Month: February 2021

Even in a virtual environment, CES 2021 remains the zero point for innovation. For the first time, exhibitors, enthusiasts and the media are opting for virtual press conferences over cramped convention halls and casinos. Sure, it’s an online-only proposition, but with 1,000+ virtual exhibits and 150,000 attendees online, there will still be tons of product announcements and tons of technology to empathize with remotely.

Whether you’re interested in TVs, games, 5G, robots, electric vehicles or new wearables, we’ve rounded up some of the best gadgets and gadgets from the online trenches of CES 2021. We’ll keep updating them back often over time.

More CES 2021 coverage

Brink Bionics Impulse Neuro-Controller

Brink Bionics

What if you could save 80 milliseconds less time than it takes your brain to instruct your mouse finger to click / shoot an enemy in an Overwatch game, for example? This is an example Canadian startup Brink Bionics is using to describe the benefits of its Impulse Neuro-Controller, a glove-like gaming peripheral that it unveiled at CES 2021. It doesn’t sound like much, sure, but with the glove’s ability to recognize it, clicking your mouse before your finger even moves can be of great benefit in the world of esports.

Razer Project Hazel Smart Mask

Perhaps members of the anti-mask community would have a change of heart after seeing Razer’s futuristic face masks. Razer’s Project Hazel not only filters the air very well – it’s suitable as an N95 surgical ventilator – it also has a silicone gasket on the top that eyeglass wearers will be happy to see. In true Razer fashion, the see-through concept also features “Razer Voiceamp” technology that hears your voice and then “intelligently reproduces” it through a series of speakers to make you sound less muffled. Sorry, it does not contain Bane-like language manipulation.

Cadillac eVTOL flying taxi concept

General Motors

It’s sometimes said that TVs are usually the big story at CES, but we agree. Every year the show delivers some of the coolest, craziest, and most technical cars and vehicles we have ever seen. And with every major automaker getting it out for their piece of the EV future, you have to stand out. One way to do this is with wild concept vehicles like Cadillac’s eVTOL (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) flying taxi. During its keynote speech, General Motors highlighted the single-seat eVTOL with two rotors and other high-end electric vehicles in the Cadillac range, each serving as an example of how the company sees the future of commuting.

bHaptics TactSuit X40 VR vest

The haptic vest bHaptics TactSuit X40 brings us closer and closer to a Ready Player One world, in which all our sense of touch is conveyed via VR visuals and simulated full body contact. But let’s not go too far into this rabbit hole. Instead, let’s focus on the coolness of this wireless haptic vest, which has 40 points of vibration that work in tandem with the company’s sleeves, face pillows, and hand and foot devices, and lifelike physical feedback from VR and game content (including SteamVR and Oculus Quest).

LG Transparent Smart Bed TV

LG display

Imagine waking up in the morning, indulging yourself a little and yawning, then activating a transparent screen at the level of minority reports that rolls up from the bottom of your bed and shows the weather, traffic, news and the day’s news shows social media streams. The so-called Smart Bed TV is another example of LG’s capabilities in the field of rollable displays, which have delighted CES attendees in recent years. This transparent concept also stands out at CES, and the company sees a wide range of uses, including in shopping malls, autonomous vehicles, and other commercial applications.

Razer Project Brooklyn gaming chair

One of the great things about CES ‘myriad of concept devices and technologies is that several of them come together in different segments to create truly stunning and innovative products. The gaming heavyweight Razer is no stranger to cool concepts, as demonstrated by the Project Brooklyn gaming chair, which combines a rollable OLED display with a cute seat. The poles protrude up from the back of the sleek bucket chair, while a 60-inch display surrounds you for immersive gameplay designed to keep up with VR.

