Business Digital Manufacturing
The tech trifecta of Internet, cloud computing, and 3D printing tantalizes investors and consumers with the promises of lower distribution costs, increased productivity, reduced prices, and the free movement of information. But, as RISD President and Techonomy 2013 participant John Maeda argues in a recent LinkedIn post, contradictions abound for those in the business of creating goods and information. More
Samsung appears to be gearing up for an Internet of Everything economy. Already a leading producer of smartphones and LED televisions, the consumer electronics giant is preparing to expand its reach into home appliances. Samsung's CEO of Consumer Electronics Boo-Keun Yoon told Steven Bertoni of Forbes that his company is ready to push into a market worth $280 billion globally. With U.S. the housing market reaching solid ground, and China still building at a feverish pace, Samsung wants to equip the wave of new homes with dishwashers and ranges. More
Back in the 1970s, before a personal computer was on every desk or lap and a smartphone in every pocket, blind people read printed material—books, newspapers, bills—with reading machines. Harvey Lauer at the Blind Rehabilitation Center in Hines, Ill., was a pioneer in developing reading machines for the blind, and my father, Richard Bennett, a researcher at the Veterans Administration in Palo Alto, was one of his colleagues. “Blindness,” Lauer once said, “is something more than a nuisance, but a lot less than a major catastrophe.” The phrase aptly sums up the challenge of reading for blind people: It takes effort, but it’s not an insurmountable problem. More
Is any technology inherently “good” or “evil”? The deciding factor would be how it's used (or misused), right? Consider drones. Drones—unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or aircrafts without human pilots on board—have been around since the early 1900s, and the U.S. Air Force was developing them in earnest as early as 1959. Today, the use of drones has grown dramatically. National Geographic reported this past March that at least 50 countries now use drones, and several—Iran, Israel, and China, for example—make their own. More
A major challenge to creating and filling manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is the ever-increasing skills gap. There is a widespread misconception that these jobs are low-skill. To the contrary, a large portion of U.S. manufacturing is complex, requiring a high level of expertise that is hard to find. Investment in improved education and training is surely needed to fill more jobs. But the long-term solution is to lower the barriers of entry to manufacturing work through technology—specifically by using widely accessible, easy-to-use automation software that grows revenues, increases efficiencies, and reduces costs for manufacturers and their customers. More
News about the National Security Agency's PRISM program and its privileged access to internal user data at nine U.S. Internet companies has unleashed a torrent of justified anger and hand-wringing. But the worries do not go far enough. Almost everybody is still looking at this through a narrow domestic lens. Our values and goals may be more challenged than you think. More
While Google Glass is the biggest and boldest wearable cloud technology on the market today, it’s still in the early-adopter phase. But according to a recent Forbes blog by Joe McKendrick, more and more on-your-person cloud offerings—including fitness monitors, smart watches, and lifelogging cameras—are coming out, and pretty soon they’ll become ubiquitous. More
Social networking for scientists has been tried before, but not until recently have we seen investors placing big bets in this area. Earlier this year, the academic networking site Mendeley was acquired by scientific publisher Elsevier for somewhere in the ballpark of $70 million. And today brings a new data point: Berlin-based ResearchGate, a site designed to facilitate collaborations and data sharing among scientists around the world, has raised $35 million in a series C round from investors including Bill Gates. More
Digital Government Security & Privacy
Drones are among the fastest-growing concerns of citizens and governments worldwide. The U.S. has taken the lead in using them militarily for attacks and assassination, generating extensive criticism and promoting a debate over whether the policy reduces or increases terrorism. Israel, too, has extensively used military drones, and China has admitted contemplating it. Now worries have emerged among rights activists and others that the decision over whether or not to kill may itself be delegated to the drones. More
I’m sitting across from an older man in a navy blue coat and a red sweater in the crowded Stockholm metro, on my way to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Unremarkable, except that I’m recording it all with a Memoto Lifelogging Camera on my lapel. The man and I do our best to avoid eye contact. This is going well until I start fiddling with the camera, concerned it’s not shooting straight ahead. This catches his attention and for a second he takes in the small gadget. The prototype’s transparent shell exposes the components inside, but the man looks away and doesn’t seem overly concerned. More
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