Technologies

  Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular scale. This covers both current work and concepts that are more advanced. In its original sense, nanotechnology refers to the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high performance products. One nanometer (nm) is one billionth, or 10 −9 , of a meter. By comparison, typical carbon-carbon  bond lengths , or the spacing between these atoms in a  molecule , are in the range  0.12–0.15 nm , and a  DNA  double-helix has a diameter around 2 nm. On the other hand, the smallest  cellular  life-forms, the bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma, are around 200 nm in length. By convention, nanotechnology is taken as the scale range  1 to 100 nm  following the definition used by the National Nanotechnology Initiative in the US. The lower limit is set by the siz...

What is the internet of things? The internet of things (or as it’s also known, IoT) isn’t new: tech companies and pundits have been discussing the idea for decades, and the first internet-connected toaster was unveiled at a conference in 1989. At its core, IoT is simple: it’s about connecting devices over the internet, letting them talk to us, applications, and each other. The popular, if silly, example is the smart fridge: what if your fridge could tell you it was out of milk, texting you if its internal cameras saw there was none left, or that the carton was past its use-by date? Where it’s most common, in Britain at least, is home heating and energy use – partially because the government is pushing energy companies to roll out smart meters (although it has been questioned whether it can be delivered on schedule). They have clever functions that let you turn on heating remotely, set it to turn down the temperature if it’s a sunny day, or even turn off ...

The frustrating ritual of assembling  Ikea  furniture is set to become a thing of the past. Ikea has developed a new range of products to simplify the assembly of flat-pack furniture by eliminating the need for bolts, screw drivers and allen keys. The Swedish retailer designed a new type of joint, called wedge towel, which enables furniture parts to snap together “like a jigsaw puzzle” for easier and quicker assembly. The company first tested the new click-together system five years ago across its Regissör storage products. It now intends to roll out the design across its entire furniture range, starting with the wooden Lisabo table, which is currently on sale. The furniture’s panels come with small ribbed protrusions, which easily slot into pre-drilled holes in the panels they’re meant to connect to. In an interview with design magazine  Dezeen  Ikea’s range and supply chief Jesper Brodin claimed that he was able to put together a table ...

Li-Fi vs Wi-Fi While some may think that Li-Fi with its 224 gigabits per second leaves Wi-Fi in the dust, Li-Fi's exclusive use of visible light could halt a mass uptake.  Li-Fi signals cannot pasas through walls, so in order to enjoy full connectivity, capable LED bulbs will need to be placed throughout the home. Not to mention, Li-Fi requires the lightbulb is on at all times to provide connectivity, meaning that the lights will need to be on during the day. What's more, where there is a lack of lightbulbs, there is a lack of Li-Fi internet so Li-Fi does take a hit when it comes to public Wi-Fi networks. In an announcement yesterday, an extension of standard Wi-Fi is coming and it's called Wi-Fi HaLow. This new project claims to double the range of connectivity while using less power. Due to this, Wi-Fi HaLow is reportedly perfect for battery powered devices such as smartwatches, smartphones and lends itself to Internet of Things devices s...

Definition The term has been in use since the 1990s, with some giving credit to  John Mashey  for coining or at least making it popular.  Big data usually includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to  capture ,  curate , manage, and process data within a tolerable elapsed time.  Big data "size" is a constantly moving target, as of 2012  ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many  petabytes  of data.  Big data requires a set of techniques and technologies with new forms of integration to reveal insights from datasets that are diverse, complex, and of a massive scale. Big Data Big data is new and “ginormous” and scary –very, very scary. No, wait. Big data is just another name for the same old data marketers have always used, and it’s not all  that  big, and it’s something we should be embracing, not fearing. No, hold on. That’s not it, either. What I meant to say is that big data...

Google’s first foray into the world of streaming devices was a complete knockout when it debuted in 2013. Since then, Google has continued to update its streaming device for the future, including a faster new version of its original dongle and an audio-only version, as well as the  Chromecast  Ultra for 4K Ultra HD support, now available for  purchase on the Google Store . Whichever version you use, the small device remains just as convenient as ever, providing you with a simple way to cast your favorite TV shows, music, and movies from a mobile device or computer to the big screen. What is Chromecast and how does it work? Chromecast devices run a simplified version of Google’s Chrome OS, and have limited memory and hardware specs. However, they don’t need to have a ton of power because they aren’t much more than glorified gateways to streaming content. To use a Chromecast, you simply plug it into your TV’s...

