A recent conversation with a friend got me thinking of the intersection between technology, design, the preservation and flourishing of traditional handicrafts, and communities.
The Indian handicraft industry is a highly labor intensive one, with more than 7 million artisans, a majority of whom are women and largely underprivileged.
This industry, which is traditionally a major source of revenue generation in rural India, has been in decline (though there have been several efforts to support it), and has been hit hard by the pandemic as well.
What are the glaring gaps in the market for traditional craft? (specific to India, but this could apply to the world as well). To my mind the key gaps are in design, and in business building capacities.
Local artisans lack the ability to meet the needs of new markets and are forced to find low unskilled employment in urban industries. One of the major factors contributing to this is that artisans are not trained to contemporize their designs.
In this article, I’d like to focus on design and the role technology can play in meeting the current gaps.
While some work has been done on modernizing design, a lot of craft continues to center around traditional design, often not appealing to modern sensibilities, and thus not being able to build the foundation of a sustainable business. How can technology help? For example, AI techniques have been leveraged for emulating creativity and imagination – for image generation, style-transfer, image-to-image translation; for pattern generation, and color-transfer etc.
An interesting study (Raviprakash et al., May 2019) describes how AI techniques can be used to contemporize design, while keeping the underlying technique unchanged. It generated colored motifs and patterns that can be manufactured into physical products. This study experimented with using AI on the popular IKAT weave. Unlike other dyeing techniques, in IKAT the yarn is dyed BEFORE it is woven. This is what gives it its unique shading effect. This property was harnessed by the researchers to create a contemporary design.
The researchers first used a black motif using an AI technique trained on a set of 1000 paintings from a famous European painter, Piet Mondrian, and their gray-scale counterparts. The simplicity of these paintings along with the use of only primitive colors made them an ideal choice for our approach, since the model is able to learn primitive colorization of a motif from a relatively small training dataset.
The model used a generator which colorizes the input and a discriminator that learns to distinguish between the real paintings and the colorized images. The discriminator’s output determines the loss of the generator, which the generator tries to minimize, effectively colorizing images to make them indistinguishable from real paintings.
These motifs were re-colored with colors of an inspiration image using a statistical approach of global color transformation, and the design was post-processed to a grid that could be readily used for dyeing, as each cell is of a single color.
Products manufactured with designs generated using the above approach are found to be much more visually appealing than their traditional counterparts in the present market. Local artisans used these designs to manufacture and sell products successfully.
There are several such examples of how technology can modernize craft without compromising on the underlying uniqueness of a particular craft technique.
Investments need to be made in building such design capacity amongst artisans so they can once again take their place as valued centers of their communities.
Suki Iyer
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Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Aircraft Technology
Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) are some of the latest innovations in the aerospace industry.eVTOL vehicles are electric and function more like a drone.
Large omnidirectional fans assist the aircraft move in various directions and even take off vertically. While designs vary between developers, most seem to resemble the drone form. The future of aerospace mobility deliberately relies on electric vertical take-off and landing (or eVTOL). After years of research and development, a new vehicle class is kicking off to emerge. If eVTOL aircraft reach mass adoption, it could change the way of moving people and cargo.
A new market research study by Value Market Research is forecasting that the global eVTOL Aircraft Market will record healthy growth during the time period 2020 and 2027 and will progress at a CAGR of 20%.
Also, the study projects that the market would accomplish a worldwide valuation of $ 275 million by 2027 with continued opportunities in key enabling technologies, such as aviation-grade batteries, propulsion systems, and electric motors, eVTOL ground infrastructure, and composite materials.
The growing urban population is leading to increasing road traffic congestion in urban areas and is promoting market growth. For instance, according to the United Nations (UN) report, by 2050, about 70% to 80% of the global population is estimated to reside in cities. This has also led to an upsurge in the eVTOLs for air-taxi services. Moreover, air-taxis are intended to meet future demand for regional commutes ranging from 30 miles to 300 miles, thus driving the demand for eVTOLs. With the usage of eVTOLs in the air-taxi services form, aerial travel will be an affordable transport dimension over shorter places.
Along similar lines, the growing need to augment operational efficiency, and to decrease in human intervention for intercity and intracity transportation by means of eVTOLs, are positively influencing the electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft’s market growth. There are several companies and municipal corporations currently working on eVTOL aircraft manufacturing for air mobility solutions,” remarks a study analyst.
Key players in the market such as Volocopter Gmbh, Joby Aviation, Lilium Gmbh, Ehang Holdings Ltd, Airbus SE, and Boeing Co., and others are trying to establish a foothold in regional and global markets. Their strategies majorly revolve around engaging partnerships with governments, technical service providers, infrastructure developers, and public associations. There is a huge level of product innovation, which has led to intense product competition amongst the market participants. Along similar lines, conventional growth strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, and expansions will continue to shape the competitive structure.
On these lines: In 2020, Japan’s SkyDrive and German Volocopter were planning to commercialize eVTOL in Japan by 2023.
