Click here to see one of the first holographic displays. James Sears website tells a story of the dynamic, immersive 3D future.

MakerBot have lanched a washing machine size worktop factory for $999.

A tiny 3D industrial park you can pick up and carry.

There are shipping them at a rate of knots now, and every purchase gives rise to new ways of using the factory, in turn new innovative tools are added.

As I've said for almost 20 years now, mass-micro-manufacturing in your kitchen, den, shed, garage, loft; even under the stairs, is now on its way.

Millions of these (and many other low cost 3D factories) will be at home, in the school, hospital, workshop, etc, etc, etc.

Click here to view site.

Also see Desktopfactory. Another low cost Designamaina - Crazonomic - Factory.

Click here to see how the world is futhre moving towards 'personal manufacturing.'

Click here to view site.

Think you're smart?

Concidering the 'interview puzzle' book I introduce below, there's a website that will frustrate, but at the same time enlighten here.

Please give it a go. It's fun, at the same time ARRRRRR!

Click here.

I just found one of my favorite old book on requitment intervewing.

For years, high-techs have been posing riddles and logic puzzles like these in their notoriously grueling job interviews.

Now 'puzzle interviews' have become a hot new trend in hiring.

From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, employers are using tough and tricky questions to gauge job candidate's intelligence, imagination, and problem-solving ability -- qualities needed to survive in today's hyperinnovative, globally intermixing, world economy.

For the first time, author William Poundstone discuses the toughest questions used at the likes of Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies.

He traces the rise and controversial fall of employer-mandated IQ tests, the peculiar obsessions of Bill Gates (who plays jigsaw puzzles as a competitive sport), the ic mind games of Wall Street (which reportedly led one job seeker to smash a forty-third-story window), and the bizarre excesses of today's hiring managers (who may start off your interview with a box of Lego or a game of virtual Russian roulette).

How Would You Move Mount Fuji? is an indispensable book for anyone in a hard-edge business. Managers seeking the most talented employees will learn to incorporate puzzle interviews in their search for the top candidates. And anyone who has ever dreamed of going up against the best minds in business may discover that these puzzles are simply a lot of fun. Why are beer cans tapered on the end, anyway?

Click here for a good review of the book.

Or here to jump to amazon.

External Thought Leaders can inspire Breakthrough Innovation

It is quite funny when one considers this:

There's much muse at the mo' with regard's failed business (or at least disapointing results when it comes to innovation). But some bright help is at hand: Using thought leaders as inspration and insight for the new!

InnovationPoint's managing partners Soren Kaplan and Derrick Palmer, give up some pithy insighter.

They say:

'....efforts often deliver disappointingly short-term ideas and fail to identify longer-term growth platforms. An organization’s inwardly-focused and historically-biased view of the world limits its capacity for “strategic imagination”. Bringing in fresh, future-oriented perspectives from outside the organization is an essential catalyst for innovative, “stretch thinking”. External “Thought Leaders” from a variety of domains can be brought into the innovation process to help a team develop “Industry Foresight” – and to identify non-obvious opportunities. This brief paper describes how a non-traditional “Thought Leader Panel” approach inspires new levels of strategic thinking....'

Well, for many people I meet in the day-to-day business world, this is a stange, even funny concept - alian even.

Because if you ask them what they think here, and then ask them who they think is their industrys (and beyond) thought leaders are, 8 out of 10 give a quite distant look.

So, for even the converted anyway, please click here for full insight paper.

New Mission to Mars: First Extraterestrial Automated Research Airplane.

ARES Principal Insestigator, Dr. Joel S. Levine, discusses the ARES Mars Mission at TEDxNASA. The ARES Team is actively working toward being selected as the NASA's next Mars Scout Mission, enabling it to fly its high-value science payload on the first aircraft to soar over another planet. Mars Scout Missions are designed to be innovative, science-focused, Principal Investigator-led missions that can accomplish high priority science investigations and address recent discoveries. Mars Scout Missions are competitively selected by the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters. Click Here to view his presentation.

VR and Haptics

for Rehabilitation

A combined device aims to help patients recover from a stroke or injury.

SenseGraphics demonstrates Curictus.

At the IEEE's Virtual Reality 2010 conference in Waltham, MA USA this week, researchers and companies are demonstrating technologies that combine virtual reality and haptics.

