While much has stalled this year due to the effects of the epidemic, the ever-flowing tide of technological progress continues. In fact, 2020 has been quite an exciting year for technology – from giant fish robots to invisible skins; the year has really given us everything. So, in the spirit of the holiday season, we decided to do a round-up of the creation of the most impressive, most influential, or simply perfect cool technology of the year.
ARTIFICIAL SKIN COULD RENDER WEARERS ALMOST INVISIBLE: Researchers from Seoul National University have adopted the method of stealthier to create an artificial “skin” that is almost invisible in the visible-infrared spectrum and brought it into the lives of superheroes. Scientists claim that skin can be effective in creating an “invisible garment” and that images certainly provide the basis for their statements.
As the user almost disappears into the infrared camera and is able to adapt to its surroundings to change color, it can be the closest we have to a human chameleon for a long time.
THE 60-FOOT ROBOT TAKES ITS FIRST STEPS: Japanese engineers have created a huge 18-meter (60-foot) Gundam match aimed at animating one of the most famous anime robots – and it can go now. Leaning over the port city of Yokohama, the fish took its first steps in early July and has since been in test mode to try different types of movements. Surprisingly, despite its pure existence, this 25-ton beast is a huge feat of modern robotics, with its hands clearly attached to the fingers and toes, which can fully support its enormous weight.
GOOGLE AI SOLVES “GREATEST PROBLEM IN BIOLOGY”: The human body is a complex system of cellular processes that saves and works for us, including important protein synthesis. Proteins are folded chains of amino acids that form complex shapes that indicate their function.
Predicting how these chains will be folded has become one of the biggest problems in biology, and through impressive research, Google’s DeepMind AlphaFold AI has come to the rescue. Using machine learning, AI can predict protein folds with astonishing accuracy. If all claims are verified, it could jump into one of the best biologies for a very long time.
RETRACTABLE LIGHTSABER CUTS THROUGH STEEL LIKE BUTTER: To keep our annual round-up to the top, this great creation by Hacksmith is synonymous with creating great gadgets from TV and comic books on YouTube. Although he has achieved some incredible engineering feats, no one expects his team to be able to turn off the most sci-fi weapon of all time – the lightsaber. Capable of slicing through steel, the lightsaber created a stream of ultra-hot plasma that perfectly shaped the size of Star Wars classic lightsaber. After all, by introducing different salts into the mixture, engineers can change the color of the saber to match any of your favorite heroes or villains from the movie.
AI CAMERA MISTAKES FOOTBALL REFEREE’S BALD HEAD FOR BALL: For incredible AI advances like Alpha Fold, there are some hiccups along the way. Perhaps the best of 2020 was an AI camera that was supposed to track a football during a game but instead locked the shiny top of the referee’s bald head.
No matter how excited the team was to unveil their modern-day tracking software, the lockdown allowed fans to watch in real-time from their own home security, proving that the temptation for the ref’s head was too much for AI and made it quite difficult to enjoy the action.
