Flying Car?

By Lewis Dix, III

Alongside the jet pack, the lack of flying cars in modern society has been a constant reminder of how far we have to go for the past 50 years. But 2013 saw the first movement on this front in years: the first flying car to actually get tested out in the public. The Transition is a vehicle that can drive down the street and take liftoff with just 100 feet of runway. It might be a strange looking car to park in your driveway, but it just might be the most accessible and serious commercial flying car in existence.

Terrafugia is a small privately held American corporation that is developing a roadable aircraft called the Transition and a flying car called the TF-X. The Transition and TF-X are designed to be able to fold their wings, enabling the vehicles to also operate as street-legal road vehicles. First delivery of the Transition is scheduled for 2015.

The Terrafugia Transition is a light sport, roadable airplane under development by Terrafugia since 2006. The Rotax 912ULS piston engine powered, carbon-fiber vehicle is planned to have a flight range of 425 nmi (489 mi; 787 km) using either automotive premium grade unleaded gasoline or 100LL avgas and a cruising flight speed of 93 kn (107 mph; 172 km/h). Equipment includes a Dynon Skyview glass panel avionics system, an airframe parachute, and an optional autopilot. On the road, it can drive up to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) with normal traffic. The Transition Production Prototype's folded dimensions of 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) high, 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) wide and 18 ft 9 in (5.72 m) long are designed to fit within a standard household garage. When operated as a car, the engine power take-off near the propeller engages a variable-diameter pulley CVT automatic transmission to send power to the trailing-suspension mounted rear wheels via half-shafts powering belt drives. In flight, the engine drives a pusher propeller. The Transition has folding wings, pusher propeller and twin tail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1g6f6Gp8qo

On May 7, 2013, Terrafugia announced the successor of Transition, called the TF-X. TF-X is a plug-in hybrid tilt-rotor vehicle and would be the first fully autonomous flying car. It has a range of 500 miles per flight and batteries are rechargeable by the engine. It is expected to hit the market at least six years after Transition (2021).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeXRGhhKDGs

U.S. Military

BY: Xzadrean Gladney

The last time the U.S. Army was smaller than 450,000 troops, it was 1940 and the United States had yet to join World War II. Announced yesterday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's proposed budget would shrink the American military to the smallest it has been since right before the deadliest war in history. Yet this is not a return to the pre-war state of unreadiness. While the military Hagel proposes might be smaller than the one that precedes it, it will also remain the most technologically advanced military in history.

Improved technology, for example, let's look at spy planes. The U-2 (pictured above) first flew in 1955, and was America's chief high-altitude spy plane for the entire Cold War. Giant film test patterns, made to calibrate the spy plane's original film cameras, still dot the American landscape, artifacts of time before satellite surveillance. U-2s cruise at 70,000 feet, and can do so for well over 10 hours. The chief constraint on a U-2 isn't the plane itself, but the need for an onboard pilot, who must be awake and seated for the entirety of that exhausting flight.

The Littoral Combat Ship, a new modular naval vessel, that can do some light combat, anti-submarine, or mine-sweeping jobs usually assigned to frigates or destroyers, was designed to have a crew of 40. While recent revisions have that number going as high as 88, that's still less than half the typical 200-person crew of a frigate performing the same role. The new budget keeps the LCS program in place, though at only 32 ships, instead of the 52 expected.

Left unmentioned in Hagel's remarks was the laser truck the Army is currently developing, and the laser weapon the Navy is putting on a ship. The HEL-MD laser truck shot down drones and mortar rounds in the New Mexico desert last December. While lasers are pricey to develop, they are incredibly cheap to fire, costing about $1 per shot. This makes them a very good tool for shooting down small projectiles and incoming attacks. These technologies are still new, but their very existence was the stuff of literal fantasy in 1940.

Facial Recognition: is the technology taking away your identity?

BY: Donte Miller

A little later this year, Facebook is set to release a plan for new facial recognition technology, DeepFace they plan on incorporating into their website. The difference between this technology and previously released computer technology is the proposed accuracy of it; it is said to be nearly as accurate as the human brain in recognizing a person's face in pictures, with only a .28% difference. What it plans to do with this software is to help people identify people in pictures so that they may more accurately "tag" them in the photo. Facebook has not been the only company interested in utilizing face recognition technology, as other tech giants, such as Google and apple also have their own purposes; Apple plans to further develop their lock system to be able to be unlocked through taking a "selfie", and Google to improve their image search system.

http://youtu.be/iYvkMfmNBPw

Facial recognition has also found a purpose in less commercial fields, as researches in the UTS Games Studio have realized. They have applied facial recogniton technology to read facial expressions to help the emotional development of ASD children of autistic children. It is has been observed that 93% of communication is non-verbal and austic children often have a difficult time interpreting those, so the software is designed as a game to help teach that.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-05-facial-recognition-technology-game-autistic.html

