Technologyquarterly December 1St 2012

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Technologyquarterly December 1St 2012 The many uses of Detecting oil spills The man behind eye tracking in the Arctic the Predator TechnologyQuarterly December 1st 2012 The dream of the medical tricorder How “Star Trek” is inspiring diagnostic add-ons for smartphones TQCOV-DECEMBER.2012.indd 1 19/11/2012 15:22 The Economist Technology Quarterly December 1st 2012 Monitor 1 Contents On the cover Along with teleportation and speech-controlled computers, the medical tricorder, a portable diagnostic tool, was one of many imaginary future technologies featured in Star Trek. It is now inspiring a host of real-life medical add-ons for An internet of airborne things smartphones, page 8 Monitor 1 An internet of airborne things, auxetic materials, agricultural robots, motion-capture systems in sport, cardboard bicycles, mobile-phone Networking: Enthusiasts dream of building a drone-powered internet to recycling, an unusual new type of lens, and who won our carry objects rather than data. Are they mad? Innovation awards HE spread of mobile phones in devel- charged one before proceeding to the next Dierence engine Toping countries in the past decade has station. The routing of drones and the delivered enormous social and economic allocation of specic packages to specic 7 The PC all over again? benets. By providing a substitute for drones would all be handled automatical- Fans of 3D printing should watch travel, phones can make up for bad roads ly, and deliveries would thus be possible out for a regulatory clampdown and poor transport infrastructure, helping over a wide area using a series of hops. It traders nd better prices and boosting is, in short, a physical implementation of Medical technology entrepreneurship. But although infor- the packet switching model that directs 8 A doctor in your pocket mation can be delivered by phoneand, data across the internet, which is why its Smartphones go to medical in a growing number of countries, money creators call their scheme the matternet. school, thanks to Star Trek transferred as wellthere are some things Over the matternet, so the vision goes, that must be delivered physically. For hospitals could send urgent medicines to small items that are needed urgently, such remote clinics more quickly than they Detecting oil spills as medicines, why not use drone heli- could via roads, and blood samples could 11 Trouble under the ice copters to deliver them, bypassing the be sent and returned within hours. A As oil companies move into the need for roads altogether? farmer could place an order for a new Arctic, new tools are needed That, at least, was the idea cooked up tractor part by text message and pay for it last year at Singularity University, a Silicon via mobile money-transfer. A supplier Valley summer school where eager en- many miles away would then take the Navigation technology trepreneurs gather in the hope of solving part to the local matternet station for 13 Finding the way inside humanity’s grandest challenges with new airborne dispatch via drone. Satellite navigation is great, but technologies. The plan is to build a net- doesn’t work indoors. What will? work of autonomously controlled, multi- Mind over matter rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Andreas Raptopoulos, the entrepreneur Computer interfaces carry small packages of a standardised who led the academic team, reckons that size. Rather than having a drone carry the scheme would be competitive with 15 The eyes have it each package directly from sender to building all-weather roads. A case study Eye-tracking technology is being recipient, which could involve a long of the Maseru district of Lesotho put the put to a wide range of uses journey beyond the drone’s ying range, cost of a network of 50 base-stations and the idea is to build a network of base 150 drones at $900,000, compared with Brain scan stations, each no more than 10km (6 miles) $1m for a 2km, one-lane road. The ad- 17 The dronefather from the next, with drones carrying pack- vantage of roads, however, is that they can A prole of Abe Karem, creator ages between them. carry heavy goods and people, whereas of the modern military drone After arrival at a station, a drone would matternet drones would be limited to swap its depleted battery pack for a fully payloads of 2kg in a standard 10-litre con- 1 2 Monitor The Economist Technology Quarterly December 1st 2012 2 tainer. But the scheme is potentially life- gee cords, obviously. But they are con- saving in remote areas, and might also structed in a similar way, using a tech- have commercial potential to deliver nique called weft insertion to wrap a thin small packages in the rich world. Hook’s law line