Tech for Good

Anywhere in the world in four hours for $100 That is how the long-term goal of the Denver-based Boom Supersonic sounds. The startup is developing the Overture, the supersonic commercial airliner able to reach Mach-2.2 speeds (around 2700 km/h) - more than twice as fast as today's subsonic commercial jets. Designed to seat between 65 and 88 people, Overture will focus on over 500 primarily transoceanic routes that will benefit from such speed: from New York to London in 3:30 hours instead of 6:30 hours; from Singapore to Dubai in 4 hours instead of 7 hours. We may think that the supersonic dream has died with Concorde. The British-French airliner flew from 1969 to 2003, was ludicrously expensive and an environmental disaster. However, the Boom team thinks differently. At the first stage, the company will set fares at a price point similar to business class. That contrasts Concorde, which by the '90s was charging around $20,000 for a round trip in today's money. As for the environmental issues, Overture will enable net-zero-carbon flight by flying on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). SAF is produced using carbon extracted from the atmosphere using renewable energy. While experts may consider the "Anywhere in the world in four hours for $100" as an audacious goal that can take another 20 years to become a reality, Boom Supersonic is already making some progress. They have built the 1:3 scale XB1 prototype aircraft and will fly it around the end of this year. Interest in Boom's project has been high. The team says it currently has $6 billion in pre-orders of the Overture aircraft. 🎬 1-minute video of the Overture 💡 Article on CNN Travel #startups #aviation #netzero

☀️ As usual, here is Sunday and here is the #weeksummary: 1️⃣ Indian Plastic Roads - India building roads using recycled plastic waste 2️⃣ Speak to my bones - a communication device using bone-conduction for the toughest environments 3️⃣ See each other for the first time - a surgery miracle backed by the latest tech to separate conjoined twins for the first time in history 4️⃣ A Digital Nose - MIT researchers developing a device to sniff out specific diseases and to eventually be built into every smartphone I'd like to welcome everyone who joined the channel this week. In case you have any questions or suggestions, you may join our chat @tfg_safechat See you all around next week Your Tech for Good

​A Digital Nose Diseases often change human body odor. When a virus attacks a healthy cell, it produces a toxic byproduct. The body emits this byproduct via breath, sweat, or urine. And MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) researchers are developing a digital nose that could sniff each specific disease. The person’s sense of smell is weak and subjective, so we can’t rely on a human nose to diagnose a patient. A dog’s nose is 100,000 times better than ours. ”Dogs are the most accurate disease detectors for anything that we’ve ever tried,” said Andreas Mershin, a scientist at MIT. However, training dogs to sniff out each specific disease is expensive and time-consuming. Plus, it’s not super convenient to bring a dog into every doctor’s office or airport. So Mershin and his team create a digital dog nose to build into every smartphone. Earlier this year, Mershin and his team announced a Nano-Nose — a robotic nose powered by AI — that could identify cases of prostate cancer from urine samples with 70% accuracy. The study claims that the robotic nose performed just as well as trained dogs in detecting the disease. For a real-world application, the team has to make the system work outside the lab - where multiple smells are present. Smartphones that smell are nearing reality, Mershin told Vox. “I think we’re maybe five years away, maybe a little bit less,” he says, “to get it from where it is now to fully inside of a phone. And I’m talking about deploying it into a hundred million phones.” 💡 Article on Big Think #medtech #robotics #AI

See each other for the first time After months of intense planning and practice, surgeons at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, for the first time in history, successfully separated nine-month-old conjoined twins Abigail and Micaela Bachinskiy in a marathon surgery this past October. The two girls were born fused at the head; that condition occurs approximately once in 2.5 million births. Team members included more than 30 surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, and other surgical staff. And, of course, that surgical miracle would not be possible without the help of the latest tech. The surgeons carefully tracked the children's growth through MRIs and CT scans. Then the doctors uploaded and viewed 3D reconstructions of these MRI and CT scans on the Magic Leap 1 headset. These mixed reality goggles offered an augmented view of the complex network of blood vessels to be detangled and separated. So surgeons were able to explore inside the girls' heads. For precision planning and practice, the surgeons used 3D printing. That generated multiple physical models of the twins’ fused skulls. During the operation itself, team members were divided by color. Leaders had black caps. Team Purple took care of Micaela, while Team Orange cared for Abigail; they had surgical caps in either purple or orange for easy visibility in the operating room. Surgical residents wore grey caps and could assist with either girl. Purple and orange masking tapes were used to label equipment for the respective teams in the operating room. After a 24-hour choreographed surgical ballet, the previously joined twins were resting comfortably — and separately — in their room in the UC Davis Hospital. Abigail and Micaela were able to face and see each other for the first time. 🎬 4-minute video featuring Magic Leap googles and 3D-printing 💡 Article on UC Davis Health #medtech #VR #3Dprint

