Lifeboat Foundation

Smartphone sales have had their worst quarterly performance in over a decade, a fact that raises two big questions. Have the latest models finally bored the market with mere incremental improvements? And if they have, what will the next form factor (and function) be? Today a deep tech startup called Xpanceo is announcing $40 million in funding from a single investor, Opportunity Ventures in Hong Kong, to pursue its take on one of the possible answers to that question: computing devices in the form of smart contact lenses.

The company wants to make tech more simple, and it believes the way to do that is to make it seamless and more connected to how we operate every day. “All current computers will be obsolete [because] they’re not interchangeable,” said Roman Axelrod, who co-founded the startup with material scientist and physicist Valentyn S. Volkov. “We are enslaved by gadgets.”

With a focus on new materials and moving away from silicon-based processing and towards new approaches to using optoelectronics, Xpanceo’s modest ambition, Axelrod said in an interview, is to “merge all the gadgets into one, to provide humanity with a gadget with an infinite screen. What we aim for is to create the next generation of computing.”

Starlink satellites will soon be offering Direct to Cell capabilities to enable texting, calling, and browsing everywhere on Earth. SpaceX will start satellite-based text messaging in 2024 and expand to voice and text support in 2025. They will offer cellular connectivity to IoT devices in 2025. The service will work with existing LTE phones without the need for any hardware, firmware changes, or special apps.

Direct to Cell will also connect IoT devices with common LTE standards. SpaceX plans to equip its future Starlink satellites with an advanced eNodeB modem. This innovation will essentially transform a Starlink satellite into a cellphone tower in space.

This will be enabled by tens of thousands of satellites and eventually millions of satellites will replace most of the 5 million cell towers on Earth. It will means everyone and everything can be connected. All people, robots, and self driving vehicles will be connected.

The service was supposed to be launched in beta this year but has been pushed back after Starship has failed to reach orbit.

SpaceX’s satellite-powered mobile telephony service could be available in 2024, according to recent changes in the service provider’s webpage. Direct to Cell will allow text, voice, and data services from Starlink’s V2 satellites.

Launched more than 30 years ago, satellite-based telephone services are still as challenging to use as they were back then. With the advent of satellite-based internet services, thanks to Starlink, interest in telephony has increased again. Apple introduced it in their latest iPhone but limited it to emergency purposes and nothing beyond basic texts.

Your phone may have more than 15 billion tiny transistors packed into its microprocessor chips. The transistors are made of silicon, metals like gold and copper, and insulators that together take an electric current and convert it to 1s and 0s to communicate information and store it. The transistor materials are inorganic, basically derived from rock and metal.

But what if you could make these fundamental electronic components part biological, able to respond directly to the environment and change like living tissue?

This is what a team at Tufts University Silklab did when they created transistors replacing the insulating material with biological silk. They reported their findings in Advanced Materials.

The concept could prolong the usage duration among users while also increasing areas of application thanks to a lighter-weight device.

Microsoft’s recently approved patent for augmented reality (AR) glasses shows a swappable battery that could make it a top choice among buyers when it becomes available. The patent was published last week, MSPowerUser.

AR glasses are considered the next frontier of mobile technology that promises to replace smartphones today. About a decade ago, Google attempted to develop something along these lines and released its Glass to the public. However, high costs and limited functionality led to its ultimate demise, even though the concept continues to thrive.

It is now apparent that the mass-produced artifacts of technology in our increasingly densely populated world—whether electronic devices, cars, batteries, phones, household appliances, or industrial robots—are increasingly at odds with the sustainable bounded ecosystems achieved by living organisms based on cells over millions of years.

Cells provide organisms with soft and sustainable environmental interactions with complete recycling of material components, except in a few notable cases like the creation of oxygen in the atmosphere, and of the fossil fuel reserves of oil and coal (as a result of missing biocatalysts).

However, the fantastic information content of biological cells (gigabits of information in DNA alone) and the complexities of protein biochemistry for metabolism seem to place a cellular approach well beyond the current capabilities of technology, and prevent the development of intrinsically sustainable technology.

Each member works out within a designated station facing wall-to-wall LED screens. These tall screens mask sensors that track both the motions of the exerciser and the gym’s specially built equipment, including dumbbells, medicine balls, and skipping ropes, using a combination of algorithms and machine-learning models.

Once members arrive for a workout, they’re given the opportunity to pick their AI coach through the gym’s smartphone app. The choice depends on whether they feel more motivated by a male or female voice and a stricter, more cheerful, or laid-back demeanor, although they can switch their coach at any point. The trainers’ audio advice is delivered over headphones and accompanied by the member’s choice of music, such as rock or country.

Although each class at the Las Colinas studio is currently observed by a fitness professional, that supervisor doesn’t need to be a trainer, says Brandon Bean, cofounder of Lumin Fitness. “We liken it to being more like an airline attendant than an actual coach,” he says. “You want someone there if something goes wrong, but the AI trainer is the one giving form feedback, doing the motivation, and explaining how to do the movements.”

Picture a smartphone clad in a casing that’s not just for protection but also doubles as a reservoir of electricity, or an electric car where the doors and floorboard store energy to propel it forward. Such technologies may one day be a reality, thanks to recent work by engineers at the University of California San Diego.

The researchers have developed what’s called a structural supercapacitor—a device that provides both structural support and energy storage capabilities. Such a device could add more power to electronic gadgets and vehicles without adding extra weight, allowing them to last longer on a single charge.

While the concept of structural supercapacitors is not entirely new, it has been a longstanding challenge to create a single device that excels at both bearing mechanical loads and storing electrical energy efficiently. Traditional supercapacitors are great at energy storage but lack the mechanical strength to serve as structural components. On the flip side, structural materials can provide support but fall short when it comes to energy storage.

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have designed an innovative pixelated, soft, color-changing system called a Morphable Concavity Array (MoCA).

Pixelated, soft, color-changing systems are malleable structures that can change color by manipulating light. They have applications in a wide range of industries, from medical bandages that change color if there is an infection, to foldable screens on smartphones and tablets, as well as wearable technology where sensors are integrated into the clothing fabric.

The research was co-directed by Professor Anderson Ho Cheung Shum from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at HKU, and Professor Mingzhu Li from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and led by Dr. Yi Pan from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at HKU.