Voice-recognition has transformed our smart phones into personal assistants—a remarkable feat—but these benefits have thus far left out millions of people with speech or hearing impairments who rely on sign language. There exists no comparable way for computers to capture and act on a dialect of gestures. Until now.
How do you decide which creative projects to back on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter? Are you compelled by a unique story? Do you just donate to your friends? Or do you like to support projects that bring money and impact back to your hometown?
Despite the allure of rapidly expanding renewable energy sources solar and wind, a far less sexy source of green power is already ubiquitous and requires no massive infrastructure investment: recyclable oils. Whether it’s leftover fast food cooking oil or used motor oil, these resources are abundant. The problem is getting them from those who don’t need them any more to those who do. Ask a biodiesel car owner where she got her fuel and she might say, “I know a guy.” The market for cooking oil is often informal and grassroots like that, comprising word of mouth connections between individuals and restaurants.
These days many avid photographers don't really think about printing their work, content to let it live on their phones, external hard drives, and social networks. But a new textile printing method that lets photographers, designers, and craftspeople print directly onto any natural fiber could change that mindset.
What would happen if some of the Bay Area’s top tech minds collaborated with some of its top foodies to produce an e-commerce site for local food? The result: Good Eggs, a new online platform that's been dubbed an "Etsy for local food" and provides the tech infrastructure necessary to help farmers and artisans spend less time filling out spreadsheets and dealing with distributors and more time making their product, building a customer base, and closing deals. The goal is to help small-scale food production scale up by creating a new tech-oriented business model.