Some of these technologies are designed for medical rehabilitation. For example, a device made by Swedish company Curictus combines a haptic stylus from SensAble called the Phantom Omni with a pair of virtual reality glasses and monitor. The stylus moves freely on the mount, but becomes more or less resistant depending on the user's onscreen actions. In a demo at the conference, I donned 3-D glasses and used the stylus to push virtual blocks around. The stylus pushed back when one block was pushed into another as it would in the real world. Pressing a button on the device and rotating a block around produced the centripetal force, which I felt through the stylus.

This type of set-up can be used for rehabilitation. Turning exercises into a computerized game encourages patients to complete their exercises and keeps precise records of their performance, says Tommy Forsell at SenseGraphics, a company that provides open-source software for the combined device.

In another game, I used the stylus as a hammer to hit 3-D pop-up images. This game is designed to measure stroke patients' response times and the accuracy of their actions.

The technology from SenseGraphics and SensAble has also been used to train doctors and dentists, and by veterinary students at the Royal Veterinary College in London to learn how to treat pregnant cows, says Forsell.

The prototype is currently being used in several rehabilitation centers in Sweden. See an older version of the device in action here.

Genetic Diseases Already Dropping.

Some of mankind's most devastating inherited diseases appear to be declining, and a few have nearly disappeared, because more people are using genetic testing to decide whether to have children. Births of babies with cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs and other less familiar disorders seem to have dropped since testing came into wider use. More women are being tested as part of routine prenatal care, and many end pregnancies when diseases are found. One study in California found that prenatal screening reduced by half the number of babies born with the severest form of cystic fibrosis because many parents chose abortion. This decline is remarkable because it has happened so soon after genetic testing became available -- well before genetic engineering is capable of producing cures...... Read more

Acute insight into rapidly developing consumer trends.

One of my hot favorite sites at the moment is tendwatching.com. They overview their website like this:

'trendwatching.com is an independent and opinionated trend firm, scanning the globe for the most promising consumer trends, insights and related hands-on business ideas. For the latest and greatest, we rely on our network of hundreds of spotters in more than 120 countries worldwide. Our trend findings help marketers, CEOs, researchers, and anyone else interested in the future of business and consumerism, to dream up new goods, services and experiences for (or even better, with) their customers. Many of these findings are aggregated in a free monthly Trend Briefing, which is sent to 160,000+ business professionals in more than 180 countries.'

Click here to see their site.

Technology is being developed to allow people with severe motor disabilities to play 3D computer games like World of Warcraft using only their eyes.

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Since the 1990s, gaze technology - or eye tracking - has helped people with conditions such as motor neurone disease (MND), cerebral palsy and other ;locked-in syndromes' to control 2D desktop environments and communicate using visual keyboards.

Users typically guide a cursor with their eyes, staring at objects for a time to emulate a mouse click. But that is too laborious to let users to match the speed and accuracy of real-time 3D games, say researchers on the project at University, Leicester, UK. The team are developing the software as part of the EU-funded project Communication by Gaze Interaction (COGAIN).

Even though a user in, say, Second Life might look as if they are able-bodied, if they can't operate and communicate as fast as everyone else, they could be perceived as having a disability, hence privacy issues for players who may prefer not to reveal their disability in the virtual world.

In virtual worlds, gamers need to perform a whole suite of commands including moving their character or avatar, altering their viewpoint on the scene, manipulating objects and communicating with other players.

Eye-gaze systems bounce infrared light from LEDs at the bottom of a computer monitor and track a person's eye movements using stereo infrared cameras. This setup can calculate where on a screen the user is looking with an accuracy of about 5 mm.

A ‘gaze gesture’ is also built in to temporarily turn off the eye-gaze functions altogether, to avoid unintentionally selecting an item while looking around the screen.

Clearly our eyes are perceptual organs, not designed for pointing and selecting. You can't turn them off, like you can lift your hand off the mouse."

Enabling someone to express themselves and engage with people in ways that they can't do in real life - because they are restricted to a wheelchair or a bed - can have a really positive effect on their self-esteem and motivation.

Trials of the software with people with locked-in syndrome are proving well.

Click here to watch video.

Musionmedia Real Time Hologrphic Telepresence Demo

Holograms in your pocket!

One exciting example is the research going on at the Photonics and Sensors Group at the University of Cambridge. Developing breakthrough holographic technologies, which will power a new generation of pocket-sized holographic projectors.

Holographic projections are in fact surprisingly simple, requiring only a few components, which means they can be made very small. In the near future, holo-projectors will be integrated into laptops, PDAs, even mobile phones.

So why has this not been done before?

