AI helping the blind to see, batteries, engines and viruses
March 12
Firstly, apologies for missing last week’s newsletter. I was occupied with an urgent issue. This week we will look at how AI is helping the blind to see, a battery that is partly built from viruses (not the Coronavirus, we don’t yet, have a productive use for that), a better electric motor and 3D printed human tissue using seaweed.
AI that helps the Blind see
Envison, a Dutch startup has developed an AI that works with Google Glass to help the blind “see”. The Google Glass camera films the world and the AI translates it for the user. It gives the user a less obtrusive and hands free way of accessing the world around them.
The AI will extract different kinds of information from images sourced from the Google Glass camera and then it speaks those images out loud for the user to hear. It provides the fastest and most accurate Optical Character Recognition available. It can read text from any surface, recognize faces, describes scenes, detect colors and find objects. The software is able to recognize text in 60 languages. The system works on a smartphone that is connected to Google Glass worn by the user.
The main features are:
Reading all kinds of text from any surface; including food packaging, posters and display screens. It also works on handwritten text.
Knowing what is around you; it can describe scenes in front of the user, detect colors, scan barcodes and QR codes.
It can help find what you are looking for; e.g. if you leave a cup on the kitchen counter, the user scans the room with their Google Glass and Envision will find the cup. This also works for looking for people in general and for finding a specific person. The system can be trained to recognize individuals allowing you to know who is near you and to help you find them.
There is also a feature for video calling friends or family for that little bit of extra help in need.
The system uses a smartphone app, available on iPhone and Android, that works with the Google Glass and is available for preorder now.
3D printed tissue
Apparently seaweed is the key to future 3D printed tissue for human use. One of the issues with the fabrication of tissue is making large enough pieces, cells die if nutrients and oxygen can’t get inside.
Seaweed creates sodium alginate which is used to print tiny particles. These particles leave small pores in the fabric of the tissue. A combination of human stem cells with the sodium alginate from the seaweed can make patches of tissue to be used in bone or cartilage.
The same group of researchers from Penn State are looking at the possibility of how the seaweed technique can make muscles, fat or different types of tissue. The current tissues can be used for Osteoarthritis, patches for plastic surgery in the nasal septum, knee restoration and other bone or cartilage defects.
The dream is to be able to 3D print organs available for transplant. That, however, is likely to be years away.
A more efficient electric motor
Linear Labs have developed a more efficient electric motor that can be used in a wide range of applications. An amazing 45% of the world’s electricity passes through an electric motor, an innovation in this space will have large implications.
An electric motor is designed to create Torque. Torque is a twisting or turning force that tends to cause rotation around an axis. This is what makes the wheels turn. Electrical engineers will tell you that speed is free but you pay for torque.
This new technology will provide up to 3 times the torque and power density compared to any induction, permanent magnet or axial flux electric motor. The engine provides High Torque with No Gearbox.
In essence the motor does not need a gearbox at different speeds, no DC to DC converter, smaller cheaper main capacitors and lower voltage giving more range. The motor is roughly the same size as a conventional electric motor however the lack of gearbox and the ability to have smaller batteries for the same performance allow significant space savings.
This new motor will be able to power the next generation of electric vehicles, compressors, generators, robotics, bionics and Industrial applications.
Batteries built with Viruses
An MIT bioengineering Professor, Angela Belcher initially developed a way to use viruses to assemble a lithium-ion battery’s positive and negative electrodes. This reduces the toxicity of battery manufacturing and boosts performance. The prototype (Shown below) was first demonstrated to Barrack Obama in 2009 as a possible future solution for advanced batteries.
Since then Belcher has made viruses work with over 150 different materials and demonstrated how the technique can be used to develop solar cells. The technology is now on the cusp of moving from the lab to the real world. Overnight success takes a long long time.
Viruses straddle the divide between the living and the dead. They are packed full of DNA, a hallmark of all living things, but they can’t reproduce without a host, which disqualifies them from some definitions of life. Yet as Belcher demonstrated, these qualities could be adopted for nanoengineering to produce batteries that have improved energy density, lifetime and charging rates that can be produced in an eco-friendly way.
The virus of choice for assembling these batteries is the M13 bacteriophage, a cigar shaped virus that replicates in bacteria (there are many viruses that can be used in nano engineering). The genetic material is easy to manipulate. Natural or engineered DNA will cause them to latch onto a material that is then used in electrode production. The virus is then extracted and a bacterium is infected with the virus causing millions of identical copies of the virus to be produced. By repeating this process the virus mutates and becomes more finely tuned as a battery electrode.
The viral assembly technique has been used to build electrodes and implement them in a range of different battery types. One promising application is the use of the viruses to create a highly ordered electrode structure to shorten the path of an ion as it moves though the electrode. This would increase the battery’s charge and discharge rates which is one of the holy grails of energy storage.
This technology is not yet in the market however there are several papers under review that show how the technology can be commercialized for energy and other applications.
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.
If you have any questions or comments please email me via my website craigcarlyon.com or comment below.
I would also appreciate it if you could forward this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested.
Till next week.