Newsletter | Tuesday, October 11th 2016

This week we talk RoboBees, glowing lanes, GIFs, cryptic symbols, and life lessons.

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Fun Fact: honey does not spoil. You could feasibly eat 3000 year-old honey.

ROBOT TECH

 Speaking about honey…we take for granted that almost one third of the food we consume is pollinated by Honeybees, and yet they’ve been dying at alarming rates – so alarming that the Fed recently placed seven yellow-faced bee species on the Endangered Species Act and the White House gave a task force “only” 180 days to create a plan to protect bees and other pollinators. How does one solve this issue? Well… a group of researchers think the answer lies in robot technology – RoboBees. These tiny robotic creatures (see image below) can lift off the ground and hover midair when connected to a power supply. While they’re still a work in progress, the Harvard researchers behind the project believe that these RoboBees will be able to artificially pollinate a field of crops within a decade.

SCIENCE

Poland recently installed bike lanes that glow blue in the dark after having been charged by the sun throughout the day. How does it work? Particles called luminophores collect energy from the sun which allow up to 10 hours of glowing. The goal of the project is to prevent bicycle and pedestrian accidents at night. Pretty cool stuff… but is it as cool as this high-tech brick path in the Netherlands that glows in the starry night? Seems like the U.S. needs to step up our bike path game.

VR Design

What do you think of when you hear the word “GIF”?This is the question that inspired Loop Dreams, a one-day exhibition dedicated to pushing the boundaries of what people think of when they hear the word “GIF.” 25 artists reimagined the file format as virtual reality loops, interactive installations and projection-mapped sculptures. Take a look-see of the first ever Virtual Reality GIF museum.

 

 

DESIGN

Ever wonder what goes into the creation of an album cover? This interview with Eric Timothy Carlson dives into how Eric was approached by lead singer Justin Vernon from Bon Iver to design the cover of 22, a Million. What is fascinating is the symbolism behind the art. The songs were all numbers at the start. Eric and Justin would then talk about the numbers, then talk about the song, watch the lyrics take form, make lists, make drawings. The final artwork was to be something of a tome— a book of lore, Jung’s Red Book, a lost religion— with real references and experiences collaged in both the music and the artwork.

 

LIFE LESSONS

One of the greatest impediments to creativity is impatience. We tend to overestimate innate skill when we learn about some creative teams building ground-breaking technology or listen to a moving piece of music. Truth is, every brilliant and creative professional has invested many hours to mastering that particular skill. Do you think Edison woke up one morning and whipped up a perfect design for the electric light bulb? Not a chance. He went through thousands of prototypes before getting it right. We all need to embrace and appreciate the process – wise words from Thomas Oppong.

 

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We want to know what you like. Let us know your requests and suggestions on Twitter: Which section above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Let us know! Just send a tweet to @SWARMnyc  and put #technsuch in there so we can find it.

Hi friends,

We’ve gotten a ton of positive feedback about our weekly newsletter (Ludlow.io), and we thought we’d share our story – why we created one, how we decided to revamp it, and then the exciting stuff. We want to thank you for all your support (you guys are awesome, really).

As some of you know, we’re a modest sized team here in NYC. Bootstrapped with little time to devote to outbound marketing. Knowing full well the benefits of brand building, we looked at ways to maximize this aspect of our marketing funnel while minimizing the time we would allot to it. Questions were, how do we show our friends, audience, and potential customers that our team is passionate about tech, that we have funny, smart dialogues on things like machine learning, and that we have real insight on the latest product news? Newsletters? We already had a list of 1600 emails. The question was: where do we source the material?

“Look at our Slack channels,” one of our team members, Alex Hartwell, suggested. Slack showcased our quirky team culture, and it was the platform we were already engaged with, meaning we didn’t have to spend more time curating content. So we thought: why not share the content we already discuss in Slack in a weekly newsletter?

So here we are 8 months in.

We’ve grown our subscriber list almost two-fold, from 1600 to 3,000. Our website traffic has increased drastically, and the feedback from good friends and clients has been overwhelmingly positive.

We tested our assumption that if we used curated content from Slack in a newsletter then this would 1. save us time and 2. provide value for our audience. We decided to build our own platform that connects Slack to Mailchimp, so that other small teams can easily create newsletters with this simple strategy.

Long story short… after heavy brainstorming and sleepless nights coding, we are proud to announce that our idea is a reality: Ludlow.io. Ludlow takes content your team is sharing on Slack and beautifully arranges it for you to send out as a Mailchimp newsletter. The whole process takes no more than 5 minutes on mobile or web.

Ludlow is a real passion project for us, and we’re excited to announce that Ludlow is available in early beta. Click here to sign up for early access! We’re excited to see how Ludlow.io can help your team, so sign up, stay tuned as we keep building.

All the best,

Team Ludlow @SWARM

Happy Friday! To end the week, we’d like to mix it up. Instagram filters depression, Zuckerberg news, creative wall decor, tips to evade cyber hacks, and Google’s long overdue travel app.

 

MACHINE LEARNING

Your choice of Instagram filter says more about you than you think – according to a recent study by Harvard University’s Andrew Reece and the University of Vermont’s Chris Danforth. The two crafted an algorithm that can correctly diagnose depression, with up to 70% accuracy, using Instagram as a source of data. Why does this matter? Well, for one, this study suggests the future of detecting mental health issues is changing. Likewise, social media will become a more reliable resource.

