This week we’re talking about Ludlow.io & how it helped make this newsletter, a Microsoft patent helping people diet, AR giving surgeons x-ray vision, a new solar-powered device converting air to water, and a 21st century cassette player.

Introducing . 

Ludlow
This topical newsletter is through Ludlow.io, an internal project we’ve been working on at SWARM. Still in beta, Ludlow quickly pulls in articles based on subjects your audience is interested in, and automatically formats them into a newsletter.

AR .

Microsoft’s new patent helps you diet
How do you merge Augmented Reality with dieting?
Microsoft has a clue. Imagine grabbing a bag of skittles, and then your AR smart glasses project nutritional info over that bag. Seeing “43 grams of sugar” floating in the air may make you go ‘Uh, no thanks.’ So, Microsoft recently secured a patent to do just that.
So, how do the glasses identify the food?, or confirm it’s you eating it? An embedded camera recognizes the food, and an audio receiver confirms it’s you from your audible chewing. Pretty sweet stuff. The question is, will they end up more in the Google Glass or Spectacles territory…

More AR .

AR for surgical ‘x-ray vision’⚕️
The more information the better. A new augmented reality platform from Cambridge Consultants in Boston can build a 3D image of the inside of a patient’s body from MRI and CT scans. The different organs are color-coded by software and can be virtually tagged with notes for use by other doctors. It’s also interactive. If a surgeon wants to look behind a visually obstructed organ, they can simply tap the obstructing organ to have it disappear.
The platform is being considered for use in real surgeries. Hypothetically, a surgeon could let the AR platform guide them in real-time. This could reduce risk during keyhole surgeries, and potentially result in fewer incisions made solely for visual access. When? While they are testing on mannequins currently, real operations with this type of AR could be a few years to decades away.

SUSTAINABILITY .

New device converts air to 🚰
This is truly mind-blowing. A new ‘water harvester’ uses a sponge-like material to convert air into water. This includes dry, low humidity air. The device can convert 3 liters of water a day, more than the daily recommended average of 2 liters. Yes, this could provide relief to billions of people, also in the driest areas of the world.
To best explain how, here’s a direct quote, “The new water harvester is made of metal organic framework crystals pressed into a thin sheet of copper metal and placed between a solar absorber and a condenser plate.” Clearly, a collaborative effort between researchers at University of California Berkeley and MIT. There are hurdles towards making the water harvesters more widely manufactured, such as the cost of the materials, but the researchers have already identified cheaper alternatives that could fulfill the same purpose. If this was a Kickstarter, it would be probably the most successful, ever.
As always, check out our blog for more. That’s it for this week.✌️