Innovative startups of the week
Joipaw
A new startup is building a series of video games for dogs, with the ultimate goal of helping do further research into dog dementia. The Joipaw Console is an all-in-one device that has a built-in treat dispenser that delivers snacks every time a dog scores a point. The console could also stimulate your dog when you're not around to walk and play with it. Mental stimulation has been proven to help delay the onset of canine dementia.
Michigan state university
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Transparent solar panels have been installed at multiple test locations.
These panels aren't as efficient as conventional panels but can be used in place of traditional windows. Similar to rooftop solar panels, the solar-harvesting system converts sunlight into electricity. However, transparent solar panels are unique in letting visible light pass through while picking up just the invisible wavelengths of sunlight in the ultraviolet and the near-infrared to convert into electricity. Once installed, the panels are visibly indistinguishable from traditional windows.
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2021/solar-glass-panels-installed
Neoplants
A startup has created a plant that can clean the air in your home. The team at Neoplants wants to purify air without using electricity. Volatile organic compounds are highly reactive chemicals that are found in paints, cleaning supplies and pesticides. They can cause headaches, eye and throat irritation, and in extreme cases, cancer. Although plants can clear the air in a closed environment, they only have a modest effect on such polluants. The engineers modified the microorganisms living in the plant's roots to boost the plant's pollutant-metabolizing capacity. Down the road genetic engineering could also be used to help plants capture and store more carbon than they would naturally.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Aluminum-based material can scrub CO2 from coal-fired power plant exhaust. Researchers have created a CO2 adsorbent made of two substances found easily and abundantly. Finding an effective scrubber for coal-fired power plants is hard because the mixture of gases that flows up the smokestacks is typically hot, humid, and corrosive. The material they found is made from aluminum and formic acid and would cost less than a dollar per kilogram. The CO2 molecules enter the material and get trapped. As many developing countries still depend on cheap coal for power production this could prove useful to limit emissions.
StretchSense
This startup has built a glove that captures the intricate motions of human hands. Their glove is used by more than 200 gaming and visual effects studios worldwide to create realistic hand gestures. It was recently used to make A Snoop Dogg music video. The glove is made using a stretchable sensor technology similar to the ones used on the screens of smartphones to measure the amount of energy the screen is storing based on where you put your finger down, which is how it works out what you’re touching. In StretchSense’s case, when the material stretches with hand movements, the amount of energy it can store increases.
Ciudad Universitaria and Universidad Nacional de Cuyo
Researchers created a computer model that can be used to help football teams find the best defense to use against an opponent. They studied videos of three real-world matches to learn more about defensive play. They then tracked the movements of all of the players throughout the match on a second-by-second basis. They also noted the distance between all of the players as the action ensued and the way defenders moved when a player on the other team approached. The researchers suggest that studying the animation allows for noting patterns made by offensive players, which coaches could use when developing defensive strategies for their teams.
https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.106.044308
