IEEE Spectrum

Those "Star Wars"-inspired hoverbikes that we all thought we were going to be riding by now? Forget about them, until tech advances to the point that building one safely for under $3 million becomes possible. Good story by Willie Jones https://lnkd.in/e_Sf8DBM

In 2021, more than 5,500 people were killed or maimed by land mines, most of them civilians, and half of those, children. This ingenious system, by Safe Pro AI, uses AI to scan aerial footage from drones to detect mines. Safe Pro cofounder Jasper Baur describes it in an exclusive for IEEE Spectrum https://lnkd.in/eyjFxstA

Where is the perfect place to test self-driving cars? India. If you've ever spent some time there you know exactly what Edd Gent has uncovered in this excellent piece. https://lnkd.in/g2P6si2S

The next generation of wireless communications, 6G, is just starting to take shape in laboratory experiments and field demonstrations. And here's a really interesting one recently reported by Brown University School of Engineering —researchers exploited the wide bandwidth of terahertz waves to "bend" beams around obstacles. Such THz waves could in theory support communications at rates in the trillions of bits per second https://lnkd.in/g-w3_sv7

Photonic crystal surface emitting lasers (PCSELs) can now reach the brightness threshold for metal work. Researchers in Japan think they could one-day reach levels you'd need for inertial confinement fusion.

Malicious hacks and ransomware attacks, not to mention run-of-the-mill software failures, are like the weather now: partly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of your app crashing or your personal information being circulated on the Dark Web.

Fuel cells don't seem to be catching on in cars, but their value proposition in trucks is indisputable. Here's one example, designed for emergency response and capable of powering a dozen typical homes—and also providing water—for three days. https://lnkd.in/e8xhxWjw

Projects in Hawaii, South Australia, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere are demonstrating the need for grid-forming inverters as a linchpin of tomorrow’s green grids

What was the first "microcomputer" that wasn't sold as a kit and that we might classify today as a "personal computer"? You could argue that it was the Datapoint 2200, by Computer Terminal Corp. Or you could argue that it was some other machine, which we hope you will do using the commenting feature below. https://lnkd.in/eXiRdQvf

One of the major tech goals of many automakers is to build a powerful and rugged #EV motor that does not use rare earth elements. Now, ZF Group claims to have done it, and we learned more about this achievement in a lengthy discussion with ZF's VP for electric powertrain development, Otmar Scharrer. Such a motor could be a game changer because it would let automakers avoid the problems and risks of rare earths, including pollution caused by their mining and dependence on China, the source of around 95 percent of the world's rare earths. https://lnkd.in/eNCwPTBG