Banana fingers

The soft actuator is the device that senses the touch and performs a specific action based on that. It uses pneumatics to move. It has such applications as:
🔻 assistive wearables,
🔻 exoskeletons,
🔻 soft robotics,
🔻 and interactive devices.

The problem is making soft pneumatic actuators remain slow, costly, and manual.

MIT researchers published a paper on the new fabrication method. That includes
- designing a device using a special app,
- knitting on a machine in under 5 minutes.

The machine knits a textile sheath around the ordinary silicone tube. The conductive layer under the stitches allows sensing capability. Elastic stitches between normal stitches control the tube's bend direction and strength.

The potential applications include, for example:

1️⃣ Assistive gloves. Minimal muscle activity activates the glow to grasp various size and shape objects
2️⃣ A shirt sleeve with actuators that can assist in elbow bending
3️⃣ The robot responding to a human’s touch
4️⃣ A robot with soft pneumatic legs
5️⃣ Pneumatic exoskeleton that assists in lifting weights or moving

#robotics #wearables

An oddly satisfying video and a business idea

I sometimes surf TikTok to search for post ideas. Yesterday, I've lost an hour of my life watching the oddly satisfying videos of a fiber laser machine work. Here is one of them from youtube.

I thought that this thing was actually a good business idea. On Amazon, there is a bunch of these machines ranging from $2800 to $17100.

I've searched the companies providing the service of engraving in the US. They sell various services and products such as:
- engraving metal tumblers, glasses, wood plates, trophies, leather notebooks, etc.;
- selling the same engraved items;
- corporate engraving, i.e. business cards, gifts, desk signs, name badges, wine bottles, etc.
- industrial engraving, i.e. metal signs and parts, surgical and other tools marking, etc.;
- and many many more services and products.

What I like about the idea:
- the investment is not so large;
- the marketing is so natural - these videos collect millions of views on TikTok, Youtube, and other platforms;
- the range of products and services is so wide. I can target both B2B and B2C customers;
- the production process looks like I have to spend some time to master it. Yet, it is automated and shouldn't be rocket science;
- I don't need any special room for that, can use any garage or do it at home.

Of course, to succeed, I'd have to spend hours educating myself, finding customers, and growing the business. The key here would be great interest and consistency. The same applies to any startup though.

Your thoughts?

#devices #startups

Affordable housing that even Elon Musk wants

Meet Boxabl, a Las Vegas startup working on affordable housing for everyone. The company founded in 2017 has over $1 billion in reservations from almost 50 thousand customers. Elon Musk apparently lives in one.

So what's special about their product?

Their initial house, Casita, is a 375 sq ft (35 m2) dwelling unit with a full-size bathroom, kitchen, appliances, and tall ceilings with big windows. It ships on a regular flatbed trailer.

The most mindblowing fact: it unfolds and sets up in the customer's backyard in less than 2 hours.

And costs under $50k.

Such low cost is possible due to assembly line mass production. The company builds a massive factory near Vegas and will produce 3600 houses per year.

For those who may think of prefabricated houses as bad quality, the team has an answer. Casita outperforms many other building types:
- on energy ratings,
- fire resistance,
- wind resistance, and more.

The houses have a modular design. That means clients will be able to add space by connecting the second module. Or transform their house into a two-story one with a garage on the ground floor and a living area on the first floor.

Enough words, have a look yourself.

#startups #urbantech

Help vertical farming cut costs and be less pollutant

The global vertical farming (VF) market reached USD 4.34 billion in 2021. It will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.5% from 2022 to 2030. The growth is due to the increased production of fruits and vegetables.

VF can increase crop yield, lower land and water use, and localize food supply chains. But the industry still has one particularly unsustainable dependency. CO2 is pumped into vertical farms to help plants grow. And, at present, it usually comes from fossil fuel production.

Skytree startup develops a new method. They install localized direct-air-capture units next to vertical farms. So they can capture their own CO2, recycling it from the atmosphere.

How does it work?

The tech uses plastic beads. They are a few millimeters wide and made of ion exchange resin. They’re exposed to the air and after 15-20 minutes they’ve collected CO2 like a sponge. Then they’re heated up to 70-80C and that releases the CO2 again.

