Top 10 Latest Technological Innovations

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What are the hottest technological innovations at the moment? As it turns out some will be pretty obvious, while others might surprise you.

In the following article, we’ve collated some of the most interesting and potentially revolutionary tech-innovations currently either being researched or developed.

RELATED: 15 NEW TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL MAKE YOUR 2020 MUCH MORE INTERESTING

What are the newest technologies coming our way?

Here are some of the newest up and coming technologies for 2019 and beyond. This list is far from exhaustive and is in no particular order.

1. AI coming of age is, um, coming!

AI has been on the receiving end of massive financial investment over the last few years. According to Forbes,80% of enterprises are now investing in it or are planning to expand AI investment if they already are.

This influx of money has given rise to some serious innovation in deep learning. With all this cash flowing around, many tech experts believe AI will really “come of age” within the next few years.

2. Internet at the speed of lightning

The appetite for faster and faster internet connection is really pushing the technology forward. Businesses and private users are constantly demanding ever quicker response times and the industry is responding.

With lightning-fast internet speeds just around the corner, it should be transformative for many aspects of our lives. Should it be achieved, it will increase the efficiency of workers and will provide reliable communication tools for companies that rely on remote workers.

This is where 5G might be able to change the world as much as our “regular” internet did several decades ago. That’s if it doesn’t kill us all first, of course.

3. Life-enriching smart tech will change the home

technological innovations flexible screens
Source: IE

More and more of our lives are becoming integrated with smart tech. Our homes being no exception.

Demand for ever better smart home appliances and home entertainment systems are changing the way we socialize. Whether for better or worse, today is just the tip of the iceberg.

Current trends seem to indicate a greater demand for more control over the way we are entertained in the home from tech. One area that may be something to watch is something called flexible viewing surfaces.

These promise to be able to curve around any environment will change home entertainment and advertising beyond all recognition. Watch this space.

4. Dextrous robots might be with us very soon

Computers and robots are dumb. Very dumb indeed.

If their work environment changes even slightly outside their preprogrammed procedure and the whole production line could come to a grinding halt. This is where improving robotic dexterity offers an incredible opportunity for more flexible automation.

While it may be possible to program robots to figure out how to grasp something by “looking” at it in the future, current research is trying to make them learn how to do so through a trial and error process.

One example is a project called Dactyl, that has taught itself to flip a toy using it’s “fingers.”

5. Brain-computer interface is almost here

Innovations like Elon Musk’s Neuralink could make the mouse and keyboard obsolete in the future. Work in this area is continuing apace and promises to allow us to control computers just by thinking.

We’ll let you decide if this will be revolutionary or not to you working and daily life.

6. Swallowable medical devices are on the way

Small, swallowable devices are currently being developed that can capture images of your guts without the need for anesthetic. They can even be used in infants and children.

Once fully developed these little medical devices will revolutionize how medical professionals diagnose and monitor some very serious diseases. This will be an incredibly powerful tool for things like cancer and intestinal disorders like environmental enteric dysfunction.

7. Custom cancer vaccines could be a reality soon

Thanks to scientific developments like the Human Genome Project, personalized medicines and vaccines could be just around the corner. One interesting application for this is the possibility of developing personalized cancer vaccines.

This might sound a little far-fetched, but it is hoped that medical professionals could soon train your immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. This, if achieved, could make cancer a thing of the past.

8. Fancy a cow-free burger?

technological innovations meat-free meat
Source: Impossible Foods

Meat is a vital part of a healthy diet, so we are told, but it comes with a small problem – an animal needs to die. Developments are in motion to provide the world with animal-free meat.

Whether lab-grown, 3D printed or plant-based, alternatives that provide the same nutritional value as proper meat could soon be a reality. It will also offer a means for mankind to reduce dramatically our collective appetite for meat’s impact on the planet.

9. An end to sewers is on the way (hopefully)

Developments are afoot to push forward with “eco-friendly” toilets that do not need a connection to a sewer system and can treat waste on the spot. Not only will this be revolutionary for cities of the future, but it will bring much-needed sanitation to many parts of the world that currently lack this “luxury”.

Philanthropists Bill Gates has been running a competition called “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” to find suitable, viable prototypes for this. Many submissions are actually quite promising and once self-contained, self waste metabolizing systems will benefit mankind and the environment for the better.

