3 Questions. 3 Hints. 3 Answers. Every Tuesday.
1. Headed out for pizza and not sure what to order? No problem. Let this technology figure it out in 2.5 seconds:
Hint:
Answer: Pizza Hut’s “Subconscious Menu” (currently still in test mode) works by syncing a customer’s eye movements to a computerized tablet. The tablet then shows images of Pizza Hut’s most popular ingredients. In just a couple of seconds, a “perfect” pizza is revealed based on the ingredients the customer has been focused on the longest. With 4,896 possible combinations and an alleged 98% success rate, it’s one less thing to have to think about. Read the details here.
2. What technology boasts a presence in the arts, oil recovery and film-making…to name a few?
Hint:
Answer: nanotechnology is proving that small is nonetheless mighty with a list of unconventional uses of this applied science. Consider a book called Teeny Ted From Turnip, developed in the Nano Imaging Lab at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. The world’s smallest published book, measuring just 70 micrometers by 100 micrometers, is made of letters carved on 30 crystalline silicon pages. However, at $15,000 a pop, it’s not a small purchase. Read about nine other atypical nano applications here.
3. Wonder Woman wore her powerful magic tiara yet her impressive arsenal of accoutrements may be no match for this advanced technology:
Hint:
Answer: a young industrial designer has produced a jewelry line designed to harvest energy from its wearer. So, unlike Wonder Woman’s reliance on external sources of power, the jewelry designs create power from within. For instance, “the E-Pulse Conductor, embeds its gold biopolymer pincers into the wearer’s back and harvests energy from the spinal cord’s electrical signals.” The question is, do we want to be pricked and prodded with such invasive wearables to produce energy and will the energy produced be sufficient to make a real difference when linked to other applications? Read more here.