What You Feel Is What You Get – Smartphone for the Blind

In the sacred Hindu epic Mahabharata, a character called Sanjaya is entrusted with the duty of narrating the stories unfolding on the battleground to his blind king, Lord Dhritraashtra. It is said he was blessed with an ability to see events at a distance. So, in essence, the king had found himself an alternate pair of eyes who envisioned and reported live news events.

One might think such magical stories don’t come true in our real lives. However in the world where technology and culture are a byproduct of each other, there is indeed one visionary with a revolutionary design goal in mind to affect the lives of the visually-deprived. Sumit Dagar, an interaction designer from the National Institute of Design in India, was awarded a Rolex Award for Enterprise for his work on the concept of a braille phone. This smartphone for the blind is based on haptic rather than visual or auditory feedback.

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The Prefuture of Synthetic Biology

Somewhere between a vat of expensive face cream and a baby Neanderthal lies a probable future for synthetic biology. While synbio start-ups – large and small – struggle with the reality of scaling up microscopic cellular factories into profitable business models, stories of DIY anti-cancer research, Neanderthal cloning, limitless ‘green’ kerosene, and tumor-killing bacteria are told as outcomes of a likely future where humans have full control over biology.

Over the last decade, many diverse interests have contributed to this ambition of an easy-to-manipulate biology, as the field of synthetic biology has spread around research labs all over the world. Scientists, engineers, policymakers, industrialists, space agencies, politicians, and even designers are constructing a future defined by the grand rhetoric of a world-changing, world-saving technology.

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The World Responds to Bitcoin

Interest in the digital cryto-currency bitcoin has peaked over the past months, not least because of its quick rise in value to 266 USD approaching April 10^th, and subsequent drop to 105 USD in the 24 hours following. Whether or not the rise of bitcoin is a good thing, the world has nonetheless shown a variety of responses as it adapts to this still-maturing currency.

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The Hedonometer Uses Social Media to Measure Global Happiness

Are you using Twitter? Then you might be measured as part of the world’s happiness. A team of scientists from the University of Vermont and The MITRE Corporation have developed a tool to measure global happiness, the Hedonometer.

The Hedonometer is based on people’s online expressions, capitalizing on data-rich social media, and measuring how people present themselves to the outside world. Right now, this research is updated every 24 hours, but eventually it will be updated every minute. Soon the Hedonometer will draw on other data streams, like Google Trends, the New York Times, blogs, and broadcast news. It’s already been used to measure the happiest and saddest American cities (Napa, California, and Beaumont, Texas, respectively) and will eventually provide real-time comparisons between cities’ moods. Additionally, the Hedonometer will help to determine if small-scale events, such as the recent Boston bombings, have an impact on the global psyche.

The Hedonometer is just one more step to merging the technosphere with the biosphere. Check it out to see if the rest of the world is aligned with your feelings.

Photo via Phys.org

A Frankenstein-esque System

Life-support machines, they are designed to activate our bodies when anatomy fails. But what will happen when the machines keep each other alive?

Designers Revital Cohen & Tuur van Balen created The Immortal; a machine which exists out of several life-support machines connected with wires and electric cords. They keep each other alive through circulation of electrical impulses, oxygen and artificial blood.

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Anthropo-scene #1: From Rocks to Thoughts

This is the first in a 10-part series where renowned journalist and biologist Christian Schwägerl discusses the many ramifications of the concept of the “Anthropocene”. 

Paul Crutzen’s idea of a dawning geological epoch shaped by us humans – the Anthropocene – is going viral. Since I presented it at the Next Nature Power Show in 2011, the top guys at the United Nations have endorsed the concept. A group of smart scientists led by Jan Zalasiewicz of Leicester University announced that, by 2017, they will reach a verdict of whether our current epoch will be officially re-named. Many initiatives have started exploring this new way of thinking about humanity’s place in and on Earth. Here our “ride into the Anthropocene” continues. I want take you to 10 places where the human mind, “nature” and technology fuse in this yet unexplored newness.

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Electric Skin Could Allow Robots to Feel

There are plenty of robot arms out there, but what about the skin to cover them in? A new kind of piezotronic transistor mesh could make for robotic skin that’s as sensitive as your own is, covered in thousands of tiny mechanical hairs.

The inventor of the technology, Zhong Lin Wan from Georgia Tech, says it has immediate applications in human-machine interfaces. It could for example be used to capture electronic signatures by recording the distinctive force an individual applies while signing. In due time, Wan expects the pressure sensor arrays could equip robotics and prosthetics with a human-like sense of touch.

Via Gizmodo, via Techreview.

Green Man’s Next Nature Testimonial

We asked our fans to send in testimonials on the Next Nature Appzine for iPad. This short contribution from Green Man wins this weeks cake.

You too can win a Fake For Real game if you send us your video testimonial.

Shape-Shifting House Acts like a Flower

Imagine your home adapting itself to seasonal, meteorological and even astronomical conditions by changing its shape. D*Dynamic is based on the discovery of mathematician Henry Ernest Dudeney, who found a way to turn a perfect square into an equilateral triangle.

During wintertime the house curls up by contracting the internal walls to thick external walls, minimizing the energy needed for heating. Conversely, on a warm summer day, it will fold out and extend itself. To put it differently, the house resembles the principle of human arteries that expand or contract to preserve the core temperature of your body.

However, there is more in store. The house can direct and rotate itself towards the sun to collect solar energy. If there is sunlight the house could rotate to let it stream into the living room. Or, you might program the house to welcome the morning sun into your bedroom. Wouldn’t it be great to wake up and to have the sun always there to greet you?

If you envision the concept on a slightly larger scale it might make complete neighborhoods more dynamic. Would it mean that you get new neighbors depending on weather conditions? It would certainly be a new way to get to know the people in your town.

Via Daily Mail.

Nature through the Windshield

For more than eight years artist Koert van Mensvoort has been working on a project to redefine our concept of nature. Through his platform Next Nature he has published books, held talks, ran workshops, maintained an active blog, and even developed a hoax, all in effort to communicate that there is no absolute nature, but that technology and nature are deeply intertwined; a biosynthetic nature so to speak. Can the development of a Gillette razor be considered in Darwinian terms of evolution? Is the fake nature of an indoor ski slope any less legitimate than the Alps? By fundamentally shifting the way we conceive nature, he believes we will be better able to cope with the oncoming climatic and environmental challenges ahead.

This interview is reprinted from Volume magazine #35: Everything Under Control.

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Lets Grow a Glowing Plant

Four years ago we wrote about a vision to create bioluminescent trees that would replace streetlights. This dream is getting just a little bit closer, now that a team of Stanford trained synthetic biologists led by Antony Evans launched a Kickstarter campaign to grow glowing plants.

Using Genome Compiler software, the team is ready to input bio-luminescence genes into a mustard plant and have it be naturally glowing. Natural lighting with no electricity. Hypernature ahoy!

Ingestible Microchips Monitor Medication

In July 2012 Digestible Microchips (a similar product to the Metabolic guardians from our own NANO Supermarket) were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in placebo pills.

“About half of all people don’t take medications like they’re supposed to,” says Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla,California. “This device could be a solution to that problem, so that doctors can know when to rev up a patient’s medication adherence.” Topol is not affiliated with the company that manufactures the device, Proteus Digital Health in Redwood City, California, but he embraces the sensor’s futuristic appeal, saying, “It’s like big brother watching you take your medicine.”

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