The Hoverboard is Real!

The hoverboard in action!

This blog post was taken from ECN Magazine. You can find the link to the original post at the bottom of this email message. If you are looking for help creating your next revolutionary product or system, contact API Alliance, Incorporated. With over 20 years of engineering, electronic manufacturing, electro-mechanical assembly experience, we can take your ideas and make them a reality… http://www.apialliance.com – info@apialliance.com.

Our cups runneth over – the hoverboard is real!

Next year is 2015, which means we’ve finally caught up to Back to the Future II — and its quasi-plausible vision of the future. How’d it do? Well, we don’t have flying cars, we don’t have self-drying clothes, and the Cubs haven’t won the World Series, but we finally have a hoverboard … sorta.

The actual technology — as seen in a variety of hovercraft — isn’t as futuristic as one might think. Hovercraft use blowers to create a large gust of air — above atmospheric pressure — and the difference between the air pressure below the hull and above it creates lift, enabling it to travel over surfaces like land, mud, ice, and water.

A similar technology, magnetic levitation, uses a different method to reach the same end (a hovering vehicle). This is popular with Maglev trains, and theme parks also use magnets to propel linear induction vehicles.

The Hendo Hoverboard, created by Jill and Greg Henderson, relies on the latter technology, meaning that its operating environment is extremely limited. The prototype can only be used over a non-ferrous metal surface like copper or aluminum, though production versions could solve that issue.

According to Engadget, the proof-of-concept can support up to 300 pounds, and future copies should accommodate 500 pounds. And this isn’t just for robust individuals. Extrapolated on a large scale, the technology could levitate houses to mitigate damage from floods or buildings to cancel out the effects of earthquakes.

For now, the Hendersons are relying on a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the technology in its infancy. A $299 donation nets you a working Hendo hover engine plus a hover surface, while 10K will buy a real hoverboard. Everyone will get a Whitebox Developer Kit, enabling tinkerers to play with it to their heart’s content (and hopefully arrive at a reasonable facsimile of this). And, as a nod to Back to the Future fans, the delivery date coincides with Marty McFly’s fictional arrival in the “future” — 10/21/2015.

If you’ve got the money, it’s a neat investment. A writer for GigaOM took a test ride and described the experience like “standing on a giant air hockey puck hovering three quarters of an inch above the ground.” It’s got a ways to go, and it won’t be zipping around kitschy visions of the future anytime soon. But the tech has great promise and for more than nerd fantasies.

http://www.ecnmag.com/blogs/2014/10/our-cups-runneth-over-%E2%80%93-hoverboard-real

A new sensor development could aid those suffering from Alzheimer’s

A.J. Watts, Editorial Intern – ECN Magazine

SmartThings is a DIY home automation system that connects sensors and smart devices with a wireless hub. In addition to sensors, the system can loop in smart thermostats, smart plugs, door locks, and surveillance cameras. Now there isn’t a constant need for someone to always be there. They can have their own independence without being completely alone. SmartThings is very customizable and works easily with third-party sensors. It also doesn’t require a monthly fee, unlike many other systems.

CNN reports that, “Wearable devices can also track health and behaviors, and built-in accelerometers can pick up on physical changes or tell when a wearer has fallen. Tempo is a wristband for seniors that picks up on lapses in routine or changes in gait that might indicate mental or physical deterioration.”

These incredible new technologies primarily focus upon the safety of our loved ones as well. “Often, decisions about care are made when safety becomes an issue” said Beth Kallmyer, vice president of constituent services for the Alzheimer’s Association. Tools like these sensors “can allow people to feel more comfortable” and help to make sure the transition is easier.

Along with safety, they need to be allowed to have their privacy.

A man named Phil D’Eramo chose to tell his parents about the system he set up in their senior housing. He uses sensors to make sure they take their pills and tracks how many times his father goes to the bathroom at night—information that gets passed on to his doctor. His father, who has Alzheimer’s, said it makes him feel more comfortable to know his son is monitoring him.

We are only at the ground-level of this kind of sensor technology. These sensors are by no means a replacement for the human component, but it is giving Alzheimer’s patients the opportunity to have a degree of extended freedom and independence.

This blog was taken directly from ECN Magazine – http://www.ecnmag.com/blogs/2014/09/new-sensor-development-could-aid-those-suffering-alzheimer%E2%80%99s?et_cid=4163908&et_rid=449555565&type=headline