(1) Holograms are extremely complex objects mathematically, and calculating them fast enough for video applications is very difficult; even the most powerful computers of - in real-time - the past would take minutes to calculate, generate and project even very a simple holographic video frame.

(2) The projected images produced by early holographic technology tended to be speckled and of very low definition quality.

(3) The lasers that are required to illuminate the holograms have, until very recently, been very expensive and limited in availability.

But this is now history.

Several major breakthroughs have been made, together making possible the generation and display of high quality holograms at video frame rates, using just a single custom chip.

So how does it work?

A hologram pattern, which to the eye looks like a collection of random dots, is displayed on a small liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) microdisplay - a tiny, very fast liquid crystal display built on top of a chip.

The hologram patterns are calculated by a custom ‘holo-chip’ so that when the microdisplay is illuminated by laser light, the light interferes with itself in a complex manner through the physical process of diffraction, which when carefully controlled, results in the formation of a large, high quality projected image on, for example, a screen or a wall.

Click here, you'll be amazed!

Musionmedia Real Time Hologrphic Telepresence Demo

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Telstra - the Ozzy Multimedia Corp - used the Musion Eyeliner System to beam a live holographic image of senior staff member, between Melbourne and Adelaide, in what has been billed as world first.

Telstra’s chief technology officer Dr Hugh Bradlow, based in Melbourne, appeared at a business function in Adelaide as a real-time holographic effect and interacted with members of the audience for around 15 minutes.

The real time hologram of Dr Bradlow was made possible by the company's high-speed networks and the Musion Eyeliner holographic projection system.

We've all seen this sort of thing in sci-fi , but the reality is here, now and demonstrated.

(Click on title for Holo Vid).

Kate Moss as OB1-Wan Kenobi: is she our only hope?

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Click on title to see Holographic of KM.

Posted by Chris Harris at 23:53 1 comments

Rapid Emergence of Holographic Technology and Applications.

I know people that still say it'll never happen. Only....

From product design to architecture to entertainment to communications to education holographic kit is about to rear its head and smash more technological paradigms per unit time than any other.

Along time in the pipeline, 'High Definition Holographic Projectiors' (HDHP) that are at a marketable price point, practical weight and size, and acceptable reliability are now hitting the market.

There are well over 100 R&D programmes, with dozens of companies launching commercial, and soon consumer HDHP systems. Not to mansion the multiple service providers ranging from marketing communications to entertainment to design.

Breakthrough Brain Interface Telecom Technology

Breakthrough Brain Interface Telecom Technology

A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time.

With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.

A video (click on above title) shows the system being used to place the first public voiceless phone call on stage at a recent conference held by microchip manufacturer Texas Instruments. Michael Callahan, co-founder of Ambient Corporation, which developed the neckband, demonstrates the device, called the Audeo.

Users needn't worry about that the system voicing their inner thoughts though. Callahan says producing signals for the Audeo to decipher requires "a level above thinking". Users must think specifically about voicing words for them to be picked up by the equipment.

The system demonstrated at the TI conference can recognise only a limited set of about 150 words and phrases, similar to the early days of speech recognition software.

At the end of the year Ambient plans to release an improved version, without a vocabulary limit. Instead of recognising whole words or phrases, it should identify the individual phonemes that make up complete words.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality

Click title for video.

Augmented Reality is a specialization of computer vision that attempts to extract the 3D structure of a scene from video and then insert with high precision virtual or 3D objects into the scene. AR can be useful in many applications including entertainment, heads-up displays, tourism and surgical visualization.

Consider for example visiting a foreign country and not having a map. If you want directions to your hotel from any location in the city then you can just take a photo with your cell phone camera and using the phone’s build-in AR software determine your location; the AR software would then retrieve directions wirelessly from a large database and present them to you by annotating the original photo. Another application would be retrieving information about a historical monument that you are looking at. An example of AR is shown in the following video from related research at the University of British Columbia.

Watch Touchable Holography

Watch Touchable Holography

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Touchable holographic displays?

Researchers from The University of Tokyo Shinoda lab have figured out a way to add touch to holograms.

It's surprising stuff.

Hyperphones with nanoscale engineering capabilities are in the R&D labs NOW.

Click on title to a product concept video presenation from Nokia Nanotech.

Mind blowing stuff. Capable of things we now do not only have, but have not even have thought of before.

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the Wii Remote.

Using an infrared camera in the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two IR LEDs), you can accurately track the location of your head and render view dependent images on the screen.

This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space.

You may need the most recent version of DirectX installed for this to work the Software to run the DesktopVR program.

