The single most important factor in surviving a battlefield injury is the combat medic. The medic is first on the scene and can administer help within the Golden Hour or even Golden Ten Minutes. Quick, effective medical procedures can be the difference between life and death.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Raytheon BBN to lead a team to develop an augmented reality device that will provide the combat medic with a virtual assistant. The system will use a set of AR goggles, which will provide visual information on 50 different medical procedures.

Medics are highly trained in the most common battlefield injuries, but they aren’t doctors or surgeons and often have no experience in little-used procedures which may be needed at a moment’s notice. This is why DARPA is working on its Medical Assistance, Guidance, Instruction and Correction (MAGIC) system. 

MAGIC uses a pair of augmented reality goggles equipped with audio and video sensors and special artificial intelligence software that can act as an assistant to monitor the situation and advise the medic on how to proceed.

Raytheon will use machine learning technology to ‘teach’ the system both medical skills and situation assessment skills. The initial prototype will study 2,500 stereo videos and almost 50 million images. The machine learning process will review the historical data and synthesize useful concepts and solutions from that data.

When the AI software is ready, MAGIC should be able to provide spoken suggestions to medics or project visual overlays on the scene to guide their hands through needed medical procedures. The system will also provide events timing from engagement to final hand-off to field hospital personnel. MAGIC will also provide dosage guidance for in-field medications.

A first prototype is expected in about 18 months.
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"The combat medical environment is challenging and chaotic," said Raytheon BBN scientist Brian VanVoorst. "Our goal for the Raytheon BBN MAGIC AI tool is to help support personnel to provide guidance as needed without disrupting their concentration."

In our Issue 8-44 [the All Metaverse Issue] we talked about how consumers will migrate to virtual worlds for more and more of their on-line shopping. We now have the first research which confirms that statement. A recent report from CommerceNext, in partnership with Bizrate and The Commerce Experience Collective (CommX), explores whether consumers are really engaging with the metaverse, social commerce and livestream shopping.

Here’s what the research found:

As expected, almost half of those in the survey have never heard of the metaverse and only 5% are familiar with it. The remaining 47% have only a limited understanding of the new virtual worlds. Over 80% of respondents have never used virtual gaming worlds like Second Life or Fortnite. Those that are using virtual gaming represent only 26% of Generation Z respondents.

With the above generalities, it was remarkable that 41% of all respondents said they would like to be able to shop for real-life products in 3D or virtual worlds in the future.

Today, the biggest attraction to virtual commerce is through social platforms. Some 43% of online shoppers say they buy products promoted via social media and 19% purchase products featured on TikTok, Instagram or Talkshop Live.

Livestreams also provide a source of information and desired content in the virtual worlds. The survey found that 54% of shoppers haven’t heard of livestream shopping, 32% recognize the term and 4% have made purchases via the channel. Respondents that used livestreaming said that discovering new products and new facts about known products was a driving force in their use of livestreaming.

Even with the above positive feedback, the study reveals that the metaverse and livestream shopping are lagging behind the hype. It doesn’t, however, mean that retail planners and marketers shouldn’t prepare for eventual adoption.

“Get in early,” advises Raj De Datta, CEO at Bloomreach, which chairs The Commerce Experience Collective. “Initially it was thought that digital goods and services would make up the lion’s share of revenue in the metaverse. But what we’re actually seeing is a crossover from the digital world into the physical, with consumers spending real money on physical products.”

It's clear that while we are treading water waiting for metaverse adoption, we need to be testing alternative strategies to see which ones have the most potential.

“Whether we’re talking about traditional brick-and-mortar, e-comm or the metaverse, brands that focus on a personalized, tailored experience are the ones that will end up rising to the top,” De Datta said. 
He recommends testing ideas with your existing customer base. 
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“You might consider a digital pop-up shop that caters to a specific existing customer who has already exhibited certain preferences in your e-commerce environment,” he noted. “This kind of cross-pollination is a highly strategic way to engage in a test.” 

Most of us think of May 5th as “Cinco de Mayo” and look forward to an after-work margarita. But May 5th is also World Password Day and Apple, Google and Microsoft used this day to announce their support for the passwordless standard from the FIDO Alliance (fast identity online).