Skytree’s units are small enough to be able to bring captured CO2 to where it’s needed as a product. Besides VF, applications include air and water filtration, and cement/fuel/plastic production.

Skytree's business model is also interesting. They provide their devices on CO2-as-a-service basis. They lock the CO2 price from the start, and clients pay for the amount of CO2 consumed monthly. Clients have no upfront installation costs.

The company's promise to their clients is to cut CO2 costs. It is also to make operations more efficient. Instead of buying, transporting and storing CO2 produced from fossil fuels, customers take CO2 out of the air onsite.

#agriculture #startups

More humane and less wasteful fish harvesting

Many of us like fish. Even more like when it's fresh and tasty. Yet, how often do we consider how this tasty baked or fried fish on our dining table was harvested?

Fish harvesting in general does not care about the fish's comfort. In most cases the fish are dumped out of the net, roughly sorted, and then thrown on ice to flap around and eventually suffocate minutes or hours later.

This isn't just cruel, but also results in the fish’s body degrading faster due to the stress, bacteria in wounds and blood, and lactic acid in the muscles.

There is a better way, a traditional Japanese method called ike-jime. Ike-jime involves piercing the brain with a sharp spike to send the fish to fish heaven. Then quickly exsanguinating it, and after that destroying the spinal cord.

Doing it this way is not only the most humane. It also prevents stress, suffering, and bacteria from spreading through the body. But you have to do it precisely and within a couple of minutes after catching a fish, so it doesn’t scale.

That is, unless you automate it, which is what Shinkei Systems has done. The team, led by founder Saif Khawaja, has created a device making ike-jime on fresh-caught fish. It works at a rate of one every 10-15 seconds.

The machine is about the size of a big refrigerator. It includes a hopper for incoming fish, an operational area, and output where it can go into an ice bath. A computer vision system identifies the species and shape of the fish it is holding. Then it locates the brain and other important parts. And goes through the ike-jime motions, dispatching the fish quickly and reliably.

It isn’t just for the fish’s sake that Shinkei is going through all this. Kitchens pay a premium for fish processed via ike-jime since it tastes better and lasts longer.

Shinkei raised $1.3 million in a pre-seed round filed in January. The team is now in the sales process. They meet more large-scale distributors and public companies to put the machine in people’s hands.

European countries friendly for digital nomads

Today's post is for those of you who:
- like myself, are freelancers, who are looking for a place to live and work online;
- want to become "digital nomads" and need a good reason, like a nice place to live in, to follow their goals.

Here is a good Sifted article for you. It covers European countries that have visa programs for freelancers working online. Such visas allow foreigners to stay in a country for between six months and two years.

A few examples:

1️⃣ Croatia. It allows successful applicants to stay for a year, and to extend the visa for a second year.

Requirements:
- background check from your home country
- proof of health and travel insurance
- proof of a Croatian address and proof that you’re a digital nomad
- earn at least €2,370 per month but do not pay local taxes

2️⃣ Norway. Self-employed nomads can apply for an independent contractor visa. It allows them to stay in Norway for up to two years.

Requirements:
- pay an application fee of €600
- apply for the visa in person either at a police station in Norway or via a Norwegian embassy in your home country
- will have to pay local taxes while living in Norway and must apply for a VAT number.
- earn at least €35,718 per year

3️⃣ Portugal. D7 visa launched in 2007 is one of the longest-standing digital nomad residence permits.

Requirements:
- have a Portuguese tax number and bank account
- must have health insurance and proof of a Portuguese address
- applicants must be able to stay in the country for 16 months for the first two years of their stay
- need to be earning €9,870 annually

4️⃣ Malta. Mediterranean sea, sun, sand, and a straightforward visa process.

Requirements:
- write a letter of intent, explaining motivations for applying
- pay an application fee of €300
- the permit is for a year and is renewable — and usually takes up to 30 days to get approval
- nomads must have a monthly income of €2,700 gross per month

If interested, you may want to read the full article. It has a list of other wonderful places like the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, and others.

Stop showing-off on Instagram, be real!

Today's app is for those tired of mindless scrolling, filtered photos, and random recommendations in a personal feed.

BeReal launched in December 2019 promotes the idea of asking users to post an unedited photo once per day. Upon receiving the alert, the user has up to 2 minutes to share what they’re up to and can see the photos their friends also posted.

