Category Archives: Futurist

Elon is too busy.Cerebral Guy

Its set up to be a historic moment: a crew of four civilians are about to rocket into space on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The launch, dubbed Inspiration4, could soon mark the first time an all-non-professional team has ever gone for a trip around the Earth.

Interestingly, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk isnt exactly basking in the limelight ahead of Wednesdays launch. According to Inverse, mission lead and billionaire funder of the expedition Jared Isaacman has only spoken with Musk twice, and only briefly.

I try not to talk to him too much about the mission or really talk to him at all, for that matter, because hes a big brain, very cerebral guy, Isaacman told Inverse. Hes constantly thinking about how to solve the worlds problems, and I dont want to interrupt that thought process.

Its seemingly a polite way of sayingthat Musk is too busy to talk to the Inspiration4 crew and thats a shame, considering just how the momentous the occasion is.

Fellow crew member and science communications specialist Sian Proctor also hasnt gotten any one-on-one time with Musk.

Im looking forward to when we do [speak] because its his vision that has gotten me this opportunity along with what Jared has put together, she told Inverse. Getting that opportunity to show my gratitude and thankfulness is something thats important to me.

Chances are that Musk really is just extremely busy. His space company has actively been constructing a gigantic 400-foot tower thats designed to one day make it to orbit and even Mars a massive engineering task of unprecedented proportions.

But that doesnt mean he has a couple of minutes to chat with the select few who are willing to put their lives on the line for his business. A little bit of schmoozing could go a long way.

READ MORE: Inspiration4: What the crews interactions with Elon Reveal About SpaceX [Inverse]

More on the launch: SpaceX Rocket for First All-Tourist Spaceflight Rolls to Launchpad

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SpaceX Space Tourists Say Elon Musk Has Barely Talked to Them - Futurism

The second game to take the spotlight during Sonys PlayStation Showcase today was Project EVE, a high-octane post-apocalyptic action game from South Korean studio Shift Up with a trailer focused on gameplay. It shows off a series of battles against enemies both small and large in fast-paced melee action, reminiscent of Bayonetta.

A PlayStation.Blog post from Shift Up director Kim Hyung Tae speaks to the gameplay, emphasizing deliberate combat requiring careful timing for success. Other features typical to genre also appear, including gauges that fill over time and allow for more spectacular combat possibilities.

Shift Up also provided a basic overview of the story:

In the not-too-distant future, mankind is expelled from Earth after losing the battle against the invaders called the NA:tives. To win back Earth, the player becomes Eve, the survivor of the paratrooper squad deployed from the Colony, who must fight through powerful enemies with new comrades. We invite you to join Eves adventure in the face of unknown creatures on a desolate, destroyed Earth.

Project EVE is set to launch on PlayStation 5, though no release date has yet been confirmed. Stay tuned for more news coming out of the PlayStation Showcase today. It was a pretty big event.

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Project EVE Is a Futuristic Bayonetta-Like Action Game Headed to PS5 - The Escapist

With the i Vision Circular, BMW has given a preview of how the carmaker envisions a compact car in 2040 with a focus on sustainability and luxury. The concept is reminiscent of the i3 in many respects, but is said to have the future in mind.

The four-seater is fully electrically powered and displays a generous interior space in a length of around four metres. At the same time, it is consistently designed according to the principles of the circular economy and thus symbolises the BMW Groups ambitious plan to become the most sustainable manufacturer for individual premium mobility.

This is not a quote from 2010, when BMW announced the series production of the Megacity Vehicle that is, the study that was launched on the market in 2013 as the BMW i3. Back then, too, it was an approximately four-metre-long city car with four seats that offered more interior space with an electric concept than comparably long combustion cars. In addition, recycled materials are still used in the interior of the i3 today.

While the use of recycled materials in the i3 is limited to a few components and the carbon body, which is energy-intensive to manufacture, has not become established in mass production, the i Vision Circular is intended to go further here in the circular economy for example with secondary steel and secondary aluminium.

