The future was on display this year at the MLOVE MWC 2015 booth at 4yfn in Barcelona, Spain. Exhibits and demos included Rambus lensless smart sensors (LSS), Mimi, a smart hearing test app for the iPhone, Dacuda’s 3Daround app, Acrobotic’s Smart Citizen Kit, Fab Lab Barcelona’s Maker cor
ner and a 3D food printer courtesy of Robots in Gastronomy.
Rambus lensless smart sensors (LSS)
Rambus LSS technology allows sensors to capture information-rich images using a low-cost phase grating. Even though the raw ‘snap’ is indecipherable to the naked human eye, the sensor, which is approximately the size of pinhead and as thin as a human hair, is capable of capturing all of the information in the visual world up to a certain resolution.
Computation is pushed past the ‘edge’ and performed on the LSS sensors themselves. However, unlike traditional PIR sensors that are only capable of detecting a general event such as motion, LSS algorithms can be tailored to monitor and even ‘decipher’ what is being captured. In addition, LSS delivers more data (128 bits x 128 pixels versus two bits x two pixels), along with improved accuracy. In practical terms, this enables near infinite depth-of-field and eliminates the need for autofocus.
Together with Rambus and IXDS, MLOVE hosted an Ideation Workshop to find out how to use LSS in Smart Transportation, Medical, Manufacturing and Smart Cities. Check out our workshop review here:
Mimi
360 million people around the world reportedly suffer from hearing loss. However, only one out of forty has been treated.
Enter Mimi, the smart hearing test iPhone app that determines hearing age and capability. Mimi also offers a Smart Hearing Amplifier, an iPhone app with 18 presents designed to bolster hearing capabilities in various situations.
Smart Citizen
This open-source environmental monitoring platform – powered by Atmel’s popular ATmega32U4 micocontroller (MCU) – comprises a series of interchangeable shields paired with an Arduino-compatible data-processing board.
The Ambient shield boasts a plethora of sensors to measure a wide range of environmental variables, including air composition (CO and NO2), temperature, light intensity, sound levels and humidity. Future shields will target urban agriculture (testing soil and water), the measurement of electromagnetic fields, as well as tracking energy consumption and air composition.
Fab Lab Barcelona
According to the official MIT FAQ, Fab labs, like the one in Barcelona (BCN), offer widespread access to modern means for invention. Beginning as an outreach project from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, CBA has assembled millions of dollars in machines for research in digital fabrication, ultimately aiming at developing programmable molecular assemblers that will be able to make almost anything.
Fab labs fall between these extremes, comprising approximately fifty thousand dollars in equipment and materials that can be used today to do what will be possible with tomorrow’s personal fabricators.
Robots in Gastronomy
Robots in Gastronomy is a research and design group that focuses on the intersection of technology and gastronomy. The group includes Michelin Star chefs, industrial designers, interaction designers and high-end kitchen equipment distributors.
RiG’s research has culminated in the creation of the Food Form 3D, a computer numerically controlled deposition robot capable of 3D printing edible materials. The aim of the group is not to industrialize the kitchen, but rather, provide tools of invention and innovation.
What is 4 Years From Now?
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