The app is simple to use, capturing a selfie and front-facing photo at once. No filters are allowed. No time for preparation, one chance a day to post a photo. Sharing with a selected group of friends only. The concept offers users a chance to show who they really are.

The idea is not new, of course. The question is whether the app will be able to compete with Instagram, TikTok and other social giants. My feeling it will stay in its narrow niche. What you think?

#apps #software

Kill the distractions and get sh@t done

How often do we get distracted by our smartphones?

I have an open text editor, a plan to make content, a cup of coffee, and a strong desire to do the work. Then my phone buzzes. And here am I one hour later wondering how could a conscious person waste so much time watching an Instagram feed.

Unpluq is a startup with a simple idea to battle distracting apps. They make small NFC tiles that help you lock and unlock your phone with mindfulness. You select the apps like, say, Instagram, Telegram, or TikTok to be unlocked with the Unpluq tile. Then you place the tile far from yourself.

Getting to the selected apps means you have to get up, go to another room and touch the yellow tile with your phone. So, the device requires you to make an active decision to distract yourself from what you're doing.

The price is $50. Do you think it is worth having to get things done?

🌐 Unpluq website

#devices #startups

Sending power from space

The European Space Agency seeks funding for a feasibility study of space-based solar power (SBSP).

SBSP is collecting solar power in outer space by solar power satellites (SPS). Then distributing it to Earth. The god news about the tech are:
- atmosphere does not reflect and absorb sun's energy = we can collect more;
- there is no (or very little) night in space = more energy;
- we can better face the sun with a satellite = more energy again.

There are also bad news though. Scientists call them the current technological hurdles.

SBSP convert sunlight to other form of energy such as microwaves. Then transmits it through the atmosphere to receivers on the Earth's surface:

- It costs a lot of money to build and launch a solar power satellite;
- the satellite's life in space is not easy. It degrades from radiation and can get damage from micrometeoroids;
- the efficiency of wireless power transition has to be 85%. To achieve that, the antenna receiver has to be 10 km in diameter. That's a lot of land and money.

Despite a lot of challenges and questionable economic efficiency, the researches continue.

Finding a feasible solution would allow not only get a new source of renewable energy on Earth. There are also plans to send energy from satellites or from Earth to the Moon to power future lunar missions.

#space #solar #future

I am proud of today's partnership and #promo post.

Everyone who is interested in technologies knows our today's partner. Many of us use their products in our everyday's life.

Guys, please welcome NVIDIA and their most important conference for the era of AI and the metaverse - NVIDIA GTC.

The conference in online and completely free. You'll have a chance to hear from the brightest minds in their industries. The speakers are from such companies as Lowe's, ByteDance, Siemens, Boeing, Polestar, Google and many more.

You'll also have a chance to get hands-on instructor-led training from the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) and earn a certificate demonstrating subject matter competency.

So please see the next post and register for the conference for free ⏬

NVIDIA GTC is the most important conference for the era of AI and the metaverse. Join us online as we explore the innovations that will impact your life’s work with the power of AI, computer graphics, data science, and more.

The conference will run from September 19 -22, it is fully virtual and free to attend. Let innovation inspire your next idea, or solve your biggest challenge. With talks delivered by pioneers in their fields to relatable use cases and Deep Learning Institue training where you can gain NVIDIA certification, to Watch Parties where you can engage with your peers, you can be part of what comes next at GTC.
Register today.

#promo

Saudi's city of the future

Meet The Line, Saudi Arabia's ambitious project to build a futuristic walled city in the desert.

The 105 mile-long city will run entirely on renewable energy. It will stretch from the Red Sea eastward across the desert and into a mountain range. Its open interior enclosed on both sides by a mirrored facade will become a home for 9 million residents.

The construction has already started. Expectations are that 1.5 million people live in The Line by 2030. Some revealed details about the project:

- It will be only 200 meters wide;
- It will rise 500 meters above sea level — higher than the Empire State Building;
- Residents will be able to run errands with a five-minute walk;
- There will be no cars or roads;
- High-speed rail will carry people from end to end in 20 minutes;
- It will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to build.

The city will have an ideal climate year-round, thanks to its mix of shade, sunlight and ventilation.