Click here to watch video!

The 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Businessweek have published the list of the 50 most innovative companies. Great!

Here's what they say:

'With the sudden reversal of the global economy, businesses are struggling not only with shrinking income and budgets, but also with seismic shifts that are upending entire industries, from autos and retail to banking and entertainment.

These same forces are apparent in our latest ranking of the Most Innovative Companies. While the 2009 list includes some stalwarts in their usual top positions—namely Apple and Google—15 newcomers have joined the lineup, the biggest change since BusinessWeek and Boston Consulting Group first partnered on this proprietary survey in 2005.

These include more companies headquartered outside the U.S. than in the past, such as Volkswagen, Infosys, and Telefónica. See a full explanation of our methodology as well as the footnotes at the bottom of the table.'

Click here to see score sheet.

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, has just this month published an article on what I and many of my peers have been harping on about for 20 years.

That there's a (New) 'Next Industrial Revolution' under way.

You designers, makers, shakers and communicators out there, better listen to us.

The shape and speed of what, how, where, and cost of the made is becoming so very different from the last 200 years that, well, you'll just have to read the article.

Click here to read a real piece of the future.

'Co-authored by the UQ School of Population Health researchers Associate Professor Jayne Lucke and Professor Wayne Hall, the study interviewed 605 Australians aged 18 to 96 and identified their ethical, social and personal beliefs towards pharmaceutical life extension....'

Read on:

Click here for 'life, but not as we know it!'

Bioethics...

...was born of a desire to be relevant. The philosopher Daniel Callahan has said that he and his colleagues founded the Hastings Center—the premier bioethics think tank—in 1969 because they wanted to give philosophy “some social bite, some relevance.” Whether bioethics has achieved its goal is the urgent question at the core of this useful book, co-authored by Renée C. Fox, a highly distinguished sociologist, and Judith P. Swazey, a respected historian of medicine.

Between them, Fox and Swazey have spent many decades as participant observers in the house of medicine. Their intensive involvement with physicians, theologians, and philosophers has given them ringside seats to the development of modern bioethics. Through enjoyable interviews with major figures in the field and a rich trove of personal observations, the book perceptively, if densely, chronicles the growth of bioethics as a profession.

If success is measured by breadth of institutional footprint, then bioethics has indeed succeeded. Major universities house bioethics centers that offer a plethora of both graduate and undergraduate programs. Bioethicists serve on hospital ethics committees and on research review boards. In many hospitals, bioethicists are “on call” to offer guidance on whether certain life-prolonging treatments should be initiated or withdrawn. In the public policy arena, bioethicists are appointed to presidential commissions and state and federal task forces that formulate guidelines and advise politicians.

By other measures of relevance, however, bioethics certainly falls short. Though clearly fond of the bioethicist-physicians, bioethicist-philosophers, and bioethicist-legal scholars they interviewed, Fox and Swazey describe themselves as “critical of what we regard as the field's deficiencies and blind spots.” They identify these as the use of dumbed-down teaching formulae, an insensitivity to cultural differences, and the tendency of American bioethicists to emphasize “individual rights, and rationality” instead of “community, and common good,” which are the values that Fox and Swazey favor.

The matter of ethical expertise—what it looks like, who can claim it—is a profound one. Bioethics’ place in the academy, in the clinical realm, and in society turns on it. For most of us, the very idea of “right” answers to complex moral and philosophical dilemmas such as euthanasia, embryonic stem cell cloning, or organ remuneration is absurd on its face. After all, deriving an “answer” depends upon which type of moral theory one favors.

Fox and Swazey have faith that expertise in ethics does exist, but they believe that such expertise will not be fully realized until bioethicists take on matters of social justice. Disconcertingly, they are not concerned that a social justice agenda risks blurring the lines between disinterested ethical analysis (the authentic expertise of bioethicists) and outright political activism. This oversight is made even more peculiar because the authors seem quite appropriately exasperated by some of the day-to-day perversions of ethics “expertise.” Ask almost any hospital physician about bioethicists and you will get, in reliable sequence, an eye roll, a sigh, and then an earful of anecdotes about swaggering cowboys posing as arbiters of right and wrong (“Wizards of Oughts,” as one critic put it). In the media, the coverage of almost any biomedical controversy is sure to contain a quotation from a bioethicist with oracular pretensions. The unmistakable message of ethics punditry is clear: anyone who disagrees with us is thoughtless or unethical.

