Sodexo and Lunchbox worked together to create the Eats DU app which facilitates the delivery service provided by Kiwibot’s delivery robots. The plan is to extend the partnership to other locations including workplaces, hospitals, and whole cities.

A pilot of the service was run earlier this year which saw 290 safety test deliveries carried out, followed by 800 real deliveries to actual students and other members of the community.

“Delivery is expected even more by customers for the convenience and safety it provides,” said Kevin Rettle, Vice President of Offer Development of Sodexo Universities. “We partnered with the University of Denver and Kiwibot to create a safe, reliable, cost-effective and fun way to not only meet the needs of our time, but continue building on our track record of campus innovation.”

The first available location to order from is Einstein’s Bros Bagels, with more promised. Cost to use the service, which is available to anybody in the coverage area with a smartphone and a credit, is $2 per delivery. There’s also the option of a $15 monthly pass.

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The robot-on-a-rail (ROAR), named Flippy, has been created by Miso Robotics. It will be deployed in a bid to increase production speeds, better manage staff, and to introduce added health and safety to the cooking process.

“With 100 years of quick service success, the time has never been more perfect to envision what the next century of White Castle and the restaurant industry looks like. Miso Robotics understood where we could improve and stay true to White Castles brand of taste, innovation and best-in-class dining,” said Lisa Ingram, White Castle CEO. “A great customer and employee experience is in our DNA, and we are thrilled to bring the future into our kitchen with solutions that will transform the industry and make the White Castle experience all that it can be for generations to come.”

Flippy ROAR will be deployed by White Castle later this year and will be tested for speed, taste, quality, and how seamlessly it integrates with the chain’s backend point-of-service (POS) platform ahead of a wider integration.

“Miso Robotics couldnt be more excited to bring Flippy ROAR into White Castle,” said Buck Jordan, CEO and Co-founder of Miso Robotics. “Artificial intelligence and robotics bring a very real opportunity to continuously enhance the cooking process and optimise taste for restaurants.”

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Miko, an advanced consumer robotics innovation lab, has announced the pre-order of the Miko 2 robot for children in North America. Since 2015, the conversational Miko robot has been a popular educational toy for kids across Asia, so the company decided to give North American families the option to order the robot in time for the holidays. Starting this week, parents can pre-order the robot on Miko.ai for $299, choose from three colors, and recieve guarenteed delivery by the holiday season. 

Miko, which was founded by engineers, educators, and psychologists, created the Miko 2 robot so that children had a fun, interactive way to learn and analyze their environments. Miko 2 uses artificial intelligence and voice recognition technology to see, hear, sense, express, talk, recognize its surroundings and familiar faces, remember names, identify moods, and start conversations.

“As a father, Miko’s mission is close to my heart. We hope to see children learn and grow with our product and are thrilled to bring it to North American families, especially after the interest and support that we’ve received in Asia,” said founder and CEO Sneh Vaswani.

Miko 2 includes educational features such as fun facts, quizzes, and story apps. The product is also parent-friendly, so parents have the ability to control the robot’s capabilities through the Miko app. Parents can view analytics based on their child’s interests, limit the amount of playtime with Miko, and pick and choose conversational topics that the Miko 2 robot initiates.

“We have four children in our family who range in age from six to 12 and Miko teaches each of them something new and age appropriate. Miko makes it fun for them to learn and play while I’m reassured that they’re not spending idle time in front of the TV or on their phones,” said Pooja Jain, a mother of four based in India.

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Amazon is developing an improved version of its Echo speaker and making progress on its home robot, nicknamed Vesta, according to Bloomberg. Sources close to the matter revealed the newest version of the Echo will most likely be released by next year and includes a bigger speaker for higher-quality audio, and at least four tweeters.

Vesta, the internal name for Amazon’s home robot, can reportedly travel on wheels and is controlled by Alexa voice commands. Both the robot and the newest Echo speaker are being developed by Amazon Lab126, an internal department for research and development located in Sunnyvale, California.