The BMW i Vision Circular shows how comprehensively and consistently we think about sustainable mobility. It represents our claim to be a pioneer in the development of a circular economy, said BMW CEO Oliver Zipse. We want to extend our leading position in resource efficiency in production to the entire life cycle of our vehicles. The Munich-based company is also concerned with business sustainability. Because the current development of raw material prices shows the effects an industry that is dependent on limited resources has to reckon with.

For this reason, the i Vision Circular is intended to show how a vehicle can be optimised for a closed material cycle unlike the carbon fibre body of the i3. The goal was a quota of 100 per cent recycled materials or 100 percent recyclability. Many of the materials already have a product life behind them. This is also true of the battery: the solid-state battery used is to be composed of materials that come from the recycling cycle i.e. that have already been used in another battery. In addition, the new battery is to be 100 per cent recyclable.

By the way, BMW does not give any details about the technical details of the battery and drive that seems to be of secondary importance in the year 2040. Only one function is mentioned: the i Vision Circular is to have a bidirectional charger. In this way, the car is supposed to be able to function as a mobile electricity storage unit in keeping with the spirit of sustainability and thus either supply buildings with electricity or stabilise the grid.

In the design process of the BMW i Vision Circular, we have consistently thought about circularity from the very beginning, says Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design. As a result, this Vision vehicle is full of innovative ideas that combine sustainability with a new and inspiring aesthetic we call this approach Circular Design.

This approach in turn comprises four principles, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. According to these guiding principles, components are to be questioned, reconsidered and redesigned. Some components or processes have been completely omitted the i Vision Circular, for example, is not lacquered but anodised in light gold. Painting requires a lot of energy and makes recycling more difficult. Decisive for good recycling are a few different material groups made of monomaterials whose compounds can be easily separated, BMW writes. That is why the BMW i Vision Circular does not use bonding or composite materials. Instead, it uses clever connection solutions such as cords, buttons and quick-release fasteners.

The front of the concept car, for example, shows how such guiding principles also change the appearance of a car. Since chrome was dispensed with and the number of parts was reduced as much as possible, there is a BMW kidney with chrome bars instead, digital surfaces of the kidney extend across the entire width to the headlights. The applied brand emblem has also been saved: it is engraved in the front and the lettering at the rear is lasered. Again, this saves on additional add-on parts.

As with the i3, the interior is accessed via doors that open in opposite directions. The designers wanted to create a modern and homely atmosphere, but at the same time use as few different materials as possible and make them as easy to dismantle as possible. In the production of the interior components, too, additive processes are to be used above all in order to manufacture the components as precisely as possible without scrap and waste. The steering wheel rim, for example, is 3D-printed from a bio-based material. It is remarkable that a study showing a car from the year 2040 still has a steering wheel at all.

In order to make the four principles of its circular economy tangible, BMW has developed the i Insight Vision app. With this augmented reality app, visitors to the IAA will be able to discover the aspects of the concept car in a playful way.

Still futuristic, but closer to everyday life in 2021 is another trade fair premiere by BMW: the i Vision Amby is a high-speed pedelec for urbanists with which the Munich company wants to show a two-wheeled solution approach for the urban mobility of tomorrow.

The pedelec should be able to be used at 25 km/h on cycle paths, at up to 45 km/h on inner-city roads and at up to 60 km/h on multi-lane roads and out of town. In the future, classifications such as car, bicycle and motorbike should not determine what we think, develop and offer, says Werner Haumayr, Head of BMW Group Design Concept. Rather, this paradigm shift gives us the opportunity to align products with peoples lifestyles. Like with the high-speed pedelec BMW i Vision Amby. Located somewhere between a bicycle and a light motorbike, it allows our customers to decide for themselves which roads or paths they want to use it on in the conurbation.

In parallel to the pedelec, BMW Motorrad is showing a version called Vision Amby with footrests instead of pedals, but with a throttle grip. A 2,000 Wh battery is supposed to offer a range of up to 300 kilometres.

