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By Sérgio Figueiredo Jr | "The best way to predict the future is to invent it" (Alan Kay)
Retail could do to health care what Uber has done to taxis
GUEST:
Uber, the poster child of the sharing economy, came out of nowhere and managed to overhaul the traditional taxi business in just a few short years. It now has a valuation of approximately $41 billion.
Now Wall Street is searching for the next industry that can be Uber-fied. There are rooms …
Health CareIn the race between Google and Facebook over global connectivity, everyone is winning
BARCELONA, Spain – There are still 4 billion people in the world who are not online.
Figuring out how to address that problem and why it matters was one of the main themes this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. But while the global telecom industry has embraced this as one its most …
GoogleThe cold fusion race just heated up
The E-Cat, or Energy Catalyser, is an alleged cold fusion reactor invented by Andrea Rossi. While many researchers claim to have produced small quantities of excess heat using nickel and hydrogen, Rossi claims he can produce kilowatts and his technology is ready for industry. Rossi's claims are …
FusionVirtual Creatures in a Box, Controlled by You
A startup uses an old parlor trick and smartphone sensing to let you control virtual objects in a see-through box. H+ Technology is building Holus, a …
Monsters15 Emerging Agriculture Technologies That Will Change The World
Policy Horizons Canada worked with futurist and data visualizer Michell Zappa of Envisioning to produce a report called MetaScan 3: Emerging Technologies and accompanying infographics. We are reproducing the summary for emerging agriculture technologies.
Below are technologies related to …
AgricultureWhy Silicon Valley has a chance to dominate the auto industry
A 1985 article in the New York Times wondered what had happened to the fad of laptop computers, which had (the article claimed) been relatively …
Silicon ValleyHow People Will Use the Apple Watch
Developers and designers debate whether the Apple Watch will find its purpose. When Apple unveiled the first iPad in 2010, many pundits scoffed. …
Wearable TechIndieBio Will Accelerate Synthetic Biology To Tech Startup Speed
Can biology move at “internet speed”? Is there a Moore’s Law for cells? What about the problems that cannot be solved by information technology alone? IndieBio, a new biotech accelerator based in both San Francisco and Cork, Ireland, is proposing to answer these questions and more.
“What a lot of …
BiotechnologyThe Reason Why Google Glass, Amazon Fire Phone and Segway All Failed
Despite huge fanfare at launch, after a few brief months Google Glass is no longer on the market. The Amazon FirePhone was also launched to great hype, yet sales flopped and the company recently took a $170M write off on inventory.
Do you blame the CEO?
Fortune mercilessly blamed Fire Phone’s failure …
GoogleWhy our roboticists are working for the 99 percent
Robots are taking over the world -- well, the front pages -- and are being blamed for the pre-crime of creating a dystopian world that may see huge numbers of jobs destroyed and enormous amounts of wealth concentrated into the hands of ever fewer people. To prevent this nightmare scenario, …
RobotsOur Fear of Artificial Intelligence
A true AI might ruin the world—but that assumes it’s possible at all.Years ago I had coffee with a friend who ran a startup. He had just turned 40. …
IntelligenceHyperloop Is Real: Meet The Startups Selling Supersonic Travel
The majestic Senate majority leader suite in the U.S. Capitol was still Harry Reid’s in September when he eagerly scooched his leather chair across the Oriental rug to gaze at something that, he was told, would change transportation forever.
Former SpaceX engineer Brogan BamBrogan (yes, that’s his …
StartupsAlibaba begins drone delivery trials in China
China's biggest internet retailer says it has begun testing drone-based deliveries to hundreds of customers.
It says the trial will last three days and be limited to areas within a one-hour flight of its distribution centres in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The company's blog adds that it believes …
ChinaAudi's self-driving car: Hands off the steering wheel!
A glimpse of our automated future in a sedan that’s ahead of the curve.
What’s it like to drive a car that drives itself? To give a computer full control of your destiny, on the highway, at 70 miles an hour?
It will happen to you, maybe not in five years, but definitely within 15. You’ll be on the …
DrivingMicrosoft Headset Rewrites Reality with Holograms
Microsoft has developed a version of the game Minecraft for the Hololens headset. The device senses the environment around a person so that virtual …
Augmented RealityThe Internet of Things Plan To Make Libraries and Museums Awesomer
Are cultural institutions the environment iBeacon has been waiting for?
Two large banners greet patrons when they walk into Orlando Public Library.
Amid posters about the library’s family-friendly services and upcoming programming, the banners urge patrons to do something a bit uncharacteristic for a …
LibrariesAutonomous driving will change everything – and soon
In this article moovel CEO, Robert Henrich and CFO, Marcus Spickermann take the time to explain what autonomous driving means to us as human beings, …
Driving6 tech trends for 2015 that will change our future
Technology and innovation can be frustrating to watch in action. That’s because there usually isn’t much action — just incremental change with occasional flashes of brilliance.
But the only way to truly understand what’s happening and why is to keep watching. Breakthroughs from years ago are finally …
RobotsThe Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally Unleashed AI on the World
A few months ago I made the trek to the sylvan campus of the IBM research labs in Yorktown Heights, New York, to catch an early glimpse of the …
Make your car resemble a fighter jet
The heads-up display has been the province of luxury vehicles. Startup Navdy wants to change that.
Automakers have tinkered with heads-up displays (HUDs) for decades, intrigued by the visual projection technology used in fighter jets that allows pilots to track vital data, such as speed and …
Google's self-driving car takes a big step forward
The tech giant’s in-house design for the futuristic autonomous technology is now fully functional.
Google said Monday that it has taken another big step forward in developing self-driving cars by building a fully functioning prototype of its own design.
“Today we’re unwrapping the best holiday gift …
Inside The Near-Future World Where All Our Data And Machines Are In Constant Communication
Intelligent, predictive, and adaptive, a network of robotic minds will soon start changing every aspect of how we live.
The insurance drone skims above the roadway, humming softly as it tracks your car. Multiple failed login attempts caused by an out-of-date token have prevented the vehicle from …
RobotsThe secret of Google Maps' accuracy revealed
The maps we use to navigate have come a long way in a short time. Since the '90s we've gone from glove boxes stuffed with paper maps to floorboards littered with Mapquest printouts to mindlessly obeying Siri or her nameless Google counterpart.
The maps behind those voices are packed with far more …
GoogleSmarter Artificial Skin for Prosthetic Hands
South Korean and U.S. researchers have developed a stretchable material that senses touch, pressure, and moisture, and could be used to give …
Cyborgs14 innovations that improved the world in 2014
These aren't just gadgets that charge your devices faster or "groundbreaking" apps — they have potential for lasting impact. They can change the world.
From mind-controlled exoskeletons to solar-powered toilets that turn waste into biofuel, here are 14 innovations that address some of the most …
InnovationAudi says it has 'mastered' hydrogen fuel cells and is ready to launch them
At the LA Auto Show today, Audi unveiled the A7 Sportback h-tron quattro, a modified version of its swoopy four-door coupe that swaps out the traditional drivetrain for a hydrogen fuel cell and electric motors at the front and rear. It'll go over 300 miles between refuelings, which take three …
Picking Your Car’s Computerized Brain
EVEN with their high-tech gadgets and computerized machinery, most cars still do a pretty poor job of providing helpful information about things like mechanical problems and fuel use — and of connecting to the devices we use the most, our phones.
Improvements are on the horizon. Wireless connections …
What Commercial Aircraft Will Look Like in 2050
The aircraft industry is expecting an increase in air traffic by 2050, and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions unless fundamental changes are …
Aerospace