Technology and Website

Technology and Website

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360 Turbine Technology: Leatt’s take on anti-rotational technology

09/07/2023 New Technology In Computer , , ,

Fun, fitness, excitement – ​​the reasons for riding bikes are numerous and personal. As committed cycling addicts, we are forever celebrating the positives, but our favorite activity also comes with an element of risk.

It was a reality that Leatt founder, Dr Chris Leatt, faced in 2001 when a fellow motocross rider died on the tracks, and he set his sights on designing a neck brace to help prevent future tragedies.

The South African company has since devised safety solutions for cyclists and full-body protection for mountain bikers. In 2017, Leatt introduced new helmet protection called 360 Turbine Technology. This is claimed to protect riders from both low-speed linear impacts and rotational acceleration. It features across the full range of Leatt helmets, including the MTB 3.0 Enduro.

We caught up with Dr Leatt to discuss some of the finer details of 360 Turbine Technology and the MTB 3.0 Enduro helmet.

Ultimate protection

Leatt’s Turbine 360 ​​technology uses small gel-like tabs designed to help protect the brain from rotational impacts.
Leatt

Anti-impact technology in cycling helmets is not new. MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System) is a familiar safety feature across road helmets and MTB lids. Designed to protect the brain from rotational impact, MIPS is a thin layer that sits between the EPS foam and helmet liner.

Leatt’s 360 Turbine Technology looks altogether very different. Small, round ‘turbines’ made from a soft gel-like substance are positioned strategically around the helmet, hardening on impact to help protect the brain.

“Instead of one large slip-plane, Leatt chose to develop multiple smaller ones, that when displaced act as a slip-plane, but have the added advantage of also being able to offer low-speed linear dampening, not included in larger slip-planes plane technologies,” explains Dr Leatt.

The company developed the technology to meet the HIC (Head Injury Criteria) as assessed by helmet standards organizations, such as SNELL, ECE and DOT.

“In the past,” explains Dr Leatt, “it was thought that linear deceleration was the only important consideration for the risk of brain injury. We now know that brain rotational accelerations and velocities are of great importance when assessing the risk of brain injury and new computations for the risk of brain injury have been added to standard helmet testing, including these parameters.”

Leatt Turbine 360 ​​explainer advertorial 11

Leatt’s technology is claimed to reduce the chances of concussion.
Leatt

While we are all aware that high-velocity impacts can be catastrophic, those small

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The risks of artificial intelligence must be considered as the technology evolves: Geoffrey Hinton

07/07/2023 New Technology In Computer , , , , , , ,

Artificial intelligence can be used as a force for good – but there are also big risks involved with the generative technology as it gets even smarter and more commonly, the “godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton told the Collision tech conference in Toronto on Wednesday.

In a Q&A with Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic magazine, Hinton – a cognitive psychologist and computer scientist who is a University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto – expanded on concerns he has recently expressed about the technology he plays a key role in developing.

“We have to take seriously the possibility that (AI models) get to be smarter than us – which seems quite likely – and they have goals of their own,” Hinton said during a standing-room-only event at the conference, which was expected to draw nearly 40,000 attendees over three days.

“They may well develop the goal of taking control – and if they do that, we’re in trouble.”

Hinton, who recently left Google so he could speak more freely about AI risks, was one of several U of T community members scheduled to speak at Collisionwhich is billed as North America’s “fastest-growing tech conference” and counts the university as an event partner.

The government of Ontario used the occasion of the conference to announce that the Vector Institute – a partnership between government, universities and industry where Hinton is chief scientific adviser – will receive up to $27 million in new funding to “accelerate the safe and responsible adoption of ethical AI” and help businesses boost their competitiveness through the technology.

During his talk, Hinton outlined six potential risks posed by the rapid development of current AI models: bias and discrimination; unemployment; online echo chambers; fake news; “battle robots”; and existential risks to humanity.

Hinton spoke before a standing-room only crowd at the conference (photo by Johnny Guatto)

When Thompson suggested that some economists argue that technological change over time simply transforms the function of jobs rather than eliminating them entirely, Hinton noted that “super intelligence will be a new situation that has never happened before” – and that even if chatbots like ChatGPT only replace white-collar jobs that involve producing text, that would still be an unprecedented development.

“I’m not sure how they can confidently predict that more jobs will be created for the number of jobs lost,” he said.

Hinton added much of his concern

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Chinese ‘spy’ balloon used American technology

05/07/2023 New Technology In Computer , , , ,

HONG KONG — The suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States early this year used commercially available, off-the-shelf technology that was American-made, according to three US officials familiar with preliminary findings by the FBI.

The officials said the Biden administration first suspected the balloon could be carrying US-made equipment or parts within the first hours after it was detected and that it had sent aircraft to check it out and take photos. They said those suspicions had been confirmed by analysis of debris that was recovered after the balloon was shot down by the US military Feb. 4.

The Biden administration tracked the balloon for eight days as it traveled across Alaska, Canada and the continental US, including over sensitive military sites, before it was downed by a fighter jet off the coast of South Carolina. The results of the analysis by the FBI and other defense and intelligence agencies have not yet been publicly released.

The balloon incident further destabilized relations between the US and China, the world’s two largest economies, and led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing until this month.

