Printable Houses and the Future Opportunity Therein All the way back in March of 2004, working in his laboratory at the University of Southern California in San Diego, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, was working with a new process he had invented called Contour Crafting to construct the world’s first 3D printed wall. His goal was to use the technology for rapid home construction as a way to rebuild after natural disasters, like the devastating earthquakes that had recently occurred in his home country of Iran. While we have still not seen our first “printed home” just yet, they will be coming very soon. For an industry firmly entrenched in working with nails and screws, the prospects of replacing saws and hammers with giant printing machines seems frightening. Here’s why I think this will happen. Contour Crafting Contour Crafting is a form of 3D printing that uses robotic arms and nozzles to squeeze out layers of concrete or other materials, moving back and forth over a set path in order to fabricate a large component. Breaking Through the Barriers
Heat Your Clothes, Not Your House As we wrote two years ago, insulation of the body is more energy efficient than insulation of living space. Because of its excellent insulating properties, modern thermal underclothing makes it possible to burn the heating at much lower temperatures without sacrificing comfort or sex appeal. The potential energy savings are huge, and the costs are almost nil. This low-tech insulation strategy can also be applied to heating the body. In use since World War Two, electrically heated clothes have become more effective and comfortable in recent years. Electrically heated clothing is used by soldiers, adventurers, hunters, winter sports enthusiasts, bikers and construction workers [1]. The arrival of compact lithium-ion batteries has increased the performance and diversity of electrically heated clothing. The energy for these garments is supplied by one or two relatively small and light batteries, hidden in a special pocket, which supply the lucky owner with some five hours of warmth.
‘OK Glass, what is my current mental state?’ Concept video shows Google Glass-compatible brainwave sensor It was just a matter of time before we would see a cross between Google Glass and a consumer oriented brainwave reading headset. After all, both are wearable and fit snugly on your forehead. Combining their forces in one ultra-futuristic gadget would make it possible to display your focus, attention, and relaxation in real time – right in front of your eyes. Thanks to Walnut Wearables – a team so far existing only as a YouTube account – we’re one step closer to our imminent cyborg future. The mysterious team is working on a minimal EEG device that’s designed to work with Google Glass. Named Walnut, this EEG sensor would be designed specifically for Google Glass to display the users’ brain activity – focus, attention, relaxation – in real time, just like ‘common’ brain-computer interface headsets, but adding for example the possibility of taking a photo when your mind reaches maximum calmness or concentration.
Technology - Toast Heated Clothes - Heating Clothing - Heated Long Underwear The Health Hazards Of Cold Weather Cold weather can lower the temperature inside your body. Exposure to cold air, especially when combined with wind or wet clothing, carries heat away from your body faster than you can produce it. In extreme cases this leads to hypothermia (when your body temperature drops below 95 degrees) but that happens gradually over long periods of time. So what happens during shorter periods of exposure? Goosebumps and shivering Painfully cold fingers and toes (or numbness) Stiffness in your arms and legs, clenched fists, hunched shoulders Difficulty speaking or moving A New Direction In Staying Warm The idea is so simple, it's a wonder noone's thought of it before. Our patent-pending system of heated first layer comes with heat packs integrated in the core body area -- the neck, chest, and lower back -- which helps prevent the loss of normal body temperature. Finally, all of our fabrics are made by Polartec™ -- the gold standard in warmth and wicking performance.
Intel Goes After Google Glass and Samsung Gear It’s fascinating to see deep-tech companies climbing up the value chain and getting nearer to end customers. Dolby, the original “inside” product is doing it in video and sound. Intel, the other “inside” classic, announced Thursday it has made a significant investment in Recon, makers of what must be the most advanced wearable computing devices to date. Their target, Recon, until recently were also an “inside” play, providing the wearable computing in the Smith + Recon Ski Goggle. Intel capital has invested “significantly”, according to Recon Instruments, in particular to fund global sales expansion. The relative decline of the PC is painful for Intel, a major beneficiary of the PC era. What makes it so interesting is how the emerging device economy is forcing America’s tech brands like Intel into new adjacency moves that take them up the value chain and into new consumer facing business cultures. Playing the adjacency game has become core to many US behemoths.