Glass is a wearable computer featuring a head-mounted display in the form of eyeglasses. The  glasses function as a hands-free smartphone, letting users access the  mobile internet browser , camera,  maps , calendar, and other apps by voice commands. AR displays can be rendered on devices resembling  eyeglasses . Versions include eyewear that employs cameras to intercept the real world view and re-display its augmented view through the eye pieces  and devices in which the AR imagery is projected through or reflected off the surfaces of the eyewear lens pieces. A  head-mounted display  (HMD) is a display device paired to the forehead such as a harness or helmet. HMDs place images of both the physical world and virtual objects over the user's field of view. Modern HMDs often employ sensors for six degrees of freedom monitoring that allow the system to align virtual information to the physical world and adjust accordingly with the user's hea...

The idea of creating machines that are as smart as humans goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks, who had myths about automatons created by the gods. In practical terms, however, the idea didn't really take off until 1950. In that year,  Alan Turing  published a groundbreaking paper called "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" that posed the question of whether machines can think. He proposed the famous Turing test, which says, essentially, that a computer can be said to be intelligent if a human judge can't tell whether he is interacting with a human or a machine. Computer scientists have defined artificial intelligence in many different ways, but at its core, AI involves machines that think the way humans think. Of course, it's very difficult to determine whether or not a machine is "thinking," so on a practical level, creating artificial intelligence involves creating a computer system that is good at doing the kinds of things humans are g...

The first-generation vehicle of  the Hyperloop One system The Hyperloop uses a  linear electric motor   to accelerate and decelerate an   electromagnetically levitated   pod through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle will glide silently for miles at speeds up to 670 mph (1080 km/h) with no turbulence. The system is designed to be entirely autonomous, quiet, direct-to-destination, and on-demand. Additionally, as Hyperloop is built on columns or tunneled underground, it eliminates the dangers of at-grade crossings and requires much smaller rights of way than high-speed rail or a highway.   Hyperloop One has made substantive technical changes to Musk's initial proposal and chose not to pursue the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route that Musk envisioned in his 2013 white paper. The company has raised $245 million and demonstrated a form of propulsion technology in May 2016 at its test site north of Las Vegas Hyperloop One has complete...

Dubai,UAE The most visibly futuristic thing about Dubai is, of course, its outlandish architecture. There’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, the city’s   underwater hotel , and Palm Islands, a   group of large man-made islands that resembling palm fronds , to name just a few.  Given this cityscape, it’s no wonder the metropolis has   warranted comparisons to Simcity . But perhaps the more trenchantly progressive (and, to many, repugnant) thing about Dubai is its concept of what it means to be a city. The emirate has received loads of criticism for its citizenship restrictions — 95 percent of its residents are non-citizen workers or expats with limited rights. Ho ng-Kong,CHINA Until 2006,   schools in Hong Kong used fingerprinting technology to take attendance , but it’s really the city’s buildings that seal its fate as a vision of the urban future. Simply put, HK has more skyscrapers than any other city in the world. And some of them...

We’re already seeing the beginnings of self-driving cars, though the vehicles are currently required to have a driver present at the wheel for safety. Despite these exciting developments, the technology isn’t perfect yet, and it will take a while for public acceptance to bring automated cars into widespread use. Google began testing a self-driving car in 2012, and since then, the U.S. Department of Transportation has released definitions of different levels of automation, with Google’s car classified as the first level down from full automation. Other transportation methods are closer to full automation, such as buses and trains.

Hyperloop One and the United Arab Emirates are on the fast track to building out the first hyperloop system. Just today H1 announced it would build the first commercial hyperloop transportation system from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. The journey is 99 miles (159.4 km) long and normally takes about two hours by car but H1 promises it would take a mere 12 minutes in the hyperloop. H1 is partnering with the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to evaluate the feasibility of building this system in greater Dubai and the UAE and the announcement follows the next stage of development for the company, which is gearing up for its “Kitty Hawk” moment early next year when H1 will test a full-scale prototype of its system in the Nevada desert. It’s also part of the company’s next stage of progress in Dubai. Last August H1 co-founder Shervin Pishevar hinted the first hyperloop would be built overseas and the company announced in October it received $ 50 million  in fun...