Collective brainpower = discovering planets 😀

This week we’re talking about discovering new planets, a controversy over wearables, professional drone racing, and earning 💰 with exercise.

ASTRONOMY  . 

4 new planets discovered by… an amateur!
An Australian mechanic and part-time amateur astronomer recently discovered 4 new planets. If you measure by how many planets they have discovered, then Galileo has nothing on Andrew Grey. NASA’s Exoplanet Explorers website has been open to the public, and Grey combed through the thousands of stars recently observed by the Kepler Space Telescope. Grey recognized that characteristic dips in the brightness of certain stars could signify the existence of an exoplanet.
In light of the more than 2,300 exoplanets discovered by Kepler so far, Grey’s discovery can in part be considered inevitable. However, it is particularly special in that the discovery was made by Grey and other citizen scientists. The impact of collective brainpower, between amateurs and professionals, only continues to reveal itself. Two weeks ago, a British schoolboy helped identify an error in NASA’s research.

PRIVACY .

Professional athletes aren’t embracing wearables
The range in data that wearables collect athletes is pretty well established and impressive. You can track your heart rate, pulse, and skin temperature, and companies are adding new capabilities every year. But why haven’t U.S. professional athletes gotten on board? Wearables can help with recovery and performance, but the very same data could be used against them when negotiating their next contract.
In the NBA, the latest agreement between the league and players states that wearables are prohibited in games. Players can opt-out from using them in practice. Though, enthusiasm for wearables isn’t going anywhere. Some foreign leagues are showing players’ heartbeats on the Jumbotron real-time. Even last week, Warren Buffet invested in a jewelry wearable company.

“SPORTS” .

Drone racing league, it exists 🏁
You may have seen Youtube videos of drone racing, but most people don’t know that it has an official league. More than 30 million viewers tuned into the Drone Racing League (DRL) last year when it aired on ESPN and Sky network. And one of the major issues with last season? Drones crashing. What a surprise.
The DRL is launching a new drone called the Racer3 for its pilots. Differing from NASCAR, the DRL provides the actual ‘vehicles’ for its pilots, not the design specifications for each team to build for themselves as in NASCAR. Before each race, pilots are free to crash dozens of drones while testing the course, and even tweak the drones’ responsiveness. These drones are sturdier and have LED lights to be more visible to their pilots. Oh, and they can go 0-80 MPH in under a second.

MOTIVATION .

Everyone wants to pay you to exercise

Smartphone apps want you to be a better person, and they’re employing quite a few tricks in order to make that happen. This past week, Sweatcoin released its app on Android. Sweatcoin rewards you digital coins for your exercise, to buy toys and gadgets. While this may seem like a new idea… they are by far not the only one.

Apps GOODCoins & Charity Miles reward your exercise with charity donations. There’s Healthywage, where you bet on yourself to lose a certain amount of weight within a timeframe. And Pact, where everyone agrees to a certain goal, and the losers pay out-of-pocket to the winners. WellCoins and Walgreens Balance Rewards apps offer discounts on products. Fitcoin will reward you with Bitcoin. And finally, Dietbet & FitStudio give you real dollars. Can you believe that some people just exercise for themselves?

Let’s end with some beau… cool, cool technology

This isn’t a concept, believe it or not. A one-off production from Nissan. 🚗

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We are happy to be named a Top 10 Mobile App Development Company in New York 🍾 and Top 20 Mobile App Development Company in the U.S. 🎉 !

 
As always, check out our blog for more. That’s it for this week.✌️

You and Machines: It’s complicated 🙀

This week we’re talking about smart gloves that smell, robots crawling your intestine, a cap that zaps your brain⚡, and chip implants in co-workers.

MEDICAL .

Swallowing a snake robot to fight digestive disease 🏥
Traditional colonoscopies can only access the large intestines. New pill cameras can reach the small intestines, but they can take up to 12 hours to make the journey. Even so, the camera pill sometimes gets stuck, and the battery dies. But a new concept, the Single Actuator Wave robot (SAW), would be able to travel in your small intestine and much more.
Right now Israeli scientists are gearing up for testing the snake robot in pigs. Ideally, the miniaturized robotic snake would collect tissue samples and even have its camera steered by doctors. The snake-like shape allows the robot to move forward in a quick, undulating motion. Who knew that swallowing worms as a kid was so prescient?

SECURITY .

Chemical-detecting gloves put power into your fingertips
If several insects can taste with their legs… we might as well smell with our fingers. Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a glove with sensors printed on with a conductive ink. The sensors can detect certain chemical agents and send the information to a mobile device. Screening objects for chemical agents are integral to food safety, national security, and environmental protection.
Its usability may be more impressive. They have been able to detect nerve agents on a variety of surfaces, from steel to fruit. Even better, the gloves are faster and cheaper than many test kits available today. One of the best parts is that the researchers have called it a wearable “lab-on-a-glove” 🔬.

