Anyone who’s hoping some version of our species will manage to survive the coming climate crisis through transhumanism might be interested to learn about this recent breakthrough: a robotic contact lens that can zoom in on command. A team of research scientists at the University of California San Diego set out to explore ways that “soft robotics” (which mimic materials found in living organisms) can be integrated with human bodies, and this is one of their projects.

They’ve created a prototype contact lens controlled by movement of the eye, so the wearer can simply blink twice to zoom in or out. The biomimetic lenses are made of elastic polymer films designed to respond to electric signals generated by the eyes when they move. The lens itself mimics the biology of the human eye, with layers that expand or contract to change its thickness, altering the amount of light that passes through it.

This kind of technology isn’t entirely new; it’s similar to eye tracking technology that lets users control wheelchairs.

“Thanks to many unique features, soft robots or soft machines have been recently explored intensively to work collaboratively with human beings. Most of the previously developed soft robots are either controlled manually or by prewritten programs. In the current work, a novel human–machine interface is developed to use electrooculographic signals generated by eye movements to control the motions and the change of focal length of a biomimetic soft lens.”

“The motion and deformation of the soft lens are achieved by the actuation of different areas of dielectric elastomer films, mimicking the working mechanisms of the eyes of human and most mammals. The system developed in the current study has the potential to be used in visual prostheses, adjustable glasses, and remotely operated robotics in the future.”

So, how long will it be before a real-life version of the sci-fi “eyeshine” surgery from Chronicles of Riddick, which enables night vision, is a thing?

Top image: Niek Beck/Flickr CC by 2.0

How can we make housing more affordable, livable and sustainable in the face of climate change, rapid urbanization and other pressing issues? IKEA has some ideas. The Swedish retailer just unveiled its upcoming collaborations and projects at its annual event, Democratic Design Days, and they range from a new modular way of building entire cities to robotic furniture for small spaces.

The Urban Village Project

SPACE10, IKEA’s global research and design lab, worked with EFFEKT Architects to develop an urban housing concept rolling together a wide variety of sustainable and equitable approaches as well as emerging technologies. The Urban Village Project “rethinks how we design, build, finance and share our future homes, neighborhoods and cities,” focusing on flexible homes built entirely from sustainable cross-laminated timber – and that’s just the beginning.

“Our cities are facing some of the biggest challenges to date—from rapid urbanization to aging populations, from a climate emergency to increasing feelings of loneliness and anxiety in our urban environments. On top of that, we experience rising and unpredictable housing prices in cities all around the world and the prospects are bleak. We need to almost double our cities in just a few decades to house a rising urban population—which creates a strong link between how we choose to evolve our urban areas and the fate of humanity. Therefore, we need to rethink our built environment, starting now.”

Not only are these houses based on IKEA’s signature flat-pack, modular design ethos, so they can easily be customized for the needs of individual residents and families, they’re designed for disassembly, unlocking “a circular material loop” so that almost all building components and materials can be disassembled and replaced, reused and recycled during and after the lifecycle of the building. They’d be pre-fabricated, mass-produced and flat-packed to drive down costs, and crucially, IKEA introduces new ideas for democratic access inspired by community land trusts and co-operatives.

“The Urban Village Project seeks to make everyday life more affordable. The idea is to maximise the advantages of living in a community that can pool and share resources. First, we’d introduce a monthly rate for all your essentials: rent, electricity, water, heating, maintenance and shared facilities. Secondly, we’d unlock better deals on daily needs like food, media, insurance, transport and recreation through flexible add-on subscriptions. Thirdly, each month every resident would have the option of buying ‘shares’ of real estate—to access ownership progressively and cash in later as the property value increases.”

“The Urban Village Project would enable more people to become homeowners by creating a form of housing co-operative. With significantly lower monthly rents and more disposable income, this unique legal setup would allow residents to buy ‘shares’ in the property—when they want to and when they can. This would get rid of expensive down payments upfront alongside interest rates which limit first time buyers from entering the housing market. Over time, the property would be owned by the community, and residents would be able to cash in on the profits.”

But sustainable and equitable modes of living don’t stop at how the structures themselves are designed, built and purchased or rented. Access to community is an important component, with the subscription-based housing model providing multi-generational co-living to promote a sense of well-being. Since the homes are so customizable, they’re accessible, as well. As older people age out of their homes, they can move into more accessible units in the same village, remaining a part of their neighborhood. Residents share access to local food harvesting, renewable energy and composting, and can choose to partake in communal dinners, shared daycare, urban gardening, fitness and other activities together; flexible subscription services provide transportation, insurance, media and recreation too.

Products Made of Ocean Plastic & Manufacturing Waste

IKEA plans to introduce more recycled materials into its own products, as well. The upcoming Musselblomma collection, a collaboration with Spanish designer Inma Bermúdez, incorporates plastic collected by Spanish fishermen in the Mediterranean sea into a series of polyester fabrics in vivid colors and patterns. The series takes visual inspiration from the source of these materials; you’ll find abstracted fish shapes, soothing blue-greens and corals throughout the collection of bags, cushion covers and tablecloths.

