Year: 2024

The upcoming issue of TECHNOLOGY | ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN (TAD) seeks submissions that critically investigate the potential of generative systems in the allied design fields.

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Smart roads with advanced vehicle-sensing capabilities could be the linchpin of future intelligent transportation systems and could even help extend driverless cars‘ perceptual range. A new approach that fuses camera and radar data can now track vehicles precisely at distances of up to 500 meters.

Real-time data on the flow and density of traffic can help city managers avoid congestion and prevent accidents. So-called “roadside perception,” which uses sensors and cameras to track vehicles, can help create smart roads that continually gather this information and relay it to control rooms.

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Holographic images have real depth because they are three dimensional, whereas monitors merely simulate depth on a 2D screen. Because we see in three dimensions, holographic images could be integrated seamlessly into our normal view of the everyday world.

“Holography could make virtual and augmented reality displays easily usable, wearable, and ultrathin,” said Heide. They could transform how we interact with our environments, everything from getting directions while driving, to monitoring a patient during surgery, to accessing plumbing instructions while doing a home repair.

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The NeuCyber Array BMI System, a self-developed brain-machine interface (BMI) system from China, was unveiled at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum) on Thursday in Beijing.

At the forum, a video demonstration revealed a remarkable feat: a monkey with its hands restrained and soft electrode filaments implanted in its brain, controlled an isolated robotic arm and grasped a strawberry by simply using its “thoughts.”

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A SpaceX rocket is due to launch this year — the exact date has yet to be confirmed — carrying a simple 4G network to the Moon. The lander will install the system at the Moon’s south pole and then it will be remotely controlled from Earth.

“The first challenge to getting a network up and running is having a space-qualified cellular equipment that meets the appropriate size, weight, and power requirements, as well as being deployed without a technician,” Walt Engelund, deputy associate administrator for programs at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, told CNN. No less of a challenge, it will need to operate in the harsh lunar environment of extreme temperatures and radiation.

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Computer science students at the University of Toronto are learning how to incorporate ethical considerations into the design and development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence with the help of a unique undergraduate initiative.

The Embedded Ethics Education Initiative (E3I) aims to provide students with the ability to critically assess the societal impacts of the technologies they will be designing and developing throughout their careers. That includes grappling with issues such as AI safety, data privacy and misinformation.

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In a remarkable moment for the building decarbonization movement, 70 countries signed the Declaration de Chaillot in Paris on March 8, promising to center buildings in their national climate policies. The agreement commits its signatories to systemic, sufficiency-first strategies and endorses a raft of regulatory, financial, and private-sector tools to achieve them.

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STEM and STEAM differ by the letter ‘A:’ the Arts. As motivation, consider an alternate ‘A’: Apple, Inc. Presently the most highly-valued publicly-traded company, one might speculate which competitive advantages have helped it realize this position. While underlying circuits, algorithms, and associated engineering are clearly important contributors to Apple’s success, their masterful integration with world-class design — both of physical, visual, and interaction varieties — has been central to Apple’s attainments.

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Resource

Faculty:

Brygg Ulmer

As researchers and practitioners seek to operationalize peripheral interaction, many key questions remain unresolved. Where might such technologically-mediated interventions best be deployed? What might they look like? How might such deployments age and evolve through time?Toward engaging these questions, one path is to consider related exemplars from centuries past, and use these to inform forward looking prototypes and envisionments. With an eye toward the future of peripheral interaction and as description of our particular trajectory, we begin by reflecting on early “tangible bits” peripheral interaction experiences. We follow these with ancient examples from the walls of Lascaux, Ur, and Babylon. Drawing from these inspirations, we illustrate and discuss three grounding envisionments upon the halls and walls of habitable spaces.

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Resource

Faculty:

Brygg Ulmer

Alexandre Siqueira

Chris Branton

Miriam Konkel

The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture is excited to announce a new initiative, the ANFA Doctoral Platform, inviting early career and doctoral researchers from all levels to participate and present at this upcoming event series.

The platform presents an invaluable opportunity for prospective participants to share their work with a wider audience of academia and practice and provide an opportunity to receive feedback or inspire future researchers in neuro-design related fields investigating human neurophysiological response to the built environment.

The first meeting took place February 29, 2024 with presenters Dr. Sneha Jain, Qi Yang, and Nour Tawil. More information about the platform can be found here.