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BMW presents a futuristic outlook with the i Vision Circular - http://www.electrive.com

Audrey Large was never too keen on making things by hand. As a masters candidate at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands in 2017, she and the other students were pushed into metal or wood workshops, but her preferred method was to create designs on a computer. The catch was how to turn these digital drawings into physical objects; 3-D printing bridged the gap. Instead of meticulously tufting a rug or molding a porcelain jar as shed tried to do in the past, Large found she could simply hit print for her virtual object to become reality. But the technology didnt impress her much at first. I felt it was kind of ugly, she says of the outcomes. Never as seducing as the shapes I had in my computer.

Even so, the promise of circumventing the artisanal aspect of the creation process was too great, so she kept at it. Trial and error became an important part of her work: Large would intentionally run designs through the printer that were structurally unsound to test the devices limits. When she got stuck, she consulted YouTube and online forums. The final bowls and vases she developed look like theyve been ripped straight from the colorful digital realms of Tron or Ready Player One. Theres no painting, theres no coating on the object, she says. I like that its coming out of the computer, out of the machine. I take it out and I dont touch it so that its closest to the file.

MetaBowl#6 by Audrey Large, who creates colorful, futuristic vessels with 3-D technology.Courtesy of Audrey Large

In recent years, 3-D printing, perhaps dismissed as just a method for creating prototypes or a way for college kids to make plastic tchotchkes for their friends, has been adopted by a slew of serious designers. Theyve used the machines to produce chairs, tables, vases and even whole wall panels, cementing their spot in a niche-but-growing manufacturing space that shipped 2.1 million printers in 2020. Its a quantum leap forward from when 3-D printers were invented in the mid-80s, yet the technology is still raw. Despite that, the industry was celebrated last year during the early days of the pandemic, when a group of architects from all over the world used their printers to churn out thousands of face shields for front-line healthcare workers.

The most interesting work, though, is happening at the opposite end of the spectrum from such mass production, by designers who value the machine as a tool thats capable of forging incredibly complex designs, some that would be otherwise impossible to realize. The apex of this movement is in Europe, particularly Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, where a rich history of furniture design relied heavily on the handmade. A 3-D printer offers a fresh take on these practices, or, for some, a way to rebel against them.

Spanish firm Nagami makes a point of only creating furniture that takes full advantage of 3-D printings unique capabilities. Like Large, cofounder Manuel Jimnez Garca began experimenting with digital fabrication while studying for his masters degree at the Architectural Association in London, before moving on to large-scale 3-D printing. But this was 2009, and there was much less research on the subject. We were trying to get the concept of 3-D printing that youre probably used to, which is encapsulated into a desktop-sized box, and take it out of that box and build larger pieces, he says. Eventually, he bought a bigger machine: an eight-foot-tall robotic arm from fabricator ABB thats often used in automotive manufacturing. The new tech allowed Nagami to make complex furniture on a grander scale, including the Voxel chair, a seat with an intricate structure that, at first glance, resembles the chaos of tangled computer wires. It was a proof of concept, demonstrating that a design sketched on a computer and manufactured by robots can be even more remarkable than one patiently drawn by human hand.

Its a much faster process too. Voxel can be 3-D-printed in a few days using just one continuous line of plastic filament thats about 1.5 miles long. Its literally depositing material particle by particle, says Jimnez. Thats something that by hand you couldnt do, or else you would need to be the most special person on planet Earth. Nagamis ambitions have attracted big-name collaborators like Zaha Hadid Architects. The late architects namesake firm drew upon Jimnezs expertise and hardware to create the Rise chair. The piece features a seamless blue-to-light-green color gradient, which, like the inner workings of Voxel, is easy to input into a computer but very difficult to execute manually.

