Dubai’s first Robocop starts active duty
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It is inevitable that robots will take a more dominant role in our society and by rolling out the world’s first robot police force Dubai has taken the first big step. Almost two years after their initial announcement the world’s first robot policeman has...
Meet the new harvesting robots that can pick 10,000 apples an hour
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Jobs that require precision and dexterity have long been protected against automation because robots could mimic the behaviour of humans accurately or fast enough, but now all that’s changing. Love the Exponential Future? Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch...
Amazon is on track be the world’s first fully automated fulfilment company
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The combination of “old school” robotics and new AI and Machine Vision technologies is helping robotics companies automate increasingly complex tasks that were once thought to be the exclusive domain of humans. By the time you’ve picked your Amazon parcel up off of your...
Locus’s new robots learn to navigate warehouses by themselves
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The process of automating, and replacing more human workers, is paved with small advances like this one Last week Locus Robotics unveiled a robotic navigation system that lets their LocusBots work more effectively together, and with humans in crowded, bustling warehouses. The LRAN system,...
Warehouse robot’s upgrade helps it pick goods at human speed
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots are now as fast and accurate as human workers when it comes to identifying and picking goods from warehouse bins and shelves, and that’s a problem if that’s your job. Buried deep within a building in Somerville, Massachusetts, a robot arm spends all...
Fast, deadly laser wielding underwater robots revolutionise fish farming
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Inventors have found a novel way to combine new technologies together to help fish farmers reduce pollution, reduce costs and improve the yield, and health, of their farm reared Salmon. When you think about laser-wielding robots that are equipped with the latest machine vision...
Artificial intelligence identifies skin cancer as well as trained doctors
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Every year tens of millions of people around the world are diagnosed with skin cancer, and Stanford’s artificial intelligence app could save tens of thousands of lives. It’s scary enough making a doctor’s appointment to see if a strange mole could be cancerous so...
Descartes Labs new AI visual search tool lets you find everything on Earth
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF People have been using satellites to take photos of the Earth for decades but until now you’ve never been able to search it to find things of interest, or combine it with other data to identify patterns. Recently a company called Planet increased the...
Scientists 3D print an Eagle eye camera that’s smaller than a human hair
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are plenty of devices today that are too small, or lack the computing power to accommodate a traditional camera, new micro-cameras overcome all those issues. It seems that you can’t go anywhere nowadays without a camera tracking you but as ubiquitous as they...
Google RAISR sharpens photos and gives you super vision
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Sight is one of our most crucial senses, now one technology promises infinite zoom and super crisp images. Let’s face it – the last thing many of us want it to take what we think is a great family photo only to find out...
F-35 pilots will team with AI to control swarms of drones in mid flight
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Teams of humans, AI’s and drones take center stage in the future of warfare, until that is AI’s replace humans. In the wake of a recent announcement that the US will stand up it’s first fully autonomous drone squadron later this year earlier this...
Australia hails the end of passports as it rolls out biometrics at airports
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Biometric border technologies can scan and authenticate you without you ever knowing, or needing to stop, now Australia are going to use them to replace passports, for good. Australia, for those that have never been, is a beautiful country – and the last thing...
Velodyne’s new miniature LiDAR means many more autonomous things
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Most of the new smart things that we are creating rely on sensors to map, move around and interact with our world, and LiDAR is a key sensing technology that helps things see, Velodyne’s new product will accelerate the creation of smart, autonomous things...
Point. Click. Create your own 3D avatar and put yourself in the game
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Avatars will play an increasingly important role in the future – whether they’re being used to depict, or replace actors in movies, VR simulations or to compliment bots, Loom.ai’s new product makes the process of creating one simple. We’re entering a new world of,...
Walk in. Shop. Walk out. Amazon unveils its new cashless cashierless store
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Most companies understand the concept of the “Frictionless customer experience” but very few of them are any good at it, Amazons latest store demonstrates what you can achieve if you have vision and a willingness to experiment. No cash? No time to wait? No...
Technology and the future of privacy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In Millenia past privacy was considered to be a normal part of life but now it is increasingly becoming a privilege and a scarcity, and, if it is not guarded, or looked after wisely, one day it won’t exist at all. I originally wrote...
Facebooks new app gives your smartphone AI super powers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Pushing artificial intelligence to the edge of the network – to the device, and untethering it from the datacenter, will help make devices smarter and revolutionise the software that runs on them, making it exponentially more powerful and capable In a speech today at...
ISS SPHERE drones learn to see and fly around in space all by themselves
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This new milestone will help to pave the way for fully autonomous drones, and vehicles, that can navigate their surroundings without the need for any specific maps or navigation aids. During an experiment this week on board the International Space Station (ISS) a small drone,...
Silicon Valley and TNC use AI to monitor every catch in the Pacific
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Wanted: A machine that can tell the difference between Tuna and Turtles Conservationists are increasingly turning to technology to help them protect Earth’s valuable bounty of plants, animals and resources – whether it’s robot deer to catch poachers in the northern states, or Tuna...
Cornell’s new AI is cataloguing nature – starting with trees
What type of tree is that anyway? Cornell is creating a catalogue for Nature Engineers from Caltech have developed a method that uses data from satellite and street-level images, such as the ones that you can see in Google Maps, to automatically create an inventory of street trees that cities...