WEARABLES .

Cap successfully zaps brain to kill tumors
The results of a 5-year clinical trial are in, and it involves 695 brain cancer patients. A new and very expensive brain cancer treatment has doubled five-year survival rates. It has been more than 10 years since any form of treatment has shown such promising results.
The patients wear an electrical skull cap that zaps cancer cells trying to grow in their brain. The Optune sends alternating, intermediate-frequency electrical fields that disrupt cell division, and is fatal to the cells involved. Since most of the dividing cells in the brain are cancer cells, the treatment is ideally more harmful to the tumors, rather than the brain itself.

BIOHACKING .

New record! 150+ co-workers with microchips 😮

We now have a new record for a company mass tagging employees with chip implants. If it sounds fun, it is! The implanted at this co-working space love it so much, they host parties for those willing to join them. This microchip technology is by no means new technology. More than 25% of U.S. dog owners pay roughly $50-$80 to implant similar microchips into their pets.

Epicenter is a Swedish startup hub offering the optional implants to employees and co-workers. In their office space, you only need to swipe your chip implanted hand to open doors, log into printers, and even buy snacks. So far over 150 workers are enjoying the convenience, the largest recorded so far. Over the past year, stories have emerged of people implanting chips to store personal data, digital currency, and much more.

…let’s end with some beautifully designed technology

At this exhibit, the moisture on your fingers changes the music. 🎵

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We would also like to announce that we are a Skilled.co Mobile Agency!
As always, check out our blog for more. That’s it for this week.✌️

Our battles are being fought by software 😍

This week we’re talking about crime-fighting AI, smartphones vs. illegal logging, credit card-free ATMs, and the first zero-emission hydrail.

CRIME .

Machine Learning Solves an Insider Trading Case

What would Holmes and Dr. Watson think of this one? A 2013 criminal investigation has come to light that involved machine learning technology solving a case of insider trading. U.K. startup Behavox used its machine learning technology to flag poker nights between traders at separate firms as a potential conflict of interest. The true genius was indentifying the poker games through the traders’ fast food receipts, and then finding an overlap with huge spikes in the traders’ P&L statements.

With huge amounts of data it can be time consuming and beyond human capabilities to discern noteworthy patterns. Startups like Behavox sell machine learning services to financial institutions in order to help them room out bad behavior. Likewise, they reduce the billions in fines levied at them by regulators each year.

ENVIRONMENT .

Smartphone app enters the fight against illegal logging
Solar-powered cell phones are now helping to fight deforestation! Best sentence ever. The ‘guardian phones’ are high in jungle canopies and can recognize sounds of illegal logging. The true magic is the app Rainforest Connection which collects ambient sounds and alerts park rangers if it picks up the sound of chainsaws, logging trucks, vehicles, and gunshots. This is a lot faster than the current method of analyzing satellite imagery for signs of logging.
The noise samples aren’t only for picking up signs of loggers. Ecologists will also be able to study the data to identify the presence and migration of animals without being onsite. Just when you think you’ve seen smartphones do it all, you get this. 👍

BANKING .

Forget plastic, we’re moving to smartphone-only ATM use
Wells Fargo announced this week that it will offer the ability to use your smartphone to withdraw cash at their ATM’s. Their mobile app generates a temporary 8-digit code that when combined with your PIN number allows you to withdraw or deposit cash, card-free.
If this technology seems familiar, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and iPhone’s Apple Pay have all updated their apps to provide card-less options at the participating ATMs. The added convenience I’m sure will help drive down the estimated $4 billion of hacked credit card fraud, and be appreciated at a time when more people would rather those their wallet than their phone.

TRANSPORTATION .

We now have the first zero-emission hyrdail 🚆

A train powered by a hydrogen fuel cell completed its first test run! The iLint train will begin commercial operations alter this year. It is the first zero-emission hydrogen powered train (or hydrail). By combining oxygen drawn from the local atmosphere with hydrogen, the two are combined to make electricity that is stored in lithium-ion batteries. The result is a train that is completely sustainable, with only water and steam for emissions.

Meanwhile in neighboring France, construction of the Hyperloop has just begun. If you don’t think the world is moving fast enough, Japanese bullet trains currently go up to 374 mph, and the Hyperloop is expected to reach 760 mph. Hydrogen-powered trains are currently barely breaking 100 mph. Speed aside, can we agree that zero-emission mass public transit > zero-emission ‘cheap’ electric cars?

…let’s end with some beautifully designed technology

The smartflower solar device unfurls as the sun rises in the morning. ⚡

 
As always, check out our blog for more. That’s it for this week.✌️

How the (.)health domain could affect you, and other news

This week we talk about testing ‘rockoons’ in near space, the upcoming (.)health domain, a smartphone-only convenience store, 10x better blood testing with paper

SPACE .

