Emerging TechnologiesEmerging Solutions, Future Technologies & Communication Technology

With every passing day, science throws technologies at us which have us amazed. In today’s fast paced world, one mind boggling invention after another makes us pause for a moment and wonder at the marvel. EcoATM is one such invention which is no less than a modern day wonder. As the name suggests, EcoATM is kind of an ATM machine which works exactly on the same model just that there is a slight difference. Instead of handing out cash to you against your ATM card, EcoATM machine BUYS your old handset and spits out money in exchange. Surprised? Don’t be! It’s the modern day mobile phone recycler!

Although this kind of machine makes you marvel at the kind of technology and artificial intelligence it takes on part of the machine but how the machine works is actually pretty simple. It checks your handset with an installed camera and matches it against some four thousand plus handsets it has in its database. Once it has done that, it asks you to plug your phone into a couple of electric sockets just to make sure that your phone is in working condition. All of it is done at quite an impressive pace since all of it is electronic. Once the machine makes sure your phone is in working condition, it gives you a quote for you phone and that’s the tricky part.

How the machine gets its quote is pretty interesting actually. The quote given by the machine is actually what the network of a hundred or so dealers and recyclers could offer you against your handset. If the sum is acceptable to you, you take the deal and machine takes away your phone and spits out cash. This machine has currently been installed in only a few places in the US but is expect to cover the entire country soon.

We all know what a volcano is. It is an opening in a planets surface through which the hot gases, magma, lava and ash escape from below the surface. The world volcano is derived from the name of Roman God of Fire “Vulcan”.

The British scientist recently surprised the whole world by discovering the deepest underwater volcanoes. According to the reports of National Oceanography Centre (NOC) the scientists found these volcanoes 3.1 miles deep on the ocean floor. This means that the volcanoes are almost 5000 meters below the surface of the Caribbean Sea. The vents are located in the Cayman Trough in the western Caribbean, which reaches a maximum depth of 7,500 meters. These volcanoes are given a name “Black Smoker”. The name is given after watching the videos and the photographs of the volcanoes as they were making black smoke while coming out of the surface of the deep sea.

RRS James Cook, a research vessel which holds 28 scientists and engineers from seven nations set to discover these vents on 21^st March. After discovering these deep underwater vents the scientists further explained that each vent is roughly of the size of a football stadium. You can just imaging how much huge they are. The NOC geochemist Dough Connelly, Principal Scientist of the expedition, says: “we hope our discovery will yield new insights into biogeochemical important elements in one of the most extreme naturally occurring environments on our planet”.

A few weeks ago NASA scientists found a shrimp-like creature 600 feet below the Arctic Ice. It was really interesting to find a living creature deep in such frozen conditions. This led the NASA scientists to further research life in other outer space frozen moons. Inspired from the NASA scientists the British scientists who discovered the vents are looking forward to do some more research about the affects of these deep underwater vents on marine life. They believe that they can make some more discoveries and bring forward useful research for the knowledge of the world.

Technology is advancing in a fast pace and making impossible things possible. According to a latest invention, blinds can see and perceive things and images through the camera. A  British soldier completely lost his eyesight during a grenade attack. He was completely dependent on his dog to lead the way for him. He got his sight back from the latest invention of a device that helps the blind to see through their tongue.

This young 24 years old soldier is the first person to become a part of this extra ordinarily surprising technology. The device is called “Brain-Port device”. It is named because the scientists say that it is the brain, which interprets the image and not the eyes. Eyes are only a mean of capturing a visual message and send it to the brain that further interprets it.

The device has a small camera attached to the pair of sunglasses linked to a plastic lollipop, which the user places on his tongue. According the soldier, the plastic lollipop tastes like a battery. The plastic lollipop in the mouth of the user read the impulses and sends the message to the brain and a two dimensional image is formed.

The image is created by presenting white pixels from the camera as strong stimulations, grey pixels as medium levels of stimulation and black pixels as no stimulation, although interpreting the images takes intensive training. It makes possible for the user of this device to determine the shape of the things coming in from of the camera.

The use of this device is complicated and the blind soldier had to take training for its use but he reports that the device is really a worthy one and now he can pick things straight away. The image which this device makes for the user is not colourful but we should keep our hopes united as technology is very speedily taking us ahead. It really looks like as with the advancement of technology every blind person will be able to see colourful images around the world. The device has not yet arrived in the market however, manufacturers are busy in doing that and it is expected to come soon within a price range of $10,000 – $15,000.

Have you ever wondered that your car will tell you to stop, slow down or change lane? As a matter of fact now the technology has advanced enough to make cars intelligent enough to help the driver to make well informed decisions. Many high-end cars already have sensors that are capable of catching a vehicle in the driver’s blind spot. These sensors are equipped with radars, lasers or video sensors but still they have a limited view.

Car-to-car communication is a very sophisticated technology with earlier warnings. For instance, the new technology is able to warn the driver instantly when a vehicle several cars ahead breaks suddenly. The technology is also known as vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communications. According to the developers, this technology will address up to 80 percent of the serious crashes and road accidents. This will be the major advancement in car safety, which will overcome the inventions of seat belts, air bags, and electronic stability control. This technology will be soon to be tested on various cars in various situations. In the test, each car will be equipped with a radio that will transmit signals to other cars about its speed and direction according to GPS.

University of Michigan’s transportation research institute will collaborate with eight famous automakers. All will work in collaboration to build a uniform platform and compatibility of all cars. The total of 64 cars will be put in the test. Apart from these cars, many other cars will also be included, which will make the total count of 3000. Combined all these cars will put into the trial to test the working of system for the period of several years. If the new system is approved, starts wholesale production and goes mainstream then it could easily pave the way of autonomous driving.