Such arrogance discomfits some bioethicists as well, as Fox and Swazey note. Erik Parens regrets the popular view of the ethicist as “priggish or foolish enough to lay claim to how other people should lead their lives.” Fed up with Homo bioethicus, Carl Elliott, a physician and bioethicist, has remarked that “Many people working in and around bioethics wince if someone called them a ‘bioethicist.’… Some resist the aura of professionalism and moral expertise that the term bioethics seems to imply. Others are just embarrassed by the incivility and glibness of our public spokespeople. Others just don't want to be viewed as the ethics police.”

This raises a larger question. Is it politically desirable for society to credit bioethicists with expertise in resolving the most difficult moral questions? Fox and Swazey say yes, but only if bioethicists revise their mission. Instead of concentrating on issues surrounding biomedical technology, such as cloning, sex selection, nanotechnology, and so on, bioethics should address “inequalities in health and in access to health care in American society.” The field should become “more centrally and deeply involved with [global] suffering and … issues of social justice.

Ruth Macklin, a self-described “liberal, humanitarian bioethicist,” told the authors, “I acknowledge that my chief concern is in striving for greater social justice within and among societies, and reducing disparities in health, wealth, and other resources among populations in the world.” These are noble sentiments, yes. But what particular authority or particular skill do bioethicists possess that allow them to add much in the way of unique scholarship, practical wisdom, or ethical reflection that is not already being applied today, for better or worse, by experts in international development, global health economics, and political theory? Fox and Swazey do not answer this question. They simply assume that bioethicists bring a needed perspective.

This is not to deny a productive role for applied ethics in modern life. Bioethicists can be great educators of students and physicians and policy-makers. When an expert in bioethics approaches a problem, such as an end-of-life decision, he brings a deep knowledge of the cultural history of that controversy and the relevant legal decisions. This allows him to draw analogies to current situations. He is skilled at delineating conflicts, laying out the assumptions behind different positions, evaluating the soundness of arguments, and reflecting upon potential consequences.

Granted, many bioethicists endorse this as the proper role for bioethics. But they must compete to be heard in a field with widely divergent understandings of itself. Are we a field of scholarly inquiry, bioethicists ask themselves, or a learned profession, a consultancy, a form of policymaking or activism, an oversight apparatus that monitors researchers and physicians, a discourse, a project, or a collection of questions or issues? What training should a bioethicist receive? Should our field take stands on mainstream political issues, such as the war in Iraq or the crisis in Darfur? Are we excessively beholden to the institutions we serve?

Fox and Swazey portray bioethics as a field in turmoil. It suffers, the authors observe, from being “overly impressed with its importance” and steeped in a culture of “self-congratulation.” But at the heart of such self-conscious ceremony, they astutely speculate, lies professional insecurity. Fox’s and Swazey’s own prescription—to expand the bioethics’ franchise into global justice and activism—will not help. Bioethics would become politicized, thereby undermining the already shaky credibility of the field.

Sally Satel is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the editor of When Altruism Isn't Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors.

For more TNR, become a fan on Facebo

A guidebook for strategic decision-making for executives in technology and technology dependent industries.

Rochlin; Hunter or Hunter.

My book Hyperinnovation is an analysis of the dynamics of how ideas come-together to breed new markets.

But the ‘Hunter and the Hunted,’ is remarkable text, and I would say a deeper insight into multidimensional innovation.

The one things that stand out is the part on ‘Timing.’

It’s a heavy weight book, confirmed by the best of breed business managers I know.

Listen to Bob Frick;

“By drawing on a variety of research into the patterns that characterize the successful introduction of new technology, Rochlin has put together a useful resource for anyone engaged in developing strategy vis a vis innovation and change. Written in a style that is engaging for the average executive, but with insight for even the most advanced of technologists.”

Robert Frick, Former Vice Chairman of the Board and CFO of Bank of America

Testimial.

'For business executives, it is seldom clear whether a new and potentially disruptive technology represents an opportunity, a threat, or is simply a non-starter. Complexity and uncertainty often characterizes the competitive landscape and strategic choices surrounding technology and innovation. Finally, an exciting new book from Thomson South-Western’s Texere imprint presents a comprehensive outline of methods for stripping away much of this ambiguity.

Comprehensive and cohesive, “Hunter or Hunted?” delivers a powerful resource packed with practical s to help readers fully comprehend strategic choice and behavior relating to technology. An excellent book that both managers and engineers (and not just in high-tech industries) should read.'

Thomson / South-Western Publishing
ISBN: 0324261284.

Order from Amazon

Supercities.

