Balena is an IoT framework for Linux devices. They have published a new project called balenaSense with instructions on how to build an air quality monitor using a Raspberry Pi and Docker.
Researchers in the U.S. have created the first organic robots which measure at less than 1mm long. The living programmable organisms are first simluated using evolutionary algorithms to create random designs using combinations of different stem cell types. Successful xenobot designs are then created in real life using frog stem cells.
The Verge posted an interesting article on the story of how, for a few years, Playstation 3 games consoles were used by researchers and the U.S. Airforce as supercomputers to work on black hole calculations, win cryptography contests and process images from surveillance drones.
Atlantic Philathropies, the organisation setup by Chuck Feeney to give away his huge fortune, has published their final report titled Zero Is The Hero. The report gives an overview of the amounts invested around the world in different industries. The fascinating story of Chuck Feeney is told excellently in the book The Billionaire Who Wasn't (affiliate link) by Conor Clery.
Toyota are planning to build a prototype city of the future called Woven City on 175 acres at the base of Mt. Fuji. The city will be fully powered by hydrogen fuel cells and it will feature segregated transport links for different type of autonomous zero emissions vehicles and state of the art robot filled smart residences made of wood using traditional Japanese wood joinery. The first population set of 2000 people will be employees, retirees and industry partners. Ground breaking is due to start in 2021.
Researchers and MIT and IBM have created a new image dataset to use in the training of computer vision models. The new dataset, called ObjectNet, includes images of obscure objects at obscure angles among cluttered environments. The purpose of the new dataset is to help train algorithms on more real-world style scenarios.
The new Star Wars spin-off show The Mandalorian uses the Unreal game engine to dynamically generate responsive backgrounds onto a LED wall behind the actors. The engine can dynamically change the perspective of the scene based on the position of the camera to create a parallax effect in real time.
In 1984, the band Prodigal embedded a Commodore 64 easter egg program in their vinyl album Electric Eye. Check out this video by 8-Bit Show and Tell who extracts the program from vinyl to tape and loads it onto a C-64!
Researchers at University of Sussex have developed an Acoustic Trap Display to create a holographic interface. The display uses an array of ultrasound speakers to levitate a white bead at fast speeds within a 3 dimensional plane. A laser array lights up the bead at high speed which tricks the eye into seeing a 3D display.
Microsoft and Warner brothers have create a pilot long term storage project called Microsoft Project Silica. The project uses a slide of 3 inch by 3 inch glass silica to store 75.6GB of data in 100+ layers of 3D voxels. The pilot project archived the 1978 Superman film onto a slide which will last 1000+ years.
