Futurist Foresight - Applied Technotopia
Scanning the ever changing global environment and examining the leading trends in business management, strategic foresight, robotics, space (government and commercial), energy, the digital landscape and other emerging technologies today, in order to better understand tomorrow.
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A look at internet usage globally.
Only A Third of the World’s Population is Online
Via Statista. Select to embiggen.
(via ilovecharts)
This touchscreen will be something to watch.
Prototype Real / Digital Info Interface System
Using projection and gestures to create interactive relationship with information - video embedded below:
Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a next generation user interface which can accurately detect the users finger and what it is touching, creating an interactive touchscreen-like system, using objects in the real word.
“We think paper and many other objects could be manipulated by touching them, as with a touchscreen. This system doesn’t use any special hardware; it consists of just a device like an ordinary webcam, plus a commercial projector. Its capabilities are achieved by image processing technology.”
Using this technology, information can be imported from a document as data, by selecting the necessary parts with your finger.
More at DigInfo here
RELATED: This is very similar to a concept developed in 1991 called ‘The Digital Desk’ [link]
A new look at older military tech given a modern use.
Image Credit Wikimedia Commons
“In the wake of budget cuts, the US Navy is turning to older technology in the war on drugs. As the Associated Press reports, last week the Navy began testing two new tools to monitor and capture drug smugglers in the Caribbean: the blimp-like aerostat, which has previously been used for surveillance in Iraq and Afghanistan as well to monitor the US-Mexico border, and a drone that’s launched from the deck of a ship by hand. While both are relatively older technology, they’ve been outfitted with radar, cameras, and sensors that reportedly expand a ship’s radar range from five miles to around 50 miles.” - The Verge
An interesting map of the global cabling that makes up the internet.
The Internet
Today’s largest map image of the submerged Internet cables from 2011 (7099 x 4206 JPG)
This Lithium deposit in Wyoming could significantly alter the market for this natural resource in the Americas, if not the world.
Newly-discovered lithium reserve could satisfy US demand for hundreds of years | The Verge
Researchers at the University of Wyoming have discovered a new lithium reserve that could radically alter where the US sources a key component of the li-ion batteries used in consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and other technology. Currently the United States imports a vast majority of its lithium, but the newly-unearthed reserve — located at Rock Springs, Wyoming — could transform the US from “a significant lithium importer to an independent lithium producer” according to experts at the university’s Carbon Management Institute.
A brilliant and innovative solar powered device charger!
Window Socket - Kyuho Song & Boa Oh
So this is an absolutley brilliant idea! Just attach the plug on to a window and it will harness solar energy. A small converter will convert it into electricity which can be freely used as a plug when you are in the car, on a plane or outside.
Love this design and I really think it has a great potential.You look at stuff like this and you know it’s designed by a designer not an engineer. Because it’s almost always impractical. You can never generate enough energy to power anything with such a tiny solar panel.
Plus. 1000mAh. That’s not even enough to charge your iPhone.
The first computer ever made was bigger than a small house. Now you have one that not only fits in your pocket, but also does countless other things with even more efficiency. There are plenty of practical designs out there that could be improved upon and improved upon over and over, so who says these types of things can’t work?
IBMs solar collector advances solar power by harnessing the equivalent of 2,000 suns.
A team of IBM researchers is working on a solar concentrating dish that will be able to collect 80% of incoming sunlight and convert it to useful energy. The High Concentration Photovoltaic Thermal system will be able to concentrate the power of 2,000 suns while delivering fresh water and cool air wherever it is built. As an added bonus, IBM states that the system would be just one third the cost third of current comparable technologies.
Based on information by Greenpeace International and the European Electricity Association, IBM claims that it would require only two percent of the Sahara’s total area to supply the world’s energy needs. The HCPVT system is designed around a huge parabolic dish covered in mirror facets. The dish is supported and controlled by a tracking system that moves along with the sun. Sun rays reflect off of the mirror into receivers containing triple junction photovoltaic chips, each able to convert 200-250 watts over eight hours. Combined hundred of the chips provide 25 kilowatts of electricity.The entire dish is cooled with liquids that are 10 times more effective than passive air methods, keeping the HCPVT safe to operate at a concentration of 2,000 times on average, and up to 5,000 times the power of the sun. The direct cooling technique is inspired by the branched blood supply system of the human body and has already been used to cool high performance computers like the Aquasar. The system will also be able to create fresh water by passing 90 degree Celsius liquid through a distillation system that vaporizes and desalinates up to 40 liters each day while still generating electricity. It will also be able to amazingly offer air conditioning by a thermal drive absorption chiller that converts heat through silica gel.
Replacing expensive steel and glass with concrete and pressurized foils, the HCPVT is less costly than many other similar installations. Its high tech coolers and molds can be manufactured in Switzerland, and construction provided by individual companies on-site. Through their design, IBM believes they can maintain a cost of less than 10cents per kilowatt hour.
(via emergentfutures)
A graphic look at the huge mass of space junk out there.
To Fix the Giant Near-Tipping-Point Cloud of Space Trash Encircling the Earth, We May Need Space Harpoons
Every where we go we leave pollution and debris.
Our daily Shuttle magnificence!
5/21/1981: Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Test Firing
(via supplyside)