Imagine a planet inhabited by cities like 'Mega-City One,' a megalopolis of over 400 million people across the east coast of the United States, featured in the Judge Dredd comic or 'San Angeles, formed from the joining of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and the surrounding metropolitan regions following a massive earthquake.

Don't hold your breath: the 21st century will soon have 19 cities with populations of 20 million or more.

The history of the human species is a history of migration. In 1000 A.D. Cordova, Spain was the largest city. By 1500, Bejing began its rise to power, and 300 years later it was the first city to be over a million people. By 1900 London emerged the world's supercity with over 6 million people. In 1950 New York was proclaimed the first "megacity" with a population of over 10 million people in the greater metropolitan area.

How is increasing mass urbanization affecting the quality of life? 1.4 million people are moving into cities each week. How will this vast migration change the way we live and die; how we treat the elderly, the poor, the way work, trade, learn, the way we eat, consume, recycle, power, engineer, innovate?

While some say the world is flat, supercities are rising - vast, intensely urban hubs will radically redefine the world's future macroeconomic and cultural landscape. Most of the world's population right now lives and works in cities. Many more will. It's critical to gain a truer understanding of what's happening: the rise of supercities is the defining megatrend of the 21st century.

In 1800 only 3% of the world's population lived in cities; 47% by the end of the twentieth century. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; by 2007, this had risen to 468 urban areas of more than one million.

If the current trend continues, the world's urban population will double every 38 years. The UN forecasts that today's urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five people will live in cities. By 2050 two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities, up from about 50% right now.

The world’s population of slum dwellers increases by 25 million every year. The majority of these numbers come from the fringes of urban margins, located in legal and illegal settlements with insufficient housing and sanitation. This has been caused by the massive migration, both internal and transnational, into cities.

The greatest population increase will be most dramatic in the poorest and least-urbanized continents, Asia and Africa. Surveys and projections indicate that all urban growth over the next 25 years will be in developing countries, where one billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, now live in slum-level conditions; breeding grounds for crime, addiction, alcoholism, poverty and unemployment. By 2030, over 2 billion people in the world will be living in these mega-ghettoes.

If current trends continue, nearly 1-billion people will live in China's cities by 2025. Click here to see dynagram.

Cooler is smaller.

Scheduled for launch next month (March 2010), Indian Godrej - a brand not so well known in the West, but massive in Asia - has announced the world's lowest-cost refrigerator, the Chotukool.

Weighing 7.8kg, the refrigerator uses a cooling chip and fan alongside high-end insulation, meaning that the appliance uses half the power of a conventional device and can also be run from a battery.

At a price of c.$69 (£45), the Chotukool also costs around 35% less than the cheapest refrigerators currently available.

Obviously ripe for developing nations, and fair to say good demand in westen student dens, singles and first base flats.

Think About It!

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Re-visualizing Molecular Science.

I vividly remember being ed on occasion through secondary-school education because ‘atoms’ where consistently presented as these perfect slick round little spheres. At one time I even called the teacher a fabricator of lies and shouted: “Atoms aren’t balls!!”.

Of course the poor man couldn’t help it, as it was just decided to teach us high-school kids a outdated, simplified 19th century version of the atom , rather than confusing us with subatomic particles like protons, neutron, up-quarks, down-quarks, gluons and what do you have nowadays.

In retrospect I was just a kid trying to be witty after having flipped through some of the science magazines of my dad, who was a physicist. Nonetheless, I always remained keen on the underestimated role of simulations in modern science.

Are you still reading? Then this call for proposals might be for you. The STRP Festival, Institute of Complex Molecular Systems, and Animation Studio invite artists, designers and scientists to develop a new visual language for molecular structures.

Recently, a new problem has emerged for molecular scientists. For many decennia they have used a world-wide accepted way of representing molecules, even though these molecules have never really been seen. Unfortunately, this language is not suitable to represent the increasing complexity of the molecular systems and dynamic processes that are subject of modern research. … I think that a breakthrough in this area is only possible with ideas of people with different specialisms.

Download the full Call for Proposals (pdf).

Where's Commercial Lighting Going Next?

Bioluminescent Trees and Plants in the Street, Shop, School, Office and Home?

It's funny really. 20 years ago I worked at Concord Lighting - a top gun commercial lighting manufacturer - as a Design Engineer. I'd scratch my head as to where lighting - the common-a-garden artifacts in your den, bathroom and kitchen - would go next.

