Wearables tracking human health factors isn't new but the communications links can be patchy. French Rugby have recently partnered with the European Space Agency to equip players with GPS-enabled devices to track their positions, speed and physiological details in the hope it can reduce impact & likelihood of concussion. Moving communications to the (earth's) edge will no doubt see more applications scale up.more info:https://www.esa.int/Applications/Navigation/Satnav_watching_over_rugby_players
Voice assistants aren't new, but could they become a vital member of your family and life? Amazon's Alexa plans to move from passive to proactive interactions - that is, pre-empt your request and needs rather than wait for your prompt. How will it anticipate your every whim & need and orchestrate your life? It will need to be omnipresent and get to know you better than ever before (and possibly better than you know yourself). This raises lots of possibilities to improve life, but what of our insatiable appetite for data and the power we derive from it?
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614676/amazon-alexa-will-run-your-life-data-privacy
Energy innovations are critical to reduce the poverty cycle in many communities - at Tech23 we heard of some remote Asian communities where children cycle 8km to charge a battery for 4 hours to power their light & mobiles! Okra Solar is spearheading this new approach to connect communities. Next year their goal is to connect 40K people!!
In parallel, our youth is catalysing the much needed action on climate change. Vanessa & the ClimateClever team have built an app that helps schools & local communities measure, audit and remediate their carbon footprint (and save $ on their utility bills)
An Austrian company was recently awarded funding from US Department Homeland Security (DHS) to develop blockchain security technology to combat forgery and counterfeiting.
By helping DHS implement interoperability between multiple data formats and blockchain-related endeavors— ultimately implementing an innovative distributed ledger solution to combat forgery and counterfeiting in immigration and citizenship documents.
https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2019/09/26/news-release-dhs-st-awards-143k-blockchain-interoperability
Image by rawpixel from Pixabay
In time for Tech23, local alum and Adelaide's emerging scaleup, Presagen has partnered with DTEX & US-federally funded R&D group Mitre.org, to apply its AI technology to a hard cyber challenge - detecting & mitigating insider threats. While initial healthtech focussed, Presagen's AI platform trains on data that is distributed globally without needing to move it or be centralised - an innovation in itself!
Presagen is also solving a more general and critical problem in AI – building robust, scalable and responsible AI products.
Watch this space.
https://www.presagen.com/single-post/2019/09/28/Presagen-to-collaborate
