Pinsized sensor brings chemical identification to your smartphone
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are plenty of situations when you want to know what something’s made from, such as food or goods, and soon that power will be in your smartphone. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Imagine pointing your smartphone...
Chicken nuggets grown in a lab from feathers for the first time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Feeding the world’s growing population is one of the great challenges of our time, but new food production technologies could make famine a thing of the past. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! Watch a keynote, grab a free book, read thousands of...
Adidas unveil world’s first fully recyclable sneakers that last you a lifetime
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Advances in new materials, production techniques and company processes mean we increasingly have a way to eliminate many forms of needless waste. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! Watch a keynote, grab a free book, read thousands of articles, and...
DNA based marketing is becoming a reality, and brands are cashing in
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As gene sequencing gets cheaper, and as companies get more access to personal information, from biomarkers and wearables to big data, companies can target you in ultra-personalised ways you’d never likely dreamt of before. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore...
Ingenious new fabric cools you down and warms you up
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We adapt to the weather by changing our clothes, but in the future our clothes will be able to adapt to the weather. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Recently I wrote about a new type of 3D printed fabric...
New Nestle service uses your DNA to sell you personalised supplements
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As genetic sequencing gets cheaper and easier companies are seeing an opportunity to cash in on it. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. In 2017 a company called Food Ink, who used 3D printers to print gourmet food for...
IBM unveil their artificial tongue to improve food safety
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are plenty of situations where we want to test things, such as food and water, to see if they’re safe without actually tasting them ourselves, and now you can. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Artificial Intelligence (AI)...
Amazon trained their delivery bot Scout in the virtual world so it could handle the real one
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Training AI software and robots in the virtual world will dramatically accelerate disruption and the world’s rate of change. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. Amazon, who are already on their way to becoming a fully autonomous retailer, recently...
An Instagram blogger just bought a custom digital dress for $9,500
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Having that special fashion item in the real world can put someone in the spotlight, and now that applies online to. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. A lot is changing in the fashion world – and in...
Autonomous delivery trucks and robot dogs to be couriers of the future
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Irrespective of whether vehicles drive themselves delivery companies still have to solve the “last mile” problem, and this is one of their ideas. Interested in the future and want to experience even more?! eXplore More. As we all order more and more stuff from Amazon...
Colorful bio-engineered bacteria could end fashions obsession with toxic dyes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The dye in your jeans, and most of your clothes, comes from countries whose dead rivers run red and blue, but now there’s a way to put an end to it, for good. Throughout the fall of 2012, Marie-Sarah Adenis and Thomas Landrain toiled...
Perfect fit one size fits all clothing is here, thanks to robots and smart materials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Inventory is one of retailers biggest cash sinks, but now a new technology combo means retailers can buy one size from the manufacturer and custom fit it to every body shape in house. You’re shopping for a sweater, and you spot one you love,...
Coffee without the coffee beans, “Molecular Coffee” has arrived
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we find new ways to produce food coffee isn’t immune, and now a company has found a way to make great tasting coffee but without using beans. Food production is going through a revolution. Take the animal out of meat, and you’ve got...
New pre-crime tech detects shoplifters before they commit the crime
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI’s that can predict outcomes from users behaviours are becoming increasingly common, and one of the biggest beneficiaries of that is the area of pre-crime detection. It’s watching, and knows a crime is about to take place before it happens – this is the...
3D Printing with sound, new tech opens door to printed cosmetics, food, and drugs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As 3D printing becomes more popular the ability to control the size of droplets opens the door to 3D printing everything from cosmetics and materials, to pharmaceutical drugs. Harvard University has announced that its researchers have developed a way to print objects using sound....
Google creates a neural network that picks out individual voices in video
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Not only does this technology have benefits for video search, but it also has surveillance and privacy implications. Recently I talked about a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancement from Hitachi that let’s its AI’s pick out and follow individuals in a crowd – something that...
The founder of China’s largest online retailer envisions a “100% robotic workforce”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are particular industries and companies that lend themselves for full automation, and E-Commerce is just one of them. “I hope my company would be 100% automation someday … no human beings anymore, 100% operated by AI and robots.” That’s Richard Liu’s audacious goal,...
3D printed fashion takes over New York Fashion Week
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D printed clothes can be customised and printed on demand using sustainable new materials, giving fashion designers new options and reducing the industry’s environmental impact. Downloadable 3D printed personalised sustainable fashion. I think you’ll agree it’s quite a catchy phrase – or at least...
DeepMind’s AI now has human like 3D vision
WHY THIS MATERS IN BRIEF As we come to rely on robots and automated systems more in our daily lives their ability to accurately perceive our world is crucial. If I showed you a single picture of a room it’s likely you’d be able to tell me about it...
Scientists have 3D printed the world’s first physical neural network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to print advanced and complex AI’s mean we can produce them cheaply and position them at the edge of networks where computer power might be limited. Recently a team of researchers in the US revolutionised artificial intelligence when they made the world’s first...