Spanish design firm Nagami uses a robotic arm to build the Bow chair by Zaha Hadid Architects.Courtesy of Nagami/Zaha Hadid Architects

Thats not to say that printing designers want to do away with made-by-hand craftsmanship entirely. Many, like Mathias Bengtsson, consider the tech to be just the first step in a long, fastidious process. I dont want to do 3-D printing for the sake of it, says the Dane, whos best known for the Spun chaise lounge, which resembles a giant Slinky and is in the Museum of Modern Arts permanent collection. I want to take it far away from the 3-D printing, and I need to know theres always hands on it before and after the process, stuff being cast or hand-polished or sanded by craftsmen, artisans. Maybe its a reflection that Im of the generation that was born just before the computers came out, so Im trained to do everything by hand.

Hes not kidding. Bengtsson couldnt afford a 3-D printer when he was a student in the late 90s. Instead, he made a tracing tool to outline shapes on pieces of cardboard, cut them out and stacked them in homage to the S-shaped Panton chair, an iconic modernist design. His DIY construction emulated 3-D printers method of adding one layer of filamentusually plasticon top of the other. Nowadays Bengtssons process is a bit more sophisticated. His Cellular chair is 3-D-printed as one big piece of porous epoxy resin; one version is then cast in bronze. Like many of his designs, Cellular, which resembles a metallic hunk of volcanic rock, is one thats possible only by marrying new technology with old philosophies and techniques: The printer creates the complex pattern, and the artisan gives it a carefully applied finish. Bengtssons Growth series takes a similar approach. The twisty, vine-like silhouettes of each chair and table are based on an artificial-intelligence computer program that simulates a seed taking root and growing into a mature plant. The stems digitized pattern is then 3-D-printed and cast in different metals, giving the finished product a distinctly organic look; one could easily be forgiven for mistaking the shiny seat for a sculpture. When theres a dialogue with the machine, the machine also leaves a little bit of a fingerprint, he says. Im not looking for perfection.

Brass Slice chair by Mathias Bengtsson.Courtesy of Mathias Bengtsson

Bengtsson isnt the only one combining 3-D printing with AI systems. Synthesis, a design firm in New York, created a program that can generate tens of thousands of different wall-panel patterns, from rigidly geometric versions to ones that look like sound waves. Clients can choose their favorite iterations from a video of the wide-ranging selection. Each exploration is lifetimes of a designers time. Thats not an exaggeration, says John Meyer, Synthesiss founder. I mean, we spent years on the first patterns of these panels. Every vacation I went on, every street I walked down, I did pattern study and exploration. It took me years to come up with 10 to 15 really nice patterns that people tend to like. Almost all of Synthesiss wall panels are 3-D-printed in plastic. The firms expertise with the technology extends to furnishings, including the cantilevered Karv table and the spherical Santorini fire pit, which can also be made in concrete. All can be customized and cast in various colors.

Hive wall panel by Synthesis.Courtesy of Synthesis

These sorts of tweaks are easy with 3-D printing, but one aspect that remains difficultand to some degree unexploredis the use of different materials. Many still associate the medium with plastic, but a handful of artisans are slowly chipping away at that mold. I was a bit disappointed because I came from an art school, from design school, says Dutch designer Olivier van Herpt of his first impressions of 3-D printing. The physical value of what came out, you were just waiting hours and hours and still ending up with a plastic piece. Instead, he wanted to print with clay. It took van Herpt about eight years to build his own custom printer that could produce ceramic vessels. His invention can even be paused in the middle of printing, allowing him to shape aspects of the clay by hand before its complete. An interesting confluence of man and machine, sure, but why not just throw some vessels on a pottery wheel as ceramists have done for millennia?

As with Jimnez, for van Herpt it has to do with 3-D printings specialized capabilities. The technology is very precise, so it can perfectly render extremely detailed patterns, such as the tiny ridges of his new limited-edition white porcelain vase. He also used the printer to put a fresh spin on delftware, the traditional Dutch school of ceramics with a striking blue-and-white color palette. Van Herpt added cobalt oxide to white clay and then loaded it into the printer; the resulting vases have a gradient thats achievable only via the combination of bespoke machinery and hands-on craftsmanship.

