Technology Review

California began building printed houses In the California resort town of Rancho Mirage, the company Mighty Buildings began building homes from 3D-printed panels. Unlike similar projects, Mighty Buildings prints the panels not on an owner's land plot, but in its own factory in Oakland. The printing technology reduces up to 99% of construction waste. The new homes are equipped with solar panels and Tesla batteries.

Scientists have created an exoskeleton of the hand, controlled by the power of thought. Brain signals are captured by electrodes, they trigger tiny metal levers attached with Velcro to the patient's wrists, making the hand move. Paralyzed people can control this hand just by moving their eyes. The device is easy to handle, installed and configured in a matter of minutes. It has already been tested on patients who have suffered a stroke and spinal injuries, in the future engineers plan to improve the exoskeleton so that it can be used to do hard labor work.

Chinese scientists have created a soft robot that managed to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench The fins are made of a flexible polymer that expands and contracts depending on the magnitude of the applied electric current. All the electronic components fit safely into the deep-sea robot, it also has a tail of the same length, two lateral "working" fins and a thin flexible membrane attached to the fin, helping it move. The first stage of the tests took place in a high-pressure tank and in a lake at a depth of 70 m, after which the robot was submerged to a depth of 3 km in the South China Sea. The final test included diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to a depth of over 10 km, for which the robot was fixed on a special platform.

Tattoos brought to life by Oskar & Gaspar The creators behind this unique visuals show are Oskar & Gaspar, specializing in such exhibitions. With the help of a projector, special software and models with tattoos they can create whole stories which you can watch on video.

Mine Kafon - a bomb disposal robot Afghan designer Massoud Hassani has developed a low-cost device to clear the many minefields in his home country. The Mine Kafon is a human-sized ball with many arms made of bamboo staves emanating from a small ball in the middle with a plastic plate attached to the outer ends of each stave. It costs only $40 and can defuse four mines.

Airblock is the first modular programmable drone. The central processor, motors and rotors of the Airblock are all enclosed in a soft foam frame. Its pieces snap together using magnetic connectors and represent a constructor that can be folded up and operated in arbitrary combinations. Flight time from a single charge is approximately six minutes. Inside the main module hidden six-axis gyroscope, barometer and ultrasonic sensor. Additionally included is a large foam base for building a hovercraft.

An AR system allowing to watch soccer matches right on the table. This novelty has been presented by the researchers of Washington University together with the employees of Google and Facebook corporations. It allows you to transform video of 2D matches into 3D format, and what's more, it can be projected on any smooth surface. First, the system watches the game and collects information: it tracks the actions and maneuvers of each player. After that, it overlays the players' images on 3D models, which are placed on the projection of the soccer field.

Fribo, a robot for sociopaths. This gadget collects daily data about what the particular person is doing, and shares the news with the owner's friends (provided they also have a robot like that). In this way, Fribo helps to overcome social isolation caused by distance. Fribo's appearance resembles something combining a black stuffed bunny and the Soot Sprites from the anime Totoro. It's got eyes on the improvised "face", and the device's facial expression changes depending on the situation. All in all, the toy looks cute.

Scientists have created a soft robotic arm like Baymax from City of Heroes has The design of the arm is pretty standard - there is an elbow and a wrist. There are also big actuators in the form of cushions around the joints, which the developers call "power modules". They are filled with air and can measure the pressure exerted on them. The fingers of the hand have been 3D-printed, they are also soft and filled with air. Each inflatable finger contains pressure sensors that allow the robot to detect if it is pressing too hard, for example.

Liquid Printed Pneumatic is an innovative material used in the automotive industry. MIT technicians used liquid silicone as the basis for the material: it is injected with helium into the nozzle of the printer and thus forms a skeleton of the construction piece, inside which an additional portion of air is pumped in. The cells can be deflated and re-inflated. From a set of silicone parts, a many-shaped cluster was created. The material can be useful not only in the construction of machines, but also for creating various devices, including industrial ones.

