Can One Fly A Plane With Their Thoughts Alone?

Even though the technology is still at its proof of concept stage, can Tekever’s Brainflight someday allow pilots to fly aircraft via their thoughts alone? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Ricardo Mendes, COO of Portugal based drone specialists Tekever has now become the latest cause célèbre in the tech and aviation world for demonstrating a system that allows a pilot to control an unmanned drone in flight via their thoughts alone. Even though the technology is still at its proof of concept stage, Tekever’s Brainflight has practical implications that go beyond the drone and aviation world – it could make fully paralyzed individuals control their wheelchairs or personal computers / mobile smart-phones using their thoughts alone. But in the short-term, Tekever is eyeing to market their system that allows individuals with restricted movement to pilot a plane with the same ease as an able-bodied individual. 

In the long term, the firm said piloting of larger jets, such as cargo planes, could be controlled this way without the need of crew on board. However, one aviation expert – John Strickland, an independent aviation consultant based in London – recently told the BBC that the largely conservative civil aviation industry would be unlikely to adopt such technology due to the current perception of Tekever’s Brainflight that the civil aviation industry sees as potentially unsafe. Mr. Strickland said the airline industry was instead currently focusing its innovation efforts towards things like better aircraft construction materials and more economical engines. 

Drone specialists Tekever, which works with security firms, police forces and the military, adopted existing electroencephalography (EEG) technology so it could issue instructions to the software used to give the unmanned drone instructions reminiscent of those “neural interface control networks” featured in late 1990s era episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. EEG works by detecting activity in specific parts of the brain. After several months of training, “pilots” are said to be able to teach their brain how to think about moving a small circle on a computer screen either up or down, which in turn steers the drone left or right.  

“We believe that Brainflight represents the beginning of a tremendous step change in the aviation field, empowering pilots and de-risking missions and we’re looking forward to deliver these benefits to the market with highly innovative products.”- says Ricardo Mendes, chief operating officer of Tekever. However, similar neural interface control systems have origins that go back to the early 1970s. Back in 1974, a computer was hooked up to the human brain via an electroencephalography (EEG) electrode studded skull-cap as an interface by Lawrence Pinneo of Stanford Research Institute. 

Malawi: The Most Expensive Country To Own A Mobile Phone?

Despite having a significant portion of the country’s citizenry earning less than 2 US dollars a day, is Malawi the most expensive place on Earth to own a mobile phone? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Even though mobile phones and related devices had been recently dubbed as the most financially empowering telecommunications device of the last 25 years, it seems a tad hard using one – never mind improving your socio-economic status in the next few years - when you live in a part of the world when more than 50 percent of your monthly earnings will be spent just getting you online. Sadly, this represents the current reality of mobile phone services and other internet connected device users in the country of Malawi. 

One of the first things to strike a foreign visitor to the nation of Malawi is the huge number of adverts put up by mobile phone companies and internet service providers marketing their products and services. In fact a recent report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) says on average, Malawians spend more than 12 US dollars a month just to keep their mobile phones and other internet connected devices online. This represents 56.29 percent of the average earnings of a typical gainfully-employed Malawian, which is a premium in a part of the world where a significant number of the population earns on average less than 1 US dollars a day. 

Ben Chisonga, head of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MARCA) says “We are thinking of reducing the interconnection rates, which are about four cents per minute which we believe, is the highest in the continent.” which is seen by many as a move in the right direction. But at present, Malawi’s mobile phone subscribers currently complain of the lack of service quality and high mobile phone service fees. When it comes to the topic of expensive mobile phone services, Malawi is quite a contrast to Macau, China where it is dubbed by the International Telecommunications Union as the part of the world that is the lowest cost to own a mobile phone where only 0.11 percent of the average monthly earnings are spent on mobile phone service fees while providing world-class service quality. 

Google Glass Project Shelved: An End Of An Era?

With the powers-that-be at Google deciding to end its Google Explorer Program in January 19, 2015, is the Google Glass Project just too cleaver for its own good?

By: Ringo Bones 

During its launch five years ago, Google used to call early adapters of its Google Glass device as “software developers” which sounds to the rest of us as a euphemism of the gadget obsessed with the requisite 1,500 US dollars to satisfy their own curiosity. But during the five years of its existence, the powers-that-be at the Ivory Towers of Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters had decided near the end of 2014 to end the Google Explorer Program – the corporate decision at Google that allowed the Google Glass to be sold to “software developers” for 1,500 US dollars – to end it by January 19, 2015 because the “cleverness” of the Google Glass outweighed the privacy concerns that eventually ensued. But should the Google Glass be chucked into the technological dustbin of history? 

As a clever gadget with internet-connectivity, the Google Glass managed to create waves when it was introduced five years ago because it has no competing counterparts. Sony and Apple had similar devices at the time that never got beyond the development stage because they can’t make it as “cheap” as Google’s. And since Google’s announcement to end the Google Glass Project / Google Explorer Program in January 19, 2015, internet-connected gadget blogs are abuzz of musings on how the Google Glass became the most famous piece of wearable technology of the last five years. 

