As a part of the Technology we bring you the latest in the technology from around the world under “TECH THIS WEEK!” every Sunday! This week we saw BMW revealing its plans for a self driving car and periscope broadcasting via drones. We also saw Hyundai launching wearable suits and Facebook’s new Wi-Fi project. In case, if you’ve missed any of those, along with Hyperloop’s exclusively licensed passive magnetic levitation system, don’t worry just keep reading!
BMW’s CEO Reveals Plans For The i NEXT, A Self-Driving Car Set For A 2021 Debut
Before you get too excited, the above image is the Vision NEXT 100, the concept car BMW showed off back in March to note that, as it celebrated its 100th anniversary, the company was spending more time looking forward than back.
The automaker’s CEO Harald Krueger struck a similarly futuristic tone during its annual shareholder meeting in Munich this week, though the chief executive was far more pragmatic in his prognostications, discussing the sorts of innovation his company anticipated bring to market within the next decade. Krueger described BMW’s relatively near-term strategy as containing “both evolutionary and disruptive elements.”
After looking slightly back to the BMW i3 of 2013, Krueger, projected forward to the 2018 BMW i8 Roadster, and even more compellingly, a new, feature-packed vehicle for 2021. The exec didn’t let out a ton of details about the forthcoming car – just enough to make the auto-watching world sit up and pay attention.
Hyundai Launches Wearable Robotic Suit; ‘Iron Man’ in Making
Hyundai has launched a wearable robot that can be applied in many areas – including military use and production lines.
The new exoskeleton is apparently a development of the Hyundai H-LEX platform that it unveiled last year. That H-LEX platform was a less robust and lighter platform than what we see here and was designed to help the elderly and physically disabled get around.
It will allow the wearer to carry objects weighing over 100 kgs and will also help in walking and climbing steps. The suit can be used by industrial workers while it will also aid disabled and elderly people to walk and go about their day to day activities.
Similar in design to the suit seen in Iron Man, the user has to be buckled into the Hyundai suit. It is a blue colored robotic exoskeleton that can tackle jobs which would otherwise be impossible for humans. It increases efficiency and lessens work related injuries.
The robot is able to lift heavy weights while in military exercises it will allow soldiers to undertake longer walks and move more quickly even while carrying heavy gear. It will be useful for elderly and disabled with mobility issues while it will also be of extreme use in various commercial applications.
Hyundai has not yet announced any specific date as to when this would be ready for markets.
Similar in design to the suit seen in Iron Man, the user has to be buckled into the Hyundai suit. It is a blue colored robotic exoskeleton that can tackle jobs which would otherwise be impossible for humans. It increases efficiency and lessens work related injuries.
The robot is able to lift heavy weights while in military exercises it will allow soldiers to undertake longer walks and move more quickly even while carrying heavy gear. It will be useful for elderly and disabled with mobility issues while it will also be of extreme use in various commercial applications.
Hyundai has not yet announced any specific date as to when this would be ready for markets.
Hyperloop Company “Exclusively Licensed” Passive Magnetic Levitation System
On Monday, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) announced that it had “exclusively licensed”a technology that could help it bring the transit system idea, popularized by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, to fruition.
The licensed technology, called passive magnetic levitation,departs significantly from the system that Musk theorized back in 2013. Musk’s Hyperloop design involves a low-pressure tube through which the system’s trains, floating an inch above the track on skis ejecting compressed air, are propelled with the help of a magnetic field created by electricity-fed magnets on the tube’s internal surface.
The HTT technology, on the other hand, is based on passive magnetic levitation, which relies on magnets placed on the underside of the passenger train in a Halbach array—an arrangement that focuses the magnetic field of a set of magnets on one side of the array while canceling out the field on the other side. Those magnetic fields under the train cause it to levitate as it passes over non-powered electromagnetic coils on the rail beneath the train at even low speeds created by an electric motor.
Facebook’s Gigabit Wi-Fi Project Building New Routing System ‘Open/R’
Facebook announced a new software platform called Open/R to tackle that problem. The platform serves as a foundation for all the software running on Terragraph’s various hardware units, and gives developers crucial flexibility in changing that software on the fly. Open/R can’t solve Terragraph’s complex routing problems by itself, but it offers a framework for testing out new routing programs faster and more effectively. Facebook hopes that Open/R’s flexibility will give Terragraph a head start in figuring out how to move data through such an unpredictable network.
Omar Maldonado, who handles software engineering for Facebook’s networking team said, “Most routing protocols are about basic connectivity in a fixed wired network.” “How do you handle varying rate conditions? Weather or other obstructions can change the amount of bandwidth you have very quickly. That’s not something routing protocols in the past have been built to handle.”
Gigabit Wi-Fi uses higher frequencies to send data through the air at rates as high as 7 Gbit/s. But that speed comes with a price. The smaller waves are easily absorbed by moisture or flying objects, so any single link could degrade or drop out at any time. Since a given connection might rely on half a dozen different links, shepherding data through the system requires routing programs that can make smart decisions at almost instantaneous speeds.
Periscope Users Can Start Broadcasting From DJI Drones
You can start streaming videos taken by compatible DJI drones on Periscope. The video streaming team introduced the feature a few days ago, and it’s now out on iTunes as part of the app’s latest update. You can switch between the drone’s camera and your iPhone’s anytime, so you can narrate while broadcasting and feature different sights. The latest upgrade also comes with a new Search button that’s much easier to use than the app’s map interface when looking for videos on specific topics. Now if what you’ve truly been waiting for is the ability to save your broadcasts forever, which Periscope announced at the same time, don’t worry. While it’s not officially available yet, you can test it out anytime without even having to update your application.