BUSINESS

Last year Facebook couple Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan said they’d donate 99% of their shares for charities. Now they’re putting their words to action by enlisting a ‘dream team’ of scientific leaders to spearhead a $3 billion effort to prevent, cure, and manage disease.

DESIGN

Art is transformative and has the power to soothe and distract in intense situations. This article showcases creative collaborations from hospitals in the UK and US, where sterile walls are transformed into playful, fun, and beautiful creations. We especially liked Chris O’Shea’s Kinect-based installation at the Royal London Hospital’s redeveloped play space called Woodland Wiggle—the game is designed to be played on a giant TV screen within a playroom of oversized furniture and stuffed toys. You totally forget you’re in a hospital.

CYBERSECURITY

Did you know that someone can access your online accounts, delete personal data, and destroy your digital life. This, all without having to write a single line of code? It’s called social engineering hacks, and the most famous example was done by teenagers who managed to delete all the data from Mat Honan’s Twitter, Amazon, Google, and even Apple ID accounts. Ok—so the likelihood this will happen to you is slim.  But it’s still a good idea to be smart about the way we share data, and this article runs through 6 useful tips for how we can protect ourselves.

APPS

Google’s new vacation app was 280 years in the making, and it’s called Google Trips. The goal of the app is to “create a personalized tour guide in your pocket.” It’s free, it’s customizable, and… it’s creepy (kind of). It pulls information from your Gmail account, so it knows things like which hotels you stayed in. It also knows where you rented a car from, even if you didn’t share that information. Creepy or not, it’s a powerful app that will make planning your next trip a much smoother, stress-free experience.

 

 

Have an idea on machine learning, thinking about building a product, or simply want to chat about innovative tech?—we’d love to hear your thoughts, get in touch!

Heyy… we hope you enjoyed your labor (free) weekend! To help you get back to the grind, here’s a good mix on Twitter, waterproof phones, driverless Ubers, and more.

BUSINESS

Twitter takeover rumors are buzzing again, and don’t expect them to go away anytime soon. Twitter is reportedly considering selling itself…but not for cheap. According to reports from Recode, a Twitter buyer would have to fork over 18 billion.

 

GADGETS

Remember that time you dropped your phone in the toilet? Or maybe it was the unexpected torrential downpour during a long run that wiped it out. Rumor has it Apple’s next iPhone will be waterproof, which means our phones may survive their next bath.

(MORE) BUSINESS

Spotted by evelb: an Uber car that looks a lot like the driverless ones in Pittsburgh…but here’s the thing, it’s not driverless. Turns out Uber recently launched two odd, yet similar-looking cars: self-driving Uber vehicles and ones with multi camera equipped “mapping data”. The difference? The mapping cars are driven by people, and the goal is to improve core elements of the Uber experience, like drop-off points and best routes for drivers.

STRATEGY

What does an engineer do when he wants his twin babies to get more sleep? A/B test! Read how this dad used an Agile approach to determine if he could hack his kids sleeping patterns.

LOGO DESIGN

If you had to come up with an icon for a gender-neutral bathroom, what would it look like? Base Design, Siegel+Gale, Brand Union, and Brand New School were asked to come up with an idea. We think the one below by Geoff Cook and Min Lew is spot on.

Have an idea on a logo design, thinking about building a product, or simply want to chat about innovative tech?—we’d love to hear your thoughts, get in touch!

This week we talk paraplegic patients virtual reality, artificial intelligence, design inspiration, and productivity tips.

 

VIRTUAL REALITY

When most people hear virtual reality they think fun and games. For paraplegic patients virtual reality could lead to thoughts of something much more powerful – the chance of actually walking again. Yes, people who were once told they would never walk again are closer than ever to taking real steps, all thanks to VR technology.

 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

How can doctors get patients on the right prescription, and at the right dose, faster? This is the question that puzzled Jim Schwoebel, engineer of NeuroLex, whose brother experienced 3 psychotic breakdowns before being diagnosed on an effective regimen. The solution? Using an artificial intelligence model to analyze linguistic cues – tone, word choice, length of a phrase – in order to predict if a patient will suffer from psychosis.

DESIGN

Dyslexia is a difficulty processing language; it forces people to interpret the world differently – which, for designers, can be advantageous. London-based industrial designer Jim Rokos curated an exhibit called Dyslexic Design, showcasing creative work from dyslexic designers, like a lopsided wine decanter, a gorilla-shaped parka, and a chandelier that looks a bit like an atom – to name a few.

 

DESIGN STRATEGY

A designer’s most valuable asset is her creativity, which is why it needs constant care and cultivation. Sometimes all it takes is keeping your eyes open for inspiration to help break out of the box. Follow this designer’s journey as she runs through a variety of techniques and color combinations.(We found this one below by Adam Avery to be pretty telling).

 

PRODUCTIVITY

Oh writer’s block… we all can relate to feeling like we just can’t get our thoughts down on paper. We keep typing and erasing, typing and erasing. If you’re an intuitive thinker, this article on a 5-step system to writing clearly should help, and check out the app “Rough Draft,” a great guide for writing too.

 

Have an idea on VR/AI, thinking about building a product, or simply want to chat about innovative tech?—we’d love to hear your thoughts, get in touch!