Yesterday, Saturday 13th, in South Australia the Tesla battery at Hornsdale Power Reserve was paid AU$1,000/MWh (USD$790/MWh) to absorb excess electricity from the power grid. The battery owners will later be able to sell this energy also.

The battery has become famous for coming online in under 100 days after an Elon Musk Twitter bet and later reacting to a crashed coal plants in milliseconds.  Starting around 12 PM, and continuing until around 4 PM, the battery was paid during at least five separate windows.  Per my interpretation of the below tweeted image, electricity was priced above $0/MWh for only 25 minutes – meaning negative pricing for around 215 minutes. At a minimum, there were 183 minutes (85% of the time period) where the price of electricity was a fully negative $1000/MWh ($1/kWh). During the four hour window, the battery discharged electricity for short periods (nine minutes total) four separate times.

HTC is refreshing its Vive headset with a new Pro model today. The original Vive debuted nearly two years ago, and the new Vive Pro is clearly designed to address some of the complaints of that earlier headset. HTC is increasing the resolution of the dual-OLED displays to 2880 x 1600 (1400 x 1600 per eye, and 615 ppi), a 78 percent increase from the 2160 x 1200 (1080 x 1200 per eye) resolution in the current Vive. This resolution increase should help with clearer text rendering and overall graphics, and the bump puts the Vive Pro beyond the Oculus Rift or Windows Mixed Reality headsets.  Alongside the resolution increase, HTC has also redesigned the Vive Pro’s headstrap and added built-in headphones. One of the complaints of the original Vive was that it was difficult to adjust and heavy, and you had to plug in headphones, creating another cable dangling to potentially upset your VR experience. The Vive Pro’s headstrap includes a sizing dial so the headset is a lot more balanced, and it hopefully won’t feel too top heavy at the front. We’ll be testing it out later today to find out if this redesign has helped with the comfort, and whether the headset feels lighter as a result.

In the past 25 years, airlines and the amount of flights per day have risen considerably. In the EU, the number of flights has risen from 360 million in 1993 to almost a billion this year. In the U.S., there are 5,000 aircraft in the sky at any given time, and in 2016 the FAA handled 42,700 flights daily.  As the volume of air traffic continues to rise, experts across the aerospace industry, including companies like Honeywell and the German Aerospace Center, have teamed up to introduced advanced virtual reality (VR)-based autopilot systems. These autopilot systems will help offset the high workload and the burden of stress on pilots.  The A-PiMod is an EU-funded project that introduces sophisticated software into the cockpit. The software makes recommendations based on the conditions of the aircraft and that of the pilot. It can measure eye movement, gestures, and inputs from the pilot, which allows it to draw conclusions concerning their stress levels. Based on the current workload, it can make suggestions to the pilot adapted for the current situation. It cannot override the pilot’s decisions, but rather, make suggestions to the crew on which tasks they should perform themselves and when the autopilot should take over.

BMW and Porsche are already working together and with other major automakers, like Mercedes and Ford, on the major Ionity ultra-fast (350 kW) electric car charging network in Europe.

But now they want to lay a path to improve that charge rate to 450 kW in order to enable quicker electric car charging.  BMW is leading the project through the ‘FastCharge’ consortium in partnership with other companies, like Porsche, Allego, Siemens and others. Interestingly, the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure supports the project with a  € 7.8 million grant, which is supervised by the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Organization (NOW). They have now confirmed that the bulk of their research will focus on improving charging rates using the existing Combined Charging System (CCS), but at a voltage of 900 volts and an amplitude of 500 amperes for a charge rate of 450 kW.  The group sees this charge rate as ideal to charge an average long-range electric car in about 15 mins.