As part of its new initiative called “Better Air Now,” IKEA is also transforming a common manufacturing byproduct into tactile, organic woven items. Förändring (which means “change” in Swedish) is a collection of rugs, bowls, lampshades and baskets made with rice straws, a harvesting residue that’s commonly burned for disposal, contributing to air pollution and smog. Coming in deep shades of blue and black, these items are expected to be released by the end of the year.

Robotic Small Space Solutions

Since they’re already known for expertly packing a ton of function into tiny spaces, it was probably only a matter of time before IKEA got in on some robotic transforming furniture items. The brand is collaborating with MIT-based startup Ori Living to offer “Rognan,” an all-in-one room solution offering a trundle bed, movable walls, a sofa, storage and simple touch-screen operation so you can transform a living room into a bedroom within seconds with virtually no effort. Set to launch in Hong Kong and Japan in 2020, Rognan will undoubtedly be anxiously awaited by everyone who’s ever dreamed of enjoying this kind of functionality in their own spaces. Hopefully it won’t be long before it’s available everywhere else, too.

Does the idea of deploying robotic plants and animals in natural habitats to help save threatened species and reduce pollution make you feel better or worse about the state of the world? On the one hand, it’s kind of alarming that we’ve reached the point where we’re investing in bionic cockroaches and robot bees to make up for the destruction humans have unleashed upon the Earth. But on the other hand, recent advances in technology make it possible to explore, monitor and aid our environment in dazzling new ways, like using machine learning to predict the behavior of threatened species or interactive bio-tags to warn whales away from our ships.

High-Tech Bio-Tagging Systems

via GIPHY

The ‘Augmented Nature’ project helmed by a team of designers and engineers at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London aims to empower animals to thrive in their natural habitats and avoid threats of nearby humans. The team has developed two robotic bio-tags: one for the collard peccary, a type of pig that lives in the Amazon rainforest, and one for the humpback whale. In addition to passively gathering information on the animals, the tags actively aid them.

Using vibration, the bio-tags guide the peccaries to areas where they can dig wallows and disperse seeds, creating new habitats in safer areas away from destructive logging operations. Peccaries are crucial to both plant growth and amphibian habitats in the forest as they travel through the underbrush and roll in the mud.

The oceans have changed dramatically for humpback whales in the last century thanks to ship activities, pollution and ocean acidification, putting them at risk of ship collisions and disorienting them with the sounds of engines and other human activities. But these whales are essential players in ocean health, carrying nutrients from the depths where they feed back up to the surface to nourish phytoplankton, the basis of the entire food web. The Augmented Nature whale bio-tag integrates an underwater speaker to actively communicate with tagged whales, using sound to inform them about the positions of nearby ships.

Drone Bees & Other Synthetic Pollinators

Could pollinating robots really make up for the fact that bees are dying? Many scientists are skeptical, but the situation is desperate enough to give it a shot. Bee populations are plummeting, and without them, our crops are in serious trouble. The United States lost 44 percent of all honeybee colonies in 2016, and other species are near mass extinction. While it seems clear that we need to put a lot more effort into saving the living bees we still have, drones could help fill in the gaps in the meantime.

Pollinating robots are currently under development in a variety of forms, including insect-sized drones that use horse hairs coated with ionic liquid gel to mimic the biology of living bees, created by Eijiro Miyako, a researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Others aim to look a little more like real bees. Surprisingly, even mega retailer Walmart is putting a hat in the game; Walmart filed a patent for autonomous robot bees in March 2018.

Some people believe robotics could help keep bees alive, too. It seems like a sad reflection of the state of our world when we have to create artificial flowers to nourish bees because real ones are too covered in chemicals and mites. Artist Michael Candy built this conceptual Synthetic Pollenizer, a system of 3D-printed robotic flowers, which is installed alongside real plants to encourage bees to pollinate. Equipped with pollen and nectar, the machine feeds pollen collected from beehives into a synthetic stamen and then sends it through motors to regulate the amount of pollen on the ‘flower.’

“Bees are easily the most utilitarian pollinators used in industrial agriculture and they are suffering from a variety of environmental problems,” says Candy. “Perhaps in a future where designer crops are no longer able to produce pollen yet still receive it – then the Synthetic Pollenizer could rehabilitate the reproductive cycle of these genetically modified crops.”

Robotic Animals Document & Monitor Marine Life

A soft robotic fish named SoFi developed by MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory swims alongside real fish to capture close-up footage without disrupting or alarming them. The robot has been tested at depths of more than 50 feet for up to 40 minutes in Fiji’s Rainbow Reef. Its silicone body is based on those of real fish to give it a natural swimming pattern, and its buoyancy is controlled by an adjustable weight compartment and ‘buoyancy control unit’ that changes the fish’s density by compressing and decompressing air. The team uses a waterproofed Super Nintendo controller to steer it.

