Podcast: The Tesla of Blind Canes

Farbod Moghaddam

fromThe Next Byte

26 Oct, 2021

In this episode, we talk about a blind cane from Stanford University that borrows self-driving tech to increase the mobility of visually-impaired people by 20% as well as an effort from Texas A&M to develop enhanced touchscreens which will enable users to feel textures on their smart devices.

In this episode, we talk about a blind cane from Stanford University that borrows self-driving tech to increase the mobility of visually-impaired people by 20% as well as an effort from Texas A&M to develop enhanced touchscreens which will enable users to feel textures on their smart devices. As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.

This podcast is sponsored by Mouser Electronics.

PISODE NOTES

(1:03) - Self-navigating Smart Cane

(15:16) - Enhanced Touchscreens

Episode 41 was brought to you by Mouser Electronics, Farbod & Daniel’s favorite electronics distributor. Click here to learn more about Mouser's Create the Future Design Contest.

About the podcast:

Every day, some of the most innovative universities, companies, and individual technology developers share their knowledge on Wevolver. To ensure we can also provide this knowledge for the growing group of podcast listeners, we started a collaboration with two young engineers, Daniel Scott Mitchell & Farbod Moghaddam who discuss the most interesting content in this podcast series.

To learn more about this show, please visit the shows page. By following the page, you will get automatic updates by email when a new show is published.

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Augmenting human endurance with carbon fiber suits

Carbon fiber fashion aims to assist humans to endure extreme weather and activities.

27 Nov, 2022

The High-Temperature Carbon-Fiber 3D Printing Challenge invited engineers and designers to submit ideas on how to leverage cutting-edge materials from Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials. Participants in the challenge were asked to incorporate the strength and properties of the KyronMax® carbon-fiber 3D printing filament with the flexibility and sustainability of 3D printing in their design.

We are composing a series of articles featuring the finalists and winners of the challenge.

In this article we showcase the work of Robin Kocher from Human Earth Industries an upcoming player in the micro-engineered suits domain.

Suits for the future

The specialized suits designed by Kocher, aims to protect against harsh weather conditions. The suits are primarily intended for providing support during disaster relief, extreme sports, and various outdoor activities. They have multiple layers which can be customized based on the activity.

"We visualize the company in two parts. The primary focus behind Human Earth Industries is facilitating a change in society, imparting a sense of awareness in people regarding the 17 sustainable development goals, and spreading the word of change. The second part is the engineering aspect of it, where we aim to revolutionize the fashion technology industry," said Kocher. The idea for developing the suits was first conceptualized when Robin was still a student. As a gaming enthusiast, he wondered how the advanced suits in video games would be like in the real world. "My interest in video games and science fiction helped me design the fabrics for the prototype. The ideas stemmed mainly from publicly available research," he added.

The suit imagined by Human Earth Industries. Image credit: Human Earth Industries

Sustainability is the top priority

The suit has a customizable design where one can alter various functionalities. It would b

Image: The new sensor, which tracks an individual’s skin hydration in real time, can be incorporated into a wearable patch. Photo credit: Shanshan Yao.

Researchers Develop Wearable, Low-Cost Sensor to Measure Skin Hydration

Researchers have developed a wearable, wireless sensor that can monitor a person’s skin hydration for use in applications that need to detect dehydration before it poses a health problem.

Matt Shipman

fromNC State University

06 Jan, 2018

healthcare

- human augmentation

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a wearable, wireless sensor that can monitor a person’s skin hydration for use in applications that need to detect dehydration before it poses a health problem. The device is lightweight, flexible and stretchable and has already been incorporated into prototype devices that can be worn on the wrist or as a chest patch.

The hydration sensors consist of two electrodes made of an elastic polymer composite that contains conductive silver nanowires.

“It’s difficult to measure a person’s hydration quantitatively, which is relevant for everyone from military personnel to athletes to firefighters, who are at risk of health problems related to heat stress when training or in the field,” says John Muth, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and co-corresponding author of a paper describing the work.

“We have developed technology that allows us to track an individual’s skin hydration in real time,” says Yong Zhu, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State and co-corresponding author of the paper. “Our sensor could be used to protect the health of people working in hot conditions, improve athletic performance and safety, and to track hydration in older adults or in medical patients suffering from various conditions. It can even be used to tell how effective skin moisturizers are for cosmetics.”

The sensor consists of two electrodes made of an elastic polymer composite that contains conductive silver nanowires. These electrodes monitor the electrical properties of the skin. Because the skin’s electric properties change in a predictable way based on an individual’s hydration, the readings from the electrodes can tell how hydrated the skin is.

In lab testing using custom-made artificial skins with a broad range of hydration levels, the researchers found that the performance of th

Podcast: The Tesla of Blind Canes

In this episode, we talk about a blind cane from Stanford University that borrows self-driving tech to increase the mobility of visually-impaired people by 20% as well as an effort from Texas A&M to develop enhanced touchscreens which will enable users to feel textures on their smart devices.

PISODE NOTES

Suits for the future

Sustainability is the top priority

Scientists develop fully woven, smart display

Learning Morse Code without Trying

Human-robot collaboration: 3 Case Studies

In this episode, we talk about a blind cane from Stanford University that borrows self-driving tech to increase the mobility of visually-impaired people by 20% as well as an effort from Texas A&M to develop enhanced touchscreens which will enable users to feel textures on their smart devices.

PISODE NOTES

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