Using rockoons to reach orbit 🎈🚀

This month Zero2Infinity launched a ‘rockoon’, or a rocket-balloon hybrid, to about 82,000 feet. Rockoons go into into the upper atmosphere by a balloon, where a rocket separates, and then ignites. Why fight gravity when you can put gravity to work?

Zero2Infinity’s latest test showcases one of many innovative tactics the commercial satellite delivery industry has been using to meet forecasted demand. Revenues from the global satellite industry have doubled in the past decade. More than 10,000 commercial satellites are planned for launch in the next decade.

INTERNET .

What does the new .health domain mean?
healthdomain
A new .health domain is set to be rolled out later this year, and it could have a big impact. Millions scour the web for medical advice (1 in 20 searches are attributed to health), but those searches aren’t even that good. One study says that only 3 of the first 10 searches are considered ‘highly useful’ for self-diagnosis.
Regulation behind who can register a .health domain may help users filter out inaccurate and less helpful medical websites. .health will be given a ‘regulated’ designation. This is opposed to the ‘highly regulated’ designation that will be applied to the .medical, .surgery, and .doctor domains, which are still in the works. Maybe better domains can help fight rising cyberchondria.

RETAIL .

The first unmanned convenience store, bring your smartphone
wheelys
If you want to buy something at this new store, just pick it up, scan it with your phone, and leave. The new Wheelys convenience store is… the most convenient. Wheelys opened its first store in a small town in Sweden last year, and this month opened its first ‘busy’ store in Shanghai.
Being app-based, all purchases are done instantly through your phone. The app also automatically opens the doors for you, otherwise the store is inaccessible. Wheelys is going to need to move fast. Amazon started private testing for their own staffless convenience store in Seattle end of last year.

HEALTH .

Blood now tested with special paper, it’s faster and cheaper

Up until this week, finding your blood type required lab equipment and a bit of patience. But what if you are in a remote area or war zone? That crucial piece of information may not be available to you or medical professions. Fortunately, Chinese researchers have developed a new blood test with an innovative paper-testing method. It has 99.9% accuracy, is more affordable, and faster. Where typical methods take around 10 to 20 minutes, the new method takes 30 seconds.

The test relies on chemical reactions between blood serum proteins, antibodies, and common dye. Each paper strip contains antibodies that can recognize blood types, and most importantly, change color depending on whether a blood group antigen is present. Amazing.

…let’s end with some new technology

Joto’s a smart whiteboard that draws your designs for you. Lazy, and smart. 😯

Smaller, better, faster, smarter

This week we’re talking about atom data storage, aspiring Swedish programmers, insane AI productivity, superfast supercomputers

INNOVATION .

single atom data storage for the first time

Humanity has just stored data in a single atom for the first time. To put that in context, some commercially-available devices use approximately one million atoms to store one bit of digital information. The new breakthrough is a big improvement from the previous smallest data storage record, in clusters of three to 12 atoms.

The milestone also has several implications, one being that magnetic storage could be a thousand times as dense as current hard drives and memory chips. It could even serve as a basis for quantum computing. If you’re curious, it was a Holmium (Ho) atom.

EDUCATION .

Sweden wants its first graders to think like programmers
The Swedish secondary school curriculum will include teaching algorithmic thinking and logic in first grade. Swedish students will begin learning to programme in fourth grade, within their algebra course. The Swedish Minister of Education stated a not unsurprising reason for the change, revamping their education system would provide a more technically skilled workforce.
This follows a trend of countries such as Australia, Germany, and the UK changing their national curriculum to include coding classes at a young age. Go Sweden!

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE .

360,000 hours reduced to seconds
JP Morgan Chase’s COIN program uses machine learning (a subfield of artificial intelligence) to automate the interpretation of commercial loan agreements. The software recently did the equivalent of 360,000 hours of work in only a couple seconds. It’s not only fast, but much less error-prone than lawyers and loan officers.
So how much time is 360,000 hours in relation to an actual career? At a 40hr work week, that’s 173 years of work done in just a few seconds. The bank has been investing heavily (nearly $10 billion) in technology. It seems to be paying off.

COMPUTING .

China 🇨🇳builds the fastest supercomputer, it’s 3x faster

There was a lot of buzz last week regarding IBM’s plans to build a quantum computer… ready possibly in a few years. But there’s major news right now in computing. Sunway TaihuLight is the new world’s fastest supercomputer.

The Sunway TaihuLight is not only faster than the previous ‘champion’, Tianhe-2, but three times faster. That is a massive improvement. The current and past record holders are Chinese-made. Sunway TaihuLight is five times faster than the United States’ best supercomputer (ranked 3rd). The news has likely resulted in a spike of ‘supercomputer race’ google searches.

…let’s end with some new futuristic design

An imaginative concept (flying) car from Airbus and Italdesign. Would you feel comfortable ‘popping up’ in a Pop.Up? 😯

 
As always, check out our blog for more. That’s it for this week.