The three companies jointly announced that they have committed to building support for all the mobile, browser, and desktop platforms that they control in the coming twelve months. This means that passwordless authentication will come to iOS and Android mobile operating systems, Chrome, Edge and Safari browsers, and Windows and macOS desktop environments.

The FIDO Alliance announced that it won’t be long before users will be able to use a fingerprint reader, face scanner or even a mobile phone instead of passwords to conduct online business securely.

“Just as we design our products to be intuitive and capable, we also design them to be private and secure,” said Kurt Knight, senior director of platform product marketing at Apple. “Working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods that offer better protection and eliminate the vulnerabilities of passwords is central to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience — all with the goal of keeping users’ personal information safe.”

At Microsoft, Alex Simons, corporate vice president for identity program management, said that tomorrow’s digital products need to be safer and easier to use. "The complete shift to a passwordless world will begin with consumers making it a natural part of their lives," he said in a statement.
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FIDO said the three technology leaders will implement over the next year. We’ll likely hear many more details from all three, as each has their annual developer conferences this spring/summer. FIDO is already used by a wide variety of device makers and service providers. With Apple, Google and Microsoft supporting the interoperable standard, it will make a passwordless future much more attainable.

We all do everything we can to keep our phones charged, but the time will come when you’ve run the battery down to where you must charge it during the day rather than in the evening while you sleep. Everyone knows you can’t go from zero to full charge in 10 or 15 minutes. But following a few simple rules will help you charge your phone quicker.

Completely Turn Off the Phone. This will not work if you’re waiting for an important call, but when you can, shutting the phone off completely will provide the fastest charge. You may not think that anything is happening when you’re charging, but when the phone is still on, it’s constantly polling its cellular service and even potentially updating apps in the background. All that activity slows the charging process. 

Use a Wall Charger, Not Wireless Charging. Whenever possible, use a plug-in wall charger. We know you can plug a USB cable into your PC or laptop, but that will almost always result in longer charging time. Even if you’re using a charger with lower wattage, an outlet will usually charge faster most of the time. While wireless charging pads are perfect for overnight use, a gold old-fashioned cable plugged into the wall is always better when you have little time to spare.

Don’t Use Your Phone While It’s Charging. It’s so tempting to fire off an urgent text or scroll through Instagram, but leave it alone. It will charge faster.

Consider Getting a Fast Charger. Nowadays, Apple and most Android makers don’t provide a charger with their phones. If you are still using a charger from an earlier phone, it’s probably a slow 5W model. You’re going to need at least a 20W charger to fast charge most current models. Also remember that there is a limit on wattage. You can’t buy a 100W charger and expect a 10-minute recharge. As an example, the iPhone 13 Pro Max has a charging ceiling of 27W.

Here are two of the better fast chargers:

• ArcStation Pro 40W Dual Charger from Spigen. If you have multiple phones in your household and fight for the charger, this dual charger will solve your problems. At 40W, you can fast-charge two phones at once. If one port is being used on its own, it can provide up to 30W for charging larger devices.
• Anker 725 Charger (Nano II 65W). This charger is a multi-tasker. The top port gives 20W of power for phone charging while the bottom can hit 45W. When every device you own is hitting that low power range, this is the charger you want around. Despite its power capabilities versus lower-wattage chargers, it’s still a very small adapter.
  
  

Last December’s Issue 8-25 had an article about the first tests of the SpinLaunch system for substituting a centrifuge spinning mechanism to hurl light-weight satellites into sub-orbit.

Now, NASA has said they are going to test SpinLaunch’s unusual launch technology. Rather than use a first stage rocket to get the launch vehicle out of our atmosphere, SpinLaunch uses an electric centrifuge to hurl the payload like a discus.

While the company’s kinetic launch system is unusual, it has the potential to affect positively both the environment and the cost. But it isn’t for all launches. Obviously, no one is suggesting its use for manned missions or super-heavy payloads.

The company says that SpinLaunch is ideal for any launch vehicle weighing in at under 440 pounds. The key is ruggedizing the packaging so it can take the punishment of 10,000 G force and being released at a speed of over six times the speed of sound (around 5,000 mph.) Once the vehicle is released, a second-stage rocket can take over and provide the power to get the package into orbit.

