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Millennium Products
According to archeology, historical artefacts tell us a great deal about the society that made them.But the same can also be said of products for the future. In an age where information has never been so abundant or so accessible, our tools define us even more than in the past. With the next century just a few months away, a further batch of products have been singled out by the London Design Council ... and the implications are more interesting than ever. Few people haven't heard of Viagra - the revolutionary drug treatment for erectile dysfunction. Viagra has caused such a splash because it addresses a major male preoccupation: sexual potency. Viagra was selected because it was inovitive and forward looking - created for the 21st century. It uses new technology and applies them to make a difference to many people It's also opening up whole new areas of pharmacology and medicine which have not really been explored before. But if Viagra puts the science back into sex, then what will future generations make of the latest technology in hair-curlers?
The Tricorder is an image capture system that is changing the face of reconstructive surgery. Using digital photography, it creates an accurate three dimensional computer model of the subject's face. Cosmetic changes are first made on this virtual model, so the patient can see what the end result will be. Although it can be used simply to make you look better, it's primarily for patients suffering from skin cancer, burns or facial deformities - to illustrate what their re-built features will look like, after surgery. Virtual reality is also being used by British Aerospace for in-flight training. A flight in virtual space is projected in multiple layers over a table-top surface. Viewed through special glasses, the composite picture becomes so realistically three dimensional that pilots using the system have been known to get air-sick!
Unfortunately, our environmental problems are real, not virtual, and they require real solutions. A company called Bio-logic in Scotland claims to have found one.
One of the biggest environmental culprits is the ubixitous plastic dustbin liner. Because they don't degrade easily, they cause massive pollution problems. Symphony Environmental in the UK have added a special ingredient to plastic packets and bottles, allowing them to degrade over a controlled time frame. The technology makes the plastic brittle and so it breaks up continualy and will keep on going until all the carbon and all the hydrogen is converted to carbon dioxide and water respectively. The best technology creates a more comfortable fit between human beings and their environment - without doing harm to either. At the University of Pretoria, researchers have come up with a product that has this quality in abundance.
It consists of a container at the bottom, a solar collector at the top and over the solar collector a transparent plastic cover to prevent heat loss. As Professor Matthews explained: " We have realised that in SA at roughly 35 degrees angle you get the most solar energy. To get the angle we needed, we lifted the solar water heater using a wheel. In doing so we solved another problem for the people in the rural communities who travel long distances to fetch the water." The heatbarrow is an example of a low-tech approach to a widespread problem. But South Africa is no slouch when it comes to high-tech solutions either. Telkom, South Africa's telecommunications utility, is implementing a new ground satellite system that promises to revolutionise the way South Africans use the Internet.
Simply put, this means faster surfing, and fatter bandwith, not only to your PC, but to handheld web appliances as well.
The British Design Council also chose the TV show, Teletubbies as a Millennium Product, not only because it's the first program aimed at children as young as two, but because it acknowledges that future generations are presently being influenced by electronic media. Teletubbies is based on the recognition that children are growing up with technological devices that speak to them, and that television is the most magical of these. Teletubbies teaches technology.
If these products are anything to go by, future generations will remember us as egotistical, polluting consumers, who nonetheless were capable of great compassion and innovation. More than anything else, we will be remembered for living on the cusp of a new paradigm shift brought about by the most transforming technology of all - the Internet. If only these were the only artefacts we'd be remembered for. Contacts
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The Wellaformer is being hailed as a revolution because it winds hair internally, rather than stretching it around rollers. Instead of pulling the hair, this technique compresses it like a concertina which causes less damage. And while a regular perm takes all of three hours, the Wellaformer does the job in one!
There is little doubt that technology can be made to serve our vanity. Fortunately, it can also serve our compassion.
VR is also saving millions by allowing engineers to build structures in virtual space before they undertake the real thing. The virtual model behaves exactly as the real one would, allowing them to anticipate any the problems before they arise in real space, where they cost a lot of real money!
It's called bioremediation and it describes a new technique used to clean landfills contaminated with toxic waste. Bioremediation uses living microbes such as fungi, that actually eat toxic pollutants like oil and tar. The waste is cleaned on site, without having to transport it to other specialised toxic processing areas. It also means the soil can be reused productively.
It's called the Madiba heatbarrow - a device for fetching, heating and storing water that solves many of the water problems faced in rural areas. It's major innovation is to purify water by boiling it, using solar energy. And the heatbarrow is so simple, a child can use it.
The current international private lease circuit which Telkkom offers is symetrical bandwith which means you are sending and receiving data at the same speed. With the new system, dynamic links will allow you to receive and transmitt data at different speeds.
