Category Archives: Futurist

The 46th Tokyo Motor Show, slated to kick off on Oct. 24 at Tokyo Big Sight and other areas in Tokyos Odaiba district, is set to showcase the latest automotive trends but will also depart from previous editions of the motor show.

This years motor show, under the theme of Open Future, places an increased focus on the future of our society and its use of rapidly evolving technology in addition to revealing the newest in automotive trends.

The word open means the event will not be limited to showcasing the auto industry. By being open to other industries and collaborating with them, we are trying to demonstrate the mobility-centered society of the future, said Jun Nagata, chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Associations Tokyo Motor Show Committee.

This year, the venue is expanded to include a larger area of Odaiba, featuring a wide range of programs for visitors to enjoy the excitement of cars and future technologies.

A total of 187 companies and organizations from eight countries around the world will participate in the show that will be held through Nov. 4.

The biannual Tokyo Motor Show, however, is at a crossroads, and this years event reflects this reality.

In its heyday, the Tokyo Motor Show used to attract many automakers from around the world, such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Volkswagen AG, and it used to be a bit of a production when a new car rolled onto the stage. Taking advantage of this occasion, many automakers used to meet with executives of other global companies to conduct business negotiations during the event. But in recent years, such activities have decreased.

Various supercars at Drive Park. | JAPAN AUTO MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION

Japans car sales remain the third largest in the world after the U.S. and China with 527.2 million units sold in 2018, but more and more automakers are prioritizing the Chinese market and its motor shows. The Frankfurt Motor Show, which was held just last month, also failed to attract many carmakers, with only Honda Motor Co. participating from Japan.

This downward trend also shows in the number of visitors. Although the Tokyo Motor Show saw more than 2 million attendees in 1991, the most recent event in 2017 drew just 770,000 people.

This decline has resulted in the transformation of the event into one with a future-focused concept that targets younger generations.

Unless the Tokyo Motor Show goes through a major paradigm shift, it wont be able to attract more visitors, Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp. and JAMA chairman, told a news conference ahead of the show.

Toyoda said he hopes to attract 1 million people to the Tokyo event, by making it like a theme park where people can get a glimpse of a future lifestyle through various exhibits and attractions that are not limited to the auto industry.

In the Future Expo area, for example, visitors will be able to view and interact with over 100 items, displays and leading technologies provided by companies across various industries.

Honda will display its UNI-CUB alongside a variety of other personal mobility vehicles. People will also have the chance to see a flying car currently under development by NEC Corp.

NEC Corp.s flying car will be showcased in the Future Expo area. | JAPAN AUTO MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION

Information on hydrogen energy, such as how fuel cell cars work, and space technology will also be on display in the energy of the future area.

The motor show will also host the e-Motorsports Under-18 All Japan Championships, where winners from the under-18 championships from each prefecture will compete against one another for the national title. Another attempt to make the event more appealing to children is a tie-up with KidZania. Children will be able to role-play as an employee at car manufacturers, parts manufacturers and mobile communication companies in the venue set up in the Aomi Exhibition Halls.

At the Open Road area, visitors can experience the near-future through test-drives of micro-mobility vehicles such as the Toyota i-Road and Nissan New Mobility Concept. Three types of personal mobility vehicles are also available for test-drives there.

Concept cars and production vehicles displayed by major automakers are going greener than ever, and most will incorporate some degree of electrification.

Mazda Motor Co. will launch its first battery-electric production car at the show, while the next generation Honda Jazz, known as the Fit in some markets, will see a hybrid drive upgrade.

Nissan Motor Co. also plans to unveil a concept minicar IMk, which is built on an all-new EV platform.

There will also be symposiums on various topics, ranging from zero-emission transport to drones to Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which integrates various forms of transport services into a single mobility service accessible on demand.

To make it more family friendly, the motor show will be free for high school students or younger children for the first time in the events history.

The key word for this event is a firsthand experience. We want to make this show a theme park that families, including children, can enjoy, said Toyoda.