In the same year, Bell Textron declared that they are partnering with Japan Airlines and Sumitomo Corporation to determine the on-demand air mobility ecosystem growth in Japan via Bell’s Nexus 4EX eVTOL air taxi.
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In today’s time, technology is even in the deepest corners of each and every existing community of this world.
If I specifically speak about my own journey as an avid user of technology, I’ve been using technology ever since it came into popularity, but the density of use just multiplied by magnitudes when the pandemic hit.
Post-pandemic, things started bending towards creating content rather than just consuming it. Until the pandemic hit, I only used the technology towards a certain tangent and to a limit, which usually included digital classrooms, emails and just some YouTube videos. But, post-pandemic, the limit just became limitless with every dimension, everything just changed.
Things like LinkedIn and Twitter came into my life and with that, creating content became a part of my life henceforth the digital journey became even more vivid and deep. You see, with the purge of this digital era, every single person on this planet has started building their own “digital personality” which generally comes with a cost, the cost of mental stability. Talking about myself, obviously, I am not the same person as I am on any social media platform, because it is just a part of my overall personality and not my only personality.
My journey has been very amazing because I have been witnessing the process of progress in the digital world ever since and it feels genuinely amazing to be a part of such a generation.
I mean with platforms like Google Meet, Zoom call or even Skype you can technically meet any human being in any corner of the world. With platforms like Notion you can basically create a second brain of yours with everything in and out of your brain and even your mind.
With platforms like WhatsApp or messenger you can essentially talk to anybody without even meeting them.
With platforms like Slack and Wurker you can just make a virtual workspace altogether, just like your office.
With things like your own mobile phone or laptops you can just do whatever you want to and possibilities are just endless, literally, you may start tens of businesses just by an internet connection and a good laptop or workstation.
With things like Google Maps or any maps, you can just hop on to any place in the world in your choice of comfort!
I, in my personal as well as my professional life, have been using such beautiful and radical pieces of technology and they have made my life much more efficient, all because of obvious reasons.
As a concluding note, I would just like to mention a cliche which is indeed the truth of the century, which is, “life wouldn’t have been fair without digitalisation”, also now that every digital element is it smartphones, laptops or even the internet is becoming so pocket-friendly with an amazing durability and quality, this saying just makes even more sense!
As you can probably see in the featured image, everything and anything which is visible is pretty much possible because of the digitalisation of major elements of life, be it communicating (telling and listening, not just hearing), expressing, sensing, feeling etc.
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The creative mind and focus on your purpose in life.
I think I was only 3 years old when I sat in my grandmother’s room. Sitting by the table looking out from the window, seeing all the beautiful snow, and the stars caught my interest. I was only 3 years old when I sat and wondered what the meaning of life was.
My childhood was not easy, I had an abusive father who drank a lot of alcohol and chased us with his guns! So, I kind of grew up to be extremely intuitive and ready to run. I had to “read” my father’s energy and temper. This kind of life made me a small problem solver. I did build a small treehouse in the woods.
I built it between 3 trees like a triangle. It was my safe place. I even arranged a small table and chairs there. I did not build windows, not for security reasons only small peak holes so I could see if there was a threat coming. I also did build it 1,5meters from the ground so no animals could “visit”.
I felt it was also my problem-solving “office”. I was proud of it! Luckily my father stopped drinking alcohol and did almost stop all abuse.
I am 43 years now and still a problem solver.
Now from my life to TECH, tech has probably saved my life! I have had the chance to study with mentors from my home, studying everything from physics, laser physics, AI, IoT, Magnetochemistry, and the automotive industry, not to forget the energy business. It has given me happiness and total freedom of choice.
But that is not all, I have studied wolves and their anatomy and also the human being, neurological problems, and hormones. I felt I wanted to learn everything about everything so yes, I did even study all kinds of religion and philosophy of course and history.
No matter what you study, you will have some use of the knowledge when the stars align with you. The saying, throw me to a pack of wolves and watch me return leading the pack! That is very true in my life. I was thrown to the wolves many times.
An example when I came up with the first navigation app for visually impaired people, I did lose the idea even if I was dealing with an organization helping the visually impaired. You see, you can trust the org but perhaps not all the people working there.
In this case, there was a man who stole my idea. The only thing comforting me was the idea that a lot of people did get help from this app all around the world.
Hard to say but boy have I lost a lot of ideas cos I did not afford to make them myself. I had a very hard time getting an investor. I came up with an app when the media had a lot of headlines on rape cases in India. I wanted to help the women there.
And the app was called the family secure app. I got involved with developers in India, they called me Didi(sister). And yes, they became like a family to me and we still have contact after many years. Well, this Idea still exists but has not been made cos I have not got any investors. But maybe someday? Que sera whatever will be will be as they sing!
I am happy for VR during the pandemic. It has helped so many people work remotely. And much more. So now My ideas include VR, AR, MR, and XR. How to implement them in daily life and business.
I am now carefully trying out crowdfunding platforms. The fact is that only 2 % of all female inventors get funding, that figure is scary really. Only 2 %? Why?
When it comes to leadership I see it as a game of chess. The idea concept or innovation is the king, you are the queen and for example, the soldiers can be a patent or also marketing.