To quantify the benefits of the SpinLaunch approach, the company says that they can save up to 70% of the fuel by eliminating the first-stage rocket and that also means no need for the expensive launch structures needed with traditional launches. In essence, hurling the vehicle will use a quarter of the fuel at a tenth of the price!

NASA’s interest has led them to sign a Space Act agreement with SpinLaunch to develop and integrate a NASA payload for a slower sub-orbital launch. The payload will take measurements which will be analyzed by both NASA and the company. They are planning this first test for later this year. SpinLaunch is working on a timetable for a first orbital launch in 2025.

“SpinLaunch is offering a unique suborbital flight and high-speed testing service, and the recent launch agreement with NASA marks a key inflection point as SpinLaunch shifts focus from technology development to commercial offerings,” said SpinLaunch Founder and CEO Jonathan Yaney in a press release. “What started as an innovative idea to make space more accessible has materialized into a technically mature and game-changing approach to launch. We look forward to announcing more partners and customers soon and greatly appreciate NASA’s continued interest and support in SpinLaunch.”
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SpinLaunch has developed a render video on YouTube showing how this remarkable system will work.

Physicists from the University of Arkansas have successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene's thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current.

“An energy-harvesting circuit based on graphene could be incorporated into a chip to provide clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices or sensors,” said Paul Thibado, professor of physics and lead researcher in the discovery.

The findings, titled "Fluctuation-induced current from freestanding graphene," and published in the journal Physical Review E, are proof of a theory the physicists developed at the U of A three years ago that freestanding graphene—a single layer of carbon atoms—ripples and buckles in a way that holds promise for energy harvesting.

The idea of harvesting energy from graphene is controversial because it refutes physicist Richard Feynman’s well-known assertion that the thermal motion of atoms, known as Brownian motion, cannot do work. Thibado’s team found that, at room temperature, the thermal motion of graphene does, in fact, induce an alternating current (AC) in a circuit, an achievement thought to be impossible. 

In the 1950s, physicist Léon Brillouin published a landmark paper refuting the idea that adding a single diode, a one-way electrical gate, to a circuit solves harvesting energy from Brownian motion. Knowing this, Thibado’s group built their circuit with two diodes for converting AC into a direct current (DC). With the diodes in opposition allowing the current to flow both ways, they provide separate paths through the circuit, producing a pulsing DC current that performs work on a load resistor.

They also discovered that their design increased the amount of power delivered. “We also found that the on-off, switch-like behavior of the diodes actually amplifies the power delivered, rather than reducing it, as previously thought,” said Thibado. “The rate of change in resistance provided by the diodes adds an extra factor to the power.” 

The team used a relatively new field of physics to prove the diodes increased the circuit’s power. “In proving this power enhancement, we drew from the emergent field of stochastic thermodynamics and extended the nearly century-old, celebrated theory of Nyquist,” said coauthor Pradeep Kumar, associate professor of physics and coauthor. 

According to Kumar, the graphene and circuit share a symbiotic relationship. Though the thermal environment is performing work on the load resistor, the graphene and circuit are at the same temperature and heat does not flow between the two.

That’s an important distinction, said Thibado, because a temperature difference between the graphene and circuit, in a circuit producing power, would contradict the second law of thermodynamics. “This means that the second law of thermodynamics is not violated, nor is there any need to argue that ‘Maxwell’s Demon’ is separating hot and cold electrons,” Thibado said.

The team also discovered that the relatively slow motion of graphene induces current in the circuit at low frequencies, which is important from a technological perspective because electronics function more efficiently at lower frequencies. 

“People may think that current flowing in a resistor causes it to heat up, but the Brownian current does not. In fact, if no current was flowing, the resistor would cool down,” Thibado explained. “What we did was reroute the current in the circuit and transform it into something useful.” 
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The team’s next objective is to determine if the DC current can be stored in a capacitor for later use, a goal that requires miniaturizing the circuit and patterning it on a silicon wafer, or chip. If millions of these tiny circuits could be built on a 1-millimeter by 1-millimeter chip, they could serve as a low-power battery replacement.

Edge technologies are projected to experience the highest investment increase in 2022, growing 76% to $462,000 according to a new Gartner, Inc. survey.

