Here’s a quick look at everything that caught my eye this past week:
Smart Streets
I’ve long clamored for smart streets. For street lights that change color to let you pass when there’s no one else around, instead of slaving away blindly on a set-timer. For smart parking spots that you let you know when they are free. For smart addresses that call out to you when you are lost. And now, thanks to Google and the city of Toronto, I may have finally got my wish. That’s because Google’s Sidewalk Labs is working on developing technology that could lay the foundation for the city of the future thanks to modular sidewalks, capable of re-arranging their configuration to best suit the latest needs of the city’s inhabitants.
As Wired puts it, “Contrary to today’s concrete-based, fixed way of doing things, the idea here is that these chunks of public space can be reconfigured or lit up differently at different times, thereby reordering the streets with a firm nudge or a flick of a light switch. What is during the morning rush hour a bus-only corridor might transform into a kids’ play space during the day. Monday’s commuter-carrying cycling lane might be Sunday’s farmer’s market. Streets should be ever-changing, flexible spaces, goes the argument—not the permanent province of fast-moving, sometimes inconsiderate, often dangerous cars.”
Cool New Photo Editing Tool
Researchers from MIT have invented a new photo editing tool, capable of replacing the entire background in any image.
According to The Next Web, “The editor separates the objects and background in an image into different segments, which allows for easy selection. Unlike the magnetic lasso or magic lasso tools in most photo editing software, this doesn’t rely on user input for context, you don’t have to trace around an object or zoom in and catch the fine details. The AI just works.”
Breakthrough Corn Discovery
A newly discovered type of corn could revolutionize the food industry, significantly reducing the effort required to grow it.
As USA Today puts it, “the potential improvements in water and air quality – not to mention financial savings – are staggering. In fact, the lead researcher acknowledged he and his colleagues spent a decade studying the corn before going public this month because the conclusions were ‘almost outrageous.’
And, like so much research in its early stages, there are still a lot of ‘ifs.’
But scientists at University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of California-Davis and Mars Inc. (yes, the candy maker) have determined that farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico, have been growing corn that creates its own fertilizer for centuries, if not millennia.”trand
If this strand of corn does in fact produce its own fertilizer it could change the way we grow food around the world.
Are any of these the Greatest Idea Ever?
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