Future Spark

Today is a word that has bombarded the media. Proroguing is a word that I have not come across before. It came to light when the UK prime minister has used this unique part of parliamentary legislation - Proroguing What is it? 'Proroguing: verb - discontinue a session of (a parliament or other legislative assembly) without dissolving it.' - Oxford dictionary Who, what, when Looking at the usage history of the word, it seems like it was massive in the 1800's. As time marches on, society evolves, language changes. The nice thing with technology, we can see and compare the frequency of words in literature. Use of proroguing in literature over time Trending Although this word is not new, it is very specific and probably the reason why it is has been harder to slip into general literature and conversation. Try it...it may trend once again. Please feel free to share and comment below. Copyright - Mike Nash 2019

We are in the exciting new frontier of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is hidden in a lot technology and is revolutionising the way we work, or not work so to speak. The machine learning helps cut time, save money as it works tirelessly without needing a toilet break. Where is it going? INTELLIGENCE + AI  = iAi As we rely more on machine based deep learning, there are going to be future issues that will need to be addressed. Who will police it? Like AI injustice for example. Where AI has made a judgement and it is simply wrong, but what can be done about it! Questions will be asked - Is the AI decision correct, fair or legal? There is a solution. I envisage this injustice will manifest in a new service 'Intelligent Artificial Intelligence' checkers or iAi for short! AI police I can see iAi will becoming a societal safety net, spotting blips, wrong decisions or any coding issues that shape potentially bad decisions. It could possibly become another police force in the

Drones are incredibly important for a range of applications. Some of the most exciting applications for drones is use them for deploying medicine, food, supplies, equipment to remote locations. Hover, lift and deliver Most larger drones or quads like the DJI inspire will lift anything from 2-4 pounds in weight and don't have means of attaching or releasing loads. This is where Hoverloads - The payload system comes in. It is an advanced tubular aluminium design simply bolts under the drone/quad. The servo mechanism is then attached to the sub-frame to allow the load to be released easily remotely.  Sketch Sketch of Hoverload How it works Simply attach the load cable to the servo catch. Gently lift the load and fly to your destination. Once flown into position, release the load by pressing the remote button. The signal is transmitted wirelessly either 2.4gHz or 5.8gHz. The servo releases a stainless pin, the cable releases and the load is delivered. The system is d

Plastic mining It's only a matter of time when fossil fuels become a dark distant relative to newer, advance forms of energy production as part of a future concern for climate change and circular economics. As governments and experts fight for the right answers, it will become harder to justify taking natural resources without reason.   There is no doubt that in this struggle for future minds, the cost of extraction will become either too costly or ethically problematic. Technology may hold the key to unlocking energy as well as cleaning up the environment cost-effectively. One possible way is to mine for waste plastic!  Plastic is formed from carbon generated polymers, potentially with huge amounts of energy locked in at a molecular level. Once released, it will help reduce carbon fuel dependency as well reducing waste and pollution. For over 70 years, we have been ploughing spent plastic into our soil and oceans.There is evidence that it could take 1000's of year

There is nothing better than launching a new camera product that has been waiting in the wings for a while. It is time, after development and testing that your baby needs to finally fly! We finally have another cracker..... Solving problems is the key Problem - Monitoring owl boxes can be really difficult. Often we have to sit and watch owls fly in and out of a nest box. However, by popping in an HD camera allows you to enjoy them all-year round. Problem solved.... Problem - Having any noise around the nest box could also potentially be distracting. One way is to extend the viewing away from the box to a transmitter that can transmit a further 100m.  Problem solved.... Problem - Most systems are heavy and need lots of gear. The cable extends to a transmitter. The transmitter creates a WIFI and you are able to record on any phone, tablet and computer. Light, powerful kit!  Problem solved.... Here is how this works. All you do is leave the camera in the box. When you wa

Always excited to hear of the next NASA mission. Apparently, the shiny new 2020 mission is going to include a Rover with 23 cameras! (#1) These high end, bespoke imaging cameras will help landing, monitoring, distance and loads more. The most crucial will be stereoscopic cameras that will help the Rover traverse Mars with ease. So love this technology and shows how important cameras are for science. Image - Copyright NASA HazCams - Hazard avoidance cameras MastCam-Z - Pair of cameras that records colour images and video, 3d stereo images with zoom lens. Perfect for looking at things and first person view SuperCam - Fires a laser at a rock (uptp 20ft) and the camera looks at colours along with the spectrometer - Chemcam PIXL - Micro camera for uses xray to see elemental compositions Sherloc - Macro camera that takes extreme close-ups Watson - One of the cameras on the arm to look at rocks and their textures. Please share and comment below. Thank you. Mike Links

Ocean pollution is a massive problem. Over the last 50 years the world is slowly being choked with waste plastic and other discarded materials and chemicals (#1). Eventually these are breaking down  particles are are being ingested (#2). This has had a dramatic effect on the marine biodiversity around the world. Monitor, learn and solve There are many elements that have contributed to this situation and we are only learning about the possible future effects. In order to understand more about this problem, we need to monitor where pollution is coming from, how it collects and where it goes. By popping in a floating camera logger into the pollution, it will record visual (HD stills) and sensor data as it traverses the earth. This valuable data could then be transmitted via satellite to help understand more. The visual data could then be processed through AI software that could measure evolution of pollution. Sketch Summary Concept - A 360 degree floating camera that films re

New blog...new future . Often I have a cazillion ideas, designs and thoughts that are spilling out of my mind. I have often been asked to put them down on paper or pixels......Hopefully, these ideas, create conversation, change and spark a better future. Please enjoy and interact. Mike Nash