Important Innovations

  DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF                                                                                                          By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane TOP TECH LEADERS WARN OF AI'S POTENTIAL RISKS                                                                         Source: Stock Images Dozens of the worlds leading technologists, including Elon Musk, are calling for a 6-month pause by AI labs in the development of large, powerful AI systems The Open Letter, also signed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak & IBM Chief Scientist Grady Booch, says that new AI systems pose "profound risks to society & humanity" The tech giants say AI labs are locked in an "out-of-control race" to develop even more powerful, digital AI minds, that the creators don't understand, "can't predict or reliably control" If the labs don't self-impose a moratorium, the tech leaders are asking for governments to step in & do so The Ope

  Hypersonic Hyperplane Destinus from Switzerland                                                  Source:  Destinus Future of Global Travel in Hyperplanes Switzerland-based Destinus SA is developing a hypersonic, hydrogen powered jet/rocket capable of reaching any destination in the world in one to two hours. The founder and CEO of the company is Mikhail Kokorich, who is a highly successful entrepreneur and called the "Elon Musk of Russia".  The vehicle is a hybrid rocket and jet aircraft, that combines a hydrogen, air breathing jet engine with a rocket engine.  The Chairman of the Advisory Board of Directors of Destinus is Philipp Rosler, who is the former German Minister of Economics and Technology and former Vice Chancellor of Germany.  He believes Destinus will help provide Europe with leadership in aerospace technologies.  This new hypersonic "rocket with wings" is something to watch develop. How Does It Work? Destinus takes off and lands horizontally, like a

  Switzerland's The Jet - Hydrogen Powered Hydrofoil                                                  Source: The Jet The Jet to be Manufactured in Dubai The Jet is a new form of hydrogen powered transportation.  The "flying boat" is powered by two hydrogen fuel cells that convert hydrogen into electricity and produce no emissions.  The vessel is a hydrofoil that glides three feet above the water at a top speed of 46 mph.  It can carry 12 passengers and a captain. It makes its water journey in silence and in harmony with the environment.  It is the innovative creation of Switzerland-based startup The Jet ZeroEmission, which will manufacture the hydrofoil in Dubai. New International Innovation Collaboration The hydrogen powered flying boat uses hydrofoils underneath the vessel to give it lift. It is a distinctively designed, slender white vessel.  It spans 32 feet and weighs 6 tons.  The Jet ZeroEmission company was founded by French yachtsman Alain Thebault.  The company

  Switzerland's The Jet - Hydrogen Powered Hydrofoil                                                  Source: The Jet The Jet to be Manufactured in Dubai The Jet is a new form of hydrogen powered transportation.  The "flying boat" is powered by two hydrogen fuel cells that convert hydrogen into electricity and produce no emissions.  The vessel is a hydrofoil that glides three feet above the water at a top speed of 46 mph.  It can carry 12 passengers and a captain. It makes its water journey in silence and in harmony with the environment.  It is the innovative creation of Switzerland-based startup The Jet ZeroEmission, which will manufacture the hydrofoil in Dubai. New International Innovation Collaboration The hydrogen powered flying boat uses hydrofoils underneath the vessel to give it lift. It is a distinctively designed, slender white vessel.  It spans 32 feet and weighs 6 tons.  The Jet ZeroEmission company was founded by French yachtsman Alain Thebault.  The company

  Boeing & Porsche Partner on Flying Porsches                   Source:  Porsche & Boeing Flying Car Concepts Multinational Research Effort Porsche and Boeing are combining their respective sports car and aircraft expertise to create a flying Porsche for your personal commuting.  An international team of experts from Chicago based Boeing and German based Porsche are coming together to work on the development project in three R&D locations: Germany, Switzerland and the United States.  Porsche will design the vehicle's body.  Boeing will engineer and develop the airborne vehicle's capabilities.   Air Traffic Control and Regulatory Environment The two global companies are also taking on a much wider challenge to ensure the eventual rollout of their new flying car technologies and other flying cars and urban air mobility systems.  They intend to focus on air traffic control and the regulatory environment for flying cars, including a new air traffic management system.  N

  Robots Using UV Light to Sanitize Aircraft                                                            Source: UVeya Test Trials Now Underway Swiss startup UVeya is testing its new robots armed with COVID-19 killing UV light on Swiss passenger planes at Zurich Airport.  The test trials are taking place onboard Embraer jets from Helvetic Airways.  Helvetic is a charter airline service, owned by Swiss billionaire Martin Ebner.  In 2020, Hevetic's business dropped 75% due to fears of flying because of COVID-19.  The hope is that the robot cleaners will reduce people's fear of flying as COVID continues to spread.  The target for the robot is the airline industry. Antidote to COVID on Planes One UVeya robot can disinfect a single aisle plane in thirteen minutes.  Larger planes take longer.  The company has produced three robot prototypes.  The robots are priced starting at $15,930.  They may enjoy a brisk business as governments around the world are requiring new measures to ensure

  Top Inventions from Europe 2020's                                       https://amazon.com/author/ekane Now on Amazon and Kindle Journalist Edward Kane's latest book "Europe: The Global Innovation Leader" has just been published on Amazon and Kindle.  In the annual Global Innovation Index, Switzerland and Sweden top the list.  8 of the 12 innovation nations are in Europe.  Ed's book showcases the fascinating new innovations behind Europe's top ranking. For a preview, go to  https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B08MSDR7JZ&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_kJbPFbTK8W0AJ    I co-authored the book with Ed.

