Kyle Vanhemert

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“He’s Hoping To Have Fully Autonomous Robot Birds On Offer”

August 27, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Before the robot birds carry away you and your children, they will first be used to scare actual birds from airports and landfills. From Kyle Vanhemert at Wired UK:

“Birds are nice enough, unless you work at places like airports, farms, and landfills, in which case they’re the sworn enemy. Today, there are a variety of tools and technologies for spooking unwanted birds — we’ve graduated from scarecrows to flash-bang grenades and other sophisticated armaments — but Nico Nijenhuis is undoubtedly working on the coolest. He’s building robot hawks that trick lingering critters into thinking they’re about to get snacked on.

Nijenhuis, a 27-year-old based in the Netherlands, is the mind behind Robirds, a line of robotic birds of prey. He’s hoping to sell them to the aviation and waste management industries under the name Clear Flight Solutions. (Company tagline: ‘We create birds.’ Fair enough!) Nijenhuis is currently testing remote controlled Peregrine Falcons and eagles with promising results. By the end of the year, he’s hoping to have fully autonomous robot birds on offer.”

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“[It] Is A Thermoelectric Bracelet That Regulates The Temperature Of The Person Wearing It”

October 31, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Wristify is a watch-like tool from MIT that can moderate body temperature, reducing dependence on air conditioners and the huge amounts of electricity they consume. From Kyle Vanhemert at Wired:

“Wristify, as they call their device, is a thermoelectric bracelet that regulates the temperature of the person wearing it by subjecting their skin to alternating pulses of hot or cold, depending on what’s needed. The prototype recently won first place at this year’s MADMEC, an annual competition put on by the school’s Materials Science and Engineering program, netting the group a $10,000 prize, which they’ll use to continue its development. It’s a promising start to a clever approach that could help alleviate a serious energy crisis. But as Sam Shames, the MIT senior who helped invent the technology, explains, the team was motivated by a more prosaic problem: keeping everyone happy in a room where no one can agree where to set the thermostat.

 

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“A Team Of Surgeons Introduced A Promising New Solution: A Tiny, Implantable Telescope”

October 2, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

My best guess is that anyone being born now (and perhaps many of the rest of us) will live to see cures for macular degeneration and glaucoma and most causes of blindness. But at the very least, we will develop workarounds so that the blind can regain a reasonable measure of sight. From Kyle Vanhemert at Fast Company:

“Advanced age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the U.S. in adults over the age of 60. It affects nearly 2 million people in the U.S., with half a million new cases diagnosed every year. It’s a big problem. And until recently, we didn’t have a very good way of treating it. Patients with end-stage degeneration typically had to rely on cumbersome, low-tech solutions to help them see–relics like handheld magnifying glasses and closed-circuit televisions. But earlier this month, a team of surgeons at the UC Davis Eye Center introduced a promising new solution: a tiny, implantable telescope.”

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