China maintains that the balloon was a civilian airship that strayed off course while conducting meteorological research and that the US overreacted by shooting it down.

“The unmanned civilian airship drifting over the United States was an accidental incident caused by force majeure, and the claim that the balloon was a spy balloon, as well as gathering intelligence, is a complete smear against China,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular briefing in Beijing on Friday.

The presence of US technology on the balloon, which President Joe Biden has described as carrying “two boxcars full of spy equipment,” was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

News of the findings came as Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned that Chinese aggression could inadvertently lead to war.

“If you look at the history of war, there are plenty of wars out of accidents, out of inadvertent accidents,” Wu told NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel in an interview Thursday.

He added that his country had inspired Ukrainian forces battling a much larger Russian enemy.

“We have seen the very brave Ukrainian soldiers defending their freedom, defending their sovereignty and that is something we want to learn,” he said.

China claims the self-ruling democracy, which

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The invisible plant technology of the prehistoric Philippines

03/07/2023 New Technology In Computer , , , ,

Fiber technology at Tabon Cave, 39-33 000 years ago. An artistic view based on the latest archaeological data. Drawing by Carole Cheval-Art’chéograph. Made for the exhibition “Trajectories and Movements of the Philippine Identity” curated by Hermine Xhauflair and Eunice Averion. Scientific advising: Hermine Xhauflair. Credit: Carole Cheval – Art’chéograph, Xhauflair & Averion, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Stone tools bear microscopic evidence of ancient plant technology, according to a study published June 30, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Hermine Xhauflair of the University of the Philippines Diliman and colleagues.

Prehistoric communities likely made extensive use of plant materials for textiles and cordages, taking advantage of the flexibility and resistance of plant fibers just like modern communities do. However, plant-based materials such as baskets and ropes are rarely preserved in the archaeological record, especially in the tropics, so prehistoric plant technology is often rendered invisible to modern science. In Southeast Asia, the oldest artifacts made of plant fibers are around 8,000 years old. In this study, Xhauflair and colleagues identify indirect evidence of much older plant technology.

This evidence comes from stone tools in Tabon Cave, Palawan Philippines dating as far back as 39,000 years old. These tools exhibit microscopic damage accrued during use. Indigenous communities in this region today use tools to strip plants like bamboo and palm, turning rigid stems into supple fibers for tying or weaving. Researchers experimentally followed these plant processing techniques and found that this activity leaves a characteristic pattern of microscopic damage on stone tools. This same pattern was identified on three stone artifacts from Tabon Cave.






Fiber processing plant by members of the Pala’wan community from Brooke’s Point, Philippines. Credit: Xhauflair et al., PLOS ONE, 2023, (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

This is among the oldest evidence of fiber technology in Southeast Asia, highlighting the technological skills of prehistoric communities going back 39,000 years. This research also demonstrates a method for revealing otherwise hidden signs of prehistoric plant technology. Further study will shed light on how ancient these techniques are, how widespread they were in the past, and whether modern practices in this region are the result of an uninterrupted tradition.

The authors add, “This study pushes back in time the antiquity of fiber technology in Southeast Asia. It means that the Prehistoric groups who lived at Tabon Cave had the possibility to make baskets and traps, but also ropes that could be used to build houses

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Sask Polytech looking at ways to embrace AI technology – DiscoverMooseJaw.com

01/07/2023 New Technology In Computer , , , , ,

With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs like ChatGPT, educational institutions are looking at how to best use the technology.

Instead of banning the technology to avoid issues like cheating, Saskatchewan Polytechnic has decided to find ways to embrace technology.

The post-secondary institute is viewing AI as an opportunity to have conversations and understand how this technology can be used responsibly.

“I know there’s been lots of conversations, not just in our sector. Should you ban it? Should you do this? Should you do that? Whereas I think we’re viewing it as an opportunity to have some conversations and help people better understand how they can use it in a responsible way,” said Associate Vice-President of Learning and Teaching Mike Gillespie.

Gillespie added that AI technology isn’t new, but it’s also not going away. It is going to evolve and become more refined.

As for students using technology, Gillespie said the school has an academic code of conduct for students that deals with plagiarism and cheating. Students at Sask Polytech are expected to function within that policy.

“Whether it’s AI or other technologies, we feel at this point this is covered by those and the conversation becomes thinking about working with students on how they can use the technology in appropriate ways, thinking about the impact on our assessment strategy and those types of things,” Gillespie said.

He added that the code of conduct will likely need to be reviewed to keep the policies up to date with evolving technology and how students can use the technology appropriately.

For example, in a program like ChatGPT, a student can have the program type out an essay on almost any topic in a matter of seconds. Gillespie feels there are way instructors and turn something like that into a learning opportunity.

“An example of a good way to flip that around on an assignment would be for an instructor to work with students and say ‘This was an essay topic I was going to give you. Here’s the response ChatGPT provided. Let’s sit down and critique and critically analyze the response to try and identify the pros and cons and the strengths and weaknesses of that relative example’,” he said.

As a post-secondary school, AI has also been forced places like Sask Polytech to also look at their curriculum as industries begin to rely more and more on artificial intelligence.

“Our

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