In addition to that, the technology can also be used for security purposes. The software would allow officers to compare any photo of your face to a database of local mug shots to help take more of a proactive and preventive approach to law enforcement. On the opposite side of this issue is the privacy issue. Many people have issues with this technology because of the invasive nature of it. This technology would allow someone to access information about you without your consent. It has been often implied that this is a violation of people's right to free speech, and freedom in general. Another issue with this people have is the accuracy of this software. Examples like 41-year-old John Gass, who received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informing him he should stop driving, effective immediately.After several frantic phone calls, followed up by a hearing with registry officials, Gass learned his image had been flagged by a facial recognition algorithm, designed to scan through a database of millions of drivers' licences looking for potential criminal false identities. The algorithm had determined that he looked sufficiently like another Massachusetts driver that foul play was likely involved, so he received the automated letter. The RMV was unsympathetic, claiming it was the accused individual's "burden" to clear their name in the event of any mistakes, arguing that the pros of protecting the public outweighed the inconvenience to the wrongly targeted few.

There is much to be stated about the progress of facial recognition technology, and while whether it has a more positive or negative effect has yet to be determined, one thing is for certain; it's impact will be immense.

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jun/03/google-glass-facial-recognition-ban

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-05-facial-recognition-technology-game-autistic.html

http://www.cbs8.com/story/24604243/facial-recognition-software-tested-countywide-by-law-enforcement

Reverse Vending Machines

BY: Charles Burch III

Reverse vending machines are devices that allow you to receive reimbursement for your recycled goods. These machines receive, sort, and dispose of recyclable materials, and give users credit based on the amount of material turned in. The first patent for a “Bottle Return and Handling Machine” was filed in 1920, but only since the turn of the century have modern versions of these technologies been created. Since then, more viable options for alternative recycling have emerged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4FTAzrGfYM

Reverse vending machines are so innovative because of the way they solve two important issues simultaneously; they encourage recycling and at the same time make people want to do it. Apathy about recycling has long been a problem for Americans, who view the process to be tedious and time consuming. Each person generates about 4.5 pounds of trash a day, and 74% of the materials are recyclable. Unfortunately only a meager 30% of the materials reach the recycling bin. This statistic is appalling in light of the pollution problems that our country is currently suffering from, our waste sites pile up with millions of tons of materials that could easily be reused and turned into new products. Some western states like California have become aware of this fact, and have started incentive programs that pay citizens money for bringing their recyclable waste to gas stations for proper disposal. However, this service is only in operation in a few states, leaving the majority of us with very little to gain from the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnnrU9CEHSg

If you pay close attention to the video, you will notice that the person using this device is an American, and this video takes place in New York. What makes this interesting is that the majority of Americans are not offered access to this service, much less even know what a reverse vending machine is. The reluctance of the American market to embrace these technologies may have something to do with the technical difficulties that can occur, much like those shown in this video. Americans are known for being generally lazy, and will not participate in processes that slow down or add more burdens to their lives, even for beneficial deeds like recycling. In order for reverse vending machines to reach the mainstream, strides will have to be made in streamlining the reverse vending process to make the process faster. Once that happens, reverse vending will be the vanguard for modern recycling.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_vending_machine

http://www.envipco.com/recovery-solutions/reverse-vending.php

http://www.can-machines.com/

Revolutionary Innovation

BY: Toren Miller

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Many people recognize Mark Zuckerberg for his fervent effort to innovate social networking, his success at it, then leave it at that. What people fail to realize is the simple business genius of Zuckerberg. The innovations we take for granted as colloquial web surfers and Facebook users are marks of pure genius! Think about it, every social network including many non-social networks are linked to Facebook. You can sign in to your twitter, instragram, collegeboard, online clothing accounts, just about every website that has a login is linked to Facebook.

What does this all mean? If it is not already clear, Zuckerberg is sticking his hand in every profitable pot across the globe as each company looks to be generationally relevant. Facebook has over a billion users including a myriad of companies who provide promotions through Facebook.  He is lierally profiting without any direct contact with any other entity! How genius is that? Between signing in to your email through Facebook to users all over the globe, Zuckerberg wins the entrepreneur of the decade in my book.

Mark Zuckerberg is also cultivating an affluent business through acquisitions. In his words, "We have not once bought a company for the company. We buy companies to get excellent people... In order to have a really entrepreneurial culture one of the key things is to make sure we're recruiting the best people. One of the ways to do this is to focus on acquiring great companies with great founders.” Thus Zuckerberg buys out potential competition and allots for exponential expansion. One of the most recent major acquisitions was Instagram on April 9^th, 2012. The application has 90 millions users who log on at least once a day through Facebook. Zuckerberg is literally behind the scenes witnessing his pockets flourish due to his savvy business techniques.  

