New Discoveries Seek Support In The Battle Against COVID19: From Wrist
Bands To AI Tools
The
outbreak of creativity ranges from Toyota and Airbus to luxury products firm
LVMH retooling plants to produce essential devices such as hand sanitizers,
ventilators and masks.
Designer Steve Brooks was talking about coronavirus in his
factory in the west of London last week. What could he do that would allow him
to open a door without the handle touching?
"Everybody needs to use their pinkie or find a little bit
of a door that nobody has reached," said the founder and owner of DDB, a
business that produces furniture. So he created a hook for the job.
The so-called hygiene hood is little enough to suit during a
pocket and made up of a non-porous material, which makes it easy to wash. it's
one among many gadgets dreamt up in recent days and weeks to assist prevent
people from spreading the coronavirus.
From furniture makers to AI software developers, companies
around the world are adapting existing products or inventing new ones to assist
fight the pandemic or simply make life easier for those performing from home,
in hospitals or stuck in quarantine.
The flurry of innovation comes as companies from Ford and Airbus
to luxury goods giant LVMH retool plants to form critical equipment like hand
sanitizers, ventilators and masks.
In years gone it had been large companies like these, with the
financial clout and factories, who typically had to be relied upon to maneuver
rapidly from designing a prototype to manufacturing the merchandise.
A crucial difference now, though, is that 3D printing and
high-tech software mean devices are often produced faster than ever by
companies big and little.
"There will be a lot of people with 3D assets ready to
assist," said MacKenzie Brown, founding father of CAD Crowd, a
California-based product design firm.
Two weeks ago, his company launched a month-long contest for
practical devices for navigating the new coronavirus world.
About 65 entries have poured in, including a wrist-mounted
disinfectant sprayer, half gloves for knuckle-pushing of buttons and a tool
that allows you to open car doors without touching the handle, aimed toward cab
users.
As the pandemic makes people much more conscious of hygiene,
some new products may have a time period beyond the present crisis.
'We had the
algorithm'
Startups are retooling their technology.
In Seattle, brothers Joseph and Matthew Toles and their friend
Justin Ith, who owns a young company called Slightly Robot, had developed a
wristband after college aimed toward reducing compulsive skin-picking,
nail-biting, and hair-pulling.
When their home city reported its first fatalities from the
virus last month, they adapted the planning to make a replacement smart band,
the Immutouch, which buzzes when the wearer's hand goes near their face.
"We had the theory, we had the applications, and then the
hardware. We've repeated it for face-touching," Matthew Toles said during
a conversation. "In one week, we've made 350 computers and an Internet
portal, and now it's how quickly we can build up."
Romanian robotic software company UiPath has meanwhile found how
for nurses within the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital within the Dublin
Dublin to ditch time-consuming data entry and automate the filing of virus test
results. It hopes to duplicate it in other hospitals.
Scylla, a US-based AI company that creates gun detection systems
for schools and casinos, turned its sights on the virus when China, the first
epicenter of the outbreak, reported its first cases three months ago.
It has re-deployed its AI analytics software to live the
temperature of an individual's forehead, sending out an alert if it detects a
fever. Taking images from a thermal camera, the software is often utilized in
public buildings like hospitals and airports, and company offices, chief
technology officer Ara Ghazaryan said.
The government of a South American nation has placed an order
for 5,000 licenses of Scylla's system for its public buildings and transport
system, Ghazaryan said. He declined to call the country.
World War II
Innovation
Global upheaval often spawns new products and innovation.
The current burst of creativity may eventually compare thereto
seen during war Two when companies, governments and scientists began projects
that had lasting consequences.
Technology wont to help guide rockets eventually led to the
primary satellites and putting men on the moon.
"There is no question that inventors would come up with
hundreds, if not thousands, of the innovations," said Kane Kramer,
designer and co-founder of the British Designer Society. He first developed the
concept of streaming music and data in the late 1970s.
"Everyone's downed tools and are only picking them up to
fight the virus. it is a global war."
Many companies are donating their new wares or selling them at
cost price. The CAD Crowd contest designs are free for download and use, for
instance. For some, though, the additional business could provide a financial
cushion as other sources of income evaporate during the pandemic.
DDB designer Brooks near London has worked quickly.
Less than every week after his first design, four different
models of the hook went on sale in the week, selling at slightly below GBP 15
($18.60) each. he's donating one hook for each one he sells.
Now Brooks is popping his creative eye to a different gadget
along similar lines.
"We've already had an invitation from the National Health
Service in Wales about designing something for pushing a door."
For Regular & Fastest Tech News and Reviews, Take After TECHNOXMART on Twitter, Facebook, and Subscribe Here Now. By Subscribing You Will Get Our Daily Digest Headlines Every Morning Directly In Your Email Inbox. 【Join Our Whatsapp Group Here】
No comments:
Post a Comment