Recently, in Ames, Iowa, a new, 10G smart home by Mediacom was revealed. Due to the pandemic, as many people began working or learning from home, the need for a faster internet increased greatly. With a platform running 10 gigabits per second and having over 70 smart devices, this smart home provides a glimpse into life in the future. According to Kylee Mullen from the Ames Tribune, “such speeds allow devices in the house — smart kitchen appliances like a voice-activated faucet, smart coffee maker mug and water bottles; smart security systems like flood, smoke and motion detectors; and virtual and augmented reality for communication and gaming — to work together” (Mullen). To me, all these smart devices seem incredibly interesting and convenient to have. Tom Larsen, the Senior Vice President of Government Public Relations for Mediacom stated, “‘you could do everything you ever want to do from home without ever having to leave’” (Mullen).

During these days, in the middle of a pandemic, this smart home sounds like a pretty good idea to be living in since it will slow the spread if less people leave their house. However, when the need to quarantine ends in the future, this technology might discourage social interaction with the outside world. In my opinion, while I would love to live in a smart home that has numerous features and does whatever I want it to, in the long run, (post-COVID) I feel as though it might be harmful as people will be even more drawn towards staying indoors, instead of being out, physically interacting with the world. But, at the same time, this smart home provides a look into the many advantages technology can offer.

Source: https://www.amestrib.com/story/business/2020/09/18/mediacom-communications-tour-of-10-g-broadband-internet-smart-home-in-ames-iowa/3487502001/

Amazon’s security business, called Ring, recently announced that they have developed a small, lightweight drone that travels and records video footage of chosen areas in your home. You can then watch the live recording on your phone. It’s called the Ring Always Home Cam. Ring is releasing the drone next year at a price of $250. According to Rachel Metz from CNN, “users can set up paths for the drone via a smartphone app, or if the drone detects motion in a part of your home it can fly on its own to that spot and take video of what’s going on” (Metz). And once the drone returns back to its dock, the camera gets blocked and stops recording.

Image Source: Amazon

This new device definitely brings up questions and concerns about privacy. CNN’s article stated that Ring has “partnerships with hundreds of police departments around the US” and some believe it acts as a “widespread surveillance network” (Metz). Personally, I’m not comfortable with the idea of a moving camera that has the ability to travel throughout my home. This technology could be beneficial to have against home invaders as well as to be able to check on your house while you’re gone at work or on vacation, for example. However, it doesn’t change the fact that this device takes on a whole new level of invading one’s privacy.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/24/tech/amazon-ring-drone/index.html

Not too long ago, a Tesla driver and passenger in Canada were caught sleeping while the car was self-driving with a speed of over 90 mph on a highway. The occupied front seats were fully reclined, meaning neither the driver or the passenger would be in the ready position to take over control of the car if something went wrong. An article by The Verge states that “officers began to pursue the vehicle with their emergency lights flashing, at which point the vehicle ‘automatically began to accelerate’” (Hawkins). This seems extremely dangerous and if I were in the car, I know I would be terrified. According to an article by BBC News, “Tesla cars currently operate at a level-two Autopilot, which requires the driver to remain alert and ready to act, with hands on the wheel” (BBC). If the system doesn’t sense any hands on the steering wheel, it is supposed to disable itself. Therefore, either the system had issues or the owner must have found a trick to keep Autopilot working. An example from the past was to “wedge an orange against the wheel to simulate the pressure of a human hand” (Hawkins). It’s so strange to me how both the driver and passenger in this case were willing to trust the car with their lives when its system can be so easily fooled or have problems with functioning properly. 

This brings up questions about how safe Tesla cars really are. I believe that in any self-driving car, there should always be an experienced driver that’s ready to take the wheel if something goes wrong. The idea of being able to do whatever you want, like sleeping, while a car does all the driving for you would definitely be cool, but as of right now, it is clearly not safe to put all your trust into a self-driving car. 

Sources: 

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/18/21445168/tesla-driver-sleeping-police-charged-canada-autopilot

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54197344

“Citizen” has been an app by which people can be alerted about unofficial neighborhood crimes. But, recently, this app partnered with Los Angeles County, launching the contact-tracing app called “SafePass” which tracks users’ locations and symptoms for the virus. According to CNET’s article, “If someone you’ve been in contact with later tests positive for COVID-19 and marks themselves on the app, the app notifies you about the exposure and provides details on when and where it happened” (Ng). The Citizen app has been known to create false alarms of crimes and spread panic to the public. So, now there is a worry that SafePass will do the same in which there might be a greater panic involving the spread of the virus.

Furthermore, Angel Diaz, a liberty and national security counsel “said he saw several red flags with the service, specifically with how it shows exposures and the amount of location data it takes” (Ng). The app is said not to function properly without access to both Bluetooth and GPS for location data. This is odd because COVID-tracing features from Apple and Google, for instance, don’t require the users’ GPS information. Instead they use the Bluetooth signals in order to calculate distance. Not to mention, the app’s “privacy policy also said that your location data could be shared with government agencies, without clarifying which agencies those could be” (Ng). Personally, I would not feel comfortable using SafePass. Even though the app could help with staying aware and knowing if I come across the virus, I don’t like how my privacy might be invaded and I don’t want my information to be used for other purposes. Honestly, I would probably feel more secure using Apple or Google’s features for COVID-tracking.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/a-crime-reporting-app-shifts-to-tracking-covid-19-raising-privacy-questions/

These days, drones have proven to be extremely useful in a variety of situations. Delivery service through drones has been one use that many retail companies have thought about implementing. Recently, Walmart announced that they were launching a delivery program with a drone delivery company called Flytrex. According to USA Today, “Tom Ward, Walmart’s senior vice president of customer products, said the pilot focuses on delivering select grocery and household essential items from Walmart stores” and he claims “‘the drones, which are controlled over the cloud using a smart and easy control dashboard, will help us gain valuable insight into the customer and associate experience – from picking and packing to takeoff and delivery’” (Tyko). 

