The following is a quick recap of some of the recent technology, recycling, and e-waste industry related news that HOBI’s blog reported on during the week 3/12-3/16.
Delivery Drones May Be More Sustainable Than Trucks
We’ve been hearing more about how self-driving cars, air taxis, and drone deliveries are becoming more plausible, and yet for some reason they still sound so futuristic. But when it comes to delivery drones, some companies are looking to make this a reality sooner rather than later. We’ve already seen some progress in this concept with Amazon’s Prime Air. But now, other big names are joining in on the fun. Companies like UPS, Google and DHL are looking to scrap trucks and shift towards drone deliveries. Which may save companies time and money as a study published by Nature Communications illustrates drone delivery as the most efficient and eco-friendly option when compared to traditional truck delivery.
Electronic Skin for Robots Could Help Reduce E-Waste
Electronic skin, or E-Skin, could be the next big breakthrough in reducing global E-waste. While you may not have heard much about it just yet, E-Skin has been in testing stages all across the globe. The main function of the electronic skin is to advance the capabilities and functionalities of robots. And now, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have created an enhanced type of e-skin that will not only be able to heal itself but can also be recycled to create new e-skin when placed in a chemical solution that separates out silver nanoparticles. In other words, it’s virtually waste-free! One of the researchers on the development team said he could see a future where you can reuse materials from old electronics by soaking a cellphone or laptop into the e-skin solution to recycle them.
EdgeMicro Plans to Deploy a 30-City Edge-Network
The race for edge-networks is here and it seems like EdgeMicro, a fairly new start-up company, is leading the pack. The company recently announced plans to deploy a 30-city edge-network, which they say will promote zero latency – something that was once not thought possible. Even as fast as networks are these days, they simply aren’t fast enough to handle all the network data, especially in the age of hyper-connections. Across 30 major cities, EdgeMicro will be deploying container-based data centers to serve the network edge. These micro data centers are currently being tested by an unnamed mobile network operator (MNO). However, if it’s a national operator covering 30 major cities, it’s safe to say that there are really only four obvious candidates – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless.
How to Stay Almost Invisible Online
With so many connected networks, we may be in an age where we are ‘over-sharing’ too much of our personal data. In fact, many are unaware of the vast amounts of personal data being collected and tracked via the Internet. Unless you’ve been living ‘off the grid’ – and we mean truly off the grid – your entire life, it’s impossible to erase yourself from public records, let alone the internet. To truly avoid your information getting out there, you would either had to have never logged onto a website in your entire life, or been accepted into the Witness Protection Program, both of which options are pretty far-fetched for the average person. However, you can get pretty close to going along in an incognito state online. Provide are a few tips on how to stay invisible online.