Shuja Shabbir

cool gadgets of the future

Posted on January 28, 2018

The shape of the future (of television)

One of the wildest announcements comes from LG, who showed off a protoype for its rollable display televisions. Why yes, you could lowkey roll up your flat screen like you would a yoga mat. According to CNN, LG showcased a TV that “wraps around a metal cylinder, kind of like a window blind” at the press of a button (or, in one display, it will be able to disappear when not in use), allowing you to store it in a long box. The TVs are said to look like regular TVs, and on display was an 18″ 4K OLED display TV with the tech. It sounds like this tech might be a while before seeing it in our homes at this time; LG is reportedly selling off the tech directly to manufacturers, who will then use it however they see fit in their own electronics. It would make moving that 42″ TV much easier in the future, though.

Smartwatches as medical devices

The Apple Watch might be the most boring thing that Apple has ever made, but the grand plan for it, and smartwatches, in general, isn’t boring at all. More than anything, these glorified messaging machines might save our lives one day.

2017 was the year that the Apple Watch got good, and it was also the year that the FDA approved the first medical device accessory. The Kardiaband is an add-on that can detect an abnormal heart rate. What’s more, a UCSF study found that Apple’s built-in heart monitor could detect an abnormal heart rate with 97 percent accuracy when an AI-based algorithm called DeepHeart was used in conjunction with the device. The same team behind that study later found that the Apple Watch-DeepHeart combo could detect sleep apnea with 90 percent accuracy, and hypertension with 82 percent accuracy. Both of those conditions are quite a chore to detect with the current methods.

It’s still early in the quest to make a smartwatch a magical medical wizard that brings a silver bullet to preventative medicine, but we’re getting there.

Don’t get too excited: Privacy issues abound, and we’re going to have to work them out before this technology matures, not after.

Allergy Amulet is a portable device that can detect food allergens or certain ingredients. It also doubles as a cute piece of jewelery when hung on a necklace.

To use the device, you’ll need to insert a disposable test trip into any suspicious food and pop it in the reader. After a few seconds, the reader will turn red or green to tell you if the food contains the target allergen or ingredient. It can test for milk, soy, dairy, shellfish, finned fish, wheat, eggs and nuts.

Each strip costs $1 to $3 and the reader will cost between $100 to $250. Pre-sales begin this fall and the device will be available in 2019.

Another startup called Nima also showed off pocket-sized devices that test a food sample for the presence of peanut proteins or gluten.Nima’s sensors take about three minutes to test the sample, but the results can be quicker if there is more of an allergen present.

The Nima Gluten Sensor is available now for $289, while the Nima Peanut Sensor is available for pre-order at a discount of $229.

Rollable TV

LG Display — the research arm of LG Electronics — unveiled a prototype of its latest rolling screen technology.

The 4K OLED display resembles a normal TV screen, but the back has small vertical slats which let it roll up around a metal base. You can lower the screen into a box by pressing a button.

But such displays won’t be in electronics stores anytime soon. The company sells the tech directly to display manufacturers, which may or may not use it for their own devices.

BrainRobotics wants to build a new kind of prosthetic limb.

The device uses a band of eight electrodes to detect the electrical signals caused by contracting muscles — called electromyography — when the wearer moves. It collects that information and uses it in an algorithm that learns your habits over time.

When the wearer’s muscles replicate the signal, the prosthetic will move accordingly.

But the real innovation of the device could be its price. It will cost $2,000 to $4,000, less than similar designs. And it will have a modular design that allows the wearer to replace any individual broken pieces instead of having to repair the entire limb.

The year-old company was started in Boston by MIT and Harvard graduates, and was originally part of the Harvard Innovation Lab. The prosthetic is still in the testing phases with with early users like Mincheng Ni (pictured). BrainRobotics hopes to have it in mass production by the end of 2018.

Food gadgets

How long has that block of cheese been in your fridge? You could eat it and find out, or you could try some of these trackers that work with Alexa.

Chicago-based startup Ovie Smarterware is developing food tracking tech. After you tell Amazon’s voice assistant technology what you’re putting in your fridge, it’ll track how many days it can stay fresh.

But you’ll need to strap a little tracker to the food item, and it will turn colors when the cheddar is no longer ideal for eating. Cost: $59 for a set of three.

Self-driving travel bag

China’s ForwardX Robotics demonstrated a four-wheeled travel bag that automatically follows its user around the airport. The smart bag uses cameras and AI to avoid crashes. The device can message the owner if it gets too far away or when the battery power gets low.