THE BYTE
Welcome to the BYTE, where we serve up the latest home and tech news from the last week for you to sink your teeth into.
This week we’re taking a BYTE out of a brain-buzzing forehead strip, hand-tracking algorithm, smart water assistant, artificial trees and sidewalk bots. Dig in!
Generally
Looks Ridiculous, but Improves Your Memory
An elephant never forgets, but people tend to lose their memory as they get older. This device was created to help improve memory. There’s one catch, you might look silly wearing this device attached to your forehead.
How Does It Work?
Have you ever stuck a Band-Aid on your forehead? Well, the Humm forehead patch works just like a Band-Aid and sends electric tiny pulses towards your prefrontal cortex. This neurostimulation device increases your memory and your learning rate. It literally gives your brain a boost.
Hand-tracking Algorithm
There are already many translators for different oral languages, but what if there was a sign language translator created. It would help us communicate with people who are deaf or mute, and therefore help them function better in society. Google’s AI labs have created a technology that uses real-time hand tracking and using the algorithm should be able to translate sign language’s complex movements. Unfortunately, this technology hasn’t been perfected, yet. Google is currently giving away the source code to other researchers for free, so that this technology can be created sooner.
Take Notes
Smart Water Assistant
People are trying to be more eco-friendly and with this smart water assistant, they can succeed to do just that. The Phyn Smart Water Assistant perceives water usage pattern within the household and figures out ways homeowners can reduce the amount of water they waste. It also can detect when there is something wrong with your plumbing, such as a leak. This device is easy to install and is meant to be a DIY project.
Artificial Trees
A Mexican startup, called Biomitech, may have found a solution to our air pollution problem. Biomitech created artificial trees that are supposed to be able to pull in the same amount of air pollution as 368 living trees. These artificial trees, called Biourban, are 14-foot metal trees that use microalgae that takes carbon dioxide and other toxic elements from the air and as a trade-off returns pure oxygen. This may be our solution to global warming.
Sidewalk Bots
Get ready for robots to be delivering your student’s food. Recently, a company, called Starship Technologies, launched its new service to have robots deliver food and groceries around university campuses. The bots travel on the sidewalk and have multiple cameras, a radar, ultra-sensors and a GPS to help them make their delivery. These robots don’t face the same problems that other food delivery services face, like parking. They make deliveries around campus no matter what the weather condition is. On the bright side, you won’t have to tip your delivery robot.
Totally Unrelated
Done with Your T-shirt….Bury it
One of the biggest problems when you are downsizing your closet is what you do with the clothes you don’t want anymore. Some people donate their clothes and some just throw them away. Vollebak created an environment-friendly clothing item, the Plant and Algae T-shirt, which is made out of wood and algae. Once you are finished wearing the shirt, you can put it in your compost or bury it and it will decompose in 12 weeks. We’re helping the world one T-shirt at a time!
