2020 In A Nutshell: Most Awesome Innovations in Technology

All good things must come to an end! And 2020 is no exception (how ironic!🙁). With people wrapping up this year and getting ready to welcome next year with great expectations. The “Best of..” tradition is on the run and it’s infected the technology sector too. Since we are unique (you already know that!😏), we have started with the “In the Nutshell” tradition.

A lot of new and cool like really fricking marvel cool technologies were proposed and some even had prototypes. After, analyzing, assessing, auditing, and performing all things ‘a’; We have hand-picked a few technologies that surpassed all the others in every aspect. Without further ado, let’s kick off (2020 too!😎).

The Digital Yuan Project: Reshaping the Currency Model

Amid the ongoing pandemic, digital payment technology became the new way to pay in these social distancing times. Though the underlying tech is simple its impact is huge. However, a large number of people with no bank acc. “Unbanked people” can’t use these services because they require a bank acc. to operate.

Thus, the digital currency was born. But cryptocurrencies couldn’t survive the brunt of the market and earn the trust of users, because of its volatility. But China would be the first country ever to use central bank digital currencies for the “Unbanked people.” A digital currency acc. uses any Govt. issued a verified document to register the person’s account. The person can deposit cash in any of the 4 intermediate banks. The bank then generates the same amount of ‘Renminbi’ (China’s national currency) and deposits it into a user’s wallet.

The user can then pay at any local store via the internet, QR-code, or barcode scanner. And the mind-blowing part is you can pay even if you don’t have internet (😮). Keeping two devices close, payments can be initiated through NFC and all transactions are recorded in the wallet.

How is China making this possible?

These types of payments are done on the DC/EP platform which is a centralized blockchain. It is also going to integrate smart contract service with blockchain with asymmetric cryptography security. Sounds like big terms but have simple explanations, just stick with me! Let us first understand the Ledger. It is simply a detailed list of all the transactions of a certain account. But verifying any flaw in it is tiresome, so enters DLT. This is a decentralized ledger that is maintained by many people. When over 50% of the people approve a transaction or correction it is recorded or modified.

Blockchain is a shared distributed ledger on which all transactions are recorded and linked together. It is also ‘immutable’ because the records once entered cannot be changed. For every new transaction, a new block is added to the chain after verification. Each block stores data, an encrypted hash, and the hash of the previous block. This way you can’t tamper with blockchain. Barely scratching the surface here, but this revolution of China would pave a major way of globalizing its currency and strengthening its economy.

“CBDC is the true evolution of cryptocurrency and the potential future of Money.”

Will this project lead to the ban on physical money? Can’t tell but one thing is for sure “Digitalization is The New Revolution.” How about an AI integrated into your body?! or better an IA- Intelligence Augmentation device?

Alter-Ego By MIT: The AI version of You

After Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift (listen to their top songs here), and Narendra Modi, AI is the most discussed topic in the net community. Every Stark fan here wanted just one thing: Tony’s sidekick- ‘Jarvis’ (Okay two, include the suit also!😉). Researchers at MIT have developed a technology that will literally act as the ‘Voice Inside you Head.’

Their device called “Alter-Ego” is a wearable silent speech interface that contains electrodes placed on the face and jaw part. The amazing technology used for communication is ‘Bone Conduction.’ The electrodes pick up neuromuscular signals when you speak something inside your head. The signals are fed to a machine-learning program trained to correlate particular signals with particular words.

Ask anything and it will process and relay the info through bone conduction to your inner ear without obstructing your ear canal without interrupting your routine. Let’s go over the working lightning fast. ⚡

Understanding the Voice Living In Your Head

Arnav Kapur a Fluid Interfaces Research assistant at MIT wanted to combine the powers of humans and computers. This type of tech depicts a fascinating departure from the norm. Triggering all the functions without tapping, touching, or speaking loudly can be of great use in IoT.

The main property is the non-invasiveness of the device which does not require users to speak or mouth their words. Speaking is perhaps one of the most complex motor tasks humans perform with seamless ease. Though the process is qubit complex, we will provide it a touch of simplicity. Whenever we conceive any action in our brain, a motor neuron is activated and nerve impulse is sent through the spinal cord. Now, a chain reaction is started with the release of a neurotransmitter. After releasing it binds with nicotinic receptors and this, in turn, liberates sodium ions causing a varying potential difference. This difference generates a unique myoelectric signature akin to a signal which is detected by the system.

Signals are captured using TPE plastic and gold plated silver electrodes. All these signals travel through electrodes and are sent to the AI unit which identifies the words spoken internally. The device is connected to the internet and searches your query and answers you internally. The interface is attached to 7 points on the face, jaw, and chin and offers unique flexibility.

“The device melds humans and machines such that it feels like an internal extension of our cognition,” says Arnav. The system tanked at 92% transcription efficiency as reported in the Paper. This technology can help people with ALS, cancer, paralysis, or those who are struggling to speak. With IoT hailed as the ultimate transformation platform leading our civilization into the type-II phase, this interface can guarantee smooth sailing in this sea of networks.

“The technology should enable people to harvest its benefit but do it in a way that lets them remain in the present.”

But in this vast sea of networks and ocean of devices, vulnerable species (devices or networks) are bait for phisher-man (😈). What if I told you Internet can be made unhackable?!!

Quantum Internet: The Ultimate Unhackable Future

In just 37 years, the internet grew twice as fast as compared to the size of my brain! (Though I’m younger than the internet.😜) A thing that big holds as much data as the square of Avogadro number. With so much data flowing back and forth, a single packet can help you leverage literally anything under the net.

In my Quantum series of articles, I did make them look like ‘Doomsday devices.’ But the ones who can break it are the ones who will make (or mend) it. Governed by laws of the quantum realm, armed with electricity and a hint of uncertainty (principle), the creators are quite certain that this technology will surely knock the socks off the hackers. The classical hacks won’t make any sense in this ‘Realm of Weirdness.’

Quantum Mechanics meet Dear Internet

Everybody knows quantum mechanics is hard to understand, probably hackers don’t understand it too. However, researchers have established small networks that show the power of this technology. The whole system relies on the two weirder properties of quantum physics namely- ‘Superposition and Entanglement.’

If you recall in previous articles, we introduced you to qubits, now picture two of them. This pair of qubits and can be entangled and as they are qubits they are superposition themselves. Using these phenomena you can leverage light-speed communication and faster internet. But how does this help to make it uncrackable?

Well, standard encryption like RSA (refer here) has 3 working rules: key generation, distribution, and encryption/decryption. The Uncertainty principle changes the game here because of quantum mechanics, you can generate literally billions of random numbers with no subtle patterns. Now, another property of qubits is when they are observed they collapse to any one state. The key distribution process can use this benefit to send keys in form of qubits. Even if an eavesdropper interrupts and picks the qubits, he/she cannot confirm if the measurements he took are correct or not. Moreover, if he thinks of copying it, sorry my friend but physics won’t allow you to do that because of the “No-Cloning theorem.”

Such a phenomenon can truly transform the era of the internet we are living in right now. With every technology there are costs as well as opportunities, while new tech can prove a threat to an existing interface, it can open door to new endless possibilities.

“The Quantum Computer is a double edged sword, forged to protect the future at the expense of the Present.”