This week: E-Dina creates portable lantern that can be charged with salt water, Google Earth App gets exciting new 'Timelapse' feature, Amy Webb dives deep into emerging tech trends of 2021 during SXSW, Prada Group, LVMH & Cartier join forces on Aura Blockchain alliance to combat fakes and check out 'Les Ailleurs' digital exhibition from May 19 to July 11, 2021.
INNOVATION
WaterLight is a portable lantern that can be charged with salt water or urine by dezeen.com
Colombian renewable energy start-up E-Dina has developed a cordless light that converts salt water into electricity as a more reliable alternative to solar lamps in off-grid communities. The portable device, called WaterLight, needs to be filled with 500 millilitres of seawater – or urine in emergency situations – to emit up to 45 days of light. Read more
SCIENCE
A ‘Timelapse’ feature adds excitement to Google Earth app by analyticsinsight.net
Google Earth is a geobrowser launched in 2011 by Google. The platform uses a multi-petabyte catalog of satellite imagery ad geospatial datasets with planetary-scale analysis capabilities and makes it available for everybody including scientists, researchers, and developers to detect changes, map trends, and quantify differences on the Earth’s surface. For the past fifteen years, billions of people have visited every corner of the world by enabling Google Earth. So far, the platform has focused on creating a 3D replica of the world that reflects our planet with every minute detail. Read more
CREATIVE CONTENT
Amy Webb — Emerging Tech Trends by SXSW
Join Amy Webb for the launch of the Future Today Institute's 14th annual Emerging Tech Trends Report and a deep dive into all the trends you'll need to follow in 2021. In this provocative session, futurist Amy Webb, professor at NYU Stern School of Business and founder of the Future Today Institute, will provide a data-driven analysis for the emerging tech trends that need to be on your radar in 2021— and she’ll show you scenarios for the future of business, governing and society. Watch video
UNUSUAL
Prada, LVMH + Cartier join forces on Aura blockchain alliance to combat fakes by designboom.com
Prada, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Cartier have joined forces on ‘Aura’, the first global blockchain alliance that will make it possible to track product history and proof of authenticity of luxury goods. The consortium, which was unveiled on April 20, 2021, expands the technology announced by LVMH back in 2019 (see previous coverage here). The nonprofit platform is open to all luxury brands worldwide, whether part of a group or independent, whether big or small. Read more
EVENT
Les Ailleurs, immersive festival from May 19 to July 11, 2021
If, due to confinement, we have learned to travel and lose ourselves within the virtual in all its forms, the new attention economy often blurs the tracks and makes us forget the question of the destination: where to go? or maybe “where to land?” (as Bruno Latour wonders), what are the distant or near virtual journeys that will make us or de-make us?