Looking back to 2021, 5G drew the highest average investment in 2021, with survey respondents reporting an average of $465,000 invested in the technology. This was followed by IoT at $417,000 and edge technologies (i.e., edge AI and edge computing) at $262,000. 

The edge architecture is allowing AI to become more actionable. Moving AI inferencing closer to the point of data generation is making the edge more intelligent, which is improving decision-making within organizations and data-driven outcomes. In conducting AI inferencing on the edge, the data is processed in real time to generate actionable insights for decision-makers.

It makes sense that among the reasons organizations are using edge technologies and 5G are to improve employee productivity, augment existing products and services by making them more connected and intelligent, and automate business processes. Asset intensive industries such as manufacturing, natural resources and energy are among the early adopters of ET to solve core business problems. 

It’s interesting to note that the decisions to invest in these emerging technologies (ET) no longer solely rest with IT. The survey showed that Boards of Directors are among the main decision makers for ET investments in over half of surveyed organizations, just behind CIOs and CTOs, signaling that the business has more confidence in the ROI these technologies bring.

In fact, counter to conventional thinking, most survey respondents reported that ET investments are meeting or exceeding user expectations. When enterprises are choosing between two vendors’ ET offerings, the vendors’ ability to provide demonstrable use cases and a track record of success ultimately clinches the win. Product managers should look to focus on these success stories and ensure short deployment/ implementation timelines when targeting business users to adopt ET.
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Gartner surveyed 500 global respondents from mid-sized and larger organizations in September and October 2021 to understand buying behavior when investing in emerging technologies.

It’s no secret that Big Tech wants to spice up your virtual life with the metaverse. Since last year, companies have put plans in motion to make the virtual space a reality: Microsoft bought a major game developer. Google’s reportedly got plans to build AR gear. And Facebook gave the ultimate flex when it rebranded to Meta. Then there are major retailers like Nike, which is planning to sell virtual sneakers.
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But what exactly is the metaverse? Scenes from “The Matrix” or “Ready Player One” might be floating around in your head. The metaverse can be a virtual space where you can do just about anything. And if that sounds scary—and exciting—then you’re not alone. The answer to this article’s title question is “the metaverse is not 100% up and spinning yet.”

Don't rush to pick out your new virtual “Outfit of The Day” (OOTD). The metaverse is still in the early stages of development. While it’s not fully here, there is at least one way you may experience it—cryptocurrency.

• Video games: Games like Fortnite include metaverse elements like avatars that interact with other players. Players can also get virtual currency (hi, crypto) to dress up their avatars. And gaming company Roblox already allows users to create their own worlds (more on Roblox in a bit). 
• Second Life: It’s a virtual world that was launched in 2003. And allows users to create an avatar that can hang out with other users and shop. It’s been described as a metaverse. And while its popularity peaked in the late 2000s, the company’s now trying to make a name for itself in the next digital frontier. 
• At work: The collaboration between Microsoft Teams and Meta’s Workplace is giving people a taste of how platforms can integrate and work together in the metaverse. Both companies allow users to access content from Teams (think: streaming video) and Workplace (think: comment features) without having to switch between apps. 
• NFTs: Aka Non-fungible tokens. Which are digital collectibles. They represent ownership of digital art, images, and video games. And NFTs are expected to do the same when it comes to representing assets in the metaverse. 

There are thousands of cryptocurrencies. Ranging from the not-so-bitsy Bitcoin to the confusing parody that’s Dogecoin. This digital money is very volatile, but has grown in popularity—especially when it comes to taking part and building in the metaverse. 

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the metaverse, especially as people throw real-life money at creating immersive 3D environments. Case in point: Real estate sales on four major metaverse platforms topped $500 million last year, according to one analysis. And that number’s expected to double this year. 

Those with deep pockets have already started investing. See: Paris Hilton’s virtual island. And Snoop Dogg’s Snoopverse, which apparently already has people spending hundreds of thousands of dollars just to be his neighbor. Then, there’s Big Tech. 

“[Meta has] spent $10 billion so far on the effort and has said it’s going to spend much more to try to pivot the business to this area. It's a big push by Mark Zuckerberg,” Kara Swisher, tech columnist for The New York Times, said on a recent podcast.

