Choppy Tech News

Foldable mobile phones. Nope, not those that fold between the screen display and keypad, those are just old. We’re talking about the touch screen display phones that can fold, yes, foldable touch screen display smartphones.

“FlexPai is the world’s first commercial foldable smartphone with flexible display, a combination of mobile phone and tablet. It was officially launched on Oct. 31, 2018 in Beijing.”

Royole, a California based startup, beated the big boys of the smartphone industry to release the world’s first bendable/foldable screen phone. The company was started by Stanford graduates in 2012, and is heavily funded by Chinese investors, but with their kind of flexibility the US – China tariffs probably won’t break this tech startup anytime soon. Click here if you’re interested in bending the perception of reality of people around you with a pre ordered FlexPai.

 

FlyCroTugs is another gadget that fits in your hands making big tech wave from Stanford which highlights the importance of quality education that developing countries direly needs to invest in. Perhaps more urgently than building more airports, highways, high speed trains, etc.

FlyCroTugs are small flying robots the size between an extra large hamburger and an average meat pie. They look like small drones, however, unlike your ‘average’ drone that could only fly, these tuggers have gecko inspired traction that enables them to move objects 40 times their weight when they are on the ground. Think maneuvering in tight spaces, alternating between flying and crawling, say in caves or collapsed buildings. Watch them in action here.

 

Next, further emphasizing the importance of education, the Imperial College of London plans to be the world’s first academic institution to hold lectures via holograms.

“The alternative is to use video-conferencing software but we believe these holograms have a much greater sense of presence,” Dr David Lefevre, director of Imperial’s Edtech Lab, told the BBC.

Inspiration might be the essential lesson to hologram projections, and of course maybe costs savings from flying around busy academics or celebrated professionals from various fields. Check out the attention the World’s first holographic university lecture at Imperial College Business School attracted.

 

Moving on to some tech that might make people break into cold sweats, an AI lie detector will be implemented in certain borders of Hungary, Latvia, and Greece. Gizmodo reports that the system called iBorderCtrl will scan for 38 micro-gestures on a person’s face, scoring each response according to customized configurations based on a traveler’s gender, ethnicity, and language. The facial scan will be accompanied with questions like, “What’s in your suitcase?” and “If you open the suitcase and show me what is inside, will it confirm that your answers were true?”.

Of course, this virtual inspector doesn’t have the authority to stop anyone from crossing the border or detain anyone, yet. They will still call in a human to do that at the advice of the AI.

 

Now for the last but certainly not least, and maybe the cutest technology to be rolling down the streets, Starship delivery bots! Starship is offering “the world’s first robot package delivery service” in Milton Keynes, north of London, and will be available in the San Francisco Bay area by year’s end. According to Verge, the robots can cross intersections, navigate around humans (or stop and wait for them to get out of the way), and their progress is closely watched by remote employees to discourage theft and make sure nothing goes wrong.

These robots also have an edge that shouldn’t be underestimated in entering the delivery business. With the simple fact that they look adorable with their little LEDs that look like robot eyes, six small wheels, and a flag on their back to signal passerbys to stop and take a photo. Unlike, drones with their rotators spinning at flesh slicing speeds, and the buzzing noise, Starship robots just look so much friendlier. Don’t just take our word for it, watch here.