Bin your headphones, Noveto streams sound straight into your ears
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Wired headphones get tangled, wireless headphones need charging, so why bother with headphones at all? When Apple introduced the iPhone 7 they removed the headphone jack and spun it as a win for consumers who could now use wireless headphones, obviously preferably Apple branded...
Japanese team show off their new flexible skin display technology
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Displays will one day be more than just slabs of glass stuck to our devices, and this is another step in that journey. Palm reading could take on a whole new meaning, thanks to a new invention from Japan in the form of a...
Revolutionary Nano-antenna is hundreds times smaller than today’s state of the art
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It’s not just our devices that are getting smaller and more powerful, the components that make our devices are also going through their own revolutions. Recently I discussed how a new Metalense breakthrough from Harvard University will help us realise atomic sized camera lenses,...
UC Berkeley’s atom thin display paves the way for truly invisible displays
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We’re traditionally used to displays being bulky and stiff, but increasingly scientists are finding new ways to create new types of displays that break the status quo, and which will open up millions of new use cases, from health monitoring to way beyond. We’ll...
Your next smartphone could have sonar
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF With biometrics becoming an increasingly important way of authenticating people some of todays technologies still leave much to be desired, as a result teams around the world are continually looking to push the boundaries. VoiceGesture is an app that could make phones far more...
Smartphone app uses selfies to detect Pancreatic Cancer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Every year thousands of people die from Pancreatic Cancer, one of the most deadly forms of cancer, but now people can screen for it in the comfort of their own home using just their smartphone and an app. Better screening tools for all Cancer...
MIT’s “mind reading” wearable let’s you silently interact with all your devices
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As computing becomes ubiquitous, and embedded in the devices around us, we won’t always want to talk out loud to use them, that’s one of the many use cases for this technology. MIT researchers have developed a new form of computer interface called AlterEgo...
Ultrasound on a smartphone, Butterfly Network release the iQ
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Healthcare in many countries is expensive and difficult to access, tools like these help democratise access to vital services helping people live longer, healthier lives. Engineer Jonathan Rothberg became famous for creating the world’s first DNA sequencer on a chip called the Ion Torrent back in...
Chinese scientists unveil a new material that heals itself like human skin
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Up until now most self-healing materials have either been hard, or soft, and that narrows their number of applications, this new material is the first to have the best of both worlds. Imagine a smartphone, or window, that can heal from cuts and scratches...
ORNL’s new super fast ultrasonic dryer uses 70 percent less energy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Tumble dryers account for more than 4 percent of the world’s energy consumption, so cutting that figure by 70 percent could be a big deal. Forget heat, drying laundry in the future is all about cranking up the volume. At least, that’s how the folks at...
Electric eel inspired bio-batteries could revolutionise pacemakers and wearables
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A new type of ultra thin biological battery could replace batteries in pace makers, and power smart contact lenses, but their use cases don’t stop there. New artificial organs may have a familiar, slimy face to thank for their near future prospects in the...
World first as scientists manage to make carbon fiber using plants, not oil
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The knock on impact of being able to produce cheap carbon fiber at scale could help us create stronger, lighter drones, prosthetics and robots, as well as improve the fuel economy of all manner of vehicles, from aircraft to cars. Carbon fiber is the...
UBeam uses sound to wirelessly charge phones on stage, confounds critics
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF More companies are showing interest in wireless charging and the pace of development and investment in the sector is accelerating, but this is one wireless charging technology that the experts say shouldn’t work, but it does. Unlike Energous, a company that a few weeks...
Wirelessly charged smart underpants hit the floor at CES
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we become ever more reliant on the electron shuffling marvel that is electricity, we’re rapidly getting to the point where we no longer have to tether all our gadgets and devices to our wall sockets to charge them. This year could well prove...
Washing machines get a whole lot greener thanks to new Xeros polymer bead system
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Doing the laundry uses lots of detergent, energy and water, and creates grey water by product, but Xeros’ new polymer bead washing system cuts this down by over 80 percent. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that products we take for granted, and use every...
Horizon Report: The Future of Smartphones 2020 to 2070
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The global smartphone market is huge, and heavily contested and it’s only going to get hotter in the future. In this 50 year horizon report I look into what future smartphones will look like, the technologies they’ll contain, and discuss what’s going to replace them....
LG unveils their giant rollable 65 inch and 88 inch Crystal Sound OLED TV’s
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Display and sound technology are starting to progress, and the fixed formats we’re used to are going to one day be replaced by more flexible, integrated systems. Last year Samsung showed off their new 11k display with naked eye 3D effect, and Panasonic showed...
Researchers unveil self-charging fabrics that could power tomorrow’s Smart Clothes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As transistors and computing devices continue to shrink it is inevitable we’ll bake more computing power into our clothing, and all that extra compute will need some way to power it. Today, the majority of smart clothes we use to monitor a person’s vital...
ShiftWear’s custom E-Ink kicks bring clothing to life
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF E-Ink has many applications outside of just being able to help you read novels on your Kindle, and when combined with other technologies it could just be what we need to move away from smartphones and onto the “next” platform. If you’re one of...
Harvard revolutionises camera technology, invents Metalense
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Centuries after they were first invented most lenses are still made of plastic or glass and Harvard’s new metalense will revolutionise the industry and let us make cameras and lenses that, eventually, will be just atoms thick. Metalenses, flat surfaces that use nanostructures to...
