Tech Water Cooler

Drones with brains could be airborne this year

Drone technology has developed rapidly over the past few years, but they’re still pretty dim-witted – requiring an operator to be within eyesight to prevent collisions. However, that might be about to change follow research into artificial neural networks.

We’ve long had computers that can recognise objects and respond in real-time, but the tech and power demands have made them unsuitable for mounting on a lightweight drone. To date, research into getting drones to sense and avoid obstacles has focused on short-range technology like radar, but that often doesn’t give enough warning for a fast-moving drone to avoid a power line.

So instead, a US company called Bio Inspired Technologies is taking a different approach – mimicking a biological brain. Humans and animals are generally rubbish at traditional computing tasks like adding up numbers, but great at processing input from multiple senses and responding to it.

Read more here.

Clever Drum Machine Blends the Physical and Digital

We’ve all seen it: A DJ is up onstage “making beats,” but there’s no drum kit in sight. Instead, her nose is glued to a computer screen, her hands poking the occasional slider or knob. Electronic music, by its very nature, is digital, but does that mean the tools we use to make it have to be as well?

Axel Bluhme doesn’t seem to think so. The designer, who is currently getting a masters at the Royal College of Art, has designed a new kind of drum machine that blurs the lines between the digital and analog music making. Called the XOXX Composer, the machine transforms digital processes like looping, sequencing and sampling into a more tangible act.

Read more here.

Light-sensitive clothing takes us back to the ‘hypercolor’ era

1991 was a turbulent year — the internet first arrived to the public, Arnold bid us “Hasta la Vista, baby” and the hypercolor fad swept the nation. Yes, those were the garments that changed hue from body heat, thanks to a combination of so-called leuco dyes and inappropriate touching. Mercifully, the craze died quickly because of insurmountable problems; namely the colors stopped changing after a few trips through the wash and it was just kind of gross. Now a company called The Crated is trying to reincarnate the best part of hypercolor — the color changing — with a line of clothing called Photochromia.

Read more here.

Video Challenge App FightMe Bets On More Ice Bucket Challenges And Social Movements

FightMe is a video challenge app. Now, other “challenge apps” have failed miserably. There just hash’t been the consumer demand for this model. Despite a good run at the idea, Klash, which raised a million Euros in funding, failed after a year.

However, FightMe, an iOS app startup, thinks it has the answer. It’s been remodelled and re-launches today with a new version and a new mission: to encourage ‘creative and passionate individuals’ to start movements and join in causes. Think a platform for the creation of new Ice Bucket Challenges, perhaps.

Read more here.

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