of high-strength material such as Since the original proposal, however, Kevlar around a core made of specially an ideological disagreement has emerged processed elastic polyester. These threads over how best to implement this drone- are then woven into auxetic cloth that can powered internet for objects. Two separate be cut into particular shapes for use in groups are now taking rather dierent Materials: Auxetic substances, various applications. approaches. The rst, led by Mr Raptopou- which get fatter rather than thinner Auxetic materials have two useful los, has formed a company, called Mat- properties. One is the shape change per se. ternet, to develop the drone and base- when stretched, could be useful in a The other is that the shape change absorbs station hardware, and the software that wide range of applications and stores energy, and does so rapidly. If a will co-ordinate them. The company then OBERT HOOKE was a contemporary sheet of the material is hit in one place, the hopes to sell the technology to govern- Rof Isaac Newton and even more of a energy of the impact is thus spread over ment health departments and non-prot polymath. Sic transit gloria mundi. These the whole sheet. Then, when the material groups. Just as mobile phones have days Hooke is well known only for his law relaxes back into its original shape, that spurred development in poor countries, of elasticity: that the amount a material energy is dissipated from the entire sur- Mr Raptopoulos hopes drone delivery stretches is proportional to the force ap- face, rather than just the point of impact. will do something similar. plied. Such stretching, inter alia, causes the Auxetix has already tested a bomb- The second group is called Aria (au- material to get thinner, of course. Unless, resistant curtain made of such material. It tonomous roadless intelligent array). It that is, the substance in question is an can stop fragments of glass and similar believes the matternet should be free, auxetic material, in which case it gets shrapnel, but is thin enough to be translu- open and based on standardised proto- fatter. Robert Hooke’s near namesake, cent and thus let a useful amount of day- cols, just like the internet. It is developing Patrick Hook, the boss of Auxetix, a small light through a window. If hit by a blast, these protocols and building prototypes rm based in south-west England, hopes the curtain expands. That creates pores that adhere to them, and inviting others to to exploit this weirdness to make every- which allow the air of the blast to pass follow suit. Aria is not promoting any thing from body armour to dental oss. through, so that the cloth is not damaged particular use of the technology, and will To understand how an auxetic material but the pores are also small enough to stop not necessarily build or run networks works, imagine a rubber bungee cord with the passage of solid debris. The kinetic itself. We understand there will be hun- a piece of shing line wrapped around its energy of the debris is then absorbed by dreds of applications, but we are not length in an open spiral. If you pull the the material. interested in running such applications, line tight, it straightens, and the cord is The rm also hopes to use its unusual says Arturo Pelayo, Aria’s co-founder. We distorted into a spiral around it. And that material to make body armour. The Amer- won’t aim for understanding every single spiral is wider than the undistorted cord. If ican army’s current kit, known as In- geographical and cultural context where several such line-wrapped bungee cords terceptor Body Armour, weighs as much the system might be used. are laid alongside each other and the as 15kg including ceramic-plate inserts. Both groups have recently started shing lines pulled tight simultaneously, Soldiers are obviously keen to reduce this testing their rst prototypes. Matternet ran then they push each other aside, increas- weight. Dr Hook has tested prototype a series of successful eld tests of its proto- ing the area that they cover and the vol- auxetic armour that is 10% lighter than type UAVs in the Dominican Republic ume they occupy. In other words, they get Interceptor while, he hopes, being just as and Haiti in September, and met local bigger when stretched. eective at absorbing impacts. groups to sell the idea. Meanwhile, Aria The threads from which Auxetix’s If the new material works in these also spent the summer testing, and show- materials are made are thinner than bun- military applications, then Dr Hook hopes 1 cased its ideas, such as the use of retro- tted shipping containers for base sta- tions, at the Burning Man festival held in the Nevada desert in August. Flying drones in high winds without crashing into anyone presented quite a challenge.