Olivier van Herpt next to his 3-D-printed porcelain piece from the kiln after a 24-hour firing process.Courtesy of Olivier van Herpt

A more common (and perhaps less time-consuming) medium of experimentation is wood, which has recently been championed by Yves Bhar, a versatile designer whose extensive rsum includes the ever-popular Sayl office chair and PayPals no-frills logo. His Vine series of a bowl, a basket, a tray and a vase is manufactured with a composite made of cast-off lumber. Bhar completed the digital sketches and started producing the pieces in about four weeks, a testament to the breakneck speed at which digital manufacturing can operate. But one of the biggest perks of Vine is environmental. Every particle that Ive used or that falls off the printer can be built with again, he says. So theres literally no waste.

In fact, 3-D printing has long been heralded as a cleaner, greener means of production. Its sometimes referred to as additive manufacturing because it adds material in order to create a final product, so you pretty much use what you need. In theory, its a less wasteful alternative to traditional, more subtractive methods, which instead take one big piece of wood, say, and cut away the excess. But 3-D printing isnt quite as pure as has been made out. Polylactic acid (PLA) is the industrys bioplastic of choice and is considered an eco-friendlier alternative because its usually made of corn starch rather than petroleum. But eco-friendlier is a relative term. There are some real concerns about PLA, says Sherry Handel, executive director of the Additive Manufacturer Green Trade Association. Its great in a lot of ways, because its plant-based and because it biodegrades. But it has to be decomposed under high temperaturesnot in a landfill, but in an industrial compost situation. Theres also an issue of supply chain. PLA will contaminate other plastics during the recycling process, so it cant just be thrown into the trash with water bottles and yogurt cups. Instead, it has to be sent separately to specialized waste-management facilities, which are in much shorter supply. In summary, better than a single-use plastic, but not great.

Vine collection by Forust and Yves Bhar.Courtesy of Forust and Yves Bhar

Issues with waste are compounded by the fact that 3-D-printed furniture can be perfected only by ongoing experimentation. Failed builds are a necessary part of the development process, as they allow designers to test the limits of what the machine can achieve. It was years of it not coming out the way we were hoping, says Meyer. As I like to say, its trial and error, mostly error. Thats what got us here. Synthesis uses PLA and is careful to separate the castoffs from run-of-the-mill plastics so they can be recycled properly, as do others, but not everyone is so conscientious. Another solution is to break down plastic waste on-site and incorporate it into new designs, a process thats extremely time-consuming. People have to buy an additional machine, and then you have to do the quality control because youve got to know if youre going to be able to use the materials, says Handel. Its another extra step. A lot of companies just want to focus on what theyre doing. You want someone else to deal with that part. In 2019, Filamentive, a PLA manufacturer based in the UK, estimated that 10 percent of 3-D prints made in the UK end up in the rubbish heap. Considering the number of machines and their output, about 615,000 pounds of plastic were wasted. The company said the figure for 2021 could be as high as 3.3 million pounds. And thats in just one small corner of the world.

These issues stand a good chance of being solved as artisans continue to experiment with the burgeoning technology. And 3-D printing also has the potential to help achieve another environmental goal: reducing the carbon footprint associated with long-haul shipping. Proponents hope that, as more printing labs pop up around the world, designers will simply email files to faraway facilities to be manufactured. That way, oversized chairs and sofas could be created locally, not shipped on freighters overseas or driven for miles cross-country.

Such ambitions, like many problems and limitations in the 3-D-printing space, depend entirely on research and innovation. Its an imperfect system, at least for now, but for its devotees, theres little alternative3-D printing is the future. Design has to be mind-blowing, says Jimnez. Otherwise its not worth it.