You have to consider every step you take, or you will take one step forward and two steps back!
Do not feel small asking for advice from professionals. Do not be too proud. Build a team! If you haven´t got money for salaries well then offer something else like shares in the company.
No matter what, try to build the team, and do not do everything alone like I have been used to doing. You might get some tasks done but not as effective as the energy of a real team.
You do not have to understand everything about Tech, but always try to learn a little bit every day. Maybe reading a book, only one page a day? No matter how slow you learn, as long as there is some kind of progress you will win every time!
So, both women and men, time to come together for a more peaceful world. There is so incredibly much we can do with AI, for example, medicines, operations, automotive, and energy. The list goes on forever as long as we give ourselves credit for thinking outside the box!
And at last, I will share a video of my prototype of a food bowl for toothless pets who either have lost their teeth or have an underbite or have a short nose and are hard to breathe when picking up the food. It might have a futuristic design, but it is working!
And remember, unlearn, relearn, and unlearn again, question everything, and focus on your main purpose in life. I recommend reading Viktor F Frankl’s books on this matter!
Thank you for reading my story! If you feel you want to connect, I can be found on LinkedIn.
Here is a video of my prototype :
Kindest Regards
Heidi Ström, Vaasa, Finland.
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To understand the term Merge, it is important to master certain operating mechanisms of the Blockchain, such as the proof of work (Proof of work) and the proof of stake (proof of stake) algorithm consensus.
The proof of work: is a mechanism by which the different machines (represented by miners) on a blockchain network validate transactions on that network, through a consensus algorithm in this case the proof of work consensus algorithm. Proof of work is done using a set of machines (computers, CPUs, GPUs, Asics etc.) driven by humans called miners. A miner’s role is to secure the network by validating transactions as they appear on the blockchain.
Basically, each transaction corresponds to a mathematical equation whose solution is unknown, when a transaction is carried out on the Bitcoin network for example, the miner whose machine will have the greatest computational capacity will succeed in solving the mathematical equation hidden behind the transaction initiated, will be rewarded with an amount of crypto (Bitcoin) into his wallet. This process is called mining.
Once the transaction has been validated by the winner (miner having validated the transaction) all the other machines (nodes) must validate and approve the transaction as well so that a copy of this transaction will be shared on all the machines involved in the mining process.
This mechanism makes it difficult or even impossible for a hacker to modify the content of the transaction. The hacker will have to modify the copy of that transaction at the same time on more that 50% of the miner’s machine that constitutes the whole network.
Generally, several entities or people join forces and create what are called mining pools in order to have an important computing power in order to validate a large number of transactions faster. The proof of work remains one of the most secure computer systems in the world. although it has certain limitations such as highenergy consumption, low transaction speed, and high transaction costs to name a few.
It is important to recall that the Blockchain Ethereum has also been operating under proof of work since its creation in 2015 and wanted to change the consensus mechanism for ecological and scalability reasons. Several alternatives have been proposed to overcome this problem, but one of the most important ones remains the Proof of Stake consensus algorithm.
Proof of stake: validates transactions on the network using money staked in wallets. Here to validate transactions on the network, unlike having a machine (GPUs, ASICs) whose computing capacity must be huge, validators must store a require amount of crypto (money) in their wallet defined by the developers of the blockchain in question, so they can participate in securing the network by validating transactions. The higher the amount, the more likely the validator is to validate a transaction, and in return earn some reward (money in the form of crypto).
In order to prepare for the transition from proof of work to proof of stake, the developers of the Ethereum blockchain set up in December 2020 a network called Beacon Chain (Consensus Layer) which is a separate blockchain from the Ethereum mainnet, running in parallel but never having processed any transaction on the main network. The Beacon chain uses the proof of stake consensus algorithm.
The MERGE is simply the fuse of the main Ethereum network (main net) which works under the proof of work with the Beacon Chain which works under the proof of stake consensus.
One of the objectives of MERGE is to reduce the significant energy consumption generated by proof work consensus algorithm. It is important to remember that The Merge is only the first step for a total migration from proof of work to proof of stake for the Ethereum Blockchain. There are several others steps such as:
Ø The Surge: whose objective will be to increase the number of transactions per second commonly called scalability so that the Ethereum network can reach the up to hundred thousand transactions per second. To carry out this step, the developers will use a network partitioning technique called sharding, which consists of dividing the network into several parts called shards, so that the transaction processing calculation will be shared among the network, therefore more digestible and faster.
Ø The verge: which will make it possible to set up the Verkle tree (an improvement of the Merkle tree) which will allow network participants to be validators without having to store a large amount of data on their machines (computers).
Ø The Purge: which will be a continuation and improvement of the previous step “the Verge”
Ø The Splurge: which will constitute a series of updates to the Protocol.
What we must remember from this important step (The Merge), the transaction costs will not be reduced, the transaction speed will not change either, since all these improvements will be integrated into the future steps listed above. On the other hand, what will change, will be the reduction in Energy consumption of nearly 99%, the issuance of tokens which will be reduced by 90% (the quantity of tokens in circulation will reduce), and the reward system as well.