The privacy concerns outcry of the Google Glass users mostly stems from the most of the so-called “software developers” inability to properly set the privacy settings of the device. And there are, allegedly, an incident where a Google Glass owner’s residence got burglarized because his home’s alarm code was known by a burglar who saw his uploaded videos while wearing the Google Glass. January 19, 2015 may have came and went, but is the Google Glass Project totally shelved? 

i-Savi: Internet Connectivity In The Middle of Nowhere?

On harrowing tales of people wandering into remote corners of the world with no internet connectivity whatsoever, will the Inmarsat supported i-Savi soon make this a thing of the past? 

By: Ringo Bones 

One of Inmarsat’s supported Isat Phone Hub is finally here to put an end of those harrowing tales of adventurous tourist inadvertently wandering into remote corners of the world with no internet access whatsoever – at least for those who can afford the rather steep digital minutes in comparison to a typical home connection. I-Savi – an Inmarsat supported smartphone hub manufactured by Add Value of Singapore is one of the widely available of the low cost series of new gadgets that allows one internet connectivity in the middle of nowhere via communication satellites orbiting high above their current location. 

The unit is smartly packaged and small at 7-in. by 7-in. and 1.5-in thick, i-Savi is relatively easy to use in comparison to Operation Desert Storm era hand-held satellite communication gadgets but currently offers very little room for improvement in the ergonomic / man-machine-interface side. Like the competing Iridium GO and Globalsat Sat-Fi, the Inmarsat i-Savi utilizes two smartphone apps to control the unit. One app allows you connectivity of your i-Savi device, the “nearest” orbiting Inmarsat satellite with the local Wi-Fi you’ve just established in your remote corner of the world and the ability to turn on and off Internet Protocol data. The second app is much like the competing Iridium GO app with icons for voice and text messaging. 

Once you’ve attached the fully charged battery that came with your i-Savi that allows it to run for two hours before recharging, it is best to test the gadget outside with a clear view of the open sky and on the very first time of turning on the unit, it usually takes about five minutes for the i-Savi to acquire a GPS signal lock or signal fix. The next step is to point the unit towards the Inmarsat satellite servicing your immediate geographical location and utilize the green pointing arrows displayed by the unit to optimize the signal.

With your smartphone connected to the i-Savi via the local Wi-Fi you’ve just set up, you can now check the status whether your i-Savi unit is properly registered on the Inmarsat Satellite Service Registry and your immediate geographical location’s Inmarsat Satellite Service signal strength – the stronger the better. With all that in place, your i-Savi is now ready to go through its operational phases. 

During hands-on testing, I was about 15 feet from the unit with my smartphone at hand and the unit worked fine. According to the instruction book that came with the unit, the local Wi-Fi st-up by your i-Savi device can work up to a radius of 50-feet and will support multiple users. And it is moderately fast when it comes to opening and viewing e-mails and “minimalist” websites given that when the testing was done in the southern tip of Cebu province here in the Philippines back in December 29, 2014 when an approaching typhoon shut down the local internet service. But it can be frustratingly slow when using Facebook in comparison to a dedicated 3-G internet connection. 

As our testing of the i-Savi was done during an Airsoft military simulation game in the hinterlands of southern Cebu, the i-Savi truly lives up to its name of providing internet connectivity in the middle of nowhere. As in it is quite capable of uploading relatively high resolution photos taken by smartphones equipped with an 8 to 16 megapixel camera in a test demonstrating the i-Savi’s capability of capturing photographic evidence of a “simulated war crime”. By the way, our photo upload test cost us about 15 US dollars in Inmarsat satellite phone data usage fees. Satellite Phone Solutions and other shops selling satellite phone related gadgets around South-East Asia sells the i-Savi for around 1,400 US dollars and rents the unit for 99 US dollars per week. 

Is There An Invisible Interactive Boyfriend / Girlfriend App?

It may be frowned upon in most social circles, but are there situations where an ultra realistic invisible interactive boyfriend / girlfriend app could “literally” save your life?

By: Ringo Bones 

Some might have been smitten by the movie Her where Joaquin Phoenix dated his artificial intelligent operating system played Scarlet Johanssen, while some got disgusted when college football star Manti Te'o never got a clue that his “girlfriend” was a cruel hoax. The concept of having an imaginary boyfriend or girlfriend is highly frowned upon in most social circles of the working class in the industrialized West. Kathy Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb might have joked about the very idea back in 2012, but are there situations where an app that allows one to have an imaginary invisible boyfriend or girlfriend app with a proviso for “real time interactive proof” can “literally” save your life? 

Even though it currently only serves in the greater Southern California region, there is already a virtual boyfriend / girlfriend app whose services that you can avail to. Inspired by those 1998 era Tamagotchi virtual pets, the invisible virtual boyfriend / girlfriend app can be consided a much more evolved version of their Tamagotchi virtual pet counterparts and could even score higher in a Turing Test. And with a “premium service” of 24.99 US dollars a month, your virtual invisible boyfriend / girlfriend would seem so real to any of your acquaintances who doesn’t have the need to know. The service includes your virtual boyfriend or girlfriend to send you text messages, e-mails and even voicemails twice or more a day and will even snail mail you a hand-written letter vial the US Postal Service for at least once a month. Will such services soon become widespread to keep one’s stalking ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends at bay? Better ones could prove useful when you want to avoid being set up to a blind date of the “ugliest bunch” especially if you have just started working in such a “hostile workplace”.