Electric Watercraft, Robot Pollination and Smart Gloves for gaming and rehabilitation.

August 27

This week we will look at an Australian company that is developing an electric cross between a jet ski and a hovercraft. We also examine a robot pollinator designed to help the world deal with the diminishing number of bees on the planet. A new world record has been set for data transmission and new smart gloves for gaming are being used for hand injury rehabilitation. Finally we look at how cities might be able to make their traffic management more efficient.

Electric Watercraft

ElectroNautic, an Australian startup from Perth has developed an electric, stabilized personal watercraft. Jetskis are a bit like motorbikes for water, hydrofoil boards and boats allow users to cut through and rise above the waves. The WaveFlyer merges the two and adds in electric propulsion for a cleaner and quieter ride.

The craft looks like a traditional jet ski at rest however when it moves, it lifts off the water using a stabilized twin hydrofoil twin propulsion system. The battery power currently last for about 30 minutes.

ElectroNautica is a subsidiary of ElectroAreo who are developing electric Aircraft Propulsion Systems, Rapid Recharging Systems and Electrical Management Systems for use in Aviation.

Pollinating Robots

The world’s bee population is currently shrinking at an alarming rate. This puts pollination of flowers and the very survival of many species of flora at risk. A number of efforts are underway to alternative systems to allow continued pollination. An Israeli startup, Arugga AI Farming has just announced that they will be trialing their robot pollinator in Australia.

The AI powered pollinator will be used to pollinate tomatoes grown in greenhouses. Many countries around the world use bumblebees specifically bred for pollinating tomatoes in greenhouses however this practice is banned in Australia. The manual pollinating of plants using vibrating wands adds approximately A$25,000 per hectare to the cost of tomato production. This system should be cheaper and more accurate than manual pollination.

The World’s Fastest Data Transmission

A team at University College London has broken the record for the fastest data transmission rate. Before we discuss the record, a reminder. The National Broadband Network (NBN) in Australia has a fastest standard speed of 100 megabits per second. Recently Gigabit NBN has been released in some areas with download speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second.

The team at UCL was able to achieve a transmission rate of 178 terabits per second or 178,000,000 megabits per second. At that speed it would take less than a second to download the entire Netflix library. The new record is double the capacity of any current system deployed in the world.

They achieved this speed by transmitting a much wider range of colors of light or wavelengths than in a typical optical fibre (UK optic fibre infrastructure uses 4.5THz of bandwidth whereas the researchers used 16.8THz of bandwidth). One way of increasing the capacity of Optic Fibre is to send multiple signals of different colors down the same cable. The more colors that can be sent in an optimal way, the more data that can be transmitted. Signal power was boosted and a new Geometric Shaping technique was used to manipulate the properties of each individual wavelength.

The benefit of this new system is that it can be deployed on existing optic fibre infrastructure. Upgrading an amplifier would currently cost GBP16,000 whereas new optical fibre cables cost approximately GBP450,000 per kilometer in urban areas in the UK.

Smart Gloves

Gloves designed for gaming have been around for a while. These gloves integrate with a gaming console and allow remote activation and playing of computer games. However the gloves to date have not been very practical.

A team at National University of Singapore (NUS) has created the “Infinity glove” that overcomes the weight and flexibility issues with previous gloves. They wove ultra thin, highly sensitive microfibers into the material of the gloves which allows the user to recreate a multitude of game controls with simple hand gestures.

Each glove has 5 thread like sensors which interact with software to generate three dimensional positions of a moving hand. These attributes allow the glove to also be used for rehabilitation after injuries. Using gaming, encourages patients to stick with their recovery and exercise routines for longer. Healthcare professionals can easily track progress and the patient receives continuous feedback and encouragement.

AI Traffic Management

We all hate sitting at the traffic lights, patiently waiting for the lights to change whilst there is absolutely no traffic on the cross road. NoTraffic, a Palo Alto based startup, is trying to change this situation. They have developed an AI driven system to add real time intelligence to traffic management.

An AI sensor is installed at each intersection approach to provide road user detection and classification. The system uses a fusion of computer vision and radar. An Optimization Engine is installed in the traffic light cabinet. The Engine aggregates sensor data from each approach (including pedestrians and cyclists), calculates optimisation variables and monitors safety.

At the city wide grid level, defined transportation policies and priorities are managed and implemented. The system optimizes traffic for the local intersection and for the whole city grid on a dynamic basis.

NoTraffic is optimizing the road network for the present and the future, including the connected vehicles and autonomous vehicles that will be on our roads in the coming years. NoTraffic also enables a range of policies including micro payments, reverse payments or personalized tolls (on second thoughts, maybe we shouldn’t tell the Government about this type of capability).

Something to look out for this week

On Friday 28 August, Elon Musk is set to demonstrate the progress that has been made on Nerualink. Neuralink is implantable brain-machine interface. The goal is to implant ultra fine threads into the brain to enable a computer to “listen” to your neurons and to provide inputs to your neurons. The intention is to solve many brain, nervous system and mental conditions. The ultimate desire is to achieve symbiosis with Artificial Intelligence.

We don’t know what to expect however there is a rumor that the first human trials are about to start. Musk has already confirmed that the event will feature a live demonstration of neurons firing. Ultimately, if this works, I may be able to let you know what is on my mind without having to type a weekly newsletter.

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.