Innovation & Future — Posts

13 posts on "Innovation & Future" by Shlomo Strauss — bilingual writing on technology, science, and business.

• How NASA's 1989 VIEW Project Laid the Foundation for Modern VR — Although NASA's 1989 VIEW project failed its space goals, its optical and tracking innovations laid the groundwork for Nintendo, Oculus, and modern VR.
• Walmart proves 3D-printed construction is commercially viable — Walmart's new 3D-printed warehouses prove that robotic concrete printing is now a faster, cost-effective alternative to traditional construction.
• Belgian traffic lights turn green on demand using drivers' smartphone — Over 200,000 Belgian drivers use an app that communicates with smart traffic lights at 230 intersections, offering an early glimpse of fully synchronized…
• Smarter but weaker: the evolutionary trade-off driving human decline — As cognitive gains push physical capabilities into decline, the piece argues we are heading toward a future where survival depends on machines fused with…
• The Bugatti Royale sold only 3 units — and now fetches $22 million — Built between 1927 and 1933 with a 12.7-liter aircraft engine, the Bugatti Type 41 Royale was a commercial failure that now sells for $22 million at…
• Apple's rounded corners are a precise design system, not an aesthetic — From the neuroscience of sharp angles to a design rule linking curvature to physical proximity, Apple's corner geometry turns out to be a coherent and…
• The 1958 physics experiment that launched a $220 billion industry — A 1958 analog tennis game built on a repurposed oscilloscope is recognized as the first real-time video game, and the unlikely ancestor of today's gaming,
• Daylight pipes: bringing natural sunlight deep inside buildings — Light-pipe systems channel natural sunlight into a building's interior zones, combining energy savings, improved wellbeing, and the ability to grow plants
• The KI standard wants to turn your kitchen countertop into a wireless — The WPC's new KI wireless charging standard supports up to 2200W through solid surfaces like wood and marble, potentially eliminating power cords from…
• A camera from 1898 and the optical principle behind every lens since — A 126-year-old black-and-white camera shows how every device, from film to iPhone, is fundamentally a box that captures light through an aperture.
• A handbag made of 99% air: NASA's aerogel enters the fashion world — Parisian fashion house Coperni unveiled a 33-gram handbag made from silica aerogel, the world's lightest solid material, originally developed by NASA for…
• Why green screens are green: the optics and sensor science behind — Camera sensors dedicate half their pixels to green, and the color contrasts well with human skin tones — two reasons that made green the default for video
• Mighty Buildings prints modular homes in 3D and ships them to your — Mighty Buildings uses giant 3D printers to produce modular home components that a four-person crew can assemble in four days, claiming five times the…