Originally posted here:
Meet the Designers Using 3-D Printing to Create the Next Generation of Furniture - Robb Report

Can we send them a filter or something?Colonizing Space

If youve ever eyed the drinking water on an airplane with suspicion, just imagine having to put your trust in the water supply out in space, where astronauts typically drink recycled urine.

Now, a new study published in the Nature journal npj Biofilms and Microbiomes on Monday found that the International Space Stations drinking water is teeming with bacterial colonies. In particular, the Arizona State University scientists behind the study looked at biofilms made up of multiple bacteria species a phenomenon that The Debrief notes is poorly understood on Earth, let alone in microgravity that were found inside the ISSs water system.

Thatcould help improve the water quality for the crewmembers of future missions to space, but that doesnt erase the fact that scientists had plenty of bacteria gathered from the ISSs water system to study.

The space station does have a sophisticated water purification system that allows it to recycle water. Without it, NASA would have to ship an estimated 10,000 pounds of water per crewmate into orbit every single year, according to a press release on the study.

Still, the system apparently isnt perfect, since NASA had plenty of bacteria to scrape up and sample from the water system on the ISS. The scientists behind the new study had their pick of myriad species and colonies that were gathered and shipped home between 2008 and 2015.

The team looked at a number of qualities, including the ability to form those mysterious biofilms as well as antibiotic resistance, and found that bacteria can pose a very real threat to astronauts especially given that the immune system seems to weaken during journeys into space.

More work needs to be done to determine exactly what specific impacts the bacterial colonies on the ISS might have on astronaut health. But with this basic research on the properties of the bacteria complete, experts at least have a better idea of what they need to look for.

READ MORE: The Drinking Water Aboard the International Space Station Is a Cesspool, New Study Confirms [The Debrief]

More on the International Space Station: Scientists New Goal: Make the ISS Bathroom Less Disgusting

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Study: Space Station Drinking Water Is Teeming With Bacteria - Futurism

Nike and FC Barcelona have just dropped the clubs experimental new third kit, which will be worn exclusively in this seasons Champions League.

The new release reinterprets the clubs iconic Blaugrana stripes, with young artists from Barcelona designing silhouettes of the citys most famous architectural and cultural landmarks within each blue and red stripe.

While the new kit keeps the tradition of Barcas vertical stripes, they appear in neon tones for a more vibrant and futuristic aesthetic. The kit is produced using 100% polyester recycled from plastic bottles that are melted to obtain a very fine thread, thus generating a fabric that not only optimizes sporting performance but also has a much smaller carbon footprint.

The new third kit will be worn exclusively in the UEFA Champions League by Barcelona mens and womens teams, starting with the mens game against Bayern Munich on September 14.

Get a closer look at the jersey below, which is available now.

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Nike and FC Barcelona Unveil a Futuristic Third Kit to be Worn in the Champions League - Versus

Does this look absolutely wild or what? Wouldnt you love to be blasting down the turnpike in this? Well, you can, but only if youre into virtual racing. Thats because the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo SV is for games only.

Yet, it does exist as a full-size car. Confused? Back before Christmas, MototBiscuit covered Jags GT SV. Since then there have been new developments. It built a full-size replica of the virtual car for a design case study. No matter what you may think, designers need that extra 3D reality to really study what their minds have created.

This wasnt one designers baby. There were three design teams that worked on this. The designers wanted the Gran Turismo to feature cues from its iconic 1951 Type-C and 1954 Type-D LeMans race cars. And it takes other cues from real Jaguar race cars.

It houses four electric motors combined producing 1,877 hp and 2,478 lb-ft of torque. So power is going to each of the corners. The top speed is estimated to be 255 mph, with 0-60 times around 1.65 seconds. How about handling?

With the battery packs down low in the center of the body pan, the GT SV has perfect weight distribution. The low center of gravity and low roll center is also part and parcel of the weight spread out as low as possible.

The downside to the high-performance battery rigors is heat. So a liquid nitrogen circuit runs throughout the encased batteries to keep things cool. And Jags efforts to make the GT SV a reality goes further.