It may not be quite as graceful as the real thing, but the MantaDroid by the National University of Singapore is pretty close to passing as its biological counterpart, at least from a distance. The droid is designed to aid in marine biodiversity studies – and also, unsurprisingly, to carry out underwater surveillance.

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Augmented Nature 6 Ways Robotics Are Aiding Conservation Efforts

The buildings and infrastructure of the not-so-distant future might look like they were dropped here from an alien planet thanks to the complex geometries and curvaceous surfaces robotic building technologies are able to produce. 3D printing in metal and concrete are among the biggest breakthroughs, but robots can also set building materials like bricks into place with unprecedented precision and produce prefabricated timber modules of the sort usually created by craftspeople. These 13 recent projects give us a glimpse at what we might be able to expect over the next couple decades.

3D-Printed Metal Bridge by MX3D

Looking like it was airlifted here from another planet, this metal bridge by MX3D took four robots six months to print and it’s almost ready to be set in place across one of Amsterdam’s oldest canals. “This bridge will show how 3D printing finally enters the world of large-scale, functional objects and sustainable materials while allowing unprecedented freedom of form,” says Joris Laarman. “The symbolism of the bridge is a beautiful metaphor to connect the technology of the future with the old city, in a way that brings out the best of both worlds.”

Prefabricated Load-Bearing Timber Modules Made by Robots

Think old-fashioned timber construction could escape the grip of digitalization? ETH Zurich proves that isn’t true with the creation of load-bearing timber modules prefabricated by robots in the company’s new laboratory. A single robot guides each beam as it’s sawed, and a second drills holes before the two robots collaborate to position the beams in the correct spatial arrangement. The result is a geometric structure that can be joined with other units to create a three-dimensional volume.

Robotically Fabricated Shanghai Gallery Facade

An undulating facade on an art gallery in Shanghai shows off a beautiful robotic masonry fabrication innovation as part of a recent renovation by Archi-Union. The facade’s curving protrusions couldn’t have been shaped with such precision by hand-laying techniques; a robotic mechanical arm arranged the old reclaimed bricks to ensure they’ll hold up to modern standards

3D Printed Formwork for Concrete

Looking almost like it was sculpted from clay and fired in a massive kiln, this truss-style support is actually made of concrete that was poured into a 3D-printed mold. The firm XtreeE programmed a robotic arm to extrude concrete into the shape of the outer layer of the structure, poured more concrete inside, and then filed the envelope away.

3D-Printed Structures Inspired by Thai Architecture

Traditional Thai handicrafts made of coconut leaves informed the shape of unusual 3D-printed structures by Thailand-based cement manufacturer Siam Research and Innovation Company (SRI.) “The weaving pattern is designed to be modular and implement in a concrete block,” says the company. “The concrete is being extruded using 3D printing to increase its dimensions as its weaving appearance. After printing, the 3D printing concrete panel is fabricated with the pattern and serves as as structure for holding its weight. After fabrication, the weaving pattern of final module acts as a truss for structural purposes.”

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Constructing The Future 13 Recent Advances In Robotic Building Technology

An island in France populated by ‘living machines’ that seem to be torn straight from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, Les Machines de L’ile has delighted visitors since 2007, and now they’re embarking on a quest to complete the largest hanging garden since ancient Babylon. The unusual artistic and cultural project is set within old shipyards surrounded by two branches of the Loire River, known for its massive mechanical elephant, 82-foot-high Marine Worlds Carousel and a gallery of the illustrations, models and films that went into the making of their machines.

The Heron’s Tree is one of the project’s greatest achievements, but it’s been under construction for over a decade. 114 feet tall and 160 feet in diameter, the tree allows visitors to climb onto the backs or wings of mechanical herons to fly over the tree’s hanging gardens. Les Machines de L’ile have launched a Kickstarter to expand it to its full potential, with a projected cost of 35 million euros and a new opening date of 2022.

The crowdfunding campaign just opened on March 6th and has already exceeded its goal by a long shot, but you can still back it for rewards like posters, sketches, hats and engraved plaques. Whether or not you contribute, you’re going to want to add this fantastical island of automatons to your travel wish list.

“Since the opening of the machines of the island in 2007, we are studying a tree-specific ecosystem through the prototype branch, already visited by more than 4 million visitors. This branch prefigures one of the 22 branches that will constitute the Heron Tree. This allowed us to test the strength, safety and greening of these hanging gardens. The containers that house the plants allow trees to be planted within the Tree itself. Currently, we are experimenting with the implementation of micro landscapes in the forks of branches.”

“In the Herons’ Tree, the hanging gardens are accessible via a double helix staircase located inside the trunk: one to go up, the other to go down. The visitors walk along lush branches and footbridges to go from branch to branch before reaching the top of the tree. From the different galleries 30m (100ft) above the ground, they will discover the Herons, the river Loire, and Nantes. The walking circuit through the hanging gardens ends at a patio bar built into a lower branch. The hanging gardens can accommodate 300 visitors.”