Lifeboat Foundation

Over the last three decades, the digital world that we access through smartphones and computers has grown so rich and detailed that much of our physical world has a corresponding life in this digital reality. Today, the physical and digital realities are on a steady course to merging, as robots, Augmented Reality (AR) and wearable digital devices enter our physical world, and physical items get their digital twin computer representations in the digital world.

These digital twins can be uniquely identified and protected from manipulation thanks to crypto technologies like blockchains. The trust that these technologies provide is extremely powerful, helping to fight counterfeiting, increase supply chain transparency, and enable the circular economy. However, a weak point is that there is no versatile and generally applicable identifier of physical items that is as trustworthy as a blockchain. This breaks the connection between the physical and digital twins and therefore limits the potential of technical solutions.

In a new paper published in Light: Science & Applications, an interdisciplinary team of scientists led by Professors Jan Lagerwall (physics) and Holger Voos (robotics) from the University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg, and Prof. Mathew Schwartz (architecture, construction of the built environment) from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, U.S., propose an innovative solution to this problem where physical items are given unique and unclonable fingerprints realized using cholesteric spherical reflectors, or CSRs for short.

face_with_colon_three Tricorder from star trek here we come. #Singularity

An instrument found on workbenches around the world has been scaled down enough to be used in a smartphone.

Edward Boyden is a Hertz Foundation Fellow and recipient of the prestigious Hertz Foundation Grant for graduate study in the applications of the physical, biological and engineering sciences. A professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, Edward Boyden explains how humanity is only at its infancy in merging with machines. His work is leading him towards the development of a “brain co-processor”, a device that interacts intimately with the brain to upload and download information to and from it, augmenting human capabilities in memory storage, decision making, and cognition. The first step, however, is understanding the brain on a much deeper level. With the support of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, Ed Boyden pursued a PhD in neurosciences from Stanford University.

The Hertz Foundation mission is to provide unique financial and fellowship support to the nation’s most remarkable PhD students in the hard sciences. Hertz Fellowships are among the most prestigious in the world, and the foundation has invested over $200 million in Hertz Fellows since 1963 (present value) and supported over 1,100 brilliant and creative young scientists, who have gone on to become Nobel laureates, high-ranking military personnel, astronauts, inventors, Silicon Valley leaders, and tenured university professors. For more information, visit hertzfoundation.org.

Continue reading “Hybrid Intelligence: Coupling AI and the Human Brain | Edward Boyden bigthink” »

The new research saw scientists follow 100,000 participants in the UK Biobank national cohort.

Smartphones could soon be used to predict populations’ mortality rates, according to a press release by PLOS Digital Health.

Previous studies have used measures of physical fitness, including walk tests and self-reported walk pace, to predict individual mortality risk. Now scientists are taking it a step further.

Continue reading “Smartphones can be used to predict mortality rates” »

Local police said there was a “complete outage” on the Shetland Islands, with a communications company pointing to undersea cable damage.

A collaborative research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has developed a wearable tactile rendering system, which can mimic the sensation of touch with high spatial resolution and a rapid response rate.

The team demonstrated its application potential in a braille display, adding the sense of touch in the metaverse for functions such as virtual reality shopping and gaming, and potentially facilitating the work of astronauts, deep-sea divers and others who need to wear thick gloves.

Continue reading “A high-resolution, wearable electrotactile rendering device that virtualizes the sense of touch” »

Discovery of intriguing material behavior at small scales could reduce energy demands for computing.

As electronic devices become smaller and smaller, the materials that power them need to become thinner and thinner. Because of this, one of the key challenges scientists face in developing next-generation energy-efficient electronics is discovering materials that can maintain special electronic properties at an ultrathin size.

Advanced materials known as ferroelectrics present a promising solution to help lower the power consumed by the ultrasmall electronic devices found in cell phones and computers. Ferroelectrics—the electrical analog to ferromagnets—are a class of materials in which some of the atoms are arranged off-center, leading to a spontaneous internal electric charge or polarization. This internal polarization can reverse its direction when scientists expose the material to an external voltage. This offers great promise for ultralow-power microelectronics.

Samsung will soon launch another Galaxy Quantum smartphone in its home country. While previous Galaxy Quantum series phones were based on Galaxy A series devices, Samsung has changed that trend this time.

The Galaxy Quantum 3 has been revealed in South Korea, and it’s coming soon to SK Telecom’s network. The smartphone will be available for pre-order from April 22 to April 25, 2022. The first 10,000 buyers of the phone will get a Google Play gift card. Neither Samsung nor SK Telecom has revealed the price tag of the upcoming device.

The smartphone is based on the Galaxy M53 5G, which was silently revealed in Europe a few days ago. The Galaxy Quantum 3 features a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with Full HD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. It features a 108MP primary rear camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 2MP macro camera, a 2MP depth sensor, and a 32MP front-facing camera. It can record 4K 30fps videos using both front and rear cameras.

Engineering and entrepreneurship — a match made in heaven!

Entrepreneurship is often glamorized, but in reality, it takes a lot of time and effort to make it. After all, there’s a reason why most startups fail. Additionally, managing a business requires specific skills, such as attention to detail and the ability to lead others. Having an analytical mindset is just as important.

Given these aspects, it’s not surprising that engineers make great entrepreneurs. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, and Henry Ford all started their careers as engineers. However, not all engineers work in tech.

Continue reading “5 Engineer Entrepreneurs Who Have Made it Big in Non-Engineering Sectors” »