Since its launch in 2015, the Echo has dominated the smart speaker market, out-selling competitors like the Sonos One, Apple Inc. HomePod and Google Home Max. Although the Echo has lost some popularity to Google, it is expected to claim 63 per cent of the US market in 2019, according to eMarketer.

Bloomberg sources mentioned that “Amazon is also planning a high-fidelity version of its music service, according to Music Business Worldwide, that should mesh better with the new Echo.” Although Amazon has never publicly confirmed the development of its home robot, the product is reportedly waist-high and navigates with the aid of computer-vision cameras.

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FedEx is developing an autonomous delivery robot that will help retailers and restaurants make same-day deliveries within a specific range of miles from FedEx locations. With the FedEx SameDay Bot, stores will be able to accept small-item orders from customers close by and send the bot directly to their homes or offices by end of day.

FedEx has already announced partnerships with AutoZone, Lowe’s, PizzaHut, Target, Walgreens and Walmart. The bot is not meant to completely take over a store’s delivery system, but merely aid and optimize the process.

“The FedEx SameDay Bot is an innovation designed to change the face of local delivery and help retailers efficiently address their customers’ rising expectations,” said Brie Carere, executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for FedEx. “The bot represents a milestone in our ongoing mission to solve the complexities and expense of same-day, last-mile delivery for the growing e-commerce market in a manner that is safe and environmentally friendly.”

To develop the FedEx SameDay Bot technology, FedEx is collaborating with Deka Development & Research Corp. which was founded by Dean Kamen, inventor of the iBot Personal Mobility Device and the Segway.

“The bot has unique capabilities that make it unlike other autonomous vehicles,”said Kamen. “We built upon the power base of the iBot, an advanced, FDA-approved, mobility device for the disabled population with more than 10m hours of reliable, real-world operation. By leveraging this base in an additional application, we hope that the iBot will become even more accessible to those who need it for their own mobility.”

Multiple features from the iBot have been implemented into the FedEx bot, including pedestrian-safe technology. The zero-emissions bot also includes LiDAR technology and multiple cameras for optimized travel on sidewalks and along roadsides. The bot uses machine-learning algorithms to detect any obstacles such as curbs, cars, and steps it may come across on its journey.

Before launching the FedEx SameDay Bot nationally, FedEx will be testing the autonomous delivery bot in select locations this summer, including Memphis, Tennessee. The bot has already made its first public appearance on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this month.

“The FedEx SameDay Bot represents the next chapter in our long legacy of delivering innovation and outstanding service, supported by an already existing FedEx logistics ecosystem,” said Brian Philips, president and CEO of FedEx Office. “We are excited to bring this technology to address new markets and better support our customers. The companies who have provided feedback on its potential use have been instrumental in ensuring we are looking toward the future of eCommerce.”

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Modular Robotics, the creators of Cubelets robot blocks, has debuted the new Cubelets Curiosity Set, which features an interactive app and Bluetooth Hat allowing easy connectivity for kids four and up. The Curiosity Set consists of 10 best-selling Cubelets blocks, which aim to introduce children to the concepts of engineering, design, and computational thinking. As kids become more acquainted with the technology, they can create more complex designs and code.

The included Bluetooth Hat allows kids to connect their robot creations to most wireless devices, such as phones and tablets. From the Cubelets app, which is available on iOS, Android, and FireOS devices, children can control the movements of their robot with the Remote-Control feature and change their robots behavior with the Personality Swap feature. The Personality Swap feature includes modes such as Flashlight, Rotate, Battery, Passive, Inverse, and Brightness.

“Personalities are the tiny software programs inside Cubelets that guide how they act as individuals. Change any Cubelet and youll change how the robot construction behaves. Personal Swap allows you to explore the power of coding with the touch of a button,” said Stu Barwick, product manager at Modular Robotics. “The app will transfer the new Personality and change your Cubelets behavior in a matter of moments. We plan on releasing more Personalities to give creators even more possibilities soon.”