​Speak to my bones Voice is the most fundamental and natural means for communication. However, we are still operating with a 150-year-old paradigm to communicate at distance. Some device in your hand or stuck to the side of your face, something stuck in or over your ears, and a microphone as close to your mouth as possible. Mobilus Labs startup from London is changing this with their device called mobiWAN. That is a Bluetooth two-way bone-conduction voice communications wearable for workers in the loudest environments, such as construction and industrial sites. The device attached to the back of the protective helmet transfers soundwaves through the bones in your head directly to the inner ear. You can hear the bone conduction audio even when wearing full hearing protection equipment. The same bone conduction turns the mobiWAN into a microphone. It detects the vibration in the wearer's jaw and head and transmits it back as standard voice communication. That allows to isolate the voice and eliminate the noise of their environment. With nearly 50% of all rework, and numerous site injuries caused by miscommunication, Mobilus technology creates a safer, more efficient, and productive site. 🌐 Mobilus Labs website where you can hear the two recordings. They are taken in a high noise environment, one on mobiWAN and one on a standard microphone. #wearables #startups #voice

Indian Plastic Roads India has built 21,000 miles (33,000 km) of roads using recycled plastic waste. 1 km of road uses the equivalent of 1 million plastic bags, saves around 1 ton of asphalt, and costs 8% less than a conventional road. It also creates thousands of jobs and allows people to collect waste and sell it to road construction companies. We have already talked a lot about plastic pollution being a significant problem for the world. We dump 8 million tons of plastic in our oceans every year. It is killing fish, birds, and other marine life. India is one of the countries trying to reduce environmental waste and reuse scarce resources by laying the roads with a combination of shredded plastic waste and tar, a process that’s half as costly as traditional asphalt-laying. Such roads are durable, can withstand floods, monsoons, and heatwaves, and after years of wear and tear, they have no potholes or cracks. Plastic waste has a plentiful supply: besides taking it from landfills, India has another interesting initiative named the Clean Sea. In the southern state of Kerala, for example, fishermen, are not throwing the plastic junk dragged with their nets, back into the water. The Clean Sea trains them to collect the plastic and bring it back to shore. In the first ten months, fishermen have removed 25 tonnes of plastic from the Arabian Sean, including 10 tonnes of plastic bags and bottles, according to a UN report on the scheme. 🎬 A 40-second video from the World Economic Forum 💡 Article on Tech Startups #recycle

☀️ Good Sunday to everyone and here is our #weeksummary: 1️⃣ Top 5 Electric Bikes in 2021 Around $5000 - the post name speaks for itself 2️⃣ Buzzing skies - a drone delivery service from the Israeli company Flytrex 3️⃣ A Metacycle - my favorite affordably priced electric motorcycle 4️⃣ Careerist - an outstanding tech education offer from reputable ed-tech platform 5️⃣ The Fire Ball - a fire extinguishing ball that automatically activates when thrown into a fire Hope you enjoyed any of those. See you around next week. Your Tech for Good

The Fire Ball In 1997, an event of devastating fire broke out in the Royal Jomtien Hotel in Pattaya. Phanawatnan Kaimart was at the scene as part of the community service. That tragic event inspired him to develop a tool for helping people fight a fire early and stop it from spreading. He invented the fire extinguishing ball that automatically activates when thrown into a fire. Elide Fire Ball automatically disperses common fire extinguishing chemicals in a 360-degree radius when in contact with fire. It is a 6 inch (150mm) diameter, lightweight ball weighing approximately 1.5kg. Unlike a fire extinguisher, you do not need any training or technical knowledge on using the Fire Ball. Just pick it up and either roll it or throw it into the heart of the fire. The device puts out all classes of fire, such as electrical, solid materials like furniture, and liquid fires such as petrol or oil. The Elide Fire Balls come with a simple mounting frame so you can install or place the product on a table or over an oven or fridge. 🎬 This short 1-minute video illustrates how the device works. #firefighting #safety

