrie, it is an un-tethered, hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton intended to help soldiers in combat carry a load of up to 200 pounds at a top speed of 10 miles per hour for extended periods of time.
The industrial type of exoskeleton is called FORTIS, it is an unpowered, lightweight exoskeleton ideal for the
industrial environment. FORTIS enhanecs a user's strength and endurance by transferring the weight of heavy hand tools
or other loads through the exoskeleton to the ground. It has an advanced ergonomic design moves naturally with the body and adapts to
different body types and heights. Using various mechanical arms,
operators can effortlessly hold heavy hand tools,and increase productivity dramatically.
The industrial use of exoskeleton is truly an revolution to our current world. If it is properly developed and put on the market, exoskeleton has the potential to change so many industries and people's normal life.
Wearable technology refers to electronic technologies or computers that are incorporated into items of clothing and accessories, which can comfortably be worn on the body. These wearable devices can perform many of the same computing tasks as mobile phones and laptop computers; however, in some cases, wearable technology can outperform these hand-held devices entirely. Wearable technology tends to be more sophisticated than hand-held technology on the market today because it can provide sensory and scanning features not typically seen in mobile and laptop devices, such as biofeedback and tracking of physiological function.
Generally, wearable technology will have some form of communications capability and will allow the wearer access to information in real time. Data-input capabilities are also a feature of such devices, as is local storage. Examples of wearable devices include watches, glasses, contact lenses, e-textiles and smart fabrics, headbands, beanies and caps, jewellery such as rings, bracelets, and hearing aid-like devices that are designed to look like earrings.
The implications and uses of wearable technology are far reaching and can influence the fields of health and medicine, fitness, ageing, disabilities, education, transportation, enterprise, finance, gaming and music. The goal of wearable technologies in each of these fields will be to smoothly incorporate functional, portable electronics and computers into individuals’ daily lives. Prior to their presence in the consumer market, wearable devices were primarily used in the field of military technology and had the biggest implications for healthcare and medicine.
As the potential uses in various fields continues to grow, the sociological and cultural impact wearable technology will have in the future should not be minimized. Already, the current hand-held devices available to consumers, such as Smart Phones, iPods and tablets, have changed the technological and social landscapes on a global scale, such that, walking out in public and seeing an individual engaging with a hand-held device is commonplace. Such an image was non-existent only 20 years ago. With that in mind, developers and analysts predict that wearable technology will very quickly change the technological and cultural landscapes once again, and may even change the nature of mobile phones and other hand-held devices entirely.
To all car enthusiasts- or everyone that has been waiting for a car you don't actually need to drive yourself- it looks like we finally might be quite close to turning dream into reality. CES2015 has announced that these kinds of cars might be on the road between 2017 and 2020. In fact, Audi has already let a car drive from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas, and the drivers didn't even need to touch the wheel.
The last 15 years this technology has gone from 'this will only happen in our dreams' to 'this will actually happen in about 5-7 years, which is a fairly big leap, and it's a true proof that the technology in the world is developing faster than expected.
In the beginning, the first cars will of course only be able to be used on limited access road, but eventually this will also improve. The cars will however have to be driven manually in urban areas. But the fact that the cars can be self- driven on long distance trip could also help decreasing the number of traffic accidents per year.
Let's go back to the example mentioned earlier, about the car that drove from Silicon Valley to Las Vegas all by itself. The A7, nicknamed Jack, looks quite normal, with few of the DARPA-era big sensors stuck to the top and sides.
Audi said 'the A7 concept vehicle
uses “various production-ready sensors as well as sensors integrated
into production vehicles today that accurately detect the vehicles
surroundings. … The sensors [are] close to production and meet financial
targets for inclusion into future products.” Translation: The sensors
work, they’re ready now or soon, and by the time a self-driving car
comes to market, they won’t be outrageously priced but they may still be
expensive, even on a $75,000 vehicle.The multiplicity of short- and
long-range radars and lasers provides redundancy beyond what you’d need
for almost-hands-off driving today. Currently, if you keep your hands
lightly on the wheel, the car will drive itself for miles at a time so
long as the road has no more than a gentle curve, no driver suddenly
cuts into your lane and nobody in front
panic-brakes.'
There will soon be possible to pre- order a self- driving cars. They will probably not be the cheapest cars on the market, but who knows where we'll be in another 15 years.
The Internet of Things is a scenario in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Internet of Things has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems and the Internet. The Internet of Things is a computing concept that describes a future where everyday physical objects will be connected to the Internet and is able to identify themselves to other devices. The term is closely identified with RFID as the method of communication, although it also may include other sensor technologies, wireless technologies or QR codes.
The ‘Internet of Things’ is significant because an object that can represent itself digitally becomes something greater than the object by itself. No longer does the object relate just to you, but is now connected to surrounding objects and database data. When many objects act in unison, they are known as having "ambient intelligence."
A thing, in the Internet of Things, can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address and provided with the ability to transfer data over a network. So far, the Internet of Things has been most closely associated with machine-to-machine communication in manufacturing and power, oil and gas utilities. Products built with M2M communication capabilities are often referred to as being smart.
For example, you’re walking down the supermarket aisle, and you get to the milk fridge. Your shopping trolley vibrates, and the screen mounted on the trolley handles displays a message: “There is no milk in your fridge. Would you like to purchase some?” Your fridge has identified that the teenager residing in your house has drunk the 2L milk bottle you bought 2 days ago. The fridge has sent a message to your phone. Your phone knows that you’re in the supermarket and has told your trolley. Your trolley knows you’re next to the milk fridge and has told you that you’re out of milk. So, you buy milk, and 50 other groceries. This is going to take a while to check out, right? Wrong, you simply wheel your trolley out through the smart gates, instantly scanning all the products in your trolley and charging your credit card. You receive an email with the itemized receipt.
