What did we imagine as being the future?
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
The Future
The future is near and the future is almost here!
What did we imagine as being the future?
What did we imagine as being the future?
Exoskeletons
In 2010, defense contractor Raytheon demonstrated the experimental XOS 2 -- essentially, a wearable robot guided by the human brain -- that can lift two to three times as much weight as an unassisted human, with no effort required by the user. Another company, Trek Aerospace, is developing the Springtail Exoskeleton Flying Vehicle, an exoskeleton frame with a jetpack built in, which could be capable of flying up to 70 miles per hour (112.6 kilometers per hour) and hovering motionlessly thousands of feet above the ground, as well.
But others besides the military may benefit from the advent. It's possible that someday people with spinal injuries or muscle-wasting diseases may get around as easily as fully-abled people do, thanks to full-body devices -- essentially, wearable robots -- that enable them to do what their own muscles and nerves can't. Early versions of such powered exoskeletons, like Argo Medical Technologies' $150,000 ReWalk device, are already on the market.
3-D Printing Body Parts
Courtesy Cornell University
Team: Cornell University How it's made: Bioengineers take a 3-D scan of a child's ear, design a seven-part mold in the SolidWorks CAD program, and print the pieces. The mold is injected with a high-density gel made from 250 million bovine cartilage cells and collagen from rat tails (the latter serves as a scaffold). After 15 minutes, the ear is removed and incubated in cell culture for several days. In three months, the cartilage will have propagated enough to replace the collagen. Benefit: At least one child in 12,500 is born with microtia, a condition characterized by hearing loss due to an underdeveloped or malformed outer ear. Unlike synthetic implants, ears grown from human cells are more likely to be successfully incorporated into the body.
Skin Grafts
Courtesy Wake Forest Institute For Regenerative Medicine
Team: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine How it's made: First, a custom bioprinter scans and maps the patient's wound. One inkjet valve ejects the enzyme thrombin, and another ejects cells mixed with collagen and fibrinogen (thrombin and fibrinogen react to create the blood coagulant fibrin). Then, the printer deposits a layer of human fibroblasts, followed by a layer of skin cells called keratinocytes. Benefit: For traditional grafts, surgeons take skin from one area of the body and splice it onto another. The Wake Forest researchers hope to print new skin directly into a wound. Ultimately, they plan to build a portable printer that can be used in war and disaster zones.
Team: Cornell University How it's made: Bioengineers take a 3-D scan of a child's ear, design a seven-part mold in the SolidWorks CAD program, and print the pieces. The mold is injected with a high-density gel made from 250 million bovine cartilage cells and collagen from rat tails (the latter serves as a scaffold). After 15 minutes, the ear is removed and incubated in cell culture for several days. In three months, the cartilage will have propagated enough to replace the collagen. Benefit: At least one child in 12,500 is born with microtia, a condition characterized by hearing loss due to an underdeveloped or malformed outer ear. Unlike synthetic implants, ears grown from human cells are more likely to be successfully incorporated into the body.
Kidneys
Courtesy Wake Forest Institute For Regenerative Medicine
Team: Wake Forest Institute For Regenerative Medicine How It's Made: A 3-D bioprinter deposits multiple types of kidney cells—cultivated from cells taken by a biopsy—while simultaneously building a scaffold out of biodegradable material. The finished product is then incubated. The scaffold, once transplanted into a patient, would slowly biodegrade as the functional tissue grows.Benefit: An estimated 80 percent of patients on organ-transplant lists in the U.S. await kidneys. Bioprinted kidneys are not yet functional, but once they are, the use of a patient's own cells to grow the tissue means doctors will someday be able to provide every recipient with a perfect match.
Team: Wake Forest Institute For Regenerative Medicine How It's Made: A 3-D bioprinter deposits multiple types of kidney cells—cultivated from cells taken by a biopsy—while simultaneously building a scaffold out of biodegradable material. The finished product is then incubated. The scaffold, once transplanted into a patient, would slowly biodegrade as the functional tissue grows.Benefit: An estimated 80 percent of patients on organ-transplant lists in the U.S. await kidneys. Bioprinted kidneys are not yet functional, but once they are, the use of a patient's own cells to grow the tissue means doctors will someday be able to provide every recipient with a perfect match.
Blood Vessels
Courtesy University Of Pennsylvania
Team: University of Pennsylvania and MIT How it's made: Using an open-source RepRap printer and custom software, researchers print a network of sugar filaments inside a mold and coat the filaments in a polymer derived from corn. They then dispense a gel containing tissue cells into the mold. Once it sets, they wash the structure in water, which dissolves the sugar and leaves empty channels in the tissue. Benefit: Researchers showed that pumping nutrients through the channels increased the survival of surrounding cells. Because blood vessels maintain tissue health, learning how to scale up and print a larger, more robust vascular system is the key to eventually printing entire organs.