Recommended publications
  • General Innovation Competitions
    GENERAL INNOVATION COMPETITIONS Jason Reinecke* CITE AS: 21 STAN. TECH. L. REV. 128 (2018). ABSTRACT The extensive patents-versus-prizes literature has thus far focused on specific competitions—competitions that reward inventions based on how well they solve a narrow, predetermined problem. However, prize competitions do not have to specify the problem to be solved in such great detail. Indeed, the degree by which prize competitions specify the problem to be solved falls along a spec- trum, with completely general competitions that permit submission of any in- novation under the sun falling on one end of the spectrum, and highly specific competitions that lay out the problem to be solved in painstaking detail falling on the other end. This Article makes three primary contributions to the inno- vation literature. First, this Article analyzes and discusses prize competitions of various degrees of generality, and in particular tackles theoretical consider- ations related to where prize competitions fall along this spectrum of general- ity. Second, this Article highlights key factors to consider when designing these unexplored general innovation competitions. Third, this Article provides sur- vey data collected from participants of more general innovation competitions regarding their subjective evaluations of whether and how general innovation competitions affected their innovative activity. *Stanford Law School, J.D. expected 2018. I am especially grateful to Professor Lisa L. Ouellette for all of her mentorship, support, and helpful comments. Thanks to Professor Michael Abramowicz, Professor Barbara Fried, Professor Bernadette Meyler, Brendyn Reinecke, and the Stanford Law students in the Spring 2017 Legal Studies Workshop for their helpful comments.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to the X PRIZE Foundation “Nothing...Nothing Is Impossible...” the BEST WAY to PREDICT the FUTURE
    Introduction to the X PRIZE Foundation “Nothing...nothing is impossible...” THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE... IS TO CREATE IT YOURSELF YOU GET WHAT YOU INCENTIVIZE Why did he do it? 4 X PRIZE Model Attributes of an X PRIZE • Target market failure • Clear, objective & simple rules • Bold, audacious goal • Hard but attainable • Define a problem, not a solution • Open to teams worldwide • Telegenic • Can be won in 3 - 8 years • Assure a “back-end business” <$1 billion private space industry Highly leveraged Efficient Sparks industry $100 million spent in $10 million pursuit $2.5 million prize seed money Prize Design: Anchored in Open Collaboration Board of Trustees General Allows many external constituencies to Web contribute to the process. Public Not a grant or RFPs for prizes; designed Advisory in an organic way. Staff Boards Input from innovators, industry leaders, academia, the X PRIZE Labs and the general public routinely sought. X PRIZE Thought Labs Leaders Donors Welcome to a New Era of Philanthropy Our Mission: Radical Breakthroughs for the Benefit of Humanity Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the leading organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large- scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in five Prize Groups: Education; Exploration; Energy & Environment; Global Development; and Life Sciences.
    [Show full text]
  • Grand Challenges Specific Goal
    CAREERS TAKE THE LEAP Collaborations lead to Pfizer BLOG Personal stories and careers counsel NATUREJOBS For the latest career post for long-time NIH researcher p.131 http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs listings and advice www.naturejobs.com used to find layers of coal or minerals below ground. She and a wetland ecologist from Duke put together an international team that includes geophysicists, foresters and environ- mental consultants. The team is now one of AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK five finalists for the prize, whose winner will be announced in February 2018. “It’s been an exciting adventure,” says Silvestri, who leads the DAG4Peat team. “This prize gave me the opportunity to follow a new direction in my career, but it was also risky, something that would have been difficult to get funded via traditional grants.” The use of goal-driven prizes to spur innovation has increased since the success of the Ansari X Prize in 1996, which aimed to acceler- ate the development of low-cost space flight (see ‘Glittering prizes’). The X Prize Foundation in Culver City, California, offered a $10-million prize for the first non-governmental organiza- tion to launch a reusable crewed craft into space. By the time the prize was awarded, in 2004, some 26 teams had signed on. Innovation prizes offer cash incentives to solve vexing problems. They are now a staple throughout US federal agencies, including NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as well as in phil- anthropic organizations such as the Rod- A prize for mapping Indonesia’s peatlands could help to stop illegal clearances, which are a fire risk.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mobile Health Revolution?