I am a freelance Blockchain consultant, reach out to me and I would love to help you more on this future technology.
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There is a palpable sense of skepticism in many with regards to the promise of inclusivity in Web3. Many believe that all talk of decentralization is a mere hype and is not implementable.
When one looks at the Metaverse players across various layers and that the metaverse market is projected to be worth $12Tn by 2030, the values of pay-parity, equity and inclusivity need to be lived in and by the Metaverse players.
Are there companies working on inclusivity and equity in places like Africa and economically backward countries?
Are there real possibilities to generate revenue and employment for the deprived or underprivileged classes of our society, with Web3 technologies?
The internet had made similar promises in the beginning and the utopian dream died within years of its inception. If we look at the internet today, there are pockets of improvement in revenue generation in rural and tribal populations but largely, it has skewed more, making the privileged a little more privileged.
Hence, considering the promise of Web3 in decentralization and self-sufficiency in revenues, this article attempts to provide scenarios across various layers of Metaverse as depicted below, to make this utopian ideal a reality.
The Artisan Community and Indian Craft
As an ancient civilization that has birthed many cultures and has seen numerous migrations and invasions, India has a rich heritage in the field of arts.
Craft as a term was historically limited to “goods worked by hand” but now includes a broader canvas – all things art, like Music, Dance, Painting, Sculptures, Textiles etc. Even if we limit Indian craft to “Handicrafts” across states, the variety in art form and media is unparalleled.
The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) is a nodal agency for promoting exports of handicrafts from India to various destinations of the world and projecting India’s image abroad as a reliable supplier of high-quality handicrafts goods & services.
The Handicrafts exports during the year 2021-22 was Rs.33253.00 Crores (US$4459.76 Million) registering a growth of 29.49% in rupee terms & 28.90% in dollar terms over previous year1. While the growth is promising especially from a tourism perspective, this may have a miniscule impact on the overall rating of India as the Vishwaguru.
Revenue Generation for Artisans, while preserving the Art Heritage
The fast-paced Digital Age is only going to get faster with Industry 4.0. With technologies like VR/AR, 3D-Scanning and 3D-Modeling, 3D-Printing as well as Web 3.0 constructs (and buzzwords) like the NFT, Metaverse and Blockchain, the craft Industry has all the components aligned for that leapfrog moment.
A lot of artisan communities and tribal art communities in India are now extinct and some on the verge of extinction – this is a challenge that uniquely presents itself to us as an opportunity if we leverage the technologies mentioned above.
Industry 4.0 terms Technology as a driver of change, and not merely an enabler. We should look to harness this driver for Indian Craft and the numerous communities associated with it.
There is a need to look at Indian Craft holistically, including all forms of fine art and performing arts, compounded by technology and tourism. We Illustrate these possibilities by taking the famous Channapatna Toys from Karnataka, as an example. They are protected as a Geographical Indication (GI) under the World Trade Organisation administered by the Government of Karnataka.
Channapatna Toys could be put up on an artisan marketplace in the Metaverse. The artisan would be able to directly engage in selling goods in 3D and voice-interact with consumers worldwide. With technologies like 3D-scanning and 3D-printing, consumers worldwide would be able to see, touch and feel these products via Haptic technologies and also view the story of the artisan behind it.
Such multi-sensory experiences are disruptive and could help consumers in accelerating their buying decisions, something the Internet has not been able to achieve.
Consumers will not only get to pick up local artisans’ produce but also engage with them and know more about our culture, traditions and heritage from their standpoint. The same product, once digitized, could be converted to limited edition NFTs during special seasons. The underlying financial technology could be powered by Digital Ledger Technology (DLT) or Blockchain, keeping the transaction decentralized, bereft of middle-men.
Imagine the access for the artisans to the entire Indian Diaspora across the world and imagine the ease of access and purchase for the consumers, at large. This will also help the Artisans transfer knowledge to the next generation, a large number of who are looking for better economic opportunities in cities.
As mentioned earlier, this is the main reason why India has lost a lot of tribal and native art. With metaverse and ancillary technologies, the hope is that we will be able to reverse this trend and preserve art heritage for posterity while making it economically viable for the artisans at scale, something that is unknown and unprecedented in today’s times.
Early traction in such technology-driven soft power can certainly propel India onto the world stage and make traditional Indian artisans global celebrities, giving them the much needed recognition and respect.
Conclusion
Indian Heritage and Culture is multi-layered, with each layer having the capability to catapult India’s soft-power quotient. One could experience it through ancient monuments, scriptures, textiles, crafts, music, dance, food, sports, folktales and many more.
There is a need to look at each of these layers from a Technology and Tourism standpoint, the intent being to preserve and propagate Heritage and Cultures of the world, including the most backward communities.
If deployed across other art-forms like paintings, pottery, sculptures, textiles, and even artists like musicians and dancers, Artisans worldwide have tremendous potential to earn from a global market without boundaries.