Panasonic Automotive AR HUD

While many automakers are studying head-up displays (HUD) for their cars and have already added them, Panasonic hopes they will consider the augmented reality HUD system as an option as well. The Panasonic system enhances the projected image on the windshield with icons and text, while advanced AI and machine learning help drive directions and enable drivers to see pedestrians, objects and obscured lanes. The eye-tracking technology follows the driver’s eyes and aligns the AR graphics exactly with what you see in the real world for a more engaging and informed driving experience.

Kohler nursing bath

Given that millions of people are stuck indoors, it’s no surprise many people have explored the idea of ​​spicing up their homes with things like renovations, swimming pools, hot tubs, and, yes, fancy bathrooms. We deserve it. And while you might need some deep pockets for Kohler’s Zen Beyond Zen still bath, it might be worth it. The Stillness line ranges from $ 6,200 to $ 16,000 and comes in a variety of sizes. It offers a relaxing experience with colored light, aromatherapy, mist, and a calming infinity edge that drips water into the grated drain below.

Samsung’s micro LED TVs are coming home

You may remember Samsung’s amazing micro-LED technology from years past as “The Wall,” a massive, modular system of LED panels that can be assembled as desired for commercial use. This year, the Korean tech giant is bringing home its micro LED panels in 110, 99, and 88-inch iterations, pre-assembled and simple enough to hang up. As Caleb Denison, Senior Editor of Digital Trends, points out here, it is a groundbreaking technology that is characterized by intense brightness, perfect black levels and all the functions you would expect from Samsung. ‘Nuff said.

LG teases its rollable smartphone

You traditionally don’t see a lot of smartphones at CES, but given the global pandemic, all bets seem tied – Samsung will even unveil the Galaxy S21 on the last day of the conference. And while LG revealed details of its latest LG smartphones during its virtual presentation on Monday, it was a quick glimpse of the company’s rumored rollable smartphone at the beginning and end that caught everyone’s attention. In the video, the device switched smoothly from a smartphone to a tablet and vice versa in a matter of seconds – supposedly later that year. It was like a Marvel final credit scene.

Nobi Smart lamp

Health and wellness technology that protects seniors is rapidly becoming an important industry as our population ages. The Nobi Smart lamp is one such piece of medically focused technology. The Nobi is a stylish looking ceiling lamp that can be networked throughout the house. It uses motion sensors and AI to provide a variety of functions, including motion detection, which can trigger lights to turn on automatically to reduce disorientation and light the path. It also has intelligent fall detection that allows caregivers to be notified when a problem arises.

ColdSnap quick freezer

Every year at CES there is at least one “Keurig of…” device, and this year is no different. The ColdSnap quick freezer promises to conjure up everything from soft ice cream and frozen yogurt to smoothies and frozen cocktails. It’s in fact the Keurig for soft ice cream, which uses pods to make delicious frozen treats to order in less than 120 seconds.

Petpuls AI powered dog collar

If Gary Larson’s far side comic is to be believed, a dog’s bark is just the one that says “hey!” basically everything. Not so according to Petpuls, an AI-controlled smart collar introduced at CES 2021 that uses speech recognition to decipher up to five different emotions (happy, fearful, angry, sad and relaxed). The Petpuls is touted as a Fitbit for your dog and works with a smartphone app. It also tracks your dog’s activity and sleep so you can make sure your best friend is happy and healthy.

Samsung JetBot 90 AI +

Every year Samsung moves the needle a bit with its robotic technology at CES, and this year it’s no different as its robot vacuum game gets pretty tight thanks to the JetBot 90 AI +. Efficiency is the idea here as the JetBot uses AI and Lidar to scan the room for even the tiniest of obstructions so it can identify them so it can control clearly and get the job done faster. In conjunction with the Samsung SmarThings app, you can set cleaning timers and restricted zones with the on-board camera and even see your pets (and your spouse?) From the perspective of a bot. Check out what else Samsung has to cook at this year’s show.

