Trends in tech

Microsoft has released Seeing AI — a smartphone app that uses computer vision to describe the world for the visually impaired. With the app downloaded, the users can point their phone’s camera at a person and it’ll say who they are and how they’re feeling. They can also point it at a product and it’ll tell them what it is. All of this is done using artificial intelligence that runs locally on their phone. The company showed off a prototype of Seeing AI in March last year at its Build conference, but starting today, the app is available to download for free in the US on iOS . However, there’s no word yet on when it’ll come to Android or other countries. The app works in a number of scenarios. As well as recognizing people it’s seen before and guessing strangers’ age and emotion, it can identify household products by scanning barcodes. It also reads and scan documents, and recognizes US currency. This last function is a good example of how useful it can be. As all doll

Martian Gardens' Help Scientists Find the Best Veggies to Grow on Mars Simulated "Martian gardens" allow NASA scientists to test which plants can be grown on Mars. This photo shows the results of a preliminary study on lettuce plants. From left to right: lettuce seeds grown in potting soil, Martian simulant with added nutrients, and simulant without nutrients. Credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis Simulated "Martian gardens" are helping NASA scientists learn which plants astronauts might be able to grow on the Red Planet. A human round-trip journey to Mars may take as long as two and a half years, and one major challenge for these kinds of extended missions is determining how to pack enough food for those astronauts. As such, scientists are studying ways for astronauts to grow their own crops and extend their food supply, because seeds take up less room and have a l

1) A new era in diabetes care In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the world’s first artificial pancreas . The device monitors blood sugar and supplies insulin automatically. It basically replicates what a healthy version of the organ does on its own; and it enables diabetes patients to live an easier life in a sustainable way. It is the biggest step towards a new are in diabetes management in years The breakthrough happened years after the #wearenotwaiting movement started to campaign for the introduction of such artificial pancreas on the market. One of the leading figures of the movement,  Dana Lewis also told me how an artificial pancreas eases everyday life . In 2017, this new way of diabetes management will spread around; and it will become a life-changing milestone in many patients’ lives when they first start to use the device. The development of diabetes care does not end there. Google  patented a digital contact lens that can measure bloo

Scientists are making remarkable progress at using brain implants to restore the freedom of movement that spinal cord injuries take away. Availability: 10 to 15 years by  Antonio Regalado The French neuroscientist was watching a macaque monkey as it hunched aggressively at one end of a treadmill. His team had used a blade to slice halfway through the animal’s spinal cord, paralyzing its right leg. Now Courtine wanted to prove he could get the monkey walking again. To do it, he and colleagues had installed a recording device beneath its skull, touching its motor cortex, and sutured a pad of flexible electrodes around the animal’s spinal cord, below the injury. A wireless connection joined the two electronic devices. The result: a system that read the monkey’s intention to move and then transmitted it immediately in the form of bursts of electrical stimulation to its spine. Soon enough, the monkey’s right leg began to move. Extend and flex. Extend and flex. It hobb

Robots at the Tesla factory in Fremont, Calif. put together electric cars. Credit: Tesla Motors The internal combustion engine had a good run. It has helped propel cars — and thus humanity — forward for more than 100 years. But a sea change is afoot that is forecast to kick gas-powered vehicles to the curb, replacing them with cars that run on batteries. A flurry of news this week underscores just how rapidly that change could happen. A quick recap: On Monday, Tesla announced that the Model 3, its mass-market electric car, would start rolling off production lines this week with the first handful delivered to customers later this month. Then on Wednesday, Volvo announced that every car it produces will have a battery in it by 2019, putting it at the forefront of major car manufacturers. Then came France’s announcement on Thursday that it would ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2040. All this news dropped just in time for Bloomberg New Energy Finance's latest electric