But while people are making top-dollar investments, experts say ‘proceed with caution.’ Janine Yorio, CEO of Everyrealm (a metaverse and NFT investor and developer), said real estate in this new virtual ecosystem is perilous.

“You must pay in cryptocurrency. The value of the asset is largely correlated to the value of the underlying cryptocurrency, which is very volatile,” Yorio said. “There is a low likelihood of generating income from a metaverse real estate investment.” 

But for those who can shell out, there are some potential big profits in other areas. The market for virtual goods and services in the metaverse will reportedly be worth $1 trillion. And companies will be right there to advertise it. 

This brings us to the next big question: what will people do in the Metaverse?
Real self, meet virtual self. In the metaverse, you can merge (or blur) even more of your life together. What you see and post on Instagram and TikTok are all part of the 2D internet—So 2021. “In the metaverse, we'll see each other. We can wave to each other. I can show you what I'm buying. You can show me what you're buying, and it becomes an immersive and social experience,” Yorio explained.
Users will do things like shop, have work meetings, and go to concerts. And they’ll be able to do it with their friends and strangers who live anywhere in the physical world.
“Whether it’s finding love and making friends, or it’s connecting with people from different parts of the world, or it's flying or shooting people and blowing them up, or being a spy,” she said. “Those are the kinds of things that are going to draw people into the metaverse.”
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In other words, the metaverse will be the Wild West. Hopefully without the violence. Here’s a look at some of the current platforms that are already shaping the metaverse:

• Decentraland: This is a fully decentralized virtual reality platform. Meaning no single person owns it. Users can buy land or make money from their content using the platform’s cryptocurrency, which can be bought with Ethereum. (Yes, it’s crypto on crypto.) Users can access Decentraland with a digital wallet— aka a personal account that keeps all your digital assets (NFTs and Decentraland purchases). 
• Horizon Workrooms: This is a VR space for teams to connect. Think: WFH, but in a digital space and with avatars. Horizon Workrooms requires the Quest 2— a VR headset created by Meta. It lets users access Workrooms and other virtual events. Bonus: It’s free to use. 
• Roblox: It’s a platform where users can play games developed by other users. And can buy accessories and products from real brands like Burberry and Nike, using the platform’s in-game currency Robux. Game developers can earn Robux and convert it to real money. (That’s one way to have a side hustle.) You can download Roblox for free online and play it via Xbox One, Xbox Series S, or Xbox Series X. And also access it via certain Apple iOS, Android, and Amazon products. 
• The Sandbox: The company describes itself as a “virtual metaverse” that’s built on the Ethereum blockchain. "Players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experience." They also have a crypto wallet (think: a digital wallet) to store SAND — the currency used in the ecosystem. It also gives people the power to govern the space...aka make the rules.

Nobody enjoys getting the jab. Whether it's a standard shot, an epidural or dental injection, or a daily shot for needed medicine, the experience has created a class of phobias, with one Harvard study estimating that fear of needles affects up to 25% of adults. 

Despite so much innovation in other areas of medicine, the experience of getting a shot or injection hasn't really changed all that much in the last century. But thankfully new technologies are finally catching on and changing how people think about needles, and the technology is being embraced readily by providers.

"Our injection technologies serving the dental and epidural community have been growing," says Arjan Haverhals, CEO of Milestone Scientific, which has pioneered a computer-controlled injection technology that guides the injection below the patient's pain threshold, making injections precise, efficient, and virtually painless. "We have a growing number of hospitals embracing our technology. We’ve also entered the private pain clinic market to treat chronic back pain. Our dental delivery system, which is available nationwide and in Canada, has seen growing interest from all dental professionals worldwide."

A handful of technology innovators like Milestone Scientific are bent on improving the jab through wearables, computer guidance, and needle-free injection technologies. 

Portal Instruments, an MIT spinoff, is another player in the space. The company is bringing a needle-free injection device to market that delivers a rapid, high-pressure stream of medicine, as thin as a strand of hair, through the skin in adjustable dosages, causing little to no pain. A connected app tracks each dose and the medicine's effects and uploads that information to the cloud, for patients and doctors. The device would be sold as a drug-device combination product to medical professionals and provided to patients with a prescription.