Most people know about light emitting organisms such as jellyfishes, fireflies and mushrooms. Some time ago, genetic engineers transferred genes responsible for the luciferin and luciferase proteins into a tobacco plant. These firefly proteins were then manufactured by the tobacco plant, causing it to glow and emit light.

What if this technology could be extended further to say, a maple tree or a juniper bush? Designer Audrey Richard-Laurent speculates on combining trees and streetlights into bioluminescent trees.

In urban areas, one usually sees a row of trees parallel to streetlights. Why not hybridize them? An elegant, yet far fetched idea? Don’t be to sure.

Edward A Quinto of the International Society for Bioluminescence and Chemiluminescence produced a glowing christmas tree.

Bioluminescence works to replicate processes for creating light found in chemical reactions in the natural world–such as with certain jellyfish or bacteria–for human purposes.

Chemiluminescence refers to the emission of light with limited emission of heat as a result of chemical reaction. Many researchers feel that both of these processes have the potential to produce sustainable, non-petroleum-based light sources.

Other potential applications might be glow in the dark designer pets, agricultural crops and domestic plants that luminesce when they need watering, new methods for detecting bacterial contamination of meats and other foods and glowing grass on golf yards that allow you to play golf after dark.

Fancy a Photonic Tatto? Their coming!

Nanoscale Engineering is Flying Ahead.

Scientists have made batteries and supercapacitors with little more than ordinary office paper and some carbon and silver nanomaterials.

The research, published online December 7 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, brings scientists closer to lightweight printable batteries that may one day be molded into computers, cell phones or solar panels.

Click here to read on.

Stronger than steel, as light as air and more flexible than rubber: a truly 21st century muscle.

NanoTech, Institute at the University of Texas at Dallas, has made a nano material that could make artificial limbs, smart skins, shape-changing structures, ultra-strong robots and eventually highly-efficient solar cells.

'It can generate about 30 times the force per unit area of natural muscle,' they say.

Carbon nanotubes have fascinated material scientists since the early 1990s, when researchers started to explore the ultra-light, ultra-strong cylindrical molecules.

Carbon nanotubes are already used in bicycle components, and in prototypes of airplanes, bulletproof clothing, transistors, and ropes that might someday be used to tether a space elevator (On a historical note, carbon nanotube-infused steel was used to made Damascus blades, renowned as history’s sharpest swords, though the technique has been lost).

The latest muscle is made from bundles of vertically aligned nanotubes that respond directly to electricity. Lengthwise, the muscle can expand and contract with tremendous speed; from side-to-side, it’s super-stiff. Its possibilities may only be limited by the imaginations of engineers.

This apparently unprecedented degree of anisotropy — direction-dependent physical properties — is akin to having diamond-like behavior in one direction, and rubber-like behavior in the others.

Fit for Coke!

I can't yet buy Organic Coca Cola in Brighton (UK). It's been put the the States and China for over 2 years. Shame, cos it's not a bad thirst quencher.

Anyhow there's more to the anecdote here:

In 1982 the Coca Cola Company addressed the negative aspect of its drink with the introduction of a sugar-free version of the Ice-cold sunshine. Diet Coke was the first new coke brand since 1886 and signified a revolution for the brand.

Numerous coke by-products followed in the slipstream: Cherry Coke, Caffeine-Free Coke, Classic Coke, Vanilla Coke, Coca-Cola Orange, Coke Zero, Coke Black Cherry Vanilla and many more.



The latest addition to Coca Cola product range could mean a new revolution in fast-food: Diet Coke Plus not only reduces calories or ads a flavor,it actually improves your health.



Diet Coke Plus is fortified with vitamins and minerals. One can already provides 25% of the daily value for niacin and vitamins B6 and B12, and 15% for zinc and magnesium, so if you drink four cans a day, you've got your it all covered; Diet Coke Plus: better than the real thing!

Mouse Teeth and the End of the Dentist as We Know It.

A mouse has grown a new tooth in place of a lost molar.

But hold on! We've all done that as a kin.

Well the news is it's a tooth that come via a new breakthrough in bioengineering. It has the same performance properties of the old tooth, and is strong and durable enough to allow the mouse to chew food normally over it's life.

To create the new tooth, the researchers @ Tokyo University of Science took 'Epithelial' cells and 'Mesenchymal' cells (about 50,000 each) from a mouse embryo and cultivated them together in a collagen-based medium to create a tiny tooth bud — a mass of tissue that has the potential to develop into a tooth.