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For an entrepreneur and a technologist like myself, the potential of Web3 bringing in a Hardware manufacturing and R&D revolution in India, feels like music to the ears. India has long been viewed as a cheaper alternative for software services, an industry largely responsible for creating millionaires and scores of ambitious tech entrepreneurs.
Now, with the Hitech Manufacturing facilities being set up in various states, including Mysore and Bangalore, it’s time the world takes notice of India for their high-end hardware needs.
India – The Potential
India is the fastest-growing trillion-dollar economy in the world and the fifth-largest overall, with a nominal GDP of $2.94 trillion. India became the fifth-largest economy in 2019, overtaking the United Kingdom and France.
India is expected to overtake Germany to become fourth-largest economy in 2026 and Japan to become third largest in 2034, according to a recent report by the UK-based Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).
The Indian Software services industry contributes 8% to the overall GDP currently (from 1.2% in 1998), and is among its largest contributors.
India is blessed with a demographic dividend – 60% of the 1.3Bn population being under 35 years of age. Compared to other Asian giants like China and Japan, India is in an extremely favorable position to chart out a growth trajectory for the 21st century, especially in tech sectors like Hitech Manufacturing, Semiconductors, Device Hardware etc.India has been striving to attract foreign investment across sectors and is steadily climbing up the ladder as far as ease of doing business is concerned, worldwide.
India is also the second largest mobile phone market in the world, next only to China.
The government is taking steps to boost local manufacturing through initiatives such as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing, Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS), and the scheme for modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC2.0). Recently, the announcement of India’s first semiconductor plant to be setup in Mysore at a cost of ₹22,900 crore ($3 billion), has ushered-in a new wave of focus on hardware across the nation.
The semiconductor plant is expected to generate 1,500 high-tech and high-caliber jobs, and about 10,000 ancillary jobs, according to K.S. Sudheer, General Manager, Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM), Mysore Cluster.
Opportunities in Hardware Development with Web3
As far as systems’ topology for Web3 is concerned, the visualization landscape is driven by VR/AR. For decades, VR has seemed like a futuristic dream that is just around the corner, but never reaches its full potential.
This time, however, might really be different. Recent advances in the power of VR hardware, notably the headsets and processors used to produce realistic VR experiences, suggest that VR is finally powerful enough and cheap enough to go mainstream.1 It, however, remains clunky and heavy leading to a cognitive loss of immersion for the user.
To add to it, multi-sensory experiences demand peripheral wearables like Haptic Gloves and suits, among others, further depleting the embodied cognition necessary for Web3 immersive experiences. In fact, one of the reasons for VR not being adopted mainstream is the weight and discomfort with the present HMDs (Head-Mounted Devices).
R&D Opportunities with Head-Mounted Devices
This is a great opportunity for India to shine with indigenous R&D that could not only look to reduce the size and increase the comfort of these HMDs but also price them so as to disrupt the global market.
In terms of XR devices, a beginning has been made with JioGlass (Tesseract) and AjnaLens but complete indigenous technology across the supply-chain is still undeveloped. Some of the areas for R&D include assessment of the underlying optics technology in HMDs. For example, a technique called polarization-based optical folding is a way to design lenses so light bounces in the right way to the human eye so on-screen images are displayed properly—but the light doesn’t need to physically travel as far as it does in traditional optics. That makes the space needed for VR optics smaller.
The other technique under consideration is holographic optics, an optics technology that “bends light like a lens but looks like a thin, transparent sticker”. Holographic optics replace glass or plastic lenses, making the resulting VR headset much lighter. In fact, these advances could make the VR headsets of tomorrow, with proposed designs less than 10mm in thickness. Meta is at the forefront of this research with large investments.2
Clearly, the stakes are high and so is the investment. It’s definitely a bus India cannot afford to miss. Timely interventions have already been initiated by the Govt.
Our innovative minds need to be brought together from multiple domains like Physics, Material Sciences, Nanotechnology, Neurosciences etc. across research institutes like IITs, IISc to help crack the pilot-prototype-fabrication-commercialization cycle.
R&D Opportunities with Multi-sensory Peripheral Devices
Today, research into multi-sensory experiences yields peripheral devices for each sensory experience – Gloves and Suits for Haptics (touch), scent-based devices (smell) and gustatory (taste) devices.
A person who wants to be immersed in the virtual world should have no cognition of the real world. In this case, however, the user is well aware of these devices clinging to him, thanks to their weight and design, thereby hampering the experience and the power of Web3, for the user.
The opportunity, therefore, is to look at an integrated multi-sensory device as well as BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) capabilities that can be leveraged to create a seamless, immersive experience for the user. It is noteworthy to mention that initial steps in this regard have been undertaken at various IITs, especially IIT Chennai (Haptics), IIT Jodhpur (Sensory Devices) and IIT Bhubaneswar.
A Defense-Academia-Industry collaborative setup would help accelerate targeted research into design and usage of such devices.
This has huge potential for India in terms of IP ownership, Manufacturing and Commercialization, on a global scale. The aesthetics and function of these devices are equally important. These devices should be disruptive and act as lifestyle products which could yield greater market access globally.