The Curiosity Set also includes an optional brick adapter, which can make the robot compatible with Lego pieces and other brick-based building sets. Once kids begin to master the robot’s control, functions, and skills, they can create new personalities using code on an additional Modular Robotics app, Cubletes Blocky.

“Everyone from robotics beginners to seasoned creators can enjoy Cubelets. They’re a great way to explore coding and computational thinking challenges while developing new skills through play. We’re confident that children in living rooms and classrooms everywhere will love creating with our new Cubelets Curiosity Set,” said Barwick.

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The Hello Goodness robot’s inventory consists of Smartfood Delight, Baked Lays, SunChips, Pure Leaf Tea, bubly, LIFEWTR, Starbucks Cold Brew, and more. Students at the California university can use the robots by downloading the corresponding iOS app, which requires a University of the Pacific email address to register. Once downloaded, students can summon the robot to their location on campus, choose snacks, and pay, all from their mobile devices.

“Were thrilled to launch our Hello Goodness autonomous delivery snackbots and reimagine college snacking for the future,” said Scott Finlow, vice president of innovation and insights, PepsiCo Foodservice. “PepsiCo has a unique opportunity to better serve todays ambitious college students, by joining together the power of the Hello Goodness portfolio with our expertise in design and equipment innovation.”

The snackbots have a built-in GPS and navigation system that can lead them to 50 designated areas across the university’s 175-acre campus and can travel up to 20 miles on a single charge. The robots are also equipped with a camera, headlights, and all-wheel drive for easier travel in changing weather and terrain.

Although the snackbots are currently only available to University of the Pacific students, PepsiCo aims to deliver 50,000 Hello Goodness touchpoints by the end of 2019, using vending solutions like the bots.

“Were thrilled to welcome snackbot to our campus, along with its convenient and nourishing options,” said Matt Camino, director of e-commerce at University of the Pacific Stockton. “This innovative technology from PepsiCo is enhancing campus life for our students, staff and faculty alike, who have embraced this new way of snacking from PepsiCo.”

The post PepsiCo and Hello Goodness debut snack-delivering robots appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

In that spirit, our Innovation Lab feature takes a step beyond the world of apps, ads and handsets with slightly bigger screens, in order to share some of the tech world’s newest ideas. They might be interesting, disruptive or just outright strange, but these are the stories that have caught our eye over the past week.

Nissan applies its self-parking technology to slippers

Upon entering the ProPILOT Park Ryokan, you’d easily mistake it for any other traditional Japanese inn – slippers are lined up neatly in the foyer, ready for guests to remove their outside shoes, and tatami rooms are furnished with low tables and floor cushions for sitting. However, thanks to car manufacturer Nissan, guests can take advantage of some unusual amenities: the slippers and furniture all return to their designated spots at the push of a button.

The experience is all thanks to Nissan’s ProPILOT park system, which was first introduced in the all-new Nissan Leaf in October last year. The technology enables the vehicle to detect surrounding objects and avoid them, so it can automatically negotiate its way into a parking spot with a single command from drivers.

The slippers, floor cushions and tables have all been rigged with a special version of the system, along with tiny wheels enabling them to navigate the inn. Japanese inns, known as ryokans, put a high priority on order and neatness, so the ability to have slippers and furniture returned back to their exact resting spots is actually a huge help to staff in a busy inn.

The system isn’t going to be widely deployed, however. The self-driving slippers are simply a marketing tool designed to raise awareness of automated driving technologies, and their potential non-driving applications. While ‘selected guests’ will be able to visit the ryokan in Hakone during the spring, tourists shouldn’t expect to find a ‘Return Slippers’ button in every hotel the next time they visit Japan.

Wriggling robots run on moisture in the atmosphere
Researchers at Seoul National University in South Korea have created a series of tiny robots that can wriggle, slither and slide forward using only the humidity in their surrounding environment for power. The ‘hygrobots’ were inspired by plant life, which can change shape and size by absorbing water from the ground or air, in a process called hygroexpansion.

Because they rely purely on moisture for power, the robots lack any kind of battery containing toxic chemical components that could injure humans if damaged. This in turn makes them perfect for micro-robotics that operate inside the human body, carrying out health-related operations like delivering drugs to specific locations.

