Apple has notched another high with its new ‘smart’ home speaker and device, featuring virtual reality, online privacy and a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning.
The ‘HomePod’ speaker, like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, will play music while also helping you to manage your life and home. Siri will be voice activated to respond to requests for information and other help around the house. The speaker will sell for about $350 in December in the U.S., U.K. and Australia.
The Smart Helmet
‘Ahead’ helmet is all about gaining some smarts. It is the smallest device in the world, but is able to transform your helmet into a smart one, giving you all the power of a smartphone, right in your helmet. All that you need to do to install Ahead is snap it onto any helmet.
Ahead will pair with your device, allowing you to listen to music, talk on the phone, obtain directions and also have a chat with Siri, while performing other functions. It operates through an oscillator that will be able to pass sound directly into your helmet, whether it is open or closed, padded or thin. You could even transfer Ahead from one helmet to another when you purchase a new one.
A Tiny Wireless Pacemaker
Researchers at Rice University debuted a wireless, battery-less pacemaker that can be implanted directly into a patient’s heart. It was introduced at the IEEE’s (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Honolulu, recently.
The pacemaker harvests energy wirelessly from radio frequency radiation transmitted by an external battery pack. Pacemakers have not been traditionally implanted directly into a patient’s heart; they are placed away from the heart, where surgeons can periodically replace their on-board batteries with minor surgery.
‘Flying Car’ at 2020 Summer Olympics
A startup backed by Toyota has developed a test model that is expected to eventually develop into a tiny car, with a driver who will be able to light the Olympic torch in the 2020Tokyo games.
The Japanese automaker has invested $386,000 in startup Cartivator Resource Management to work on ‘Sky Drive’. However, the project is still only a concoction of aluminum framing and eight propellers that barely gets off the ground and crashes after several seconds. Cartivator hopes to deliver a seamless transition from driving to flight.