The supporters claim The Line's zero emissions and a smaller footprint than conventional cities. Yet, not everyone is excited about the idea. Critics say such creation will come at an environmental price, as an entirely new city is created in the desert. They also worry that its high-tech approach seems to ignore people's desire to go outside. The desire to experience something in a city that isn't man-made.

What are your thoughts on that?

#urbantech #architecture

These robot brains are taking over Wall Street wolves

Long time no see. Is there anyone alive and still interested in my tech updates? Anyways, I'll give it a try.

Today let's talk about young folks from South Korea who want to compete with hippos like JP Morgan and Vanguard.

Their Akros Technologies develops an AI platform that mines stock data and manages an investment portfolio.

It's not clear yet how good it works. What we know from the team is that artificial brains instead of blue collars can save about 80% of the salaries budget.

Akros' product is the so-called portfolio management as a service, or PMaaS. Future clients are financial institutions, fintech startups and robot-advisors. They want to launch and sell their own exchange-traded funds (ETFs). But they do not want to invest in the team and infrastructure.

Akros applies a generative AI model. It predicts future actions through the sequencing model. It also employs GPT-3 natural language processing (NLP) to analyze unstructured language data.

In August, the team already helped launch Korean pop music, also known as K-pop, and Korea Entertainment ETF. Another project was an AI-driven target income ETF. It has monthly distributions at an annual income rate of 7%.

Investors vote for Akros success. They have already financed the company for $6 million since 2021. Almost 1 million for each of the 7 people on the team.

Do you think AI is the future of investment management? Or is it people in expensive suits and leather shoes?

#startups #fintech #disruptors

ChatGPT: new AI hype?

As a fan of Snoop Dog, I gotta say that I share his enthusiasm for ChatGPT. This large language model, trained by OpenAI, is truly impressive in its ability to generate human-like text and engage in conversation.

But yo, we gotta be real about this AI stuff. ChatGPT may be advanced, but it's still just a machine. It don't have the ability to understand the complexities of human language and emotion, and it can't really create or think for itself.

And we gotta be careful about getting too hyped up about AI. As Snoop Dogg has said, "Ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws." We gotta make sure we don't get carried away and let AI run wild without proper control and regulation.

Hold on, though. I, Dmitry Blium, the author of TechForGood did not write the first 3 paragraphs above. I copied them from the ChatGPT answer to my input request "Create a critique of enthusiasm for ChatGPT in the style of Snoop Dog."

The fact may excite or frighten you. And I am actually interested what you think about the future of AI language models. Will they eventually replace human creativity? Or will there always be a place for human interaction that a machine cannot simulate?

For now, ChatGPT is just a trained algorithm to play with symbols. Yet, the question is how many of us are different? How many of us may create something unique, something that is not a mere combination of the previous experience expressed in words?

You can play with the model here:

https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

If you get outstanding examples, please share in the comments section.

#AI #languagemodel

A breakthrough in nuclear fusion: abundant energy for everyone soon?

Last week the tech world was talking about the breakthrough experiment in nuclear fusion. A U.S. lab has sparked a fusion reaction that released more energy than went into it.

National Ignition Facility (NIF) of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. On December 5, 192 lasers fired 2.05 megajoules of energy at a tiny cylinder. It held a pellet of frozen deuterium and tritium, heavier forms of hydrogen. The pellet compressed. It generated temperatures and pressures to cause the hydrogen inside it to fuse. In a tiny blaze of less than a billionth of a second, the nuclei released 3.15 megajoules of energy.

Is it time to be excited about abundant energy for everyone on the planet? You may have guessed that the answer is "not so fast" and here is why:

> The lasers required 300 megajoules of energy to produce about 2 megajoules of beam energy.
> So a fusion reactor would need to generate 50 to 100 times more energy than its lasers emit. Only then it will to cover its own energy use and put power into the grid.
> Such a reactor would need to evaporate 10 fuel pellets a second for long periods of time. Right now, those are extremely expensive to make. They rely on tritium, a short-lived radioactive isotope of hydrogen that future reactors would have to make on-site.

These challenges aren't unique, though. More than $3bn was invested in nuclear fusion startups last year. Many fusion labs and companies are chipping away at those challenges.