Videos are no longer available

In accord with the previous statement of companies who use Facebook reveal promotions, Facebook has 21,655 companies on it around the globe. What this does is allow these companies to niche market when a user “Likes” their page. This gives the companies the opportunity to provide ads to every user who likes their page all through Zuckerberg releasing and selling the emails of the users. Imagine having 5,000 emails of people who like Starbucks, now Starbucks is willing to purchase said information with the purpose of providing these people with promotions that may potentially lead to higher sales. Now multiply that 5,000 by 100. Imagine the amount a company such as Starbucks is willing to pay for the information to gain access to those 500,000 emails. Zuckerberg is the largest third party advertising agent in the world through his systematic approach to gaining access to people’s emails and thus access to their personal preferences. Companies such as ESPN, Coca-Cola, Oreo, and Disney, put in a significant amount of work and effort into becoming one of the most popular companies on Facebook because they know popularity breeds consumption.

Videos are no longer available

Mark Zuckerberg’s initial, internet changing invention of Facebook made him the youngest billionaire ever but his illustrious business savvy is cultivating him into one of the most powerful men in the world. I ask that we all take notes of how social media can make us all at least millionaires.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Facebook

http://www.insidefacebook.com/complete-list-of-21655-companies-on-facebook/

http://tech.ca.msn.com/most-popular-companies-on-facebook

http://www.biography.com/people/mark-zuckerberg-507402

The future of Atlanta: Population growth and future Technology

BY: Taqiyyuddeen Saleem

Over the last 10 years of my life I have worked in residential and commercial real estate in the Metro Atlanta area. The other day I got to thinking about the implications of population growth and technological advances on Atlanta over the next 40 years. Where will people want to live? How will they commute? Is the city equipped to handle such huge population growth? Will new technologies save the day? How will changes in technology affect how people want to live? These are some of the questions that came to mind and which I look forward to exploring in this blog.

Growth is a good thing if you are on the right track or have a shortage of population, but can be a very troubling thing if you are ill prepared for it. When we look at the condition of the 10 major American cities, it is safe to say that they are not prepared to have there population increase by 100%-200% over the next 40 years. This forecast growth in population is signaling the emergence of many opportunities and challenges for city planners and business people. Challenges and opportunities are two sides of the same coin and the capacity of our city to realize the potential of the time coming is in large part centered around its business owners and politicians.  

When looking at the impact of technology and population growth on Atlanta two things are clear. The right people create value and drive demand. The right companies create value and drive demand. As long as major corporations with the capacity to drive/understand consumer interest are interested in major cities I think big cities will flourish There is great value in creating hubs or clusters of people for corporations. It allows them to reach there markets in a much easier and low cost fashions. Corporations want density because it allows for easier access to there workforce and there consumers. 

People like to live in cities because it gives an impression (albeit the right city) of security and power. People clustering can also mean diversity and social opportunity. Clusters mean less commute times to get to things that are important to you. Clusters are the birth place of cultural explosions and technological ideas. Well planned and executed cites can mean options to many different things...jobs, dates, living situations, friends, culture and the arts, and education to name a few things. Thus if we assume that even with the risk for disease and other cluster related problems, there is a stronger pull for people to live together in cities.  

Provided cites are things of the future then Atlanta needs to guard its development and make sure that it is pioneering in technology, sanitation, education, jobs, culture, and city aesthetics.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmyIgSD41fQ - Managing population growth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b98JmQ0Cc3k - Another video on population growth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnXX4iiVI9s - The future of real estate

3-D Printer

 BY: Matthew Kelly

This is a new day in age, a time where the yesterday’s scientific fiction has becoming today’s reality, looking back a few years ago when I was growing up I remember watching shows such as the Jetsons or Zenon, one was a cartoon that gave life to our imagination of the future and the other was a Disney movie that looked at life from a near future perspective. I always remembered on Zenon them having a 3-d device that could bring up the person you were speaking with saying to myself that that would be something I would love to have, well today I have found something very close to it, something that could bring that to reality, The Form 1

The Form 1 is a 3-D printer, sources say that “The Form 1 itself is only 18 inches tall and has a footprint of about one square foot. Also, it’s beautiful. The hinged lid is crafted from a translucent orange plastic which, in addition to lending the Form 1 a striking, colorful visage and allowing you to safely watch the printer in action, also serves to protect the resin tray inside from UV light. You can leave the reservoir filled with resin and, as long as the lid stays closed, the liquid will remain uncured until you hit it with the laser” http://www.wired.com/2013/09/formlabs-form-1/

Formlabs' goal is to bring stereolithographic 3D printing technology to the masses. Where extrusion-type 3D printers squeeze heated plastic through a tiny nozzle to build models up layer by layer, stereolithographic printers involve a precisely aimed laser that polymerizes, cures, and hardens liquid plastic resin. - http://www.popularmechanics.com/

This new idea will change the way we do everything, especially in the class rooms, so many things can be done with this, faster ways to do projects, multiple ways to create designs for a business, and I could just see engineers and architects using this all the time.