They then implanted the 0.5-mm tooth bud into the jawbone of an mouse in place of a lost tooth. After 37 days, a new tooth sprouted, and after 50 days, it had grown to the same height as the adjacent teeth. The bioengineered tooth has the same hardness as ordinary teeth and it contains vessels and nerves, making it sensitive to external stimuli and pain.

This research is expected to advance the development of 'tooth regenerative therapy,' which one day will allow doctors to replace diseased or damaged teeth with bioengineered teeth grown from stem cells such as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.

This type of treatment could not only ultimately eliminate the need for dentures and false teeth, but grow artificial teeth with new performance properties.

Imagine: once you have your new set, no more dentist, self-cleaning teeth, super-strong, and eventual teeth grown to your own design specification. Within a decade, start looking out for designer teeth shaped as Jewelry!!!

Goldie watch out. Click here and see!

'Living Doll' Composed of Collagen Cells.

To demonstrate a new method for fabricating three-dimensional living biological structures, researchers at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science (IIS) have created a 5-millimeter tall doll composed of living cells.

Researchers created the tiny figurine by cultivating 100,000 cell capsules of 0.1 millimeter balls of collagen, each coated with dozens of skin cells.

After the cell capsules had coalesced to form the doll-shaped mass of tissue, it was placed in a culture solution, where it reportedly survived for more than a day.

The researchers also successfully tested the biofabrication method with human liver cells. The technique can laso be used to create bodily organs and tissues with complex cellular structures, which may prove useful in the fields of regenerative medicine and development.

This is merely the beginning. Click here to discover more in the fantasic journey of the emerging Bioworld.

Systemic Foresight Methodology.

The Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIIR) are working on an EU project for uses of Futures Studies on government policy in an attempt to adapt to an ever faster, more discontinuous world.

MIIR point out that when we consider a major futures driver such as breakthrough or disruptive technology (self-assembled nanobots, holographic microprocessors, £495 desktop 3D printers @ home, artificial telepathy - all noted in this blog over the years) people tend to ask what is feasible and what we are sure will work. We are less likely to ask what we want, what is desirable, what we need to get on.

MIIR have developed a methodology called Systemic Foresight, which allows annalists to map influences on the system, pointing to distractions to avoid, as well as issues to focus on. Its use leads on to a Transformation phase, at which the finding can be applied to ‘lead to a better world.’

The analysis methodology shows that geopolitical and security issues generate most Wild Cards and Uncertainties; that new science and technology produce most discontinuities; and that society and culture produce the most Weak Signals hinting at the future.

In terms of a timeline the project regards:

(1) Environmental and financial crises as the biggest issues for the period from 2010 to 2016 (e.g.; mass displacement, little money in pocket, global financial melt down).

(2) Aging population from 2016 to 2025 (e.g.; people living longer however with ill-health, so pension funds dry-up, and then no Beer at the Inn).

(3) While climate change and fundamental resource scarcity (e.g.; Siberian winters in Spain and higher Oil, Water, Pizza prices) are the main concerns beyond 2025.

I found the slide show (below) outlining the method quiet interesting. My only comment is that they are addressing issues we know well, gaining public momentum, with multiple intergovernmental strategies and plans to ‘lead to a better world.’

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What I would ask is that MIIR now move on to issues that concerned nations are not already addressing. For example, what of the interdisciplinary impact across these issues? How they act as a complex interconnected system? Further, what of the technologies not yet on the strategic agenda, yet will turnout to not be merely instrumental in solving critical problems, but make them wholly irrelevant.

As I say people tend to look and ask for what is feasible, what is sure to work. Because it's safe, more politically inert, and in the short-term keeps the wolf from the door. As a result, we are much less likely to ask what we want, what is desirable, what we need to get on.

Further, even some of the most forward futurists back down, almost intuitively, on cutting-edge breakthrough innovations and archetype events.

For example, what are the 'new laws of economics' not only in an interconnected world, but in a world of instant production in your home. What happens to the distribution infrastructure, when most things - from cloths to computers to mosquito nets - are made of diamondoid nanostructures @ home or a tree house or shack by a smallish size device, that's mains gas fed?

What happens to abject poverty when nanomanufacturing hits a point when it can instantly produces hot soup and a roll from raw soil, waste and even sewage? What happens to the economy, the ecolology?

And one of the biggest human cultural questions of all: 'What will change everything.' Is there anything on the horizon that will? Please click on and see.

In sum: we need to look at the future with much deeper systemic foresight; and take a courageous look at the many archetype issues not yet on the map.

Anyway, please click here for slide presentation.