Tech for Good

2022-04-03 10:43:26 Cup of Coffee for Dmitrii

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Dmitrii Open / Comment

2022-03-31 13:59:06 Identity on the fly

Here is the startup for privacy-conscious. Two brothers, Arjun and Abhijay Bhatnagar, have founded Cloaked in Boston. Cloaked is a service working as an app or a browser extension that creates hidden, "cloaked" identities such as emails, phone numbers, passwords, and credit card numbers.

The service works as a password manager, but instead of saving passwords, it replaces your personal information with "cloaked" data for any selected online service. For example, early service users create identifiers for online banking and dating or just don't give Facebook their actual mobile number.

Users may personalize the created identities. For example, they choose which messages to forward from cloaked to personal emails and which will stay in the cloaked cloud. They can mute any person or company sending newsletters to their inbox, not bothering with the sometimes frustrating unsubscribe process. The same applies to getting off a call list - that one can actually be annoying: I get spam calls almost every day. I can also imagine girls giving cloaked phone numbers to guys at the party. Created emails and phone numbers can be turned on/off, snoozed, expired, or updated when compromised.

Currently, the app is free to use but plans to switch to a freemium model. The team has just raised $25 million to finalize the product and exit the beta stage.

The reasonable question a privacy-conscious audience may have is "why should I not give my data to all those online services but give it to Cloaked?" The team says each user has an encrypted database storing all their info and the keys to manage or delete it at any point. However, they all say something similar, don't they?

Meanwhile, I think the idea is brilliant for an average user, and the startup has an excellent chance to find its audience.

Cloaked website showing app at work

#software #privacy #apps #startups Open / Comment

2022-03-29 11:20:40 Reinventing the electric panel

Electric panels have been around for a century. Finally, we get some incredible innovations to those from California-based startup SPAN.

The company's product, a SPAN panel, solves the challenges of home-grid balancing, adds visibility to how your home consumes power, why it does so, and allows you to make changes right from the smartphone.

The app shows how much every electric circuit in your home consumes and allows switching them on/off instantly or on a selected schedule. For example, if you have an electric car or backup battery, you may choose to charge it when grid energy is cheaper or, if you have a solar panel - when sunshine is most active.

SPAN connects with solar panels and lets you understand how much energy they generated and how the home used that energy.

Connecting the device with a home battery increases flexibility and backup efficiency during power outages or when you don't need grid power. For example, when there is an outage, the app shows you how much backup time you have and which devices use that energy. Then it allows a simple drag&drop of the backup items you need and shows real-time how the backup time changes.

SPAN gives you an understanding of how you use energy. For instance, you could see your energy spending versus the neighborhood or get a tip of your refrigerator consuming increased kilowatts, suggesting it may need a checkup. The app also shows the environmental impact expressed in gallons of oil or pound of coal saved from you optimizing your power usage.

The SPAN's price tag is $3500. And it seems that investors strongly believe in the company's success: SPAN has just got a $90 million investment boost to continue developing its products and accelerate home electrification.

#devices #startups Open / Comment

2022-03-26 18:11:22 Let's have some Saturday's fun. This is one of the best Super Bowl tech ads that was shown in 2015.

Mophie, the maker of smartphone cases that double as emergency batteries, created a special-effects-filled minute, imagining what happens when the Almighty's smartphone goes into low-power mode.

Enjoy -



#fun Open / Comment

2022-03-24 10:44:04 Is the fossil fuel age over?

The current geopolitical situation is pushing the oil&gas prices to their previous all-time highs. That could accelerate switching to renewable energy sources in many parts of the world. I found an interesting Forbes article published last year exploring the potential of solar and wind power in replacing fossil fuels.

The UK non-profit Carbon Tracker has prepared the report, and here are the key takeaways from it (some of them are quite insightful):

Solar and wind have the potential to produce thousands of petawatt hours (PWh) of electricity a year, while the world’s current electricity demand stands at just 27 PWh;
If humans chose to get all their energy from solar power alone, the land required would take up 450,000 km2—just 0.3% of the world’s total land area. That is less than the space currently taken up by fossil fuel industry operations;
The cost of electricity from solar photovoltaics fell 82% in the last decade, while the costs of onshore and offshore wind fell 39% and 29%, respectively;
We utilize only 0.01% of the world’s solar potential and just 0.16% of wind potential;
Each year we are fuelling the climate crisis by burning three million years of fossilized sunshine in coal, oil, and gas while we use just 0.01% of daily sunlight;
Fossil fuel investments are becoming an increasingly risky prospect: $640 billion in investments in fossil fuel firms had lost $123bn of their value between 2012 and 2020;
At the current 15-20% solar and wind growth rates, fossil fuels will be pushed out of the electricity sector by the mid-2030s and out of the total energy supply by 2050.

The authors state that humans have crossed all economic and technological barriers for entering the new renewable era. And the only remaining wall to break is political. Well, the recent events may push that wall down very soon, will see.

Article on Forbes
Full report here

#renewables #solar #wind #basics Open / Comment

2022-03-17 14:11:54 How would we survive out there?

