Future Generations Blog

I don’t know if it’s the future, but I like it.

Via littleheykoop

emergentfutures:

Rethinking the Syringe

Green products are everywhere, from water bottles that use less plastic to energy-efficient buildings to jackets made from recycled materials. But one sector that green principles have yet to infiltrate is health care; manufacturers of medical products are focused on safety rather than sustainability. Serge Roux, an industrial designer with the technology design firm Cambridge Consultants, says that those two goals need not be mutually exclusive.

Full Story: Technology Review

emergentfutures:

A Smart-Phone Camera that Offers More than Megapixels

The next generation of smartphone cameras might actually be 25 cameras rolled into one. A company called Pelican Imaging recently announced it had developed the first prototype “array camera” for mobile devices. Instead of using one lens, Pelican uses an array of multiple lenses;

Why does the invention matter? Here’s one very simple reason: it could cut down on the width of your iPhone 7, say, or other smartphone of the future. More intriguingly, though, the computational approach allows all sorts of interesting manipulations. It enables “foveal imaging,” for one, a type of focus that more closely mimics how the eye actually sees. And it could even give you the ability to alter the focus of an image after the image has been taken. 

Full Story: Technology Review

techspotlight:

Augmented Reality Interface Exploits Human Nervous System - Technology Review

The most important function of the brain is figuring out what to ignore: Research suggests that we can process only about one percent of the visual information we take in at any given moment. That’s one reason why, as augmented reality (AR) inches ever closer to prime time, researchers at the University of Tokyo tackled an issue that could be distracting and even dangerous: Clutter in the narrow portion of our visual field that is high resolution — literally, the center of our attention.

The Future of Hand-washing.

seafaery:

theindiehippie:

lilian-lies:loveisadeserter:southey:

While a liquid soap dispenser is very convenient, a good old solid bar of soap is a much ‘greener’ option, as it’s more concentrated and doesn’t require a plastic bottle. But squishy, wet soap bars next to the basin are a pain, and they harbour bacteria too. So, what to do? Young designer Nathalie Stämpfli has come up with a very satisfactory solution with her Soap Flakes soap holder. It takes an ordinary bar of soap, and shaves off tiny soap flakes every time you want to wash your hands.

It is my dream to invent little things like these.

 wow i need this, i always prefer bar soap

omg this is perfect

smarterplanet:

Nanowire ‘racetrack’ memory could be 100,000 times faster | KurzweilAI

Racetrack memory promises to be a breakthrough in data storage and retrieval. Racetrack-equipped computers would boot up instantly, and their information could be accessed 100,000 times more rapidly than with a traditional hard disk. They would also save energy. RAM needs to be powered every millionth of a second, so an idle computer consumes about .3 Watts just maintaining data in RAM. Because Racetrack memory doesn’t have this constraint, energy consumption could be slashed by a factor of 300, to a mere 1 mW

The Future of Beverages.