Venues:Tokyo Big Sight (Aomi, West and South halls, Mega Web, Symbol Promenade Park, parking lot next to Tokyo Fashion Town [TFT] building)

Duration:Oct. 24 to Nov. 4

Dates and hours:Special Invitation Day for Persons with Disabilities: Oct. 24 (Thu.) 2 to 6 p.m.Preview Day: Oct. 25, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.General Public Days (Weekdays, Saturdays): 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., 2 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 25General Public Days (Sundays/holiday): 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.(Opening hours may be changed and entry into the venue may be limited whenever necessary)

Admission:Special Invitation Day for Persons with Disabilities: Free (requires pre-registration)Preview Day: 3,800 (Limited availability, free for elementary school students and younger, must be accompanied by a parent)General Public Days: Adults 2,000 (1,800 for advance ticket; 1,000 for day-of ticket after 4 p.m., excluding Sundays and holiday)High school students and under: Free

For further details:https://www.tokyo-motorshow.com/en/

Download the PDF of this Tokyo Motor Show 2019 Special

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Tech and futurism drive iconic car event's appeal - The Japan Times

Brush AI

These days, it seems like every brand is trying to leverage machine learning to imbue their products with special powers and, most importantly, make an extra buck in the process.

But does your next electric toothbrush really need a dose of AI? Oral-Bssays its new $220 electric toothbrush, called Oral-B GENIUS X with Artificial Intelligence, will leverage data from sensors inside the brush head and Bluetoothto deliver AI-derived brushing tips through an app. The future is now, huh?

The company claims to have learned how to brush teeth real good by deepening our understanding of consumer behavior across 60 countries.

Oral-B has created an algorithm from more than 2,000 brushing sessions to gain exclusive insights into brushing behaviors from around the world, reads an incredulous press release.

If that doesnt sound overbearing enough, its at least a little simpler than having to set up your smartphone to literally watch you brush your teeth every time, like Oral-Bs earlier attempt at leveraging smart tech from 2015.

READ MORE: This Electric Toothbrush Uses AI Because Nothing is Sacred Anymore [The Verge]

More on AI: In This Browser Game, Your Opponents Are Neural Networks

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This Electric Toothbrush Uses AI Because Nothing is Sacred Anymore - Futurism

Three Suns

A team of Harvard astronomers have spotted a rocky planet with three suns using data from NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and, tantalizingly, they think it could have an atmosphere.

It could give us a glimpse of the conditions on interstellar planets which, like Earth, have their own atmospheres. But unfortunately, this super-Earth is simply too hot to contain the ingredients for life.

The rocky planet is roughly 1.38 times the size of Earth and over 22 light-years away. A paper detailing the discovery was published in the Astronomical Journal back in June.

As for the chance it could feature oxygen in its atmosphere, lead researcher Jennifer Winters is not hopeful. Its not in the habitable zone of its star, she said in a statement. Its too close. Its too hot. But if its possible that theres oxygen in the atmosphere that could come from other sources than life, thats good to know.

Still, the rocky orb is worth studying. Its one of the best examples of a rocky planet that might have an atmosphere that we can study to see what its made of, Winters added.

The team is hoping to spot the planet and analyze its atmosphere when the planet passes in front of its main star. That will happen in a couple of months time, but until then theyll use data from the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile to probe its mysteries further.

READ MORE: Why a rocky planet with three suns has astronomers attention [Harvard University]

More on exoplanets: Newly Discovered Exoplanet Is Unlike Any Other

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This Rocky World With Three Suns May Have an Atmosphere - Futurism

Emma doesn't look so great.

Her legs are puffy and covered in varicose veins. Her eyes are flat and dead, and her back looks like she spends her days ringing the bell at Notre-Dame Cathedral.

It's harsh but true. Emma is a life-sized doll depicting what the team think an average office worker in the United Kingdom could look like in 20 years if changes aren't made to the workplace environment.

For a new report titled The Work Colleague of The Future, a team of health experts led by behavioral futurist William Higham looked at survey data submitted by more than 3,000 office workers in France, Germany, and the UK.

The percentages of UK office workers who said they already suffered from sore eyes (50 percent), sore backs (48 percent), and headaches (48 percent) as a direct result of their work environment informed the design of the sickly Emma, who also suffers from stress-related eczema, excess weight, and swollen limbs.

If we don't majorly shake-up the standard office environment, according to Higham, we're headed toward a future rife with Emmas.

"Unless we make radical changes to our working lives, such as moving more, addressing our posture at our desks, taking regular walking breaks, or considering improving our workstation setup, our offices are going to make us very sick," he said, according to The Independent.