10. GANs – Generative Adversarial Networks are on the way

GANs, or Generative Adversarial Networks is one of the latest developments in neural networks could be the future. Invented by Ian Goodfellow, this class of machine learning basically sets two neural networks against each other to solve a problem.

Given a set starting condition, the two networks battle it out in a usually non-zero sum game to find a solution to something. These have been described by some as “the coolest idea in machine learning in the last twenty years”

Applications for this technology include generating artificial images, modeling things, improving computer games and many more.

What other examples of technological innovations are there?

Apart from the ten highlighted above, there are some other interesting technological innovations out there. These include, but are not limited to things like (credit to MIT) : –

– 3-D metal printing

– Artificial embryos

– Sensing cities (smart cities)

– AI for everyone

– Instant foreign language translation

– Zero-carbon natural gas

– Genetic fortune-telling

What are the latest technologies in computer science?

According to sites like topuniversities.com, some of the latest technology areas of research include, but are not limited to: –

– Big data analytics

– Machine learning

– Cloud computing

– Computer-assisted education

– Bioinformatics

– Better cybersecurity

Intel announces its latest 9th Gen chips, including its ‘best gaming processor’ Core i9

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Intel’s next generation of desktop processors are here with the company announcing its new 9th Gen Core chips today at its fall hardware event.

To that end, Intel revealed its new Core i9-9900K, which Intel says is “the best gaming processor in the world. Period.” The i9-9900K offers eight cores and 16 threads, clocked at base frequency of 3.6 GHz, which can be boosted up to 5.0 GHz.

Along with the new Core i9 processor, Intel is also announcing new 9th Gen Core i5 and Core i7 models, too: the i7-9700K with eight cores and eight threads, and base 3.6 GHz clock speed (which can be boosted to 4.9 GHz); and the i5-9600K, which offers six cores and six threads at a base 3.7 GHz speed (which can be boosted up to 4.6 GHz).

Despite Intel jumping ahead to its 9th Gen moniker, the new chips are still based off Intel’s existing 14nm process, which the company has been using as far back as the 5th Gen Broadwell chips back in 2014. The 9th Gen chips are specifically using Intel’s 14nm++ process that it introduced last year with its 8th Gen Coffee Lake chips, with Intel continuing to delay production of its truly next-gen 10nm Cannon Lake chips until 2019.

Intel also notes that these are its first desktop processors to have hardware fixes for the Meltdown Variant 3 and L1 Terminal Fault issues, with the remaining protections done through software.

Preorders for the 9th Gen chips open today, with the processors set to ship on October 19th. The chips are priced far more modestly than Intel’s pricier Core X, too: the Core i9-9900K is set to cost $488, the i7-9700K will cost $373, and the i5-9600K will set you back $262.

But Intel isn’t leaving out its high-end users, either: the company also announced an updated lineup of its Core X-Series processors (first announced in 2017), with new Core i7 X-Series, Core i9 X-Series, and Core i9 Extreme processors that are built on Intel’s 14nm++ process (but still based on the Skylake X design.) And like the first-generation Core i9 Extreme, the new model continues to offer 18 cores and 36 threads — remaining at the top of Intel’s consumer range.

Intel announced seven new Core X chips today, set to release sometime in November. Those include the Core i9-9980XE — the aforementioned 18 cores / 36 threads Core i9 Extreme model — which has a maximum turbo-boosted clock speed of 4.5GHz and will cost $1,979. There also five regular Core i9 X-Series chips, ranging from the 16 core / 32 thread $1,684 Core i9-9960X, to the 10 core / 20 thread $889 Core i9-9820X, and a base Core i7-9800X model with eight cores and 16 threads for $589.

And for professional users who need even more firepower, Intel announced a new 28 core and 56 thread unlocked Intel Xeon W-3175X processor. Base clock speed is 3.1 GHz, boosted up to 4.3GHz and it’s set to ship later this year in December. No price has been announced yet, but it likely won’t be cheap when it does hit stores.

The Future of Drone Delivery Systems

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Blockchain and IoT can solve the current and future problems of the drone delivery industry through secured ownership, access control, data logging and peer-to-peer deliveries.

As an Amazon Prime member, I enjoy the benefits of ordering health supplements online. Competitive prices, better quality, and fast delivery are amongst those benefits. A good quality probiotics can cost $65-$90 per bottle. However, delivery time and transit conditions (i.e. temperature and humidity) have to be perfect to yield a successful delivery and keep the living organisms viable.