Lessons From Italy's Matera, the Sustainable City of Stone - Charles R. Wolfe UNESCO has repeatedly used Matera, designated a World Heritage Site in 1996, as an educational case study for sustainable living In the provinces of southeastern Italy, the landscape is changing, as a new world of alternative energy infrastructure blends insular hill towns, turbines, and solar panels across traditional farmland. Yet, on the same horizons other age-old reflections of local, sustainable practices echo time-honored human traditions, as lessons for urban reinvention in a networked world. We need to discuss these lessons more often. For two August weeks observing the cities, towns, and villages of Basilicata, Molise, and Puglia, I pondered how these reflections of people and place could inform American aspirations -- often rhetorical -- for compact urban centers which incubate ideas and offer solutions. An example is Matera, in Basilicata, currently a city of 60,000, with a unique legacy that frames a remarkable setting of almost 10,000 years of continuous human occupation.
What Wearable Technology Means to the Future of Marketing Cezary Pietrzak | August 14, 2013 | 0 Comments inShare25 Understanding the mindset and needs of mobile consumers isn't a choice - it's a necessity. Since Google demoed its Glass API at SXSW in March, marketers have been abuzz about wearable technology. Small, wearable gadgets like glasses, watches, pedometers, fitness trackers, and sleeping monitors are appearing everywhere, leading some to call them the future of mobile. As wearables catch on - they are projected to reach 100 million devices by 2016 - marketers are debating which platform will take off the fastest. But that does not mean marketers should dismiss this new trend. For all of the data that is accessible through a mobile device - people's location, when and how often they use an app, the number of purchases they make - we still lack some key information about their physical state and mindset, which is especially valuable for brands. Of course, physical lifestyle tracking is not a reality just yet.
Global Village Construction Set by Marcin Jakubowski Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters building the Global Village Construction Set - a modular, DIY, low-cost, open source, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different industrial machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The aim of the GVCS is to lower the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing. Its a life-size lego set that can create entire economies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, or in the developing world. So Far we’ve prototyped 8 of the 50 Machines and we’ve been expanding rapidly. Please watch these videos if you are new to the project: What Makes the Global Village Construction Set so special? Why should I help fund this project? This toolkit will establish a new high benchmark of efficiency for green, low-cost housing construction - making natural building FAST and CHEAP, rather than SLOW and EXPENSIVE. Absolutely!
Yankee Group: Taking wearable tech to the next level Of the innovations jockeying for "the next big thing" nomenclature, wearable tech stands out--both literally and figuratively--as an arena with serious promise. But what often goes overlooked is the fact that wearable tech has been around for decades. Think of the infamous phrase, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," which was powered by a Plantronics headset. Or perhaps the release of Pulsar's Calculator Watch in 1975, Sony's Walkman in the late 1970s, Nicolet's digital hearing aid in the late 1980s, and GoPro's HERO Camera in the early 2000s. The first iPhone was released in 2007. While Apple's first-generation iPhone is far from being a wearable tech contender, it marks the transition in mobile from feature to platform device. Sign up for our FREE newsletter for more news like this sent to your inbox! Companies hoping to pull ahead must be willing and able to leverage both hardware and software innovations from peripheral industries.
NeuroSky developing brain sensors to control things with thoughts Read more: A San Jose-based company called NeuroSky is building sensors to detect your brain activity, so you can control things with your thoughts. The applications for this kind of technology is endless — and is best known in the gaming community – but the company raised funding today to push into the health and fitness market. NeuroSky today secured an undisclosed sum from Softbank, a Japanese corporation, in a round that chief executive Stanley Yang describes as “strategic.” Neurosky has raised about $40 million, since its inception in 2006. NeuroSky builds the chips and software, and strikes partnerships with device manufacturers. The flagship product, MindWave, is a headset that can log into your computer using just your thoughts. NeuroSky’s smart sensors can also track your heart rate and other bodily metrics, and can be embedded in the next generation of wearable devices. The company isn’t the only biosensor maker on the market.