Of course, this isn't a peer-reviewed study, and Fellowes the office furniture company which commissioned the report is undoubtedly trying to promote its own products here. But it's still an interesting concept looking into exactly what our office spaces could be doing to our bodies.

This article was originally published by Futurism. Read the original article.

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This Creepy Life-Sized Doll Is a Warning About What Office Life Is Doing to Us - ScienceAlert

Thinking With Portals

Scientists think theyve come up with a way to detect traversable wormholes, assuming they exist.

Theres never been any sort of evidence that traversable wormholes portals between two distant parts of the universe, or two universes within a theoretical multiverse are real. But if they are, a team of scientists think they know what that evidence might look like, breathing new life into a far-out theory that could finally achieve faster-than-light travel.

If a wormhole were to exist, then the gravitational pull of objects on one side, like black holes or stars, would influence the objects on the other side.

If a star wobbled or had otherwise inexplicable perturbations in its orbit around a black hole, researchers could hypothetically argue that theyre being influenced by the gravity of something on the other end of a wormhole, according to research published this month in the journal Physical Review D.

If you have two stars, one on each side of the wormhole, the star on our side should feel the gravitational influence of the star thats on the other side, said University at Buffalo physicist Dejan Stojkovic. The gravitational flux will go through the wormhole.

While the researchers hope to look for wobbles in the orbits of stars orbiting near Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Stojkovic concedes that spotting some wouldnt guarantee that a wormhole exists there.

He added we cannot say that, Yes, this is definitely a wormhole. There could be some other explanation, something else on our side perturbing the motion of this star.

READ MORE: How to spot a wormhole (if they exist) [University at Buffalo via Phys.org]

More on wormholes: Physicists Publish Instructions For DIY Wormhole

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Scientists Say They Finally Figured Out How to Spot Wormholes - Futurism

Hole New World

The hole in Earths ozone layer a part of the stratosphere that shields the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation is the smallest its been since scientists first began observing it in 1982, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have announced in a joint statement.

However, human efforts to heal the hole seemingly had nothing to do with the welcome development.

The holes size fluctuates over time. According to satellite measurements, it typically reaches a size of about 20 million square kilometers (8 million square miles) in late September or early October.

But this this year, it peaked at a size of 16.4 million square kilometers (6.3 million square miles) on September 8 before shrinking to less than 10 million square kilometers (3.9 million square miles) for the rest of September and October.

In 1989, the Montreal Protocol an international treaty banning the use of ozone-depleting chemicals went into effect, and researchers expect the ozone to completely heal as a result of that agreement by 2070.

However, this years measurements of the ozone hole seem to have less to do with human efforts and more to do with unusually warm stratospheric temperatures, which the researchers could not link to climate change.

Its a rare event that were still trying to understand, atmospheric scientist Susan Strahan said in a NASA news release. If the warming hadnt happened, wed likely be looking at a much more typical ozone hole.

READ MORE: The Antarctic ozone hole is the smallest since it was discovered [CNN]

More on the ozone: Our Efforts to Heal the Ozone Layer Are Finally Paying Off

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Good News: The Ozone Hole Is Smaller Than Weve Ever Seen It - Futurism

Military Money

On Thursday, To the Stars Academy (TTSA) an alien and UFO research group founded by former Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge announced that it had entered into a partnership with the U.S. Army.

Now, new details on the partnership have emerged including that the Army is planning to spend at least $750,000 on the partnership.

As noted in a new Motherboard story, government document archivist John Greenewald has posted the entire Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between TTSA and the Army online.

The document reveals that the partnership will expire in five years unless the parties choose to renew it, and the government will not directly pay TTSA any money under the terms of the deal.

Instead, it will spend an estimated $750,000 on personnel, facilities, equipment, and other resources that TTSAs COO Kari DeLonge told Motherboard would be cost-prohibitive to a small startup-like TTSA.

The contract also makes clear what the Army hopes to get out of the partnership: to see if it can use TTSAs materials and technologies to advance its ground vehicles.

What the document doesnt mention, however, is TTSAs claim that some of the materials in its possession are extraterrestrial. Now that the group is getting the resources it needs to study those materials, maybe itllhave a better chance of figuring out just what exactly its gotten its hands on.