Conclusion
Some of you reading this article may have your own ideas/concepts. The need of the hour is to institutionalize hardware R&D for Web3 and execute it on mission-mode much like what India did with institutions like ISRO and BARC.
It’s time for the world to take note of India as a viable and necessary market and destination for hardware launches and cutting-edge research & development in hardware manufacturing and testing. India needs to set itself up and be laser-focused on the path of R&D, Aesthetics and Commercialization of indigenous hardware for Web3, to realize that leapfrog moment.
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There is no doubt about it – Metaverse is the next Internet and is here to stay for a couple of generations, if not more. It is also a natural evolution from today’s 2D Internet to be able to experience the Digital Universe in 3D! With today’s technology advancements and research, if we can plug 2 technologies into the Metaverse, it would be a limitless opportunity.
What are these 2 technologies, you ask? Sensory technologies involving Olfactory and Gustatory systems. In simpler terms, Smell and Taste, respectively. With the pandemic having affected many people with the loss of sense and taste and they having reported a loss of interest in life owing to the sensory loss, it makes sense to build these technologies for the Metaverse.
Why Sensory Technologies
You may be familiar with the reductionist philosophy. It’s the practice of analyzing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of its simple or fundamental constituents, especially when this is said to provide a sufficient explanation.
Quoting few examples from Britannica1, the ideas that physical bodies are collections of atoms or that a given mental state (e.g., one person’s belief that snow is white) is identical to a particular physical state (the firing of certain neurons in that person’s brain) are examples of reductionism.
With advances in neuroscientific research in the last century, there is an existence of what is known as Cortical Homunculus. A cortical homunculus is a distorted representation of the human body, based on a neurological “map” of the areas and proportions of the human brain dedicated to processing motor functions, or sensory functions, for different parts of the body. A 2D representation of the sensory homunculus is shown below.
Fig.1 A 2D Cortical Sensory homunculus
All signals are received by the primary sensory cortex in the brain. The amount of cortex devoted to any given body region is not proportional to that body region’s surface area or volume, but rather to how richly innervated that region is.
Areas of the body with more complex and/or more numerous sensory or motor connections are represented as larger in the homunculus, while those with less complex and/or less numerous connections are represented as smaller.2You’d notice that the significant amount of brain-processing is accorded to sensory functions, including those of taste and smell.
If we are to look at the proposition of Metaverse being an alternate universe and where you are expected to spend considerable amount of time, it has to be capable of attracting your attention not only visually or aurally (as is the case with the 2D internet of today) but as a multi-sensory experience involving haptics (touch), olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) technologies as well.
Hence, it is critical to understand and invest in these sensory technologies and ensure that the promise of Metaverse is realized in entirety.
A Sneak Peek into Multi-sensory Prototypes and Ongoing Research
A lot of research and development has gone into haptic (touch) technologies with many commercially available solutions as well. Since the solutions are fairly established, we will focus on research into olfactory and gustatory technology.
Olfactory Prototypes and Research
As far as olfactory technologies are concerned, considerable research is being performed on classification and extraction of scents so as to define the exact sense stimulus in the brain which then can be simulated using ergonomic hardware.
According to Judith Amores, a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, whose work is focused on scent and virtual reality – “People don’t really appreciate the sense of smell,” she said. “It’s actually so important, it’s so unexplored, and it’s so powerful.”3
OVR Technologies, a Burlington, Vermont-based startup, is one of the few companies developing this technology for Virtual Reality. While reproducing real-world odors with chemicals is challenging, it opens up new possibilities in nostalgic experiences as odor is associated with memories. With earlier 5D systems, scent technology had certain issues, namely the mixing up and lingering of scents long after the experience. This is being fixed with AI-driven algorithms that trigger various odors and control their intensity, duration among other parameters.
Lastly, there is research on olfactory-powered deaddiction programs in Virtual Reality, which could prove to be a panacea in the Metaverse. Closer home, research into olfactory is ongoing at various institutes includingIIT, Jodhpur.
Gustatory Prototypes and Research
Research into gustatory prototypes is in its early days. The idea is to simulate taste in the physical world first and then look to replicate it in the virtual world. The “lickable screen,” called the “Norimaki Synthesizer,” uses five different gels, each corresponding to the five tastes the human tongue can distinguish between — salty, acidic, bitter, sweet, and umami.
By weakening and strengthening these five different tastes through the use of electrical currents, the device can reproduce any “arbitrary taste,” according to the research.4 “Like an optical display that uses lights of three basic colors to produce arbitrary colors, this display can synthesize and distribute arbitrary tastes together with the data acquired by taste sensors,” said Homei Miyashita, researcher atMeiji University, Japan.
In a recent development, A team at the Carnegie Mellon University, a private institution in Pittsburgh, US, have made it possible for users to feel the virtual world in and on their mouth, without making physical contact. What the user can feel are tactile sensations such as drinking from a water fountain, wind on the face.5 Project Nourished, a VR food start-up, has been experimenting with technology to trick taste buds and promote sustainability.6
Conclusion
Metaverse is here to stay and become an integral part of who we are. Multi-sensory metaverse, in its complete form, will not only make it real and immersive but will also open up new industry verticals hitherto unknown as of today. A paradigm shift is also possible in Hospitality, Travel & Tourism and Entertainment industries with such technologies.