While some people continue to threaten humanity's existence by a nuclear catastrophe, others are bringing closer the childhood dreams of space exploration and taking the challenge of humans becoming a multiplanet species.

Interstellar Lab, a Los Angeles and Paris-based tech startup, has just raised $5 million from several investors to accelerate the manufacturing of their BioPods.

BioPod is a closed-loop sustainable living system for Earth and space combining space-grade food production systems and habitat modules. That is a modular, controlled-environment aeroponics farm, creating the ideal climatic and atmospheric conditions for plant growth. The tech allows cultivating species that cannot be grown in traditional agriculture, including high-value plants like vanilla, vetiver, or patchouli.

BioPod is controlled by AI management and monitoring software. Maximizing efficiency and production, the farm reduces water consumption by 98% and energy (x20) while boosting yield (up to x300).

The company's mission is to develop closed-loop life support systems for lunar missions of NASA's Artemis Program and in the future for Mars exploration. However, the system applications on Earth are not less significant. Sourcing natural ingredients for health, cosmetics, and perfume companies; growing plants locally, efficiently, and all year long, reducing environmental impact; food production in desert zones; protection of endangered plants; providing a solution for universities and scientists for crop and plant research — these are all the challenges BioPod helps to meet.

Article on TechStartups
Interstellar Lab website

#space #startups #AI #biotech Open / Comment

2022-03-15 11:37:55 Make e-scooter great

When I hear e-scooter, I immediately imagine a scooter-sharing service. I may bet that 90%-plus of the scooters we see in the streets belong to ride-sharing companies. That is why London-based Taur Technologies has drawn my attention. Carson Brown, Taur's co-founder and lead designer, intends to change how scooting looks to people: make it so cool that people actually want to own an e-scooter as a means of city commutes.

Taur scooter is white, elegant, and has a foot-deck that lets riders face forward while riding. That "twin ski" ride position helps with stability; adjusting the weight you put on each deck steers the vehicle in addition to the handlebar. That position also gives riders an equal view of the road.

Another feature is huge puncture-resistant Continental tires that are 50% larger than most e-scooters. Taur also comes with three lights. The front light gives excellent visibility, and other road users can see it from the side and behind the rider. In addition, there is a brake light and a projection light in the rear that shines upward onto the rider to make them fully visible.

The scooter folds up for convenient traveling and storage. And last but not least, the Taur scooter was "built for ownership," which means a modular design to allow swapping out the five modules for easier maintenance. For example, you can change a tire yourself in under 5 minutes using a spoon if you don't have a tire lever.

Of course, the scooter is priced on the premium end at $1495. However, Taur is launching in Los Angeles, where such a price tag probably won't look outrageous.

The promo video below is well worth your time. It would be great to know your thoughts on the product - please share in the comments.

Article on TechCrunch

#urbantech #e-scooter #EV #startups Open / Comment

2022-03-14 10:49:27 Here is the summary of the last week's posts:

The Interceptor - an autonomous, 100% solar-powered catamaran diverting plastic from rivers and preventing it from entering the ocean
Prove your address - an innovative addressing startup tackling the challenge of not having a physical address
A tactile display - an intelligent braille reader, allowing the display of text and tactile representations of imagery empowering people with vision impairments

Have a safe week

Your Tech for Good

#weeksummary Open / Comment

2022-03-11 12:50:04 The thumbnail for a short explainer video is somehow not loading. You may still access this 1-minute video by tapping on the first link in the text above. Open / Comment

2022-03-11 12:45:44 A tactile display

People with vision impairments widely use the Braille language. However, there have been few tech innovations for braille-reader hardware until recently. Korean Dot startup is making a huge step forward with its Dot Pad device, an intelligent braille reader, allowing the display of text and tactile representations of imagery.

The Dot Pad consists of 2,400 pins in a pixel-like grid that can quickly move to up or down positions, forming letters in braille or easily identifiable shapes. The core innovation is the "dot" itself. The company had to make dozens or hundreds of these little pins (6 per braille letter) extend and retract reliably and quickly (and not too loudly).

The Dot's co-founder Ki Kwang Sung explains they picked the idea from the mechanism of speakers. The tiny electromagnetic actuator vibrates in smartphone speakers. Still, the team adapted it to move a pin up and down instead, using a magnetic ball rotor that locks easily in the up or down position and can unlock and disappear quickly.

Voice-powered interfaces have been immensely empowering for people who can't use graphical interfaces, but braille remains an important option, especially for reading and learning. A child growing up with a visual impairment misses out on a lot. Being able to illustrate things like letters, shapes, and simple images others take for granted, like houses, cats, and so on, can be potentially a game-changer.

The Dot Pad is neither cheap nor simple - the device uses thousands of tiny controllers, and their prices are through the roof right now. Fortunately, this is the type of device that no one should have to pay for, and for which there are numerous subsidies and other programs. Dot's founders noted that they're working with the Korean and U.S. governments and the blind community and advocacy organizations to integrate the Dot Pad with curricula and use existing funds and methods to pay for them.

Article on TechCrunch

#startups #devices Open / Comment