Mini drones, or drones that have the shape of an insect, are very particular robotic devices, as they manage to enter places inaccessible to humans, photographing what they see and therefore offering a real-time report of the situation. This is a sector in which science is investing a lot, and which is therefore becoming increasingly sophisticated. But how can insect drones see in low light? To give life to… Read more
The cockroach robot that could save the lives of many people is called CRAM. It is a robot designed by Berkeley University, definitely inspired by the structure of one of the most hated insects in the world - the cockroach. Cram is defined as a "compressible robot with articulated mechanisms", which could be used in the event of natural disasters to search for and rescue any survivors. The last frontier of robots is precisely that of using them in rescue missions, which often prove impossible... Read more
Will 2016 be the year of virtual reality, or augmented reality? Many analysts believe so. And Google doesn't want to miss the opportunity. Already in mid-January the company announced the launch of a new division, which will focus exclusively on the development of projects related to virtual reality. In fact, the strong competition from Facebook and its Oculus should not be forgotten. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has named Clay Bavor to head the division, which previously ran Gmail and Drive. Being… Read more
Passionate and nostalgic for the legendary Osvaldo Cavandoli and his "line", a trait capable of telling exciting stories, know that in tangible reality you could one day find yourself interacting with an interface that reminds you of your favorite. The MIT Media Lab is developing a “shapeshifting” interface that has a linear shape. An interactive snake, if you will. A line, geometrically speaking. Why it's interesting The line has billions of interesting features from an interactive design point of view. The possibility of converting abstractness into… Read more
How many attempts in recent years have we seen from companies of all kinds to break the hegemony of mice and keyboards as protagonists of the human-PC relationship? A domain barely scratched by the advent of the touch screen. Yet the route has been charted for some time: Philip Dick showed us in his Minority Report the possibility of having a gestural interface. Perhaps today we have a serious candidate in Gest, the glove developed by Apotact Labs. Gest essentially has two components: a wearable gesture controller and a… Read more
Calling it a 'restyling' is humiliating: after extensive renovation work above and under the bonnet, the Hyundai i30 presents itself with a decidedly 'European' and decisive appeal, and gives the readers of Futuroprossimo (and those who write to you first of all) a lot of insights into the innovations that are now part of modern automotive culture. From the multipurpose solutions to the greater possibility of 'customising' the purchase, from the ever greater guaranteed (and perceived) safety to the stylistic innovations, this car convinces from the first glance. Just for … Read more
We are approaching the 'mimetic' era in which devices will not simply recognize our words, our actions, our objects but will begin to reproduce these things in three dimensions. The device that we show you in the video is the result of the work of Keiichi Matsuda, a Japanese architect and filmmaker who has been studying applications and installations based on the interaction between sensors and servomotors for years (in the photograph there is a frame of his previous work based on reality increased). This is a 'morphic' table... Read more
Think of a world full of objects that behave like links on a website, connecting to each other and interacting to completely transform our user experience. The Internet of Things is the 'goose that lays the golden eggs' of the near future because it can revolutionize all sectors of technology and do it quickly: the latest estimates speak of a 15.000 billion euro market within the next six years. And it's not about mysterious oracles or courageous... Read more
PERCH pioneered the transformation of a normal display into an extraordinary means of communication, changing the users' purchasing experience. In these videos we show different possible applications of this technology, and how it will be possible to observe, choose and purchase objects in a much more interactive way than the one we adopt today. At the New York company they experiment with design, contents and forms, thanks to a system that combines cameras and sensors "evaluating" in real time the action that the buyer takes on the object, and... Read more
The concept of 'packaging' has been the cross and delight of all industrial development: on the one hand it has guaranteed better, faster and more widespread distribution and preservation of food, on the other it has contributed to forming a generation (more than one for truth) “disposable” accustomed to not reusing anything and using things quickly and hastily. In any case, the virtue lies in the middle: we need packages and containers, we will need them more and more. Here you are … Read more
Gyms are not a recent phenomenon: if you think that it is only a place linked to the vain and obese, you are wrong. The 'gymnasium' was the ancient Greek space that hosted the physical exercises and training of athletes. The first gym in the form we know came out in the middle of the last century, with a point of no return: the creation of the first working treadmill, in the 60s, which allowed the first brave people to start running in ... Read more
A group of German researchers from AutoNOMOS Labs have developed a system that allows you to drive a vehicle simply through the driver's thoughts: this is what is called looking to the future. The first step was to create autonomous vehicles, capable of responding to commands from an iPhone: the development of a control system based on brain waves took longer. It is a computer capable of reading electromagnetic signals coming from… Read more
There are several wearable devices already designed to monitor our vital parameters, from heartbeat to sleep patterns: a group of inventors is bringing to the market a user-friendly and wearable approach to brain wave monitoring. InteraXon is a Canadian company that is working hard to introduce a band called Muse, to be worn on the forehead, which uses 4 EEG (Electro Encephalogram) sensors capable of showing the traces of the brain. In the initial release… Read more
We often tend to think of innovations in the field of road safety as solutions limited to cars, but a team of Dutch designers makes us understand how the road itself can also play an active role. This gave rise to a series of interesting studies to make driving safer. The Glowing Lines concept takes inspiration from the lines of reflectors that can be found here and there on European motorways, but replaces the latter with a special luminescent paint in … Read more
The statistics released by the WHO tell us that of the millions of cases of fatal cardiac arrest occurring outside of hospital facilities, more than a third could be tackled: the timely arrival of an ambulance, the use of a defibrillator and lots and lots of speed (6 minutes is the window of time needed to save the patient). Many cities around the world do not have the capacity to act in time and lack the necessary organization. This translates into genocide: hundreds of thousands… Read more
The efforts that technology has made to improve our health conditions and our life expectancy seem to be preparing for the big leap, causing a substantial transformation in the way we treat ourselves and stay healthy for a long time. Here are the changes we should prepare for, and if they don't arrive quickly we should push for them to happen: Loanable Telemedicine: Telemedicine services, 'lighter' consultations that can be delivered via telephone or internet, now have an excellent propensity to ... Read more
Creating a wheelchair capable of overcoming architectural barriers couldn't have been very simple: today a team of engineers from the Chiba Institute of Technology, led by the Associate Professor, succeeded in the feat using a good dose of lateral thinking. A wheelchair? It's difficult to define it this way: when it encounters an obstacle, Chiba transforms its wheels into... legs! It goes without saying: the wheel is a universal and efficient way to allow all people with limited mobility to travel. However, … Read more
An innovative interface transforms the gearbox from manual to automatic, adapting to the driver for personalized driving experiences.
We have already said a lot about devices that check if you are too drunk to drive, but today a group of German researchers want to take this concept a little further: their 'intelligent steering' constantly monitors the driver's vital functions and changes behavior of the vehicle in their operation. Developed by the Munich Technical University in collaboration with BMW, this steering is equipped with numerous sensors capable of measuring heart rate, oxygenation levels and blood pressure: if … Read more
London-based company Bodymetrics has joined forces with PrimeSense to develop a 3D scanner capable of 'mapping' a human body to give it instant advice on the fit of a suit: this "Body Mapping" platform uses special sensors to take measurements of a user and create an exact replica. The system then connects to a database of manufacturers to 'apply' to the scanned body the clothes that best suit (in terms of design and size) the body of the ... Read more
The Swedish neuroscientist Henrik Ehrsson has demonstrated that the image our brain has of the body can be 'negotiated'.
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