The RealWear HMT-1 can be worn with a helmet and safety glasses as it delivers computing power and remote collaboration functionality.  RealWear credits part of the design’s inspiration to Boba Fett’s helmet from the Star Wars movies, which—like the HMT-1—has a monocular display for visual data that can be flipped up when not in use. RealWear’s VP of industrial design and human factors, Stephen Pombo, previously worked with one of the original designers of Boba Fett’s prop helmet to create a monocular headset patent at technology company Kopin before going on to develop the HMT-1’s predecessor.  While wearing the HMT-1, workers can use voice commands to browse and search technical documentation or instructions, which are stored on the wearable’s microSD card and can be synced from the cloud using Wi-Fi. The wearable’s rugged design includes noise cancellation and multiple microphones, which is designed to ensure that field workers can be heard in loud environments while using the wearable’s remote collaboration functionality. This allows experts to watch a procedure taking place via live HD video stream from the wearable’s camera. The remote expert can communicate with the field worker through the audio channel and capture images from the camera, zoom in on details and annotate an image using a pen tablet.  “When a malfunction occurs in an airport distant from the maintainers that have the knowledge to repair it, they are able to dial in to a local maintenance engineer with software like Librestream’s Onsite remote collaboration to diagnose and fix the problem,” says RealWear CEO and Founder Andy Lowery. According to Lowery, the company is working with a major producer of commercial jets to equip each aircraft with an HMT-1 for collaboration functionality like this.   “The most popular applications we integrate and deploy are remote collaboration apps, such as Onsight, workflow applications, such as Frontline, and industrial IoT visualization applications, such as ThingWorx,” says Lowery. Software is installed on the HMT-1 via Wi-Fi or a USB cable connected to a desktop computer, much like it would be with a device like a tablet. RealWear says basic functionality, such as document reading or the recording and playback of training videos, can be done right out of the box.   According to RealWear, benefits of the HMT-1 include increases in productivity and safety, error reduction, and time and cost savings. Lowery says just one use of the HMT-1 will return savings to an airline worth ten times what they would pay for the device. The company has an adaptive pricing model and available leasing programs, but says the cost to buy an HMT-1 and try it out would be $1,500 plus freight. 

The second-generation Tesla Roadster came to an abrupt halt, and a grinning Elon Musk came back on the mic to introduce his latest baby, which will likely cause Porsche and Ferrari to break a sweat.  Musk claimed the base model will do zero to 60 in 1.9 seconds, which if true would make it the first time a production vehicle cracked the 2-second threshold. He also said the new Roadster would climb from 0 to 100 mph in 4.2 seconds, and will clear the quarter mile in 8.9 seconds (in case the Fast & Furious drag race franchise comes calling.)

“It’ll be faster than that jet over there,” Musk quipped, as an airplane soared over the exultant crowd crammed into Tesla’s Hawthorne, California facility.  Musk said he wouldn’t confirm the top speed, but hinted that it was “above 250 mph.” By comparison, the Agera RS by Sweden’s Koenigsegg currently holds the world record at 277.9 mph.

Solid-state batteries are thought to be a lot safer than common li-ion cells and could have more potential for higher energy density, but they also have limitations, like temperature ranges, electrode current density, and we have yet to see a company capable of producing it in large-scale and at an attractive price point competitive with li-ion.  Now Fisker announced that they are patenting a new solid-state electrode structure that would enable a viable battery with some unbelievable specs.

Here’s what they claim (via GreenCarCongress):

“Fisker’s solid-state batteries will feature three-dimensional electrodes with 2.5 times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. Fisker claims that this technology will enable ranges of more than 500 miles on a single charge and charging times as low as one minute—faster than filling up a gas tank.”

Video has changed a lot in recent years. How have you and the video department incorporated new video technologies, and what technologies has the department helped pioneer for journalism?   Journalists and technologists from various parts of The Times started experimenting with virtual reality a few years ago. We launched NYT VR in November 2015 with the publication of the V.R. documentary “The Displaced” (about three children displaced by war) and the distribution of more than one million Google Cardboard headsets to our subscribers. Since then, we’ve produced more than 20 V.R. films, and we learn a lot with each one.  Last year, we launched The Daily 360, a series that produces a 360-degree video from somewhere in the world every day. The volume and cadence of daily publication accelerated our learnings in V.R. It allowed us to quickly iterate on a young storytelling form, train our journalists in a new reporting tool and introduce immersive journalism to a broad Times audience.

