Celebrating New Tech
Here at 26 Spring, we celebrate innovators! Innovation is important--it’s what keeps us moving forward as humans, as a society, and even on a personal level. This month we’ll be exploring some ways to innovate in your own life, some of our favorite Amherst-area innovators, and some of the most inspiring recently-released tech.
Let’s kick off with our top 5 recent tech innovations!
1. Virtual Surgery
Companies like Osso VR are providing medical students with an opportunity to practice their operating skills in virtual reality--ensuring that they know the ropes when it’s finally time to operate on real patients! Not only does this technology offer practice, but it also gives medical students in countries that lack resources an opportunity to gain high-level training without having to leave their home countries!
2. Smart Accessibility Devices
We’ve seen a boom in the field of smart accessibility, with the arrival of products such as the OrCam MyEye 2 and Starkey’s Livio AI hearing aids! The OrCam MyEye2 is a pair of glasses equipped with an AI camera that can help visually-impaired users process the world around them! Activated with voice commands, the device can read the wearer the newspaper, restaurant menus, and more. The Livio AI hearing aids function as a smart assistant, able to play music, update the wearer on the news and weather, translate conversations into the wearer’s native language, and even alert your loved ones if you fall!
3. SPF Cosmetics
More and more companies are creating cosmetics with SPF, or Sun Protection Factor, which protects skin from UV rays that can cause premature aging, discoloration, and skin cancer. The beauty industry has long been unregulated, but modern-day consumers are demanding high-quality, safe, and often vegan products. Why not add SPF to the mix as well?
4. Design Inspired by Nature
Humans are...well, everywhere. And for the natural world, our intrusion into coastlines and animal habitats can be disastrous. But what is there to do when a city needs a seawall to protect its residents? Companies like ECOncrete might be the answer. ECOncrete builds seawalls and more, but instead of using the traditional concrete blocks, their builds are based on the shapes of the natural world--ridged, sinuous, textured, and mimicking the shapes that do the job best--the shapes of nature.
5. Greener Meals
From the Impossible Burger (a meatless burger) to hydroponics, the last few years have been full of food innovation. Crops have been genetically engineered to be more drought- and blight-resistant, and plant-based meals have been gaining popularity as food scientists explore new methods to make plant-based eating more appealing to the masses!
If you’re itching to read more about the biggest innovations in tech of the last year, check out Time Magazine’s 100 Best Inventions List, or IBM’s plan to end food scarcity as the global population races towards the 8 billion mark!