Image Source: Walmart

While Walmart is not the first company to use this kind of technology, it will be interesting to see how everything plays out. Also, it seems as though Walmart is launching this program in opposition to Amazon as Amazon’s “Prime Air” drone delivery service is in development right now. Regardless, in my opinion, being able to see drones delivering packages to anyone anywhere in the future will be a really cool technological advancement. Not to mention, during these days, with a pandemic taking place, the drones will be extremely beneficial in which they will ensure a contactless delivery while still quickly and efficiently bringing packages to people.

Sources:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/09/09/walmart-drone-delivery-pilot-fayetteville-north-carolina/5752184002/

https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2020/09/09/walmart-now-piloting-on-demand-drone-delivery-with-flytrex 

The Amazon Halo is Amazon’s new fitness band. The device is able to track sleep patterns, physical activity, temperature, body fat, and emotional tone, which seems especially interesting. The band looks pretty similar to that of Fitbit’s, and has similar features, aside from the body fat measurement and voice analysis.

Image Source: Amazon

Believing that body fat is a better indicator of health and wellbeing than weight loss, Amazon implemented the body fat percentage measurement into the device. In order to use the feature, all you have to do is take photos of your body with your smartphone, and the app connected to the fitness band will calculate the body fat and produce a 3D image of your body. According to CNET, “The app requires you to wear minimal form-fitting clothing and trust Amazon to take a picture of you wearing it” (Stein, Orellana). Many people might feel awkward or uncomfortable by doing this, in fear of privacy violations. But, Amazon provided some reassurance by claiming “‘the images are processed in the cloud, but encrypted in transit and processed within seconds, after which they’re automatically deleted from Amazon’s systems and databases… the scan images aren’t viewed by anyone at Amazon and aren’t used for machine learning optimizations’” (Stein, Orellana).

The new voice tone analysis might also be an area of concern for privacy. This feature analyzes conversations and provides information on how you sound when talking to others. Again, Amazon claims “it’s not intended to analyze the content of your conversation, just the tone of your delivery” (Stein, Orellana), but I still wouldn’t be too comfortable with the device hearing every word of every conversation I have. This feature was added to help improve one’s tone and style of speaking.

By releasing this product, Amazon is providing a much more interesting and in depth way of tracking physical health. However, I’m not too sure about how accurate and reliable some of the band’s features are, specifically the body fat measurement and the voice tone analysis. There are also many questions and concerns that arise when it comes to privacy with this device.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-halo-fitness-tracker-thatll-measure-body-fat-with-your-phone-camera/

With a worldwide pandemic going on, numerous healthcare workers are understandably hesitant or unwilling to take care of Covid-19 patients in-person. To solve the issue, researchers from MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Boston Dynamics got together in order to create remote-controlled robots to act as nurses. According to an MIT News article, researcher, Henwei Huang, believed it was possible for “‘a robot to remove the health care worker from the risk of directly exposing themselves to the patient’” (Trafton).

The way the robot is designed makes it look almost like a dog. It has four cameras attached of which one is an infrared camera and the other three are monochrome cameras. These cameras as well as algorithms made by the researchers allow the robot to measure vital signs such as heart rate, temperature, and blood-oxygen levels while maintaining a 2 meter distance.

Image Source: MIT News

As of now, to test their capabilities, these robots have been used to measure vital signs of non-covid patients. But, the researchers plan on having the robots start measuring vitals on symptomatic patients. Hopefully, if all goes well, more and more robots can be produced and begin taking vitals of covid patients in hospitals. This would keep many healthcare workers out of harm’s way, consequently decreasing the spread of the virus while making more people feel safe. In addition, once the coronavirus becomes less predominant (hopefully), these robots can be useful for patients with other illnesses. Overall, by being able to control these robots and monitor their measurements of patients, doctors and nurses would benefit immensely while patients will still be cared for effectively. 

Source: https://news.mit.edu/2020/spot-robot-vital-signs-0831

The fight against climate change has been an ongoing battle throughout the world. But, recently, a 3D-printed aluminum device was created by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to help solve this issue. Specifically, the device absorbs carbon dioxide through the use of solvents. Heat is then produced as they make contact, transforming the gas to a liquid. According to ORNL’s article on SciTechDaily, manufacturing researcher, Lonnie Love, claims, “‘additive manufacturing methods like 3D printing are often cost-effective over time because it takes less effort and energy to print a part versus traditional manufacturing methods’” (SciTechDaily). Therefore, it seems as though it would be fairly easy to mass produce these devices, overall effectively fighting against the dangers of climate change.

I wonder if and how, over time, researchers will improve this device to make it even more effective in capturing carbon dioxide, and possibly other greenhouse gases. Right now, the devices seem quite small (with a diameter of 20.3 cm, height of 14.6 cm, and a 0.6 L volume), so it’d be cool if they can be designed to be bigger in order to catch a greater amount of gas. I’m also excited to see what other technological advances can be thought of and made to reduce climate change and better the environment as a whole. 

Source:

https://scitechdaily.com/3d-printed-device-enhances-capture-of-carbon-dioxide-emissions/