New’s of the week selected by Impactscool – March 25th
25 March 2019 | Written by La redazione
The most important news about future and technology selected by Impactscool team
A protection system for connected medical devices
Connected medical devices, such as pacemakers, could be the victim of hacker attacks within a few years. For this reason, a research group of Purdue University has developed a system that prevents the signals of these devices from moving away from the body of the owner, to avoid eavesdropping on the bad guys. This system would create a sort of digital protective shield, reducing the external extension of the signal so that it adheres to the user’s body like a dress.
Mobot, the robotic and autonomous shopping cart
MoBot is the new robotic shopping cart, it is already operative in Peccioli, a medieval village in the upper Valdera, in the province of Pisa. Powered by an app installed on the user’s smartphone, MoBot, an acronym for Mobile Robot, is able to transport the purchased goods safely and independently to the users’ home. It is developed by Mediate Srl, a spin-off company of the Sant’Anna High School, with the involvement of the BioRobotics Institute. MoBot could be a fundamental help to keep these small villages alive, improving the quality of life of citizens.
CRISPR modified food soon on the market?
Genetically modified foods with CRISPR are safe to eat. Or at least that is what a group of scientists affirmed, they published a document claiming that the safety rules to adopt before putting these products on the market must be the same as those of all the other foods. “There is little difference between traditional farming methods and genetic modification in terms of safety,” said Hirohito Sone, an endocrinologist at the University of Niigata who chaired the expert group. Now the speech passes to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. His green light would represent a historic step towards the spread of these foods.
Allert system for pedestrians distracted by smartphones
According to data from the Traffic Analysis System in South Korea, in 2017 there were over 1,600 dead pedestrians invested. Most of these incidents were caused by distraction “from a smartphone”. For this reason, in Ilsan, a city not far from Seoul, the administration has decided to run for cover and launch a pilot project, with a special alert system. The Korean institute for civil engineering and building technology has developed an experimental system that involves the use of intermittent sensors and lights. Moreover, near the crossings, a special app will signal the danger directly on the pedestrian’s smartphone, in order to avoid the risk of accidents without forcing him to look away from the phone.
A new artificial island in Hong Kong
To tackle the land shortage, the city of Hong Kong is planning to build one of the most ambitious artificial islands in the history. The Lantau Tomorrow Vision project would cost $ 79 billion and give the city an additional 1,000 hectares of land, to build 260,000 new residential properties. However, opponents are not lacking: a group called Save Lantau. It’s putting pressure on the government. “This will be Hong Kong’s most expensive, complex and risky infrastructure project”, the group said in a statement.
On March 22nd, we celebrated the International Water Day. For the occasion, the United Nations had created the World Report on the Development of Water Resources 2019. The access to clean and safe water should be a basic and fundamental right, but despite this there are two billion people in the world living in countries at high levels of water stress. This situation, the report explains, is destined to worsen: the demand for water, the report clarifies, is constantly increasing due to population growth, changing consumption patterns, socio-economic development and climate change.