Fusion researchers see the tech as an incredible tool for humankind whenever it’s ready. And whether that’s 20, 50, or 100 years from now, 2022 has seen a significant step ahead.

#nuclearfusion

A decent tool for podcasters. And those who want their phone voice recordings have a studio quality

Adobe has launched a free Enhance Speech tool for podcasters. In one click, it improves the quality of the audio track - removes noise, echoes and gives studio sound even to cheap microphones.

I tested it on voice recording from an Android phone in a non-isolated room - the result is impressive. The voice sounds deeper and more clear, the overall volume increases and all noise goes away.

Online beta version has file limits of 60 minutes and 1 gigabyte.

Adobe has big plans for working with podcasters. In December, their Adobe Podcast launched in beta, a web service that combines tools for microphone calibration, voice recording in multiple streams, and editing.

The results are achieved with the help of neural networks paired with the speech-to-text technology. Adobe already uses those in their Premier video editor. Here is a good overview.

#AI #adobe #podcasts #voice #tools #apps

Forever young: a key milestone in reversing aging

Scientists studying aging have long debated what causes the aging process in cells. They focused on DNA mutations disrupting a cell's normal operations and triggering cell death over time.

Yet, the older people's cells often are not damaged with mutations. And animals or people having a higher burden of mutated cells do not seem to age prematurely.

It now looks like scientists are close to groundbreaking solution to reverse aging.

Dr. David Sinclair and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School published a study in the Cell journal. They found that the main drivers of aging are not mutations to the DNA. Sinclair focused on another part of the genome, called the epigenome. The epigenome provides different instructions to different cells for which genes to turn on, and which to keep silent.

Sinclair suggests that aging is the result of losing critical instructions that cells need to continue functioning. He calls that the Information Theory of Aging.

In the study, Sinclair and his team developed a way to reboot cells to restart the backup copy of epigenetic instructions. Essentially, they erase the corrupted signals that put the cells on the path toward aging. "It’s similar to the way software programs operate off hardware, but sometimes become corrupt and need a reboot," says Sinclair.

Sinclair and his team report that not only can they age mice on an accelerated timeline. They can also reverse the effects of that aging and restore some of the biological signs of youthfulness to the animals. In 2020, the team restored vision in older mice. The current results show that the system can apply to not just one tissue or organ, but the entire animal.

Rejuvenating cells in mice is one thing, but will the process work in humans? That’s Sinclair’s next step, and his team is already testing the system in non-human primates.

Sinclair makes a bold statement “We don’t understand how rejuvenation really works, but we know it works. It’s no longer a question of if rejuvenation is possible, but a question of when.”

#healthtech #aging #biohacking

AI is on fire

I am sorry, but I am fascinated by the current AI development. I agree with those who say that AI would have the same impact as the discovery of the Gutenberg printing press.

Here is one more noteworthy machine, now for video stylization.

Gen-1 uses words and images to generate new videos out of existing ones. You can upload your own video, and provide an image or use a text as a style prompt. "It's like filming something new, without filming anything at all."

See for yourself above.

I am interested what tech currently captures your attention, please share.

What's up in the drone industry?

Despite AI being the buzzword of the moment, the drone industry is not sleeping too. Investors continue to support drone startups, especially the specialized ventures. VC investments in drone companies reached $7 billion in 2022 across 199 deals, up from $2.4 billion in 2021.

Global Market Insights predicts that aerial imaging market will reach $25 billion by 2032.

An increasing demand from various industries fuels the growth:

- a rise in floods, tropical cyclones, storm surges and wildfires amplifies the significance and demand for advanced aerial imaging solutions to assess the damages caused by such events
- Aerial inspection is a fundamental need in the renewable energy, e.g. snapping photos of wind turbines in the ocean. Or thermal readings of large-scale solar plants
- inspecting infrastructure such as buildings and cell phone towers
- serving insurance, roofing and property management companies to assess infrastructure objects
- and so on.

The increasing demand for drones creates opportunities in the job market too. Recent study shows a surge in job postings for drone pilots and operators with an expected growth rate of over 20% in the next decade.

So whether you are an entrepreneur, investor or building your tech career, the drone industry may be worth your attention.

For more details you can read TechCrunch report here.

#drone #trends #markets