Easily printable, organic thin films can retain data for more than 10 years without power, work with low voltages – and become the building block of future computers that mimic the human brain
The internet of things is coming, that much we know. But still it won’t; not until we have components and chips that can handle the explosion of data that comes with IoT. In 2020, there will already be 50 billion industrial internet sensors in place all around us. A single autonomous device – a smart watch, a cleaning robot, or a driverless car – can produce gigabytes of data each day, whereas an airbus may have over 10,000 sensors in one wing alone.
Two hurdles need to be overcome. First, current transistors in computer chips must be miniaturized to the size of only few nanometres; the problem is they won’t work anymore then. Second, analysing and storing unprecedented amounts of data will require equally huge amounts of energy. Sayani Majumdar, Academy Fellow at Aalto University, along with her colleagues, is designing technology to tackle both issues.
Majumdar has with her colleagues designed and fabricated the basic building blocks of future components in what are called “neuromorphic” computers inspired by the human brain. It’s a field of research on which the largest ICT companies in the world and also the EU are investing heavily. Still, no one has yet come up with a nano-scale hardware architecture that could be scaled to industrial manufacture and use.
So our sponsor Quip has a new sonic toothbrush that’s got Bluetoothandan app that actually gives you rewards and free stuff for brushing your teeth!
Things you can get just for brushing your teeth (a thing I assume you already do): ■ $5 refill credits and discounts ■ Free quip products and discounts ● Refillable Floss String ● Solar Battery Charger ● Tote Bag ■ $5 Target eGiftCards
It’s also just a great toothbrush that looks sleek, helps you brush better and now it’s got wifi and bluetooth cause WHY NOT?!!
Welcome to the future, where you don’t own anything and the stuff you rent stops working once your phone has no signal.
App powered car? ♀️
I wish people remembered the age old wisdom that if something doesn’t absolutely require an Internet connection to function, it shouldn’t be connected to the internet - same goes for apps.
WHY IS A CATFOOD DISPENSER CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET
Sometimes I’m glad that I’m too poor for my “cool future stuff” monkey brain to be set loose to buy stupid shit like this.
please please please do not buy into the Internet of Things. Digital displays for appliances are one thing, but you shouldn’t need the fucking internet to do your laundry or use the fridge.
I hope this is obvious, but this is a means for corporations to abuse privacy and gather metadata. The only reason I can imagine no one discussing this is because it’s obvious.
“Never trust a computer you can’t throw out the window”
- Steve Wozniak
I reblogged this a couple of weeks ago, and since then have seen a very sensible comment about IoT devices that went something like this:
“If a ‘smart domestic appliance‘ was correctly labelled as a ‘corporate-owned domestic spyware appliance‘, buyers might be less eager to have that appliance in their home.”
Just some interesting scientific thoughts! It basically all looks natural…
Tess Mercer is the Hero of the Story…
This actually is so cool about the Map(s) - you can think heat maps, hotspots, biometrics (the dust) - but even on a Micro/human level.. And opening doors to where she isn’t supposed to see it. Lol it’s just technology. That’s how I imagine it.
Giving some luck to you…
I’ve played this over and over I don’t know how many times since fall 2015! I love it… Tess Mercer’s best… She IS the best character out there, and super inspiring… Self Defense and Anti-“green peace.” She survived so much, and what do they give her? Nothing. People should have been more of a fan of her, but maybe they just don’t “get it."
Technology & science should be shared at the highest levels… (Try to think of this in a good way)
So here are some ideas about technology and environmental effects: - It’s not just on a macro level or just applied to objects. Physics also applies to humans… - So imagine this.. acoustic/sound, electricity, sensors…. Maps - you can think heat maps (all-in-one biophysical properties/thermodynamics reacting to natural or altered environment to person)… - So for good: rescue missions, disasters, missing people, crime victims, etc… trafficked people, etc… There’s too much macro thinking publicly instead of Nano or micro. Frankly, nano was already on the thought-list, yet it seemed "out there.” Of course it’s small.
Now, put this on the Consumer rather than B2B end - then you’re changing the world.