The hygrobots have two layers made from nanofibers, one of which absorbs moisture, and the other which doesn’t. When placed on a wet surface, the humidity-absorbing layer swells up, causing the bot to move away from the surface. Then, as the layer dries out, it goes back down and the cycle repeats, enabling the robot to inch its way forward.

To demonstrate the potential of the technology, the researchers soaked a hygrobot in antibiotics and had it travel across a culture plate that was filled with bacteria. The bot left a sterilised trail behind itself, almost like a snail’s slime. The researchers theorise that with further development, the robots could deliver drugs to the human body, propelling themselves forward using only skin moisture.

Next generation holograms create 3D images that float in ‘thin air’

Ever since Princess Leia asked Obi Wan Kenobi for help in Star Wars, holograms have been held up as the next step in projection technology, but the truth is that conventional holograms wouldn’t be able to create the type of 3D image we’ve seen in science-fiction films, TV shows and video games. That doesn’t mean we should give up though, as new research from a team at Brigham Young University has proved.

Led by Daniel Smalley, professor of electrical and computer engineering, researchers have been able to combine laser-based ‘tractor beams’ with a separate set of laser projectors to create a free-space volumetric display platform capable of producing full-colour 3D images. The system moves a particle of plant matter through space, painting it with light as it moves to create an image.

Smalley describes the system as ‘like a 3D printer for light”, and the team have been able to create multiple images using the method, including a butterfly, a prism, rings that wrap around a user’s arms and even a figure in a lab coat, recreating Princess Leia’s famous message. The hope is that in time, the system could be used to create large persistent images that can be viewed from any angle, and even interacted with by human users.

Hair-sized needles will enable drug delivery straight into the brain
The human brain is a hugely complex organ, and the smallest changes in chemistry can have huge consequences, both good and bad. It’s with this in mind that MIT researchers have devised a miniaturised system designed to deliver tiny quantities of medicine to brain regions as small as 1 cubic millimetre. This type of targeted dosing could make it possible to treat diseases that affect very specific brain circuits without interfering with the normal function of the rest of the brain.

The device consists of several tubes contained within a needle about as thick as a human hair, and enables the researchers to deliver more than one drug deep within the brain, with extremely precise control over how much is injected and where it goes. In a study of rats, they found that they were able to deliver targeted micro-doses of a drug that affects the animals’ motor function.

“We believe this tiny microfabricated device could have tremendous impact in understanding brain diseases, as well as providing new ways of delivering biopharmaceuticals and performing biosensing in the brain,” said Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute professor at MIT, and one of the paper’s senior authors.

Replace your cat or dog with this circular furry robot, complete with wagging tail

Designed to act as a pet for those who suffer from allergies or can’t fit one into their lives, the Qoobo is a robotic cushion with a cat-like tail that is meant to provide users with the same sense of comfort and companionship as a regular household pet. You might laugh at the idea, but it was popular enough to hit its Kickstarter fundraising goal in just six days, raising 12,360,000 (£80,430) over the course of the entire campaign, or 247 per cent of its original target.

The Qoobo was designed by Yukai Engineering, a Tokyo-based robotics startup, and was inspired when a staff member moved to a new apartment that did not allow her to keep her pet cat. The company’s engineers studied the tails of cats, dogs and other animals and created a mechanism that closely mimics the movements, with different actions assigned to react to different touch inputs from the owner.

“The response has been absolutely overwhelming,” said Shunsuke Aoki, CEO of Yukai Engineering. “It shows how many people are longing for the sense of comfort that only animals can provide. Many seniors, including my own parents, wish to own a pet but can’t due to various reasons. I truly hope Qoobo will help make their everyday lives more joyous.”

The post Innovation Lab: Self-driving shoes, damp-powered robots and 3D-printed light appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

In that spirit, our Innovation Lab feature takes a step beyond the world of apps, ads and handsets with slightly bigger screens, in order to share some of the tech world’s newest ideas. They might be interesting, disruptive or just outright strange, but these are the stories that have caught our eye over the past week.