There is huge potential to be at the forefront of research and commercialization of such technologies in India – Tasty food for thought for investors and research institutes across the country!
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Level 0 – No Automation. The human at the wheel steers, brakes, accelerates, and negotiates traffic.
Level 1 – Driver Assistance. …
Level 2 – Partial Automation. …
Level 3 – Conditional Automation. …
Level 4 – High Automation. …
Level 5 – Full Automation.
Researchers forecast that by 2025 we’ll see approximately 8 million autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles on the road. Before merging onto roadways, self-driving cars will first have to progress through 6 levels of driver assistance technology advancements.
What exactly are these levels? And where are we now?
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines 6 levels of driving automation ranging from 0 (fully manual) to 5 (fully autonomous). These levels have been adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Level 0 (No Driving Automation)
Most vehicles on the road today are Level 0: manually controlled. The human provides the “dynamic driving task“ although there may be systems in place to help the driver. An example would be the emergency braking system―since it technically doesn’t “drive” the vehicle, it does not qualify as automation.
Level 1 (Driver Assistance)
This is the lowest level of automation. The vehicle features a single automated system for driver assistance, such as steering or accelerating (cruise control). Adaptive cruise control, where the vehicle can be kept at a safe distance behind the next car, qualifies as Level 1 because the human driver monitors the other aspects of driving such as steering and braking.
Level 2 (Partial Driving Automation)
This means advanced driver assistance systems or ADAS. The vehicle can control both steering and accelerating/decelerating. Here the automation falls short of self-driving because a human sits in the driver’s seat and can take control of the car at any time. TeslaAutopilot and Cadillac (General Motors) Super Cruise systems both qualify as Level 2.
Level 3 (Conditional Driving Automation)
The jump from Level 2 to Level 3 is substantial from a technological perspective, but subtle if not negligible from a human perspective.
Level 3 vehicles have “environmental detection” capabilities and can make informed decisions for themselves, such as accelerating past a slow-moving vehicle. But―they still require human override. The driver must remain alert and ready to take control if the system is unable to execute the task.
Almost two years ago, Audi (Volkswagen) announced that the next generation of the A8―their flagship sedan―would be the world’s first production Level 3 vehicle. And they delivered. The 2019 Audi A8L arrives in commercial dealerships this Fall. It features Traffic Jam Pilot, which combines a lidar scanner with advanced sensor fusion and processing power (plus built-in redundancies should a component fail).
However, while Audi was developing their marvel of engineering, the regulatory process in the U.S. shifted from federal guidance to state-by-state mandates for autonomous vehicles. So for the time being, the A8L is still classified as a Level 2 vehicle in the United States and will ship without key hardware and software required to achieve Level 3 functionality. In Europe, however, Audi will roll out the full Level 3 A8L with Traffic Jam Pilot (in Germany first).
Level 4 (High Driving Automation)
The key difference between Level 3 and Level 4 automation is that Level 4 vehicles can intervene if things go wrong or there is a system failure. In this sense, these cars do not require human interaction in most circumstances. However, a human still has the option to manually override.
Level 4 vehicles can operate in self-driving mode. But until legislation and infrastructure evolves, they can only do so within a limited area (usually an urban environment where top speeds reach an average of 30mph). This is known as geofencing. As such, most Level 4 vehicles in existence are geared toward ridesharing. For example:
NAVYA, a French company, is already building and selling Level 4 shuttles and cabs in the U.S. that run fully on electric power and can reach a top speed of 55 mph.
Alphabet’s Waymo recently unveiled a Level 4 self-driving taxi service in Arizona, where they had been testing driverless cars―without a safety driver in the seat―for more than a year and over 10 million miles.
Canadian automotive supplierMagna has developed technology (MAX4) to enable Level 4 capabilities in both urban and highway environments.
They are working with Lyft to supply high-tech kits that turn vehicles into self-driving cars.Just a few months ago, Volvo and Baidu announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop Level 4 electric vehicles that will serve the robotaxi market in China.
Level 5 (Full Driving Automation)
Level 5 vehicles do not require human attention―the “dynamic driving task” is eliminated. Level 5 cars won’t even have steering wheels or acceleration/braking pedals. They will be free from geofencing, able to go anywhere and do anything that an experienced human driver can do. Fully autonomous cars are undergoing testing in several pockets of the world, but none are yet available to the general public!
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The healthcare industry is not yet ready for digitalization, but blockchain technology has the potential to transform how healthcare is delivered.
There are numerous potential blockchain applications in the healthcare industry, and it is critical to investigate all of them in order to fully realize the technology’s potential. However, let us discuss the TELEMEDICINE technology that has so far been used in the healthcare industry.