Lenovo ThinkReality AR glasses

If you tried to find equipment like a standing desk, office chair, or second monitor when the quarantine began, forget about them. And now that the market has adjusted to us being at home, it is an understatement to say that the work-from-home segment is booming. Tech-driven solutions like the Lenovo ThinkReality A3 smart glasses are still pretty untested in nature, but with the promise of projecting up to five virtual desktops with augmented reality, it could mean a pretty nasty home office setup, regardless whether or not you have a physical monitor. The ThinkReality glasses “fit like sunglasses” and work with Motorola smartphones and PCs via USB-C.

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Chris DeGraw / Digital Trends, Getty Images

Many futurists have speculated that one day we might scan the human brain and “upload” it to a computer. Some believe this could allow people to live on in digital form after death, or to keep a copy of themselves that will last long after they die. Of course, we are nowhere near capable of achieving such a feat – but what if your brain could be preserved until technology enables the brain to be digitized?

That is exactly what the scientist Robert McIntyre hopes. In 2015, he founded a startup called Nectome, which specializes in developing technologies to preserve the brain. Today, that startup is a bit out of the spotlight, but McIntyre’s dream of preserving the human brain so it can be digitized in the future is still very much alive. I sat down with him to find out about the current state of his ambitions to preserve the brain.

The conversation did not go as expected.

A philosophical twist

Almost immediately, the interview took a philosophical turn. He challenged my opinion that a digital copy of a brain is not the same as someone who survived death by upload.

“The question is how do you value yourself or others. Is that good for you? Is it useful? Or does it hurt you? Isn’t it useful? “he asked.” Why do you value one way to get to a brain structure and no other way to get to a brain structure? “

“Whenever society develops a mechanism to preserve information and pass it on more precisely to the next generation, this leads to radical changes in society.”

McIntrye argues that having a digital copy of your brain is in some ways a continuation of your life, even if we never reach a point where consciousness can somehow be transferred to a computer. He says every decision you’ve ever made affects how your brain has become the way it is today. So copying this brain is a continuation of this journey after death.

“When you have a copy of a person but you say that they are not really continuous with you, or are real in that way, there is a certain sense in which it is not. Definitely, ”says McIntyre. “A copy that was just [created] Obviously, they didn’t literally live through the events in that person’s life because they obviously weren’t. You just put it together. On the other hand, there is a sense in which it is absolutely continuous with the person. If that person had different experiences and memories, the configuration of the copy’s brain would be different. “

SubstanceP / Getty Images

McIntyre often compares copying the brain to copying a famous painting. If you’ve been able to perfectly copy a famous painting, he asks why is it less valuable than the famous painting? The reason, of course, is that we tend to value authenticity and its connection to the past – continuity. But McIntyre claims we choose to cherish these things, arguing that authenticity is a “collective fiction” that may not serve us.

If a robot painted a new version of a classic painting using exactly the same brushstrokes as the original painter, McIntyre says, then it’s essentially like the artist controlling the robot from beyond the grave. If he or she had made a different movement, the robot would have to make the same movement.

During the interview, I sometimes felt like I was talking to Doctor Manhattan from the Watchmen comics. He clearly doesn’t want to devalue people who care about authenticity and their connections to the past, but neither does he seem to believe that they are as important as we imagine them to be. He seems to think we can just get rid of these sentimental things and benefit from them.

The tricky business of maintaining the brain

Perhaps partly because of McIntyre’s extremely logical way of doing things, Nectome made a lot of scandalous headlines a few years ago. The company emerged from the startup accelerator Y Combinator, had won an award from the Brain Preservation Foundation, had support from employees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and had a bright future. But according to an MIT Technology Review article in which McIntrye described his brain preservation process as “100 percent fatal” and the word “euthanasia” was circulated, MIT and beyond employees distanced themselves from the company.

Nectome has developed a chemical solution that can be injected into the body and essentially turned into glass for the brain to be scanned and uploaded when technology is able to. This would have to be done while someone was still alive, so the idea was that terminally ill patients could at some point choose to participate in this project. Unsurprisingly, this was viewed by some as a very controversial idea. McIntyre largely stepped back from the public eye after this controversy, but later interviewed STAT to clear things up in 2019.