Team: University of Pennsylvania and MIT How it's made: Using an open-source RepRap printer and custom software, researchers print a network of sugar filaments inside a mold and coat the filaments in a polymer derived from corn. They then dispense a gel containing tissue cells into the mold. Once it sets, they wash the structure in water, which dissolves the sugar and leaves empty channels in the tissue. Benefit: Researchers showed that pumping nutrients through the channels increased the survival of surrounding cells. Because blood vessels maintain tissue health, learning how to scale up and print a larger, more robust vascular system is the key to eventually printing entire organs.
Courtesy Wake Forest Institute For Regenerative Medicine
Team: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine How it's made: First, a custom bioprinter scans and maps the patient's wound. One inkjet valve ejects the enzyme thrombin, and another ejects cells mixed with collagen and fibrinogen (thrombin and fibrinogen react to create the blood coagulant fibrin). Then, the printer deposits a layer of human fibroblasts, followed by a layer of skin cells called keratinocytes. Benefit: For traditional grafts, surgeons take skin from one area of the body and splice it onto another. The Wake Forest researchers hope to print new skin directly into a wound. Ultimately, they plan to build a portable printer that can be used in war and disaster zones.
Courtesy Washington State University
Team: Washington State University How it's made: Researchers print scaffolds with a ceramic powder (human bone is 70 percent ceramic), using the same 3-D printers that produce metal parts found in electric motors. An inkjet covers the ceramic with a layer of plastic binder. This structure is baked at 2,282˚F for 120 minutes and placed into a culture with human bone cells. After a day, the scaffold supports them. Benefit: Every year, millions of automobile-accident survivors suffer from complex fractures, which are difficult to repair using traditional methods. Using MRIs for reference, doctors could print a custom graft that perfectly matches the fracture.
Car of the future!
The most progressive sports car:
The BMW i8 is ready to revolutionize its vehicle class. As the first sports car with the consumption and emission values of a compact car. The strength of the plug-in hybrid lies, among other factors, in the perfect synchronization of electric motor and combustion engine, which makes itself apparent in maximum efficiency and dynamics on the road. The first sports car that even accelerates the zeitgeist.
Progressive driving pleasure:
Development:
Every great pioneering achievement has its own story. In the case of the BMW i8, it begins in 2008 with the launch of Project i – and with no lesser objective than the reinvention of urban mobility. Just one year later, the BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics concept showed what a technology leader geared fully toward energy saving can look like. This was the basis that gave rise to the BMW Concept i8, which demonstrated in near-production-ready form where the development would lead. All available BMW Efficient Dynamics technologies were already united within this vehicle, an intelligent lightweight concept had been implemented, and the idea of a sports car for the future was already detectable. Series production of the BMW i8 marks the current peak of the development: a plug-in hybrid with the appearance and the breathtaking performance of a sports car, which at the same time exhibits the consumption and emissions of a compact car. And thus convincingly resolves the apparent contradiction between efficiency and dynamics.
Design :
Drive system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8K4Rq7uhGw
Neurocam
The "neurocam" is a wearable camera system that detects your emotions. It automatically records moments of interest based on an analysis of the users brainwaves.
The analytic's algorithm is based on the sensitivity vales of "interest" and "like" developed by Professor Mitsukura of Keio University and was co-developed with the neurowear team especially for the neurocam. The users interests are quantified on a range of 0 to 100. The smartphone camera is triggered to automatically record and save 5 second GIF clips of scenes when the interest value exceeds 60. The scene is saved together with time stamp and location, and can be replayed in the album function. Scenes can also be taken manually under the "manual mode". It can also be shared socially on Facebook.
The hardware is a combination of Neurosky's Mind Wave Mobile and a new customized brainwave sensor with the newest BMD chip. It transforms the smartphone into a brainwave analysis device + camera with the smartphone screen displaying scenes of interest as they are being recorded.
Robotics
NASA has unveiled Valkyrie, its new humanoid super robot with distinctive female features that is expected to compete in the upcoming DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials, and perhaps even assist in future space missio
The Valkyrie is a humanoid machine, which measures two inches over six feet in height, has detachable arms, mounted cameras, sonar sensors, and is mobile enough to help in search-and-rescue operations in disaster zones, NASA told IEEE Spectrum. Officially named R5, and developed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the super humanoid robot was specially designed for the DARPA competition, and will compete with Boston Dynamics’ Terminator-like Atlas robot.
“During the challenge, robots will demonstrate capabilities to execute complex tasks in dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environments,” NASA said, in a statement, adding that the competition would see “robots that can use standard tools and equipment commonly available in human environments, ranging from hand tools to vehicles, with an emphasis on adaptability to tools with diverse specifications.”
Video Hologram Projection System
Musion Eyeliner is a unique high-definition video hologram projection system allowing spectacular freeform3D holographic effects to be projected within a live stage setting using Peppers Ghost technology.
Musion Eyeliner produces holographic images of high resolution and quality that make them unmistakably real, which is what happened when Gorillaz & Madonna performed the opening number at the recent Grammy Awards.
Musion Eyeliner is an open system that uses a specially developed foil in reflecting images from high-definition video projectors, making it possible to show holograms of variable sizes and distinct clarity created using a proprietary software. The entire system consists of a truss box and a stage, where the virtual picture appears.
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