    The Mobile Health Revolution? Nathan Cortez* Rarely does a class of technologies excite physicians, patients, financeers, gadgeteers, and policymakers alike. But mobile health — the use of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets for health or medical purposes — has captured our collective imagination. Observers predict that mobile health, also known as “mHealth” or by products called “medical apps,” can save millions of lives, billions in spending, and democratize access to health care. Proponents argue that mobile health technologies will transform the ways in which we deliver, consume, measure, and pay for care, disrupting our sclerotic health care system. This Article evaluates mobile health and its many ambitions. Given the significant hype surrounding mobile health, I try to provide a more sober review of the many claims here. I begin by surveying the universe of mobile health technologies, offering a typology of products based on their functions, many of which have regulatory significance. The Article then considers the federal government’s posture towards mobile health. To date, Congress and over half a dozen federal agencies have addressed these technologies. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, federal regulators are sympathetic, not hostile, to mobile * Copyright © 2014 Nathan Cortez. Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dedman School of Law. J.D. Stanford Law School, B.A. University of Pennsylvania. Many thanks to Nicholas Bagley, Jeffrey Bellin, Glenn Cohen, Nancy Leveson,
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Diamandis
    Peter Diamandis Peter H. Diamandis (/ˌdiːəˈmændɪs/; born May 20, 1961) is a Peter Diamandis Greek American engineer, physician,[1] and entrepreneur best known for being founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, cofounder and executive chairman of Singularity University and coauthor of The New York Times bestsellers Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think and BOLD: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World. He is former CEO and cofounder of the Zero Gravity Corporation, cofounder and vice chairman of Space Adventures Ltd., founder and chairman of the Rocket Racing League, cofounder of the International Space University, cofounder of Planetary Resources, cofounder of Celularity, founder of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, vice chairman and cofounder of Human Longevity, Inc.[2] Contents Early life Born May 20, 1961 Career The Bronx, New York International Space University City, New York, United International MicroSpace, Inc. States Constellation Communications Nationality Greek American X PRIZE Foundation Education Massachusetts Zero Gravity Corporation Institute of Technology Angel Technologies Corporation Harvard Medical Space Adventures, Ltd. School BlastOff! Corporation Occupation Entrepreneur Rocket Racing League Employer X Prize Foundation Singularity University Planetary Resources Inc. Known for Personal spaceflight Human Longevity Inc. industry Celularity Title Chairman Books Website diamandis.com (http:// diamandis.com/) Additional notable achievements Personal life Notes External links
    [Show full text]
  • Innovation Partnership Program in ASSOCIATION with UNIVERSITY Leveraging Exponentially Growing Technologies to Drive Powerful Innovation
    SINGULARITY Innovation Partnership Program IN ASSOCIATION WITH UNIVERSITY Leveraging exponentially growing technologies to drive powerful innovation. Technological change is accelerating at serial failure at a time when companies are an exponential rate putting extremely becoming more and more risk averse. powerful technology in the hands of Many large companies are finding it small and nimble teams. While this poses increasing difficult to innovate internally HARNESSING significant threats to some industries, it because of bureaucracy and cultural also creates extraordinary opportunities. At issues. the same time that billion dollar companies The Innovation Partnership Program are going out of business overnight, new (IPP) was created to address these EXTRAORDINARY start-up companies are reaching billion issues, educate senior executives on best dollar market-caps in record time. innovation practices, allow them to share Pursuing breakthroughs requires experiences and create a forum for new OPPORTUNITIES significant risk taking and a tolerance for partnerships and continual learning. Collaborating with the brightest minds to learn, share THIRTY SELECT and solve global corporate and Grand Challenges. The Innovation Partnership Program is limited to This audacious effort is produced by the 90 senior executives from 30 select companies X PRIZE Foundation in association with Singularity COMPANIES who come together to learn, share and solve University. Participating companies are united global corporate challenges as well as the Grand by their desire to understand the impact of Challenges of the world. exponential technologies on their company As Innovation Partners, we gather together and industry, their need to increase the rate twice a year for four-day intensive workshops of innovation inside their product lines and that include innovation education, hands- organization, and thirst to learn best practices on experiences, expert lectures, networking, for using crowdsourcing and incentivized entertainment and Visioneering the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Competition-Based Innovation the Case of the X Prize Foundation
    COMPETITION-BASED INNOVATION THE CASE OF THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION MOKTER HOssain • ILKKA KAURANEN Abstract: The use of competition-based processes for the development of innovations is increasing. In parallel with the increasing use of competition-based innovation in business firms, this model of innovation is successfully being used by non-profit organizations for advancing the development of science and technology. One such non-profit organization is the X Prize Foundation, which designs and manages innovation competitions to encourage scientific and technological development. The objective of this article is to analyze the X Prize Foundation and three of the competitions it has organized in order to identify the challenges of competition-based innovation and how to overcome them. Keywords: Radical innovation, breakthrough innovation, competition-based innovation, innovation competition, modularity, X Prize Foundation A recently developed approach for creating radical or breakthrough innovations is taking clear shape: competition-based innovation. In competition-based innovation, innovations are created by engaging entities or individuals to submit solutions for specified challenges within a stipulated time frame. Then, the best solutions are selected and rewarded by the organizers of the innovation competition. Competition-based innovation is not a new concept (MacLeod, 1971), but the Internet and other advances in information technology have made its use significantly easier and consequently more widespread (Kalil, 2006). The currently popular concept of open innovation (Chesbrough, 2003) has helped to focus the attention of scholars and practitioners on competition-based innovation. Similar terms used to describe competition-based innovation are design competition, idea contest, innovation contest, innovation jam, and tournament-based innovation (Adamczyk, Bullinger, & Möslein, 2012).
    [Show full text]