UK zoo teams with IBM for AI-powered heating solution
Keeping animals used to warmer climates at the right temperature in UK zoos and wildlife parks can be a challenge, especially at this time of year, and Marwell Zoo in Hampshire is no exception. The tourist attraction estimates that it spends around a third of its £150,000 annual electricity bill on heating animal houses, but its recently teamed up with IBM in an effort to reduce that expense, and the zoo’s carbon footprint.

Animal houses are difficult to heat – they are often large spaces with wide doors, and few have been designed with energy efficiency in mind. The infrared heaters used at the zoo are typically left on overnight, but with animals that are active around dawn and dusk, that can result in a lot of wasted heat. That left to the partnership with IBM, which is hoping that a combination of IoT technology and computer learning can help.

The zoo has previously tried to create a solution using infrared sensors, but those could only detect movement, not the presence of a sleeping animal.  The IBM solution uses thermal sensors controlled by a Raspberry Pi to detect temperatures, picking the warmer animal out against its background and able to identify it whether it’s moving or still. The team trained the system by first taking photos with an infrared camera, using the data to help a neural net learn whether or not an animal was present. The team is now fine-tuning the system, to allow for factors like multiple animals, or those wandering through when readings are taken.

“So far, the Marwell Zoo team is extremely happy with the initial results of the project,” said Karen Lewis, content strategist & project manager at IBM. “They have access to the photos so they, too, can monitor the decisions being made based on the visual data in the photos. If the initial trial in the nyala enclosure works successfully, the Marwell Zoo team is hoping to roll the solution out to include many more of the animal houses at the zoo – possibly up to 40 enclosures.”

Panasonic’s latest robot takes on the essential task of picking tomatoes

We’ve probably all seen the videos of robots designed to do delicate tasks like feeding people or squeezing ketchup bottles that inevitably go wrong. Finesse is still incredibly hard to pull off with automated machines, especially when they are dealing with organic materials that could have a variety of textures and densities.

Panasonic is attempting some advances in this area with its latest robot, one designed to identify ripe tomatoes and then pick them off the vine without damaging them. Unveiled at the International Robot Exhibition, the robot isn’t available to farmers yet, but the company is close enough to a finished product to show off what they do have.

The robot uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine vision technology to determine the position, shape and colour of tomatoes, and only harvests edible produce. A “special end effector” enables the robot to pick the tomatoes without damaging them in the process, guiding their fall into a nearby bucket rather than attempting the complex task of holding the tomatoes without damaging them.

The device can reportedly pick the fruits at a rate of around 10 per minute, which isn’t a record breaker in terms of speed, but it can operate continuously without the need for a breaks, sick days or vacations. The company has been working on the robot for some time, and made considerable leaps forward in its speed and accuracy. While it’s still not perfect (as the video above shows), it’s another step closer to the automation of our food industry.

Dutch firm powers Bitcoin mining with human bioenergy
Whether the current trend for cryptocurrencies is a fragile bubble or the start of a new age of financial products is yet to become clear, but no-one can deny that there is certainly a craze surrounding them. That isn’t all good news though – according to some studies, a single Bitcoin transaction requires as much energy as 10 households use in a week, and the entire network requires more electricity annually than Bulgaria.

A project in the Netherlands called the Institute of Human Obsolescence (IoHo) is looking at a more sustainable alternative to all that electrical power, and has an unconventional idea, harvesting human body heat to power transactions. Workers lay down at stations while wearing body suits that can harvest residual heat, and that energy is then used to produce electricity which goes on to mine cryptocurrencies. So far, the project has focused on Vertcoin and Startcoin, two alternative currencies that require less energy to mine.

So far, the trial project has run in Europe, with 37 different ‘workers’ contributing a total of 212 hours of ‘work’. A similar initiative is planned for this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With cryptocurrencies prices as they currently are, it’s hardly lucrative – 44,000 people would need to heat mine for a month to afford a single bitcoin – but the project is as much about generating new ideas as it is making money.

