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Archive for the ‘engineering’ category: Page 199

Jan 8, 2017

Mixed Reality will be most important tech of 2017

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, engineering, information science, quantum physics, virtual reality

Quantum will be the most important technology in 2017; as it will touch everything as well as change everything. Until we see a better integration of AR in Enterprise Apps, platforms, and published services; AR like VR will remain a niche market gadget.

I do know companies like Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle have been looking at ways to leverage AR in their enterprise platforms and services such as ERP and CRM as well as Big Data Analytics; however, to see the volume of sales needed to make VR or AR have staying power on a large scale; the vendors will need to it a pragmatic useful device on multiple fronts. And, yes it is great that we’re using VR and AR in healthcare, defense, engineering, and entertainment (includes gaming); we just need to make it an every consumer device that people canot live with out.


2016 has been a remarkable year that’s brought continued growth and awareness to the worlds of Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality. Set to become a $165 Billion dollar industry by 2020, there’s still a common question that lingers among many newcomers trying to understand this fast moving digital phenomena we are just beginning to watch evolve: What’s the difference between them and how will it impact the digital world as I currently know it?

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Jan 5, 2017

Tiny 3D printed biobots could dispense drug doses from inside your body

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, engineering

Samuel Sia, a professor of biomedical engineering at New York City’s Columbia University, has developed a 3D printed biobot that can be implanted in the body to release controlled doses of drugs. The amazing device can be controlled from outside the body using only magnets.

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Jan 5, 2017

The Future Of Encryption

Posted by in categories: business, cybercrime/malcode, encryption, engineering, internet, quantum physics

QC in the mainstream is definitely viable less than 7 yrs. and possible within 5 yrs. However, I have a friend who even believes we’re looking at 3 years.


Internet security, once considered to be strictly in the domain of the wonkiest tech experts, has become central to public discourse over the past year. Besides the attacks on the DNC, even tech savvy business like Snapchat, Oracle and Verizon Enterprise Solutions have had significant breaches in the last year.

For the most part, these attacks were preventable. Often, hackers use a technique called social engineering, to trick people into allowing them into a system. Other times, they exploit a vulnerability in software to give them access to confidential data. In most cases, more stringent procedures can prevent attacks.

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Jan 1, 2017

NASA Just Released Its Incredibly Cool Concept for Houses on Mars

Posted by in categories: engineering, habitats, space

NASA researchers have a lot of problems to work through if they want astronauts to one day set foot on Mars. One of the biggest hurdles is where these early pioneers will sleep and live, and after a day of brainstorming, engineers might have come up with a solution – a conceptual ‘ice home’ design.

Yup, NASA is looking into creating inflatable domes covered in ice for astronauts to live and work in, providing them with protection from extreme temperatures and high-energy radiation.

“After a day dedicated to identifying needs, goals, and constraints we rapidly assessed many crazy, out of the box ideas and finally converged on the current Ice Home design, which provides a sound engineering solution,” said senior systems engineer Kevin Vipavetz, from NASA’s Langley Research Centre in Virginia.

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Dec 30, 2016

The Five Most Revolutionary Scientific Trends to Look Out For In 2017

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, engineering, robotics/AI, transhumanism

Check out my new story for Vice Motherboard on the top things to look out for in 2017: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/five-scientific-trends-2017 #transhumanism


Neural prosthetics, driverless cars, geoengineering and more.

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Dec 26, 2016

The Science and Engineering of Quantum Dot Lasers

Posted by in categories: engineering, quantum physics, science

Since their development in 1960, lasers have become an indispensable tool supporting our modern society, finding use in fields such as medicine, information, and industry. Thanks to their compact size and energy efficiency, semiconductor lasers are now one of the most important classes of laser, making possible a diverse range of applications. However, the threshold current of a typical semiconductor laser—the minimum electrical current required to induce lasing—increases with temperature. This is one of a number of disadvantages that can be overcome by using quantum dot lasers. Professor Yasuhiko Arakawa of the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo has been researching quantum dot lasers for about 35 years, from their conception to commercialization.

