Lifeboat Foundation

New discoveries about phase change memory show it can switch at picosecond scales — theoretically opening the door to a DRAM replacement thousands of times faster than our current memory technology.

Luv it; especially fabric to do time release meds, or bio release meds; or do communications via a shirt or jacket.

With the invention of technology-laden fabrics, otherwise known as smart textiles, we are able to benefit from multifunctional materials.

Smart textiles, also known as E-textiles, smart garments, tech fabrics, and smart fabrics, are materials based on technology that integrate advanced features beneficial to the wearer. In an interview with Forbes, Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, smart textiles and wearable technologies expert stated, “what makes smart fabrics revolutionary is that they have the ability to do many things that traditional fabrics cannot, including communicate, transform, conduct energy and even grow.” And as crazy as it might sound, having computers and technology literally integrated into our clothing is not only acceptable but may one day be the norm.

Continue reading “4 Smart Textiles Revolutionizing the Future of Fabric” »

Silicon chips can store data in billionths of a second, but phase-change memory could be 1,000 times faster, while using less energy and requiring less space.

Every single operating system developed by Google to date has one thing in common: they’re based on the Linux kernel. Chrome OS, Android, Chromecasts, you name it. Linux has powered Google hardware for years.

However, the Linux kernel is not ideal for every situation. Especially in the case of embedded devices like car dashboards or GPS units, full-blown desktop kernels like Linux impact performance and cause other issues. There’s a massive ecosystem of operating systems designed for embedded hardware, and Google may be working on their own.

Enter “Fuchsia.” Google’s own description for it on the project’s GitHub page is simply, “Pink + Purple == Fuchsia (a new Operating System)”. Not very revealing, is it? When you begin to dig deeper into Fuchsia’s documentation, everything starts to make a little more sense.

Continue reading “Google is developing an OS called ‘Fuchsia,’ runs on All the Things” »

For three years ago U.S. Special Operations Command and DARPA announced they had started work on a super-soldier suit called TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit) unlike anything in the history of warfare. It is engineered with full-body ballistics protection; integrated heating and cooling systems; embedded sensors, antennas, and computers; 3D audio (to indicate where a fellow warfighter is by the sound of his voice); optics for vision in various light conditions; life-saving oxygen and hemorrhage controls; and more.

It aims to be “fully functional” by 2018. “I am here to announce that we are building Iron Man,” President Barack Obama said of the suit during a manufacturing innovation event in 2014. When the president said, “This has been a secret project we’ve been working on for a long time,” he wasn’t kidding.

In 1999 DARPA created the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) and made Michael Goldblatt its director. Goldblatt saw the creation of the super-soldier as imperative to 21st-century warfare.

Continue reading “Progress toward real life super-soldiers” »

What will be most interesting about the next 15 years is that unlike the last 15, which was largely defined by digital technology, the advancements to come will arise from the confluence of a number of fields.

Exponentially more powerful computing architectures will make it possible for us to work at the genomic and molecular levels and create intelligent machines. New sources of energy, as well as the ability to store that energy far more efficiently, will allow these technologies to be practical, safe and affordable.

Today, in 2016, we have largely mastered the virtual world of information. By 2031, we will have begun to master the physical world as well.

Continue reading “5 Technologies for 2031” »

IBM’s TrueNorth, a so-called “cognitive chip,” remarkably resembles the human brain: its 4,096 cores combine to create about a million digital neurons and 256 million synapse connections. In short, like everyone’s favorite complex organ, it operates extremely quickly and consumes far less energy than typical processors. Samsung has taken the chip and plugged it into its Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) to process digital imagery at a blindingly fast rate.

Typical digital cameras max out 120 frames per second, but a DVS-equipped gadget can capture an incredible 2,000 fps. Unlike a conventional sensor, each pixel on Samsung’s only reacts if it needs to report a change in what it’s seeing, according to CNET. That high speed could be useful for creating 3D maps or gesture controls. At a press event on Thursday in San Jose, the company demonstrated its ability to control a TV as it recognized hand waves and finger pinches from ten feet away.

DVS is efficient like its TrueNorth chip base, and only consumes about 300 milliwatts of power. That’s about a hundredth the drain of a laptop’s processor and a tenth of a phone’s, a Samsung VP said at the event. But we still have a ways to go before we approach the minimal power requirements of the human brain, he said, which can process some tasks at 100 million times less power than a computer.

Continue reading “Samsung plugs IBM’s brain-imitating chip into an advanced sensor” »

Thanks to a sleek new computer chip developed by IBM, we are one step closer to making computers work like the brain.

The neuromorphic chip is made from a phase-change material commonly found in rewritable optical discs (confused? more on this later). Because of this secret sauce, the chip’s components behave strikingly similar to biological neurons: they can scale down to nanometer size and perform complicated computations rapidly with little energy.

Science fiction is inching closer to reality with the development of revolutionary self-propelling liquid metals—a critical step towards future elastic electronics.

While building a shape-shifting liquid metal T-1000 Terminator may still be far on the horizon, the pioneering work by researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, is setting the foundation for moving beyond solid state electronics towards flexible and dynamically reconfigurable soft circuit systems.

Continue reading “Towards the T-1000: Liquid metals propel future electronics” »