Nreal Light Mixed Reality Glasses This year, Nreal is ready to launch the production of Nreal Light mixed reality glasses. The goggles provide a stereoscopic picture with a resolution of 1920x1080 with a viewing angle of 52 degrees. They will have separate content, applications and games made by the same company. Nreal Light can also be used outdoors in various weather conditions. The cost of this gadget is $600.

Guardbot is a unique military surveillance robot. The device is designed to patrol territory and detect improvised explosive devices and chemical substances. Guardbot is equipped with 360-degree surveillance cameras, GPS and a microphone for recording. It can move on land and water, transmitting data and image in real time, reaching speeds of 1.8 m/s in the latter case.

ZOOOII - smart shoes with lights ZOOOII sneakers allows you to show off your style day and night with a dazzling light that which will make you stand out from the crowd. Thanks to the use of ETPU technology, which significantly improves the cushioning and rebound of the sole, ZOOOII is built around a soft midsole, which is much more comfortable than regular sneakers. Users can adjust the flashing light effects of the sole to different frequencies depending on the foot position. Using the app, you can choose 17 different light colors and adjust other parameters depending on your needs and preferences.

Flow Hive: make your bees complete the plan Australian beekeepers Stuart and Cedar Anderson have developed the Flow Hive design, allowing beekeepers to harvest honey from their hives without disturbing the bees inside. Plastic foundation in beehives is nothing new, but in a Flow Frame, the cells are almost complete. The bees fill the honey cells and cap them off. When you insert the Flow Key and split the honey cells, gravity does the rest of the work, and the honey simply flows into the trough, through the tube and into your jar.

RWT Transformer Wheels under the DARPA GXV-T Project Specialists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed the RWT Transformer Wheel, capable of transforming from a simple spinning wheel to a triangular track crawler in a matter of seconds. In just 2 seconds, the vehicle can efficiently adapt to off-road driving and back. At the same time, the axle of the wheel is fixed when moving on a track, while the tire is actuated by special rollers.

Microsoft Word will predict typed text Microsoft intends to implement in the near future the WordCue technology in Microsoft Word, based on the Smart Compose algorithms used in Google Docs. Now the user will be provided with word suggestions supported by machine learning for faster typing. The feature is expected to appear in Word this month.

LG Rollable - smartphone with a retractable display LG Rollable has a 7.4-inch retractable screen with a 2428×1080 pixel resolution (20:9), featuring video in 2428×1366 pixel resolution (16:9) and 2428×1600 pixels resolution in performance mode (3:2). Also, according to rumors, LG Rollable will be equipped with a 4200 mAh battery and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor combined with 16 GB of RAM. So it won't be a cheap phone. LG will add a flexible frame that will not move, but will fix the positioning of the screen, kinda like with a paperclip.

Project Soli Gesture Sensor An innovation by Google specialists based around radio waves and radars. Project Soli’s functional concept is quite simple – the device sends radio waves and receives radiation which is reflected back using radars. The accuracy of motion detection is as precise as 1 mm. Thanks to Project Soli, you can press invisible buttons, turn invisible knobs. Moreover, the device even allows for wearing a smart watch.

Gatebox, a holographic virtual assistant Game creator Taro Minoboshi has presented his development of a smart speaker with very interesting content. So the Gatebox has a built-in projector that visualizes a voice assistant. More precisely, the anime character Azuma Hikari. The virtual girl, apart from the standard features, has a "personality" - she loves watching anime series, eating donuts, and is afraid of insects, which can conquer single owners's hearts.

Portable light for your smartphone - MOON UltraLight The MOON UltraLight is an ultra-portable smartphone lighting accessory equipped with touch controls that allow us to adjust the brightness and tone in photos and videos. You can customize brightness and color temperature with a simple tap on the MOON UltraLight touchpad. Brightness reaches 400 Lumens, and color temperature ranges from from 5000 Kelvin (coolest) to 2700 Kelvin (warmest).