DNA-based solution could lead to one-dose universal vaccine for the flu
Every year, millions in resources are spent on providing vaccines for the latest strain of the flu virus, which mutates constantly and as a result has proved almost impossible to eliminate. However, new advances by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine may have just taken us a step closer to that goal, with a DNA vaccine that could result in a universal, one-dose immunisation solution.

The DNA vaccine was engineered using the genetic components of the influenza virus that don’t change, allowing it to counteract the ‘genetic drift’ that alters strains year-to-year. The vaccine is injected into skin cells using a ‘gene gun’ and then instructs the affected cells to produce antigens and induce antibodies and T cell responses to fight the infection. Rather than simply repelling the virus like current vaccines, the new DNA vaccine seeks out infected cells and kills them at an accelerated rate, preventing individuals from ever feeling symptoms.

“We’ve been working essentially with the same vaccine (techniques) over the last 40 years,” said Dr Deborah Fuller, the UW Medicine researcher who led the study. “It’s a shake-and-bake vaccine: you produce the virus, you kill the virus, you inject it. Now it’s time for vaccines to go through an overhaul, and this includes the influenza vaccine.”

“Alexa, I’ve been robbed” – UK police force wants you to report crimes via Echo
A UK police force has announced plans to utilise Amazon’s Alexa software and Echo line of smart speakers in the fight against crime, with specially designed software that will distribute crime bulletins personalised to the local area, share useful local information and even enable users to report crimes via their smart speakers.

The Lancashire Constabulary wants to use the Echo speakers to send out information including the number of officers on duty, wanted suspects or offences committed within the area, and details on missing people. The Constabulary also has plans using the devices for internal briefings, informing officers about daily crime logs or breaking incidents. But perhaps the most advanced plans involve allowing victims and witnesses to report crimes via Alexa.

Speaking at a College of Policing conference, Rob Flanagan, the innovation lead at Lancashire Constabulary said that use of smart speakers could reduce demand to call centres and provide communities with much-needed information without the need to ring the police. Plans are still in their early stages, however, and concerns regarding privacy and data protection have been raised.

The post Innovation Lab: IoT for Zoos, Tomato Robots and Human-powered Bitcoin appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

In that spirit, our Innovation Lab feature takes a step beyond the world of apps, ads and handsets with slightly bigger screens, in order to share some of the tech world’s newest ideas. They might be interesting, disruptive or just outright strange, but these are the stories that have caught our eye over the past week.

‘Baby island’ will provide NASA with better understanding of Mars
A newly-emerged island in the Pacific could provide scientists at NASA with vital insights into the landscape of Mars, including where to look for key evidence of microscopic life. The island of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) first developed in late 2014 from a submarine volcano, and has been growing and evolving ever since.

The island, which boasts a summit around 400-foot tall, is part of the Kingdom of Tonga, and lies between two older islands. Initially projected to survive only a few months, NASA researchers studying the site now believe it could last between six and 30 years, and will provide scientists with unprecedented insights into the development and erosion of islands. These insights could then provide scientists with a greater understanding of similar features elsewhere in the solar system, including Mars.

“Volcanic islands are some of the simplest landforms to make,” said Jim Garvin, chief scientists of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre. “Our interest is to calculate how much the 3D landscape changes over time, particularly its volume, which has only been measured a few times at other such islands. Everything we learn about what we see on Mars is based on the experience of interpreting Earth phenomena. We think there were eruptions on Mars at a time when there were areas of persistent surface water. We may be able to use this new Tongan island and its evolution as a way of testing whether any of those represented an oceanic environment, or ephemeral lake environment.”

HTHH is the first such island to emerge since the advent of advanced satellite imaging, and as such researchers have been able to track its growth using high-resolution optical sensors and radar. For the first six months, the island underwent dramatic changes, but has since settled into relative calm. A similar island near Iceland which emerged 54 years ago was able to survive past its first few months due to warm seawater chemically altering the fragile and easily eroded rock, and the scientists believe something similar may have happened with Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai.