Randal Koene, neuroscientist and neuro-engineer, co-founder of Carboncopies, told Digital Trends that Nectome employees initially had no experience communicating their plans and methods, which led to problems.

“It is important to focus on communicating scientific advances without confusing this with speculative hypotheses about future medical protocols, especially those based on assumptions about social and regulatory changes that have not yet been followed by experts or are subject to ethical guidelines “says Koene. “I actually have a very positive opinion about Nectome and its work. Robert McIntyre and his colleagues were meticulous in their studies (which were peer reviewed and published). The results, evaluated by the Brain Preservation Foundation and others, are of exceptionally high quality. “

McIntyre says he understands why people freak out when such topics are discussed because death is a scary thing. He’s still doing the work he was doing before this controversy, and he really believes his work could change society forever. In his view, getting brains and then uploading them could change the way we learn about history and how much we learn from it.

“It’s going to create a whole new story and change society, I think, just as profoundly as writing.”

“The fact is, right now, when you die, all of the information stored in your brain is completely destroyed. It’s been like that for every generation, ”says McIntyre. “It is also true that every time society develops a mechanism to preserve information and more accurately pass it on to the next generation, it leads to radical changes in society. Indeed, I would say that this is the defining element that switches between historical epochs. It’s not about the Stone Age or the Iron Age or anything. It’s about information transfer. “

Just like the ability to write, the invention of the printing press, and the other ways we advanced in conveying information changed society, McIntyre believes that brain uploading will have a profound impact on humanity. He says we are far from doing this so we should start protecting people’s brains as soon as possible.

“It’s going to create a whole new story and change society, I think, just as profoundly as writing,” says McIntyre. “We will then live in the era of living memory. Humanity will not really forget things like now. “

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Football helmets are no longer what they used to be. And while this phrase is used most of the time to describe how things used to be good, in this case it certainly isn’t.

Helmets are, in some ways, the most important protective gear soccer players wear on the grate. Over the years they have evolved from the leather headshell of yore to capitalize on breakthroughs in the field of materials science. Today’s four major helmet manufacturers include the comparative newcomers such as VICIS and Xenith as well as the well-known brands Schutt and Riddell.

But who does the NFL turn to when it comes to re-thinking the way helmets are made and designed? not for the sake of a fresh aesthetic, but to fundamentally improve protection in order to preserve the careers and well-being of today’s (and tomorrow) players? As it turns out, the answer includes research labs like the Smart Materials and Biomechanics Lab at the University of Colorado, Denver.

The group, led by associate professor and self-proclaimed polymer dork, Chris Yakacki, has worked hard to invent a new protective material for the next generation of soccer players. And it’s about cutting edge technology and the power of evolutionary science to help.

Reinvent the helmet

Back in June 2020, the National Football League and Football Research, Inc., a medical organization that investigates soccer injuries, donated a spin-off from the University of Colorado, Denver, named Impressio, half a million dollars ($ 491,999 if you are exactly want to be) in support of his work to create innovative helmet prototypes.

These are submitted as part of the NFL Helmet Challenge, an open competition that tries to make helmets significantly better than those currently used on the grate. The deadline for this challenge is July 2021 and the winner will receive a cool $ 1 million for their troubles. Provided it can solve the problem.

Impressio.tech

“They are calling for a 30% improvement in reducing the impact of helmets,” Yakacki said. “I think the only way you’ll do is not always use the same materials. Anyone entering this traditional foam and polycarbonate competition … well, we’ve been studying this stuff for 50 years. [We need something new.]”

The University of Colorado solution does not require a complete redesign of the football helmet. “There’s a wonderful SpongeBob SquarePants episode where he puts a giant foam helmet three feet in diameter on his head,” laughed Yakacki. “I think that would solve the problem.” However, he conceded that outside of its obvious security benefit, this likely wouldn’t get particularly good feedback.