With the rise of telemedicine technology, more revolutionaries are turning to health tech to improve global health and well-being. Users can consult doctors and other medical professionals from the comfort of their own homes, thanks to telemedicine (be it in rural, remote, or urban areas). It has grown so quickly that everyone wants to have access to high-quality services.
Telemedicine has numerous advantages, including convenience, improved access to healthcare, quick response time, reduced workload on local medical personnel, and lower cost.
Benefits of Telemedicine
Convenience is one of telemedicine’s biggest advantages. Patients are no longer required to miss work or travel long distances to see a doctor. They can simply log into a telemedicine platform and have a doctor consult with them from the comfort of their own homes at a lower cost. This is advantageous to everyone, especially those living in rural areas where it is difficult to obtain quality healthcare at an affordable cost.
Patients can consult doctors and other medical professionals via telemedicine from anywhere in the world, at any time. This means that patients in rural areas will be able to access high-quality healthcare without having to travel long distances.
Telemedicine also saves time, money, travel expenses, and time away from work. Furthermore, telemedicine is frequently less expensive than in-person care. This is due to the fact that telemedicine platforms frequently have lower overhead costs than traditional healthcare practices.
In light of all of this, it is clear that telemedicine is a game-changing way to improve healthcare access and achieve global goal 3 for all. It is convenient and inexpensive, and it allows patients to consult qualified medical professionals from any location and at any time using their devices. Telemedicine is transforming the healthcare industry worldwide. Consider what blockchain and telemedicine can accomplish together. It would change how we get quality healthcare, keep health records, authenticate medications, and more.
Blockchain technology can be used to create a secure, decentralized platform for storing and sharing patient data. Streamline clinical trials, research initiatives, and the authenticity of pharmaceutical and medical supplies.
One potential application for blockchain is the secure storage and sharing of patient data. In the past, there has been news of patient data being stolen within individual healthcare organizations, making it difficult to share information between providers.
This has resulted in inefficiency in healthcare delivery and has put patients at risk when records are not properly handled and updated. Most developing countries now lack centralized, up-to-date, paperless medical information about their patients. This has made it difficult for organized bodies to obtain concise data or information about the state of health in some countries.
To achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, it is critical to find solutions that can help to address this issue, such as the use of blockchain as a means to save and protect users’ medical data.
Blockchain technology provides a decentralized system for storing and sharing patient data. This would enable the healthcare provider to obtain any information required at any time and from any location. It would also protect users’ data, which would only be accessible with the patient’s permission.
Furthermore, blockchain can aid in ensuring the authenticity of data collected during clinical trials and research. Clinical research data must be used to determine the efficacy of a new treatment.
Clinical trials are often complex and time-consuming to coordinate, but blockchain can help to streamline processes by providing a secure, decentralized platform where clinical trial data can be stored and shared.
The part that most leaders haven’t noticed is that blockchain can also help with medical supply chain authentication. Many counterfeit drugs have been sold on the black market, posing a serious threat to the public. Blockchain can aid in ensuring the authenticity of medical records.
By providing tracking technologies powered by smart contracts and nodes, blockchain can help to ensure the authenticity of medical products.
This would ensure that patients receive safe and effective medications while also assisting in the fight against the sale of counterfeit medications.
Building a solution that lasts longer is what inspired the creation of HellthGO, a healthcare adherence provider with the goal of providing quality healthcare services to all individuals at all levels.
HellthGO would be able to reach all parts of Africa with services such as telemedicine, where notable and qualified medical professionals would provide the best healthcare services to all.
HellthGO, in addition to telemedicine, is a social commerce platform where individuals and corporations can learn more about health care, first aid, cures, and healthcare adherence from renowned tutors, raising awareness about maintaining a healthy lifestyle and creating a safe and healthy world.
To make it easier for everyone to afford and access quality healthcare, HellthGO has decided to use blockchain technology to finance our users’ daily expenses and savings through a decentralized wallet that gives users total control over their funds while rewarding them for adhering to a health adherence plan.
This allows our users to transact in both fiat and cryptocurrency and connects them to the HellthGO transchain, where their data is secure and shared in a blockchain-powered decentralized ledger, also assess a comfortable lifestyle where HellthGO provide home delivery of medical product and services through our dispatch partners.
Speaking of other strategies, HellthGO, a health technology startup leveraging blockchain, has developed solutions that work and provide accessible healthcare through telemedicine and more technology built to reward patients for being healthcare compliant.
At least 400 million people have no basic healthcare and more than 1.6 billion people live in fragile settings where protracted crises, combined with a weak national capacity to deliver basic health services, present a significant challenge to global health (UNDP).
By digitalizing the healthcare industry using telemedicine and blockchain, we will be able to achieve good health and well-being for all by the year 2030.
This is the driving force behind HellthGo, the leading decentralized healthcare adherence solution working to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. That is, everyone has access to quality healthcare services, allowing for a reduction in mortality and morbidity rates in most African countries and improving access to healthcare for everyone, regardless of gender, age, religion, political affiliation, or geographical location, thereby increasing life expectancy.
MOST SEARCHED QUESTION
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Web 3.0 healthcare
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