Just used the Regal Cinema's "Experience" (3-D glasses with Sensurround stereo and vibrating reclining chairs 2 weeks ago) watching BladeRunner 2049, pretty cool technology applied to entertainment, but it needs to be tweaked a little to be made better and more immersive.  However this article is really talking about the next generation film as a medium entertainment that is using integrated technology to create an immersive experience for theater goers  -- Steven Spielberg was an early investor. So were 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros. The venture’s leadership team includes the former chief of Disney’s theme park design division; the producer of the “Men in Black” movie series; and a live event kingpin.  And now AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest theater chain, has invested $20 million in the fledgling company and agreed to finance the rapid roll-out of its product in the United States and Britain.  The fuss is over Dreamscape Immersive, which has been working in a warehouse here for the last year and a half on what it calls a “virtual-reality multiplex.” Instead of a variety of movies, Dreamscape Immersive locations will offer a variety of virtual-reality experiences. Its technology, developed by a Swiss motion-capture firm, allows up to six people to explore a virtual-reality environment at once, seeing fully rendered avatars of one another.  “We were mesmerized by what we saw,” said Adam Aron, chief executive of AMC Entertainment. “Their vision is to change what V.R. has been — away from just a heightened level of video game and toward cinematic storytelling — and we think it’s what consumers have been waiting for.”   The AMC deal, which brings total investment in Dreamscape to more than $40 million, calls for up to six Dreamscape locations to open over the next 18 months. Some will be inside existing AMC theaters, and some will be stand-alone centers nearby. Additionally, Dreamscape will open a flagship location in the first quarter of next year at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles. Westfield is another Dreamscape investor.

Turbulent can provide 24/7 energy for dozens of homes. It can be installed in most rivers and canals.  The generator could be the solution to providing low-cost power to rural areas around the world.  This whirlpool turbine can power dozens of homes, providing energy 24 hours a day.  Belgian company Turbulent have possibly come up with a solution to generate energy for small-scale rural areas, but you need to live near a river.   The turbine can be installed in most rivers and canals, using the flowing water to produce energy - which the creators claim is enough to power up to 60 homes.

The world’s biggest battery, built by Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. in Australia, is doing its job too well.  The response time for Musk’s Powerpack batteries to feed power into the grid when outages hit is less than 200 milliseconds, Tesla said in a submission to the nation’s energy markets rulemaker. However, the rules, written with large coal and gas generators in mind, gives them a leisurely six seconds to respond. That’s prompted Tesla to call for a shake up of Australia’s old-fashioned grid.  Like most Musk pursuits, Tesla wants things done faster. It’s called for a new system that address technical restraints and better values the dispatch of emergency power to the grid from fast-response technologies -- such as its Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia that delivers electricity at lightning speed.

An update to an older post on Samsung's Wall - The Wall falls into concept territory, but Samsung has very real plans to commercialize it. More information is promised to come at “a global launch” sometime this spring. Whatever final form The Wall takes, you can count on it being exorbitantly expensive and aimed at high-dollar home theater installations.

BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a big trend in the construction industry. BIM captures the whole lifecycle of real estate, an industrial building or the infrastructure around it – from the scratch to the maintenance, and over the next decade. Before anyone starts to work in the real environment, the whole project is captured and designed in 3D. Every cable, every element, and even the energy consumption is figured out by a collaborative database. Of course, using VR and AR solutions to visualize the 3D models has a huge impact on the daily work of the AEC industry.

WT: In a nutshell – Why should we use Wearables in the construction industry?
WW: I see two areas where Wearables may provide significant benefits to the construction industry. Construction is inherently dangerous and physically demanding, very often under harsh environmental conditions. First, monitoring environmental conditions, health parameters, and overall activity may help detect unsafe conditions. Secondly, tracking location and movement of workers (as well as machinery and moving objects) allows us to sound the alarm if danger zones are penetrated. In combination, those applications of wearables could significantly increase worker wellbeing and reduce the number and severity of injuries and accidents.