As with a new smartphone that looks similar to last year’s model but hides a ton of exciting new tech under the hood, most of the innovation in the team’s new helmet will take place inside: specifically with the material that lines the helmet.

Designs inspired by nature

Nature has already shown us the evolutionarily most appropriate shock absorbers in the form of muscles that expand and contract to absorb the energy of impact, such as when a person lands from a jump or runs and hits their feet against the sidewalk. So far, however, we have not been able to replicate this structure with the materials available to us. Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, and an innovative material called liquid crystal elastomers are changing that. Muscle biomimicry is now possible.

Impressio.tech

Liquid crystal elastomers, which have long been studied by Yakacki and colleagues, are a rubberized version of the liquid crystal materials found in LCD televisions and computer monitors. They respond to light or heat in a dynamic way, much like muscles work. By using a 3D printer to print this material in a biomimetic pattern that resembles muscle fibers under a microscope, Yakacki believes it will be possible to create the safest, most shock-absorbing helmet ever.

“When you see some of these designs, it immediately becomes clear that you can never do this with injection molding,” he said. “It’s such an intricate cobweb of struts that it could never be worked like that. No shape could be edited this way. It would be literally impossible. Machinists would just laugh you out of the building. Some of our designs just have hundreds of struts, those little interconnected beams. It’s just impossible [without 3D printing]. ”

Impressio.tech

Impressio.tech

Impressio.tech

The team hasn’t released exact numbers on their progress yet, but Yakacki is optimistic. “I can’t give too many numbers right now [from our lab]”he said.” But I will say that we are very confident that we can make these improvements in impact. “

Get to a soccer game (and wherever a helmet is needed) near you very soon.

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The search for extraterrestrial life may not take us far from home. Astronomers at the University of Copenhagen recently published an incredible study that shows that there is a high probability that the Milky Way is absolute flooded with potentially vital planets.

The team’s paper, published in Science Advances, titled “A Pebble Formation Model for the Formation of Terrestrial Planets in the Solar System,” describes and attempts to confirm a theory that planets are made up of tiny, millimeter-sized pebbles that move apart over the course of the year Ball up time.

According to the researchers:

We show that a pebble accretion scenario for the formation of terrestrial planets provides explanations for various properties of the terrestrial planets in the solar system, including the masses and orbits of Venus, Earth and Mars, the isotopic composition of Earth and Mars, and the delivery of carbon and water to Earth in Quantities comparable to the inferred reservoirs.

The big idea here is that ice pebbles are present in the earliest planetary formations. Scientists believe that Earth, Mars and Venus were formed in this way and assume that we will find the same scenario in most of the other exoplanets. And that is, where it was previously believed that only the earth or some earth-like worlds could have water, it is now possible that most Planetary bodies have some form of water on them.

According to a press release from the university, lead researcher Anders Johansen can say that carbon-based life is much more common than previously thought:

All planets in the Milky Way can consist of the same building blocks, which means that planets with the same amount of water and carbon as Earth – and thus potential places for life to exist – often occur around other stars in our galaxy, provided , the temperature is right.

The next generation of telescopes should expand our field of view beyond our own solar system and give us some real-world data on the chemical and topographical makeup of exoplanets orbiting other stars. And thanks to a multitude of machine learning and artificial intelligence breakthroughs, the search for habitable worlds with the building block of life has entered an exciting new era.

Take quickly: This is an exciting time to be an ET lover! This is one of the biggest concrete indicators that there could be more Earth-like planets.

Where we had long hoped to find only one sign other than some dusty, cold rock out there that once housed some simple, space-suitable, single-celled organisms, now serious scientists have the license to suspect fantastic planets full of marine life and ice, or even living beings Surface seas separated by lively continents. And all right next door.

It looks less and less as if we were alone in the universe and more and more as if we could discover some form of life on other planets within decades.

Read the whole paper here.

Published on February 23, 2021 – 19:48 UTC