So Jaguar has real-world endurance racing expectations for the design and concept. Especially, once we discovered that the GT SV is based around the Vision GT coupe. So there is a developed platform this is based upon. But there is still even more effort that has been put into making this a reality.

Jaguar has created a cockpit to gauge how livable it would be inside of the EV. They are said to be exploring a new lightweight material called Typefibre that mimics leather but without sitting on a dead cow. It will even have real-world testing performed at the ABB FIA Formula World Championship.

Right now the real-life SV looks to be a roller. So powertrain numbers and development must be taking place in a mule. But it looks like Jaguar has honest intentions of making this a running reality. Those swoopy fenders and chopped top profile make this one we cant wait to see on the track.

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The research group at Cleveland Clinic's Laboratory for Bionic Integration looks at the inside of the touch robot system. Each small black box provides individual finger sensation to the user through a neural-machine interface.

Dreaming of a future where Luke Skywalker's replacement hand is more than a sci-fi fantasy, scientists have designed a "bionic arm" that enlists help from tiny robots to re-create the vital sensations forfeited when one loses an upper limb. The bots do that by safely vibrating muscles at the amputation site.

By 2028, the global prosthetics and orthotics market is expected to reach over $8 billion, according to a 2021 report from Grand View Research, but artificial limbs have hit a mechanical roadblock. They can't really account for many intuitive sensations that help us in our everyday lives, such as the way it feels to open and close our hands.

A study subject tests the team's bionic arm.

"We're still using technology that kind of reached its zenith around World War II," explained Paul Marasco, an associate professor in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute's Department of Biomedical Engineering and lead author of a study on the new bionic arm published Wednesdayin the journal Science Robotics.

Enter the bionic arm, a hybrid of metal and realistic skin tones.

Though there are several other teams working on bionic arms, such as the groups behind popular cyberpunk video game Deus Ex and Metal Gear Solid, Marasco touts a few advantages of his version.

The sci-fi-looking device translates information directly to and from the brain via powerful robots about half the size of a standard matchbox. While turning thoughts into action, the arm can simultaneously contact the brain to deliver sensations corresponding to that intended action.

Not only does the artificial limb appear to be the first bionic arm to simultaneously test several metrics of its benefits over typical prosthetics, those metrics indicate that it replicates the mechanics of natural arms precisely enough to restore unconscious reflexes in amputees who use it.

We rely on such reflexes every day. For instance, when we pick up a cup of coffee, our hand finds the mug on the table, grips the handle with the right level of firmness and lets go at the perfect time to prevent spills. We can achieve this task thoughtlessly even on the groggiest of mornings because nerves in our arm muscles automatically respond to our choices -- in this case, "I must drink that coffee."

Now playing: Watch this: This bionic arm looks like something out of sci-fi

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Traditional prosthetic limbs can't re-create such seamless movement because they run in manual drive -- amputees have to keep their eyes on them at all times and worry about things a nondisabled person usually chalks up to intuition.

After testing the device on two study subjects and using unprecedented analytic tools, the team was excited to discover that the subjects reverted back to reflexive behaviors from before their amputation, including intuitive grip and natural eye movements -- they could focus their sight away from the limb.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

The metallic arm requires three components: realignment of nerve endings, mini-robots that work as a sort of control center and the bionic arm itself.

First, a surgical procedure takes an amputee's unused nerve endings within the healthy part of the arm -- those that used to be dedicated to removed parts, such as fingertips -- and "plugs" them into the site of amputation.

"Your brain is like, 'My fingers are connected to a muscle,' [it just doesn't] know that it's a muscle on your shoulder versus a muscle down in your forearm," Marasco explained.

The bionic arm is placed onto the amputation site and little robots are fit into the socket. Those robots press on relevant areas of the site, stimulating the nerve endings that are now attached, when the patient engages the arm.

"You can buzz their muscles and generate these really kind of interesting things -- these perceptual illusions of complex hand movement," Marasco said.