Switzerland and Sweden Leading the Way                                                                 Source:  Swiss Innovation Council 2020 Global Innovation Index (GII) The 2020 Global Innovation Index ranks Switzerland and Sweden as the #1 and #2 Innovation countries in the world.  For Switzerland, this is the 10th year of ranking number 1.  Europe has clearly become the global epicenter of innovation.  Eight of the top 12 leaders in innovation are European countries:  Switzerland #1, Sweden #2, UK #4, Netherlands #5, Denmark #6, Finland #7, Germany #9, France #12.  The US came in #3 in this year's annual ranking of 131 nations using 80 metrics to evaluate the level of innovation around the world. COVID-19's Impact The GII experts say COVID-19 is "severely pressuring" the long term build-up in global innovation, while it is also accelerating innovation in specific areas, particularly health care.  GII says the leading nations in innovation show year-to-year stabil

  New Travel Innovation: E-Urban Mobility Vehicle                                                  Source:  KOMMA Part Car and Part MotorBike KOMMA is a brand new electric vehicle for city travel from innovators in Switzerland. The startup says it is an alternative to conventional means of city transportation.  The KOMMA Urban Mobility Vehicle (UMV) is a crossover between a conventional car and a motorbike.  It's electric, has the comfort and safety of a car but with a much smaller footprint.  It's being billed as a brand new means of travel around and between urban areas. KOMMA's Approach and Mantra Could Be Transformative KOMMA's mantra is to create better ways to move around cities than by cars and vans.  The approach of their new technology is by blurring the lines between travel vehicles as we know them.  Their brand new KOMMA UMV is planned for production in 2022.  They believe the small size of their vehicle, the light construction, aero design and its electric p

  Neutral Nation's Value of Self-Reliance                                        Source:  Swiss Fighter Jets New World. Extremely Close and Innovative Vote For the Swiss, armed neutrality is a long standing tradition.  In an extremely close vote, Swiss voters have backed a government plan to buy top of the line innovation in jet fighters, to the tune of $6.5 billion. The vote in favor was 50.2% and it is binding.  It's a sign of our globally turbulent times. This is a brand new world.  And, for the Swiss, this is a case of the virtue of self-reliance in the supersonic and coming hypersonic age of fighting jets. Virtue of Self Reliance in Defense Supersonic jets and fighter jets can traverse Switzerland in under ten minutes.  The Swiss government argued that it is now necessary to replace their aging fleet of 30 F/A-18 Hornet jets that go out of service in 2030.  Switzerland is a neutral country and may have no apparent enemies but global conditions rapidly change.  And Swiss vo

All-Electric Submersible Convertible for Land and Sea Source:  Rinspeed Swiss Mobility Innovation This is the ultimate, all-electric concept car for land and sea from Switzerland.  The sQuba is an all-electric vehicle that's the world's 1st fully submersible car that drives perfectly on land and underwater.  And, the travel from land to underwater is seamless.  It's a concept vehicle designed to demonstrate the future of mobility Straight Out of James Bond 007 The car designer is Frank Rinderknecht and his Swiss team at the Swiss mobility lab Rinspeed.  Rinderknecht has been creating innovative concept cars for forty years. The inspiration for the sQuba comes from the Lotus submarine car "Wet Nellie" that James Bond 007 drove in the 1977 movie "The Spy Who Loves Me".  That car was pure fiction.  The sQuba is the real thing. Submersible Convertible The sQuba is powered by three electric motors charged by lithium ion batteries.

Nobel Prize for Chemistry - Lithium Ion Batteries Source:  Nobel Prize 3 Discoverers of Innovation, Creating a Rechargeable World The innovation discovery process spans two decades, the 1970's and 1980's and two worlds:  the US and Japan.  The end result of the cumulative achievements in developing the lithium-ion battery is a breathtaking Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2 US scientists and a Japanese scientist.  What they have invented, the lithium-ion battery, has been termed by the Nobel Prize Committee as an invention that "recharges the world".  Their discovery enables our global communications over laptops and cellphones and the possibilities of renewable energy by catching and storing vast amounts of wind and solar power on their battery systems.  The inventors' battery even enables us to drive electric cars.  Congratulations to the visionary discoverers!  For more news on this, go to Important Innovations Collection: Innovation Rewarded : Nobel Prize i

Ring Drone Flies Double the Time of Conventional Models Source:  Flybotix New Innovation from Switzerland A Swiss scientist has created a new ring shaped drone that operates for double the time of conventional models.  It's also more energy efficient.  It's small and potentially of great use for inspections of hard to reach and fragile areas of buildings and other structures.  It's called Flybotix  and is very interesting new innovation.  For a great news blog, go to Important Innovations Collection: New Drone Flies Twice as Long : Ring Shaped, Bicopter Drone Source:  EPFL - Samir Bouabdallah & his Ring Drone Flybotix This new, novel drone Flybotix can fly t...

Quadruped Spacebot that Leaps, Roams and Flies Source:  ETH Zurich Designed for Low Gravity Environments like Moon, Mars and Asteroids This is extraordinary innovation from a team of PhD to undergraduate students at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.  It's a Quadruped Robot that leaps up to 6 and a half feet, soars in flight and roams low gravity environments like Mars, asteroids and the Moon. The lower the gravity, the longer it flies.  It is now being tested at the European Space Agency.  It is something to be aware of.  For more, go to Important Innovations Collection: Spacebot from Switzerland : To Roam the Moon, Mars and Asteroids Source:  ETH Zurich Dynamic Walking & Flight Phases The Spacebot, a quadruped robot, was cr...