Enable Injection designs, manufactures, and sells wearable delivery devices for injectable drugs. Patients attach the device onto the skin by themselves, and trigger needle insertion and retraction by pressing a button on the device. Through a partnership with Flex, Enable also offers a version of the drug delivery platform that may connect to smartphones via Bluetooth. According to the company's website, the Enable Smart enFuse product could be "pre-integrated" into the digital health platform or strategy of an organization for improved patient data collection. 

It's little surprise there's so much activity around increasing outcomes and lowering pain associated with injections. Growth of the global injectable drug delivery devices market is expected to increase from $16 billion in 2019 to $21.3 billion in 2023, partly due to increased demand for injection devices that can be used and monitored in the home environment. Milestone, for one, has seen significant interest in the U.S, where epidural-specific systems are in place and trials underway in Florida, Michigan, Texas, South Carolina, Illinois, and Massachusetts, to name a few. The Dental delivery system is used widely throughout the country with growing interest from specialty practices including periodontic, cosmetic, and pediatric. 

"For medical, this means healthcare outcome for patients at lower costs. For dental, it means pain-free injections, more comfort, and less fear for patients," says Haverhals, "plus the ability for additional business for dentists. In fact, many of our dentists have noted word-of-mouth as a marketing tool for growing their business just by adopting our injection technology."

Researchers have developed a new metasurface-based antenna that represents an important step toward making it practical to harvest energy from radio waves, such as the ones used in cell phone networks or Bluetooth connections. This technology could potentially provide wireless power to sensors, LEDs, and other simple devices with low energy requirements.

“By eliminating wired connections and batteries, these antennas could help reduce costs, improve reliability and make some electrical systems more efficient,” said research team leader Jiangfeng Zhou from the University of South Florida. “This would be useful for powering smart home sensors such as those used for temperature, lighting and motion or sensors used to monitor the structure of buildings or bridges, where replacing a battery might be difficult or impossible.”

In the journal Optical Materials Express, the researchers report lab tests of their new antenna showed it can harvest 100 microwatts of power, enough to power simple devices, from low power radio waves. This was possible because the metamaterial used to make the antenna exhibits perfect absorption of radio waves and was designed to work with low intensities.

“Although more work is needed to miniaturize the antenna, our device crosses a key threshold of 100 microwatts of harvested power with high efficiency using ambient power levels found in the real world,” said Clayton Fowler, the team member who fabricated the sample and performed the measurements. “The technology could also be adapted so that a radio wave source could be provided to power or charge devices around a room.”

Harvesting Energy from the Air. Scientists have been trying to capture energy from radio waves for quite some time, but it has been difficult to get enough energy to be useful. This is changing thanks to the development of metamaterials and the ever-growing number of ambient sources of radio frequency energy available, such as cell phone networks, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth signals.

“With the huge explosion in radio wave-based technologies, there will be a lot of waste electromagnetic emissions that could be collected,” said Zhou. “This, combined with advancements in metamaterials, has created a ripe environment for new devices and applications that could benefit from collecting this waste energy and putting it to use.”

Metamaterials use small, carefully designed structures to interact with light and radio waves in ways that naturally occurring materials do not. To make the energy-harvesting antenna, the researchers used a metamaterial designed for high absorption of radio waves and that allows a higher voltage to flow across the device’s diode. This improved its efficiency at turning radio waves into power, particularly at low intensity.

Testing With Ambient Power Levels. For lab tests of the device, which measured 16 cm by 16 cm, the researchers measured the amount of power harvested while changing the power and frequency of a radio source between 0.7 and 2.0 GHz. They showed the ability to harvest 100 microwatts of power from radio waves with an intensity of just 0.4 microwatts per centimeter squared, approximately the level of intensity of the radio waves 100 meters from a cell phone tower.

“We also placed a cell phone very close to the antenna during a phone call, and it captured enough energy to power an LED during the call,” said Zhou. “Although it would be more practical to harvest energy from cell phone towers, this demonstrated the power capturing abilities of the antenna.”
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Because the current version of the antenna is much larger than most of the devices it might power, the researchers are working to make it smaller. They would also like to make a version that could collect energy from multiple types of radio waves simultaneously so that more energy could be gathered.