An electron trapped in a microscopic box

Sunlight is composed of light of various colors. The property that determines the color of light is its wavelength, or in other words, the distance between two successive wave peaks or troughs. The location of the peaks and troughs in the waveform is known as its phase. As a laser emits light waves in a uniform phase at the same wavelength, the light can be transmitted as a beam over long distances at high intensity.

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Dec 21, 2016

Bionic pancreas system manages blood sugar levels in patients with type 1 diabetes living at home

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, engineering, health, transhumanism

The bionic pancreas system developed by Boston University (BU) investigators proved better than either conventional or sensor-augmented insulin pump therapy at managing blood sugar levels in patients with type 1 diabetes living at home, with no restrictions, over 11 days. The report of a clinical trial led by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) physician is receiving advance online publication in The Lancet.

“For study participants living at home without limitations on their activity and diet, the bionic pancreas successfully reduced average blood glucose, while at the same time decreasing the risk of hypoglycemia,” says Steven Russell, MD, PhD, of the MGH Diabetes Unit. “This system requires no information other than the patient’s body weight to start, so it will require much less time and effort by health care providers to initiate treatment. And since no carbohydrate counting is required, it significantly reduces the burden on patients associated with diabetes management.”

Developed by Edward Damiano, PhD, and Firas El-Khatib, PhD, of the BU Department of Biomedical Engineering, the bionic pancreas controls patients’ blood sugar with both insulin and glucagon, a hormone that increases glucose levels. After a 2010 clinical trial confirmed that the original version of the device could maintain near-normal blood sugar levels for more than 24 hours in adult patients, two follow-up trials — reported in a 2014 New England Journal of Medicine paper — showed that an updated version of the system successfully controlled blood sugar levels in adults and adolescents for five days. Another follow-up trial published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology in 2016 showed it could do the same for children as young as 6 years of age.

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Dec 21, 2016

Q&A: Diamond in Quantum Applications

Posted by in categories: computing, engineering, particle physics, quantum physics

Oh; there is a LOT more to they syndiamond story as it relates to some of the additional hardware and communications technologies that we’re developing and planning for the future.


What are the unique properties of diamond that make it a supermaterial?

Diamond has long been known to have exceptional properties, largely resulting from the symmetry of the cubic lattice made of light carbon atoms connected by extremely strong bonds. These exceptional properties include thermal conductivity five times higher than that of copper and the widest optical transparency of any material extending from the UV to the RF part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, diamond also has some interesting chemical properties as it is extremely inert, though it can become a conductor by adding boron. In this manner, one could leverage synthetic diamond for use in electrochemical incineration where existing electrode materials have only a limited lifetime.

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Dec 19, 2016

Here’s our first look at Waymo’s new self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans

Posted by in categories: engineering, robotics/AI, transportation

Waymo, the newly-minted Alphabet company that was previously Google’s self-driving car project, has a new addition to its vehicle fleet: 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans, which were produced by Fiat Chrysler specifically for the purpose of making them fully autonomous using Waymo’s tech, onboard computer power, sensors and telematics. The 100 new cars will join Waymo’s other self-driving vehicles in active service on public roads for more testing starting early next year.

These vehicles were created through a close partnership between Waymo and FCA that actually saw engineering teams from both companies co-located at a Michigan engineering site, and testing of tech through the development process happened both in Chelsea, Michigan, and Yucca, Arizona on the FCA side, and at Waymo’s own test facilities in California.

While the Chrysler Pacificas used are based on the 2017 production model that consumers can buy, changes were made to the vehicles’ electrical, powertrain and structural systems, as well as to the vehicle chassis itself, in order to make them better suited for using Waymo’s tech. This results in a much tighter integration than if the Alphabet company had just purchased Chrysler vehicles off the line and done their own aftermarket modifications on stock vehicles. Still, from project outset to these being ready to enter service took only six months, according to FCA.

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Dec 19, 2016

Scientists produce functional heart pacemaker cells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, health, life extension

Tissue engineering and Stem cells are a large part of the rejuvenation biotechnology toolkit. Here we have yet more progress and this time the pacemaker cells are replicated for possible use in biological pacemaker therapies.

“Scientists from the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University Health Network, have developed the first functional pacemaker cells from human stem cells, paving the way for alternate, biological pacemaker therapy.”

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