Written on the “High Technology Sharing Worldwide” page at:
Now more than ever we can witness first-hand how global and linked information has become. With the ongoing spread of the Corona Virus we are witnessing this phenomenon where the sum of people, objects, places, has become the essence of modern times. From here we can see information moving and influencing in real-time those who are connected on the web without geo-limitations.
This virus has infected thousands of people from China to Europe while slowly creeping into North America. The pattern indicates the travel flow of people and goods being shipped from Asia, with China in the middle of a vast web of commercial routes across the globe. Now this COVID-19 disease has followed this very same pattern as airline destinations have become further apart, meaning passengers can directly arrive to places where before a stopover was needed.
From China to Europe through Iran, the Silk Road is still relevant today more than ever.
This translates into a faster spread of any disease as we grew more dependent from Asian markets to sustain western economies. COVID-19 is now affecting people’s lives and marketplaces on a global scale; something SARS failed to do back in 2003 because China wasn’t as influential as it today, but also because air routes were fewer and more limited than they are now. One important datum is the spread in Iran and neighboring countries, where from east to west the virus followed the ancient Silk Road to Europe.
Each day during these events dictated by the Corona Virus the movement of information and its influence can be directly seen. Beyond the traditional information medium there’s a whole realm of social platforms, where true and false data quickly spread to millions of users. We will see the law affecting our lives furthermore, governments will apply a soft and direct censorship in the near future to prevent the spread of false news; however, this will also impact the rest and content creators will have to deal with it on their own terms.
The relationship creates important data useful to understand behavior.
In terms of hyperconnectivity we can reference the virus map and see the network of data on a global scale. People are connected to objects and object to places. A person is sharing content through a smartphone that at the same time is providing geo-data to determine location. The sum of these three elements creates behaviors to explore and to exploit. Explore because we can refine information and use it to understand how people move, this can grant to act with better tools should the next endemic disease happen. Exploit because fear can be worked to push masses towards one direction instead of another, so we can predict shady uses of people’s reactions to affect events like government elections, markets, and the public opinion.
Augmented reality can display data in 3d providing more accurate predictions and visualization methods.
Through Internet Of Things (IOT) we have a large network of people, objects, places, and it is the next frontier of human and technological studies. Phones connected to tablets, sensors connected to computers, thermostats connected to smartphones, traffic lights connected to cars, and so on. Artificial intelligece can now extrapolate behevioral models to predict the future with more accuracy; therefore data can now indicate 3d models providing unprecedented levels of details. Imagine this technology becoming an essential tool to understand diseases’ patterns of their spreading, it would help contain and minimize fatalities reducing damages to this economy that today knows no boundaries.
News reliability in the internet age has been under the scrutiny with the increasing spread of data access especially through social platforms. User-created content is part of this phenomenon where source integrity has become questionable, distinctively in the wake of the weaponization of information through channels.
Lately the contradicting data over the COVID-19 outbreak has forged many questions over numbers, locations, and precautions. We had news China knew ahead of this threat but didn’t act properly, yet the fear of a global pandemic is quickly spreading through the media.
Wether it’s politics, economy, or the latest health news over the Corona virus, I’m finding difficult understanding the structure of the information. The news scenarios can at this point be in these conditions:
facts are being misrepresented by Chinese authorities;
western media is using information to gain leverage on China;
reality has countries unable to make sense of the situation of the pandemic.
All these scenarios might not just happen singularly and that would be worrisome; however, the product of the information in this age is the depth of confusion we are in that won’t allow us to see through anything. At this point what to believe: the Corona virus is manageable or data is faulty?
I’m getting newsfeed form expat aquaintances living in China how the western media is blowing numbers, and perhaps we know the story that selling newspapers copies and clickbaits is profitable for the media. Now we have little to no clues how warped the situation is because we are supposed ot believe the WHO’s data, but also the information coming from national sources across Europe.
Now I can ask myself if technology can come to the rescue and help us track the spread of the virus over the last two months. So far we know SARS in 2003 had a higher contagion effect and that at a certain point it was contained. Opposite is the scenario we have with the current health crisis from Asia where the issue of censorship in China might have played a key role. The spread of the Corona virus went under the radar until its reach went quasi global, landing as far as Italy and Egypt.