WT: You are offering an AR solution for holographic visualization of 3D house designing. Along the supply chain of the building lifecycle, who can work with it and what are the benefits? In addition, from your point of view, what are we yet to see in the future?
WW: Today, Holographic Visualization and Augmented Reality are almost exclusively used in design and planning, as well as marketing and sales of real estate, predominantly for larger projects. We also see a strong demand for using our products for public outreach, presentation and communication of project plans to government officials and regulatory agencies. As technologies mature, we already see a strong demand for using our technology during construction and later for facility management purposes. With companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft investing heavily in lower-cost consumer hardware, one can expect a progression towards smaller construction projects in areas like interior design, landscaping, etc.

In one of the most disturbing recent audits of VA health care, a new Government Accountability Office report criticizes medical leaders at all levels of the Department of Veterans Affairs for failing to follow their own policies for reporting incompetent and unprofessional health care providers to state licensing boards and a National Practitioner Data Bank, routine steps to protect patients from harm.  At a House hearing Wednesday, VA acknowledged years of lax oversight by VA medical center directors, regional supervisors and top leaders. But Dr. Gerard R. Cox, a retired Navy physician who last month was named VA’s acting deputy undersecretary for health for organizational excellence, told lawmakers VA accepts GAO’s findings and recommendations and vowed reforms are underway.

Randall Williamson, GAO’s director of health care, told the House veterans affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations that auditing teams visited only five of 170 VA medical centers to determine compliance with policies that require directors to report providers subject to adverse actions because of unsafe clinical practices or unprofessional conduct. Medical centers are required to share the names of providers they discipline or fire to the National Practitioner Data Bank and to appropriate state medical licensing agencies.  What GAO found, said Williamson, was a “variety of disturbing problems with how these processes are being carried out.”

Barbara Lombardi and Betsey Doane -- who were both born blind -- use pairs of Wi-Fi connected glasses, capable of contacting Aira agents for assistance with tasks that require another set of eyes.  The devices are designed for the blind and people with very low vision. They include cameras that the agents can access.  The sisters, ham radio operators for roughly the past six decades, say that before they began using Aira's glasses their communications were solely by touch and sound. "It's life-changing, absolutely life-changing," says Doane, who is a professor at Housatonic Community College. "I was at a conference recently...and I navigated the hotel. There were 1,600 teachers, and of course I had some help, but really I just navigated fine."  Aira released the devices this year. The Shelton sisters are among more than 1,000 people in the country who use the service so far.  "It's the freedoms we've never known," Lombardi says. "It's fantastic."

The Truck for the Job

Musk believes that going after the big boys is the best way to have a real impact on climate change. In the five years since Tesla started producing its Model S sedan, it has sold about 200,000 cars. The US has more than 250 million passenger cars on the road, making the impact of this, roughly, zero. Even if Tesla scales up production of its “affordable” Model 3 sedan, it will still be a very long time before the Silicon Valley automaker can change the way humanity moves about enough for any dip in emissions to register as more than a blip.

Trucks offer a more effective way to do that, because they are particularly toxic. “Heavy-duty vehicles make up a small fraction of the vehicles on the road, but a large fraction of their emissions,” says Jimmy O’Dea, who studies clean vehicles at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In California, that category (which includes buses as well as trucks) accounts for 7 percent of total vehicles, but produces 20 percent of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions and a third of all NOx emissions (those are the ones linked to asthma attacks and respiratory illnesses).

Every truck you move with electricity instead of diesel has an outsize effect on the health of the planet and everything living on it. 18-wheelers are the ultimate force multiplier.

Musk has done the math. And while lots of players are moving into electric trucking space, none have the star power of Tesla, the kind of clout that makes the whole country pay attention.

Start with the Within app, which is a free iOS and Android download. It uses so-called 360-degree video technology, which is similar to virtual reality and lets you look at a video in every direction and to interact with and explore a movie scene.

Within works like this: Imagine you are watching a regular film on your phone — with a point of view decided by where the filmmaker was pointing a camera. In the app, you can move your phone around in the air, looking all around and up and down, as you slide your viewpoint all around the scene, seeing the actors and the set wrapping all around you.   It’s almost as if you were there standing among the actors. At first it may feel unnerving, and you may find yourself bumping into things in your real-life room. But you will be mesmerized.