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❗️ I know many TFG subscribers either work in IT or are interested in building a career in that sphere (no wonder in our days of digitalization of everything). So you will probably be interested in today's #promo post. Careerist is an ed-tech platform with an outstanding sales offer. They propose to take your career to the next level and get hired by large tech companies. Their graduates work in companies like Amazon, Intel, Google, and many others. With Careerist, you have the chance to waive your tuition fee until you get a high-paying job in tech. If you do not get the job you want, you do not pay your program fee, just a small admission fee. Isn't that cool? Their promo post is below 👇. Just follow the link to see the details and maybe give it a try.

A Metacycle As promised in this post, here is the electric motorbike I liked most of all. Sondors Metacycle is the first affordably priced electric motorcycle that promises street-legal highway riding and enough range for nearly any reasonable commute. The specs are 80 mph (130 km/h) speeds and a range of up to 80 miles (130 km) while retaining a price of just $5,000. The bike is lightweight and has a low center of mass due to the battery position meaning superb handling and ride comfort. Other features include hydraulic brake locks, adjustable suspension, reverse gear, and full-color display. The negative space inside a frame will have three insert accessories. One is a hard case bag that fits into the space. One will be a range extender battery. The third option will be a charger for public stations. Sondors will start deliveries in March 2022. The bike will be available in the US and Europe. For the rest of the world, there will be only a private imports possibility. 🌐 Sondors website #EV

A Metacycle As promised in this post, here is the electric motorbike I liked most of all. Sondors Metacycle is the first affordably priced electric motorcycle that promises street-legal highway riding and enough range for nearly any reasonable commute. The specs are 80 mph (130 km/h) speeds and a range of up to 80 miles (130 km) while retaining a price of just $5,000. The bike is lightweight and has a low center of mass due to the battery position meaning superb handling and ride comfort. Other features include hydraulic brake locks, adjustable suspension, reverse gear, and full-color display. The negative space inside a frame will have three insert accessories. One is a hard case bag that fits into the space. One will be a range extender battery. The third option will be a charger for public stations. Sondors will start deliveries in March 2022. The bike will be available in the US and Europe. For the rest of the world, there will be only a private imports possibility. 🌐 Sondors website #EV

Buzzing skies The Israeli company Flytrex has received an investment of $40 million. The startup is engaged in drone delivery and already provides this service in Reykjavik and three cities in North Carolina. The money will help expand its presence in the United States, where the company received permission to arrange flights over people. At the same time, Flytrex drones fly only within sight for safety reasons. In 2020, such contactless delivery of groceries and other goods gained great popularity. And this year, the company says, its business has grown tenfold. I will be waiting for news about drones or milk bags (well, or what they are transporting there) falling on people's heads. In the video, a Flytrex drone delivers a parcel in Iceland. #drones #startups

I have watched a good video named "Top 5 Electric Bikes in 2021 Around $5000" one of these days. I was going to make a post about the bike I'd like to have myself. But today, The Universe had another plans for me. So now, I suggest you to watch this 6-minute video and decide for yourself which electric bike would you be thrilled to have (in case you like bikes). As I publish the post, we'll be able to compare our preferences. Deal? https://youtu.be/rb659qDld1c #EV

☀️ Here is you Sunday's #weeksummary: 1️⃣ Home-security camera - a techy and budget-friendly camera to keep your house safe 2️⃣ The fastest e-plane from Rolls-Royce - world speed records by a sleek-looking electric plane 3️⃣ A flawless film dubbing - an AI startup with some impressive results in movie-dubbing into foreign languages 4️⃣ Grid-free electricity - a Nigerian startup accelerating access to clean energy with their solar-powered batteries for rent Guys, I am feeling kinda alone here - would love to hear back from you. Please drop your comments which post you liked best in the last two-three weeks. Then we will be able to have most posts on topics you like. Your Tech for Good