Northern Italy is in now on alert with major public events like the famous carnival of Venice cancelled. Schools, universities, and certain public places are shut down until further notice. Efforts to stop the spread of this virus are underway as Italy managed to isolate the disease and a vaccine is being developed across nations.
Information is so crucial that if China really did censor the news of the spread we might look at our second major alarm bell; the first being how this nation has officially become a playground for technology in developing a Big Brother state. So if information was withheld it’s certain Beijing understood the full value of manifacturing and distribuiting technology for the rest of the world.
I’m a little skeptic over the quantity and quality of data that could have easily gotten filtered through the Internet Of Things, and refined via artificial intelligence to better track the spread of the virus. We have all the available tools in 2020 to put to the test our technology and track better information of useful human behavior, helping us prevent worst scenario for the near future.
This translated in being able to harness what you want to tell and not to tell through the very own decives your country has been manufacturing to the rest of the world. But this tells me that China might actually have all the truth over this disease, feeding fake news to specific targets in order to manipulate the information flow and therefore be in full control of the situation.
Yes, there’s a big scare of the upcoming years where automation will be the protagonist of the next industrial revolution. AI and labor simplification are going to shift the way we value production through the markets and how we understand modern capitalism.
The next years will be characterized by the 5G network advancing which will pull a whole new line of smart devices onto production, and therefore onto sale with their relative marketing and digital content sale through the web, press, and television. This alone will spark new interest in the next major change society will face towards the technological front.
5G network will unfold the potential of remote business opportunities.
But what’s next? After smartphones and similar we will see more automation in terms of car manufacturing, which doesn’t directly mean self-driving cars invading the streets, but more electronic components being manufactured and installed into our cars driving us to work. Phone features will be heavily integrated into car systems.
We shouldn’t be surprised if our next car will be ready for McDonald’s drive-through payments just like our transponder when paying to ride certain highways. The vehicle of tomorrow is based on our current behavior we develop thanks to the smartphone in our hands.
AI will manage our behavior when they will govern payments through cars.
Augmented reality is already playing it’s part with enriched User Interfaces which provide a better User Experience. Cars interiors are becoming futuristic for the need to implement new-found technology and to put it to good use, but also to market it so automakers can develop new standards.
Brands will invest into the car industry to propose custom solutions to make vehicles original. Your next car interior will feature patterns nobody else will have, thus making the brand experience more unique and long-lasting. Here 3D printing of different kinds will help making this into a reality to the point even local artisan shops will have their impact.
Individualism will be the key element in the next market change towards Industry 4.0
But what does it mean? It means we will have very soon a different approach on our product creation. We are going to upset the very fabric of how we understand social behavior in the first place; thus we will have to deal with a shift in the way individuals in the workplace interact between.
Industry 4.0 is going to reshape market habits all the way to our simple daily interaction, creating new behavior with the prospect of a new set of rules for society to absorb. The next decade will be about the user and a tailored marketing experience to fit his/her needs.
The organic solar cell optimised to convert ambient indoor light to electricity. Image credit: Thor Balkhed
By Anthony Caggiano
Swedish and Chinese scientists have developed organic solar cells optimised to convert ambient indoor light to electricity. While they have a low power output, they might offer enough to support Internet of Things devices, including sensors.
The light-absorbing layer consists of a mixture of donor and acceptor materials, which helps make the cells tunable for different spectra - for light of different wavelengths.
Researchers in China and Sweden have developed a combination of donor and acceptor materials to be used as the active layer in an organic solar cell. The combination absorbs the wavelengths of light found in indoor spaces including living rooms, libraries and supermarkets.
The researchers describe two variants of an organic solar cell in an article in Nature Energy, where one variant has an area of 1cm² and the other 4cm². The smaller solar cell was exposed to ambient light at an intensity of 1000 lux, and the researchers observed that as much as 26.1% of the energy of the light was converted to electricity. The organic solar cell delivered a high voltage of above 1V for more than 1000 hours in ambient light that varied between 200 and 1000 lux. The larger solar cell still maintained an energy efficiency of 23%.
‘This work indicates great promise for organic solar cells to be widely used in our daily life for powering the Internet of Things,’ Linköping University Division of Biomolecular and Organic Electronics Senior Lecturer, Feng Gao, said.