The latest athlete to carry the Olympic torch? Hubo the robot

The traditional journey of the Olympic torch to the site of the next games is well under way in preparation for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, but the latest torch bearer is anything but traditional. On Monday, a robot designed by the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology carried the torch for a stretch as it travelled through Daejon, South Korea.

Hubo the robot was the winner of the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, beating out 22 other robots to win the $2m (£1.5m) prize, and was selected to carry the flame to showcase South Korea’s technology industry. During the Winter Games, around 85 robots of various designs will be deployed by the organising committee to serve as volunteers and guides.

Hubo was passed the torch by Professor Dennis Hong, founding director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at UCLA in Los Angeles, and after completing its section of the relay, used in-built tools to cut through a section of brick wall in order to hand the torch off to Dr Oh Jun Ho, one of the scientists responsible for originally developing the robot back in 2004.

“Though the robot’s participation in the relay, we were able to show people how far (South) Korea’s robotic industry has developed and show people the different ways that robots can be used in the near future,” said Dr Oh.

World’s smallest Mona Lisa drawn using DNA
Researchers at Caltech have demonstrated a new inexpensive method of creating DNA origami self-assemblies with customisable patterns by making the world’s smallest recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, entirely from DNA.

The research builds on Professor Paul Rothemund’s DNA origami study, carried out over 10 years ago, which developed a method to fold a long strand of DNA into a prescribed shape. Rothemund’s breakthrough enable scientists to create self-assembling DNA structures that could carry any specified pattern, and revolutionised the field of nanotechnology.

The Caltech researchers advanced his work, developing software that could take images and determine the DNA sequences needed to create them. The larger image is then broken up into smaller tiles, which are individually assembled and then ‘stapled’ together using unique edges that will only combine in certain patterns, to ensure the picture comes together correctly. The technology isn’t just for creating small images – practical applications include making extremely dense circuits, building exotic organic materials or testing chemical and molecular interactions.

YouTuber inserts Alexa into a Furby

The humble Furby is almost 20 year old, and even with the numerous upgrades and relaunches the toy has seen, it can’t really compare with the skills and capabilities of modern digital assistants like Amazon’s Alexa. One YouTuber decided to change that, by integrating Alexa directly into the body of a Furby toy to create, in his words, ‘Furlexa’.

Created by Zach Levine, ‘Furlexa’ uses a Raspberry Pi Zero W and Amazon’s semi-open source Alexa Voice Service software, along with a few other electrical components, to convert the Furby into a smart assistant. The design is based on an existing guide for building a Raspberry Pi Amazon Echo, but takes it one step further by giving it a furry exterior.

Levine replaced the Furby’s original CPU and related circuitry with a Raspberry Pi Zero W, and upgraded the Furby’s sound input and output with a USB microphone, small amplifier and speaker to bring its vocal capabilities up to standard. The Furby’s motors and servos connect to the Pi, so that it appears to speak when Alexa activates, and the motherboard is able to run the full version of Alexa, enabling the Furby to provide information and even control other Internet of Things devices.

MIT engineers print a ‘living tattoo’
Engineers at MIT have devised a 3D printing technique the uses a new kind of ink made from genetically-programmed living cells. The bacterial cells are engineered to light up in response to a variety of stimuli, and when mixed with a slurry of hydrogel and nutrients, can be printed, layer by layer, to form three-dimensional interactive structures and devices.

The team demonstrated the new technique by printing a ‘living tattoo’, a thin transparent patch patterned with live bacteria cells in the shape of a tree. Each branch of the tree is lined with cells sensitive to a different chemical or molecular compound, and when the patch is adhered to skin that has been exposed to the same compounds, the regions of the tree light up in response.

The researchers believe the method can be used to fabricate ‘active’ materials for wearable sensors and interactive displays, patterned with live cells that are engineered to sense environmental chemicals and pollutants as well as changes in pH and temperature. The technique could even be used to print ‘living computers’ – structures with multiple types of cells that communicate with each other, massing signals back and forth, similar to transistors on a microchip.

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