ad: Annual 2024 Now Open For Entries!
*

#TechTuesday: Robot chairs, Uber trucks, the machine that prints homes and other stories

Published by

The chair built by robots

*

A continuous line of plastic makes up an intricate robot-built chair, designed using a new 3D-printing software by a team from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Whereas most current 3D printing involves creating forms layer by layer, this software creates designs using one continuous line of material. The designs are then built by a robot that extrudes melted plastic into the air, where it quickly sets as it cools. As well as enabling the creation of more intricate patterns, the software has a functional benefit, allowing designers to create lighter, more efficient forms without using any more material than is necessary for load bearing. The team tested the software by creating a prototype piece of furniture, the Voxel Chair v1.0. The software is intended to give designers greater control over the 3D-printing process. Whereas they would usually use software to model an object that would then be automatically sliced into layers for printing, with this new invention, they can manipulate the tool paths directly. The chair is named after voxels, which act like pixels but in three-dimensional space, and are often used in medical imaging and video games. The software is based on voxels to allow users to design the insides of an object and not just its surface. The software is currently still in development. It received the 2016 Autodesk ACADIA Emerging Research Award for best paper and will be presented at the 2017 ACADIA conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in November.

 

The Apple Pay update that opens up limitless transactions in the UK

*

If the £30 contactless payment limit in the UK was holding back wider adoption of Apple’s contactless payment technology Apple Pay, the company should expect to see surge in usage as it believes that a majority of UK contactless POS now supports limitless transactions. Retailers supporting the higher value payments are said to include supermarkets such as Waitrose and Sainsbury’s and restaurants such as Pizza Express and Nando’s. Apple says use of Apple Pay has grown 300% in the UK in the last year, with 23 banks now supporting the service.

 

The 360 degree Google website that explains the Syrian refugee crisis

The charitable arm of Google and the UN have teamed up on a new website aimed at helping people better understand the Syrian refugee crisis through the combination of data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) along with satellite imagery, 360 degree photos and stills, videos, stories from refugees, and more. The new site, called “Searching for Syria,” presents this information to visitors in an accessible way – by providing simple but visually immersive answers to common questions like “What is happening in Syria?” and even, “what is a refugee?” Google explained that it’s been able to gauge how much worldwide interest there is on the web from people using its search engine for answers to basic questions about the refugee situation in Syria. “What is happening in Syria?” was among the top trending searches in Germany, France and the UK last year, for example, and over tens of millions in 2016 searched for information on the Syria. Google partnered with the UNHCR to combine the organisation’s annual Global Trends report (which contains facts and figures about refugees, asylum-seekers, migrants and others) with Google’s Search trend data. The idea is to offer web searchers better answers to their ongoing questions, but one that taps into more visual imagery to help paint a picture of the human side of the crisis, and the scale of the situation in the country of Syria. The site also encourages visitors to learn how they can help – by signing the UNHCR’s petition to pledge your support that you stand #WithRefugees, making a donation, or just sharing the website to raise awareness.

 

The hands-free TV machine that works with Amazon Alexa

*

The US TV provider Dish Network is rolling out new technology that will make watching television a hands-free experience via integration with Amazon Alexa. The company says that its pay TV customers using either its Hopper or Wally receivers will now be able to search for programs, change channels, as well as pause, rewind and fast forward television just by speaking. These options are being made available by way of a new Alexa Skill. Dish customers will also be able to play, pause, fast-forward and rewind DVR content and live TV, also just by asking Alexa, and Dish says more features will be released in the future.

 

The crowdfunding campaign launched to reissue IBM Graphic Standards Manual

*

The French non-profit publisher Empire has launched a crowdfunding campaign to reissue a book version of tech company IBM’s Graphic Standards Manual. The manual spans over 20 years’ worth of graphic design work created for IBM, including graphic designer Paul Rand’s 1972 eight-bar, layered strip logo for the company, which is still in use today. The Graphics Standards Manual dates from 1956, when designer Eliot Noyes was hired by the director of IBM to reimagine the company’s design strategy, encompassing everything from communications to the architecture of its buildings. Noyes appointed graphic designer Paul Rand the same year to create IBM’s graphic standards system, including the logotype; graphic and typographic rules; internal and external documents and signage. Any changes and updates made to the standards manual between the 1960s and 1980s were documented and organised into different sections within a single folder. Now, with the support of the IBM New York archive team and the Kandinsky Library of the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, Empire is looking to reissue a softcover book version of the manual. The book features high resolution scans of all the original pages from the manual, as well as a preface written by American design author Steven Heller and an optional French translation version. The crowdfunding campaign runs until 30 June 2017, with the target of raising €28,000.

 

The Uber Trucking service

Uber Freight is a new service from the taxi app company that pairs up trucking companies, including independent operators, with loads that need to be hauled from one place to another. The app looks a lot like the original Uber app, but it’s targeted towards vetted and approved drivers, who can browse for nearby available loads, see destination info, distance required and payment upfront and then tap to book. The idea is to streamline something that used to take hours of back and forth negotiation via phone or other communication and putting it in a simple workflow with confirmation of job acceptance and rates paid within a few seconds.

 

The modular home printing machine

**

A Malaysian designer has created the concept for a skyscraper that prints modular homes and dispenses them like a vending machine. The Pod Vending Machine by Haseef Rafiei was inspired by the popularity of vending machines in Japan, and offers prospective homeowners the facility to customise and manufacture a modular home, which is then slotted into a high-rise framework. Customers would be able to choose from an array of ready-to-use housing pods to design their home, based on their needs. The home would then be manufactured on-site by a pod printer installed above the the building. Once printed, the pods are plugged into spaces in the structure below by crane arms attached to the skyscraper. Rafiei claims that the Pod Vending Machine offers a solution to increasing need for housing in cities by growing in response to demand. As the megastructure is filled with homes, the skyscraper would grow taller to accommodate more, adding to itself using materials delivered by hydraulics on the sides of the building. The futuristic building concept has been designed to adapt to the needs of its inhabitants over time, rather than remaining a static structure. Modules stored within the building could be moved, regrouped, modified and recycled, preventing waste and ensuring that space is used efficiently. The structure could be used for both residential and business use, housing start-ups and commercial spaces as well as homes. Rafiei believes that robotic concepts like his skyscraper will become necessary to address the growing demands of the urban housing market, while easing pressure on labour, cost and time associated with construction through automation.

 

The adorable pet robot that can find its own way home

Kuri, the robot companion being developed by startup Mayfield Robotics, is getting closer to production and gaining some new abilities ahead of its planned release later this year. The adorable little bot now has a self-charging feature, can map its home environment better, and has improved speaker acoustics. What's perhaps most impressive, however, is that the new updates mean that Kuri is now able to determine when it needs charging and find its recharge pad, which is a key milestone in terms of delivering on its production promises.Mayfield says they’ll have more updates over the course of the summer as they head toward their target shipping timeframe.

Comments

More Leaders

*

Leaders

Inspiring Female Leaders: An Interview with RAPP CEO Gabrielle Ludzker

Gabrielle Ludzker is not just any CEO. The current head honcho at customer experience agency RAPP has spent her career breaking away from the traditional corporate CEO stereotype. and leads to inspire rule breakers. Gabby is an inspirational rule...

Posted by: Benjamin Hiorns
ad: Annual 2024 Now Open For Entries!