smarterplanet:

Smarter Energy  Outlets

Authentication Outlet Newly Developed

— Realized by combination of the contactless IC card technology and the new technology “RFID Over Power Line” —

Sony has developed an authentication outlet that can manage and allow electricity use by identifying a user or device (or both) based on authentication. This new technology aims at an outlet, an infrastructure that electricity always flows through when used. Using this outlet, the user can actively control and manage power consumption on a user basis as well as on a device basis.

Concept movie: New Authentication Outlet (by Sony)

After owning a all versions of the Playstation and their rootkit hacking failure, there is no way in hell I’d let Sony control the electrical outlet in my house.  I am sorry Sony you lost me as a customer for good this last decade. Which is sad, because I know this video and its purpose behind it have some awesome technology.

(via emergentfutures)

Source: youtube.com

Magical coating repels water.  I’d like to get this for my bikes and rain gear. Heck I can think of a ton of things I’d coat with this stuff.

From their website:

Ross Nanotechnology, has developed a super hydrophobic coating that completely repels water and heavy oils. Any object coated with our NeverWet coating literally cannot be touched by liquid

smarterplanet: Dutch PlantLab Revolutionizes Farming: No Sunlight, No Windows, Less Water, Better Food | Singularity Hub You’ve heard of paint by numbers? Get ready for feed-the-world by numbers. Dutch agricultural company PlantLab wants to change almost everything you know about growing plants. Instead of outdoors, they want farms to be in skyscrapers, warehouses, or underground using hydroponics or other forms of controlled environments. Instead of sunlight they use red and blue LEDs. Water? They need just 10% of the traditional requirements. At every stage of their high tech process, PlantLab monitors thousands of details (163,830 reports per second!) with advanced sensors to create the perfect environment for each individual type of crop. In short, they create a high tech ‘plant paradise’. See it in action in the videos below, followed by plenty of pics of their tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. PlantLab’s revolutionary approach to agriculture may be able to leverage math and science to create a better food supply for the world’s escalating population. Fresher, local, more efficient…and they supposedly taste better too! Wow. this is interesting, I wonder if a homebrew method could also be developed? 
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smarterplanet:

Dutch PlantLab Revolutionizes Farming: No Sunlight, No Windows, Less Water, Better Food | Singularity Hub

You’ve heard of paint by numbers? Get ready for feed-the-world by numbers. Dutch agricultural company PlantLab wants to change almost everything you know about growing plants. Instead of outdoors, they want farms to be in skyscrapers, warehouses, or underground using hydroponics or other forms of controlled environments. Instead of sunlight they use red and blue LEDs. Water? They need just 10% of the traditional requirements. At every stage of their high tech process, PlantLab monitors thousands of details (163,830 reports per second!) with advanced sensors to create the perfect environment for each individual type of crop. In short, they create a high tech ‘plant paradise’. See it in action in the videos below, followed by plenty of pics of their tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. PlantLab’s revolutionary approach to agriculture may be able to leverage math and science to create a better food supply for the world’s escalating population. Fresher, local, more efficient…and they supposedly taste better too!

Wow. this is interesting, I wonder if a homebrew method could also be developed? 

(via emergentfutures)

Source: singularityhub.com

It is by now an old idea in futurology, originating with Alvin Toffler, that modern man exists in a state of constant shock at the changing landscape of the technological world — akin to “culture shock,” but as ceaseless as the progress of technology. But we quickly become accustomed to, and adjust ourselves to, the technologies that increasingly form the fabric of our interaction with the world — and so their novelty rapidly fades. And then we find our experience of moving through the world is not one of perpetual awe and wonderment, but of boredom and restlessness.

Paul Higgins: Resonates with me. I am always surprised by people getting bored or cheesed off with air travel. To be sitting in a tube hurtling across the sky at 700kmh is a marvellous thing and we take it for granted.

GPS and the End of the Road, fantastic long read from The New Atlantis (via curiositycounts)

Spot on thought process

(via emergentfutures)

Source: thenewatlantis.com

mothernaturenetwork: Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy usesDevice requires so little power that it uses mini-solar cells to absorb electromagnetic radiation. Electric tattoo bugaloo
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mothernaturenetwork:

Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy uses
Device requires so little power that it uses mini-solar cells to absorb electromagnetic radiation.

Electric tattoo bugaloo

Source: mothernaturenetwork

‪Direct Metal Laser Sintering - DMLS

I like this video, because I did not know what DMLS was.  I may never need to know it, but it is interesting.  The way they made the video makes me want to order from them. 

I wonder how much a DMLS machine is?

It is like a 3D printer, but with metal.

From Wikipedia

Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) is an additive metal fabrication technology developed byEOS out of Munich, Germany, sometimes also referred to by the terms selective laser sintering(SLS) or selective laser melting (SLM). The process involves use of a 3D CAD model whereby a.stl file is created and sent to the machine’s software. A technician works with this 3D model to properly orient the geometry for part building and adds supports structure as appropriate. Once this “build file” has been completed, it is “sliced” into the layer thickness the machine will build in and downloaded to the DMLS machine allowing the build to begin. The DMLS machine uses a high-powered 200 watt Yb-fiber optic laser. Inside the build chamber area, there is a material dispensing platform and a build platform along with a recoater blade used to move new powder over the build platform. The technology fuses metal powder into a solid part by melting it locally using the focused laser beam. Parts are built up additively layer by layer, typically using layers 20 micrometres thick. This process allows for highly complex geometries to be created directly from the 3D CAD data, fully automatically, in hours and without any tooling. DMLS is a net-shapeprocess, producing parts with high accuracy and detail resolution, good surface quality and excellent mechanical properties.