Most health supplement companies don’t even bother packaging probiotics with dry ice. Most send them using USPS First class mail that takes 3-5 business days, and a few use 2-day delivery with dry ice. Even then, the package is received with the ice melted and the viability of the therapeutic bacteria is in question.

There must be a better way!   In 2015, Amazon teased a “Prime Air” drone delivery system that would allow packages to be delivered to houses within thirty minutes, and I thought to myself how nice it would be to receive my probiotics on the same day in the optimum temperature.

Amazon’s Prime Air deliveries aren’t happening as promised, but Amazon appears to be fully committed to pursuing them.

Now, other companies, including Google and Walgreens, are working to implement drone deliveries. Project Wing, a GoogleX project, is an autonomous delivery drone service set to start a trial delivering merchandise from participating Walgreens to houses within six miles.   Project Wing opens up a plethora of opportunities, from delivering medical prescriptions to emergency equipment, such as heart defibrillators. Project Wing not only makes shopping more convenient, but it could also potentially save lives.

Drone Delivery System Challenges and Blockchain to the Rescue

Last year, the FAA predicted that 452,000 commercial drones would be in use by 2022, but now it expects the industry to hit that size around the beginning of next year. The FAA predicts the commercial drone market will triple over the next five years, hitting 835,000 aircraft by 2023.   Commercial drones, which are used for research, pilot training, filming, building inspection and a slew of other professional activities, are typically more expensive and robust than the model aircraft used by hobbyists, but recreational drones are far more numerous, according to the FAA. Today, officials estimate there are roughly 1.25 million amateur drones in use across the country, and they expect the market to grow to 1.4 million by 2023.

With gargantuan companies like Google and Amazon working on launching delivery drone projects for public use, the sky may be filled with thousands of drones milling about sooner than we think. With thousands of drones in the sky, there will be both opportunities and challenges to take into consideration.   Without proper auditing, tracking and security, drone technology could create more harm than good.

Currently, each drone manufacturer controls each of its drones via their own proprietary protocols – they’re unable to communicate with other drones efficiently and securely. For airspace regulations, this could become an issue with many drones flying at one time.   There’s also the chance of a drone’s backend architecture being compromised or having an outage due to its traditional, centralized nature. Drones also need to be able to communicate securely to one another, regardless of brand. Interoperability between devices is a must for the future of IoT – drones included, as they’re essentially unmanned, flying computers.

Malicious actors may also try to take advantage of drones through hacking and malware. Drones need to be secure and deemed safe from the perspective of the public eye as well, as it would not bode well for delivery drones to be considered a threat.

In delivery, there are multiple stakeholders who demand some level of information transparency to protect their interests, namely the sender, recipient, regulatory agencies, and insurance companies.   Using blockchain technology, we can alleviate many of the pain points for drone delivery, and provide solutions for the aforementioned problems and also bring out the true meaning of IoT through a fully distributed, resistive and fault-tolerant solution. A multipurpose, miniature and blockchain-enabled IoT device will be responsible for facilitating all drone to blockchain interactions.  This IoT device communicates directly to the blockchain without intermediary servers to ensure full security.

Drones are also increasingly being used for other commercial applications; however, this article will specifically focus on delivery, as it raises many questions with the publicly flying, potentially exploitable devices.

Why Blockchain?

Blockchain combines many aspects of a good, backend solution: decentralization, redundancy, fault tolerance, security, and scalability. Besides being architecturally sound, blockchain acts as a verifier of all information that’s sent to it. Through unique cryptographic keys, this allows digital identities, signatures, and ownership to be easily verified and recorded in a ledger-like format. Sensor, analytical and trip data from drones can also be signed and recorded immutably on the blockchain, leaving a permanent trail of audibility behind.

The Catapult blockchain architecture at a glance. (source: https//nem.io/catapult)

Why NEM’s Catapult blockchain?

The Catapult blockchain, in particular, has many built-in features, such as multi-signature access, metadata, atomic smart contracts and special “rules” (Restrictions) that you can assign to accounts on-chain. Catapult can also be used via a standard REST API interface, meaning no mining or staking is required for IoT devices.   Catapult is a very practical choice of a blockchain that already adapts to industry standards. These features will come to be very useful in defining ownership, access control and peer-to-peer smart contracts, and will allow for drones to experience true and fully secure autonomous functionality without sacrificing its computing resources.