Re-imagining retail, Robomart unveil their autonomous, mobile shop concept
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As society starts to get used to the idea of autonomous vehicles it’s giving companies the opportunity to re-imagine entire industries. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. As companies start to realise...
Orii uses bone conduction tech to build the phone of your childhood dreams
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our devices morph into wearables and other formats, and become smaller, we’re going to have to start thinking beyond the screen and embrace new ways of using them. Last year I heard about a company called Sgnl, a wristwatch company that had figured a...
Samsung unveils their new ultra fast charging, energy dense battery
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When asked what irritates them most about their smartphones most people reply battery life, but Samsung’s latest breakthrough might mean we have to moan about something else. All our mobile devices have been hamstrung for ages by their reliance on traditional Lithium-Ion (LiOn) batteries...
Researchers claim new ultrasonic fingerprint scanner is unhackable
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Biometric security systems are an improvement on passwords but they’re easy to hack, now a new ultrasonic fingerprint scanner hopes to make them even more secure. As many of you have probably figured out by now the fingerprint recognition system on your phones, laptops...
New solid state coolant could spell the end of exploding batteries
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The world has an insatiable thirst for cooling, whether it’s cool fridges and freezers, or as a way to cool our gadgets increasingly powerful batteries and electronics, now solid state cooling could put an end to things that go boom in the night. There...
MIT’s new AI is helping scientists design new, futuristic materials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Materials are a fundamental building block of everything in existence today, whether it’s cells, our power plants or our smartphones and devices, now researchers have built an AI to help them automate the discovery of new materials and it could revolutionise everything. Over the...
World’s first ultrasound 3D printer prints and assembles electronics in situ
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s 3D printers can print increasingly complex components but they still need to be sent elsewhere to be assembled into finished products, this new ultrasonic manipulation technique means products can be printed and assembled all within the same printer. 3D Printing is an exciting...
AI can now listen to individuals in a crowd
WHY THIS MATTERS This new breakthrough will let our Connected Home devices hear us better, but on the other it also gives organisations the ability to eavesdrop on everyone. Devices like Amazon’s Echo and Google Home can normally deal with requests from a single person, but like us they often still...
World’s first liquid transistor could usher in a new era of liquid computers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Moore’s Law is slowing and as we look to move computing to the edge of the network we need new forms of computing platforms, this is the first step in building the worlds first liquid computer. For decades now transistors, those tiny electrical switches...
MIT researchers use AI and a smartphone to see round corners
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Cameras that can see around corners are getting better, and the technology is beginning more commercially viable but there’s still a long way to go before you can take pictures around corners. Building cameras that can see around corners is nothing new and over...
World first as Qualcomm shows off the world’s first 5G to mobile data link
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 5G will revolutionise connectivity and connected devices and services, and Qualcomm are claiming they are the world’s first company to deliver a 5G connection to a mobile device Qualcomm is claiming a world first in the race to bring ultrafast 5G wireless technology to...
Researchers use 3D printing to create a soft electronic wearable
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Electronics are normally hard and that makes them difficult to integrate into wearable devices or clothing, but now new soft electronics could pave the way for a whole host of new applications The human skin, even 3D Printed artificial skin, is amazing, but in...
Researchers have created a 3D plasma hologram you can touch
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Everyone loves holograms, or they think they do, because until now most holograms have relied more on parlour tricks than actual science and technology to work, but that might be about to change. Every science fiction film ever created, and probably even the ones...
Revolutionary new IoT chip communicates miles without using any energy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF IoT devices only “work” if they have connectivity, but up until now trying to get data from a sensor in a field, or a toaster at home, has meant fitting them all with battery powered communications gear, new backscatter devices solve that issue. A...
World’s first holographic smartphone makes its debut
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Advances in nanotechnology and nanophotonics are helping companies make great strides in creating, and bringing to market, new holographic display systems and they’re only just getting started. A few months ago cinema camera maker RED came out with the surprise announcement that they were...
Samsung to unveil new 11k TV’s with natural 3D effect in 2018
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Future screen resolutions will pack so many “invisible” pixels into the screens that they will have a natural 3D effect. Samsung has announced that it is developing a display crammed so full of pixels that it produces a 3D effect, without the need for...
New all seeing cameras will revolutionise computer vision as we know it
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Imagine a camera that can see and analyse every part of the visible and non-visible spectrum at the same time, now imagine it’s in a search and rescue drone, or a hunter killer robot… Hey, I know you like hearing about the grand things that...
A quarter of Dubai’s new buildings will be 3D printed by 2030
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Dubai is determined to take the lead and become a hub for the development of futuristic technologies, and now they’re pushing the boundaries again. The ruler of Dubai is laser focused on turning Dubai in to a hub for the development of future technologies,...
Nvidia’s latest autonomous drone flies off grid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Increasingly more devices and products are able to navigate their surroundings without having to rely on external systems or platforms, and as AI moves into the devices themselves it’s all just one more step on the path to fully autonomous behaviours. GPS can be...
The size of a grain of rice, researchers unveil the world’s smallest computers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Micromotes will stop the sensors at the edge of the world’s networks from flooding datacenters with exabytes of worthless information, and open the door to new computing applications. At just one cubic millimetre in size Micromotes, which are so small that they can almost be...