​Grid-free electricity Good business ideas are not necessarily complex. The best ideas are the simplest ways to solve problems that matter for people. Olugbenga Olubanjo was growing in Nigeria. According to the World Bank, 85 million Nigerians still lack access to grid electricity, making it the country with the largest energy-access deficit in the world. So Olubanjo knew very well one of the most significant issues the people of his country were facing. He addressed this issue with Reeddi, a compact and portable solar-powered battery that people can rent—for 50¢ a day—to charge their devices, including laptops and televisions. The battery provides 200 watts per hour of energy. People can pick it up from corner stores in Lagos, Nigeria. Reeddi then collects and recharges the empty batteries. The company aims to accelerate access to clean energy in energy-poor regions of the world. Currently, 600 households and businesses in Lagos use the product every month, and the company plans to expand further in Nigeria before taking the products to other nations in Africa and Southeast Asia. 🌐 Reeddi website #battery #startups

A flawless film dubbing Artificial intelligence (AI) is controversial. I hear many people say it is stealing jobs from people. Others, like Elon Musk, for example, think AI could be a threat to human existence. However, we all already use AI in everyday life, enjoying the benefits it provides. And today, I am sharing another example of AI tech that could help all of us who like to watch movies. The London-based Flawless AI, founded by former film director Scott Mann, has created software called TrueSync, which assists in dubbing a film into a foreign language. When a movie is dubbed, the dialogue often gets changed to fit an actor’s mouth movements. That leads to two big problems: first, the new dialogue never really fits; and second, even skillfully altering a script can sacrifice a movie’s meaning and nuance. TrueSync AI learns specific actors’ vocal and facial performances and generates modified versions of the original performance that change the actor’s voice and facial expression to fit an entirely different language. The AI-generated dubbing performances still require some manual touch-ups by human visual effects artists. However, look at the impressive results showcased in a Flawless AI demo reel. They include Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson confronting each other in fluent French in the 1992 film “A Few Good Men.” Robert DeNiro speaks German in the 2015 film “Heist,” and Tom Hank’s titular “Forrest Gump” character cries over Jenny’s grave while speaking German, Spanish, and Japanese in the 1994 film. 🌐 Flawless AI website #AI #startups

The fastest e-plane from Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce has publicly claimed its Spirit of Innovation all-electric plane is the fastest EV globally, following three new speed records. In partnership with electric motor manufacturer YASA and aviation startup Electroflight, Rolls-Royce has designed this e-plane to bring zero-emissions air travel one step closer to mass adoption. Spirit of Innovation‘s 400 kWh (500+ HP) electric powertrain carries 6,480 battery cells, enough power to charge 7,500 smartphones. This battery can provide enough energy to fly from London to Paris on a single charge. Rolls-Royce has completed several test flights and submitted the flight data to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) for validation and with the hopes to confirm the world records: 1. On November 16 of this year, the Spirit of Innovation reached a top speed of 555.9 km/h (345.4 mph) over 3 km, topping the previous record by 213.04 km/h (132mph). 2. During additional flights in the UK, the e-plane hit 532.1km/h (330 mph) over 15 km, another new record by a gap of 292.8km/h (182mph). 3. Rolls-Royce also claims to have broken the record for the fastest climb to 3,000 meters by an entire minute, clocking a time of 202 seconds total. In addition to these three records, the plane is claimed to have reached a max speed of 623 km/h (387.4 mph) during one of its runs. 🎬 You can check out some footage of the Spirit of Innovation breaking world records in the below 2-minute video 💡 Article on Electrek #EV #aviation

Home-security camera Let us talk about some home devices. Please comment if you are interested in this kind of post. Washington-based brand Wyze is known for its budget-friendly line of smart-home devices. They have just introduced a new affordable home security camera, the Wyze Cam Floodlight. It has a price of $84.99 (plus $14.99 for shipping). For this money, you get three infrared motion detection sensors covering a 270-degree angle. Using the Wyze app, you can adjust the sensor's coverage, sensitivity, and range up to 30-feet (9.1 meters) maximum. The LEDs provide a total of 2,600 lumens and automatically turn off when the device senses daylight. The Floodlight has a USB port to add another camera and have a wider angle. The cameras support 1080p video recording and full-color night mode. The other cool feature is a 105dB siren and speaker. It can scare the intruders, or you have the option to speak through the device and hear the person on the other end. There is free cloud storage for the 12-second videos captured upon detecting motion. If you want to record all the time, you can purchase a microSD card. The Wyze Cam Floodlight will start shipping in December. PS: watch the 2-minute linked video - it is great 💡 Article on The Verge 🌐 Website #securitytech #devices