The researchers modified off-the-shelf prosthetic limbs rather than starting from scratch, hoping to fast-track the devices to rehabilitation clinics and make them more cost-effective than traditional prosthetics. People who use those less advanced artificial limbs often overuse the side of their body without an amputation, leading to back or shoulder problems that ultimately require costly medical care.

"These advanced systems are more expensive to fit to start with, but if you use them, they don't injure you, because you don't have to account for them," Marasco said. "This is going to be something that's going to cost less money in the future."

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Futuristic bionic arm helps amputees feel the sensation of touch and movement - CNET

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TL;DR: Take your note-taking to the next level with the Scanmarker Air Digital Highlighter, on sale for 20% off. As of Sept. 1, pick one up for only $110.

School's back in session, which means note-taking is back on the agenda. But with everything else in your life going digital, scribbling notes longhand with a pad of paper and pencil, or trying to keep up your WPM without missing a beat just seems outdated. Instead, what if you could make the note-taking process much faster? Thats where the Scanmarker Air Digital Highlighter comes into play.

The Scanmarker Air bridges the divide between old school and new school note-taking by wirelessly transferring printed text into an app or web browser 30 times faster than if you were to type it up yourself. You simply highlight words the same way you would normally with a highlighter, but in seconds the Scanmarker will read it and transport it to Microsoft Word, Excel, Gmail, Facebook, and more. It can also translate your text into over 50 different languages and read it back to you as it scans.

Whether youre studying for a test, putting together a report, or extracting quotes for an essay, the Scanmarker Air can make your life easier. Like most of your other gadgets and gizmos, it actually helps you work smarter, not harder. With the ability to scan 3,000 characters per minute or a full line of text within a second, your study habits this semester are about to improve substantially. Theres even a dictionary feature that lets you look up words on the spot.

Basically the same size as a regular highlighter, itll be easy to tote around the Scanmarker from class to class, the library, a local coffee shop, etc. It works seamlessly (and wirelessly) with Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS devices. Plus, itll never run out of ink.

While you're gathering school supplies for the semester, be sure to snag the Scanmarker Air Digital Highlighter and bring your note-taking into the 21st century. It's usually $139, but you can save 20% for a limited time and get it for just $110.

Credit: Scanmarker

Read more:
Take notes the futuristic way with this digital highlighter on sale - Mashable

Last year saw the release of the Polaroid Now, an instant camera reminiscent of the Polaroid cameras from the 1970s with some modern upgrades. The Polaroid Now camera was apparently a hit because today were seeing Polaroid announce and release a follow-up to it. The new camera dubbed the Polaroid Now+ offers the same instant camera functionality as its predecessor, but this time, photographers have more options when it comes to making their pictures unique.

Thats at least partially thanks to connectivity with the Polaroid app. Yes, while the camera is still an analog one that uses instant film, the Now+ can connect to the Polaroid app to offer more shooting modes. Users will find several shooting modes in the app, including light painting, double exposure, and manual mode. The app also offers aperture priority and tripod modes, which Polaroid says will help photographers snap photos with depth of field or long exposure times.

If you want the full analog experience, Polaroid has included five snap-on lens filters that allow you to give your photos new effects without having to bust out the app. The five lenses include orange, blue, and yellow filters along with special red vignette and starburst filters.

Polaroid assures that core features included in the original Now are also present in the Now+. Some of the returning features Polaroid calls out specifically include autofocus, dynamic flash, and a self-timer for taking old-school selfies. As alluded to by the cameras tripod mode, the Polaroid Now+ also comes with a tripod mount.

All in all, the Polaroid Now+ sounds like a sizable upgrade for those who want more options when shooting their instant pictures. That said, it is worth pointing out that at $149.99, the Now+ costs a fair bit more than its $99 predecessor. The camera is available today in blue-gray, black, and white color schemes from Polaroids website.

Read more here:
Polaroid Now+ instant camera bridges the gap between classic and futuristic - SlashGear