READ MORE: Tom DeLonges UFO Research Group Signs Contract With U.S. Army to Develop Far-Future Tech [Motherboard]

More on the partnership: Tom DeLonges UFO Research Group Partners With US Army

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The US Army Is Spending $750K to Partner With UFO Research Group - Futurism

Self-Regulating

Amazon, the online-retailer-turned-tech-giant, is currently drafting a set of potential federal laws to regulate facial recognition.

Its strikingly ironic that Amazon which develops oft-criticized facial recognition software currently in use by police is now attempting to write the federal laws that would dictate how its own tech can be deployed. But CEO Jeff Bezos says thats essentially the plan, according to Recode. Its a troubling sign of just how much influence one megacorporation could have over the safeguards meant to keep it in check.

Amazon has previously called for the government to impose regulations over facial recognition, possibly as a means to stave off criticism of its own Rekognition software and its numerous eyebrow-raising problem areas. But now Bezos is upping the ante.

Our public policy team is actually working on facial recognition regulations, Bezos said at Wednesdays Alexa gadget event, per Recode. It makes a lot of sense to regulate that.

In August, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders vowed to ban law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition software. That may be why Amazon is drafting some potential regulations: self-imposed rules would be preferable to losing all its police contracts.

Its a perfect example of something that has really positive uses, so you dont want to put the brakes on it, Bezos said at the event. But, at the same time, theres also potential for abuses of that kind of technology, so you do want regulations. Its a classic dual-use kind of technology.

READ MORE: Jeff Bezos says Amazon is writing its own facial recognition laws to pitch to lawmakers [Recode]

More on Amazon: Cops Are Using Amazons Facial Recognition Software Wrong

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Amazon Is Writing Its Own Facial Recognition Bills - Futurism

PeeFake

There have long been rumors of a tape that shows Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, directing sex workers to urinate on each other, or possibly a mattress where predecessor Barack Obama once slept, in the presidential suite of Moscows Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Its slowly emerging that a video claiming to be the legendary pee tape surfaced in January. In it, a shadowy Trump-like figure sits in a chair as nude women cavort on the bed. After a torturous nine months of investigation, Slates Ashley Feinberg concluded that the tape is almost certainly a fake leaving fascinating questions, both political and technological, about how the video was created and why.

The (extremely not-safe-for-work) video has been posted and scrubbed from the internet several times since January, but as of this articles publication you can see it here. There are numerous problems with the video the dcor in the video doesnt match that of the hotel, for instance.

But one of the biggest remaining questions is whether the grainy videos elusive creator hired a Trump lookalike or used deepfake technology to edit his face onto someone elses body.

Deepfakes are getting pretty good, but theyre still not totally convincing. But its still unclear how this video was created, because the video itself appears to be a phone recording of a screen playing the actual video a sneaky trick that one forensics expert told Slate would be a clever way to make it harder to spot flaws in the clip.

With that much blur and the already inscrutable, uh, mood lighting, its all-but-impossible to tell whether were actually peering at Trumps face or that of an unfortunate actor.

READ MORE: The Pee Tape Is Real, but Its Fake [Slate]

More on Trump: Trump Tweet Accidentally Reveals Secrets About US Spy Satellites

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Yes, There's a "Pee Tape" and It's Unclear If It's a Deepfake - Futurism

Century Club

If we want to colonize Mars, were going to need to figure out a way to feed ourselves there, and continuously sending food to the Red Planet isnt a sustainable plan.

But now, a team of researchers thinks its figured out a way to produce enough food on Mars to feed a million people and they say their plan to make Martian colonists self-sufficient would take just a hundred years to implement.

In an article published in New Space: The Journal of Space Entrepreneurship and Innovation, researchers from the University of Central Florida detail a modelthey created that takes into account the potential population growth on Mars, factoring in both people relocating to the planet and those born on it, as well as the colonists anticipated caloric needs.

The model also looked at how colonists might use the land on Mars and what sorts of foods humans could produce there.

Based on their research, the team determined that we could establish a system capable of feeding a million colonists within a century so long as theyre OK with a diet heavy on plants, insects, and food created from cells grown in petri dishes.

If that sounds like just the keto diet alternative youve been looking for, good news: the researchers have put together a website that tells you how to eat like a Martian right here on Earth.

READ MORE: How to Feed a Mars Colony of 1 Million People [Space.com]

More on Mars colonization: This Martian Greenhouse Concept Just Won a NASA Award

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Heres How We Could Feed a Million People on Mars - Futurism