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Innovators: Something amazing
The technology of tomorrow — and the people making it
When was the last time you laid your hands on a new innovation, tried it out, and were truly amazed? Maybe it’s your first time driving a Tesla, hearing Dolby Atmos, or gaming in VR. In a landscape littered with incremental improvements and upgrades, it’s those wow moments that we really remember. In the Innovators series, Digital Trends goes behind the scenes with people on the cutting edge of innovation, to see how they do it.
Inside the high-tech lab that makes the world’s safest bike helmet
Trek and Bontrager have developed a new cycling helmet technology that looks to dramatically improve performance and safety. Dubbed WaveCel, the new tech uses three processes – flex, crumple, and glide – to disperse the energy absorbed on contact in an accident, providing up to 48 times more protection against head injury.
IBM’s latest A.I. can help doctors detect how quickly a disease is progressing
IBM has developed an A.I. that can be used to predict how a range of diseases -- including diabetes, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s -- are likely to develop. The tool could one day be used by physicians to make more accurate diagnoses and design more effective treatments.
Crescent Moon Eva All-Foam V2 Snowshoe review
Crescent Moon threw out the book when it designed its latest snowshoe. The one-piece teardrop snowshoe has no moving parts and is made of EVA foam, the impact-absorbing material in your sneakers. How does this unique snowshoe compare to a traditional snowshoe? Read on to find out.
Fender’s Acoustasonic guitar uses advanced tech to become a tonal chameleon
From shredding distortion to a soft and supple fingerstyle, Fender's latest guitar innovation is an acoustic/electric hybrid that allows guitar players to dial in the widest possible range of tones, making it a compelling new option for those with a wide range of musical inspirations.
Meet Wiliot, a battery-less Bluetooth chip that pulls power from thin air
A tiny chip being developed by a semiconductor company called Wiliot could harvest the energy it needs out of thin air, the company claims. No battery needed. The paper-thin device pulls power from ambient radio frequencies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cell signals.
Taste test: The new Impossible Burger is a triumph of food engineering
Impossible Foods is back with a new-and-improved plant-based burger, and we got a chance to try it out at CES 2019. Suffice it to say that our minds were blown by the Impossible Burger 2.0. Everything is dialed in -- the smell, the color, the texture, the flavor -- that it's hard to tell it's not actual beef.
Transformers for your feet. 21st-century design creates an all-condition shoe
Whether you're trekking through far-off lands or just on a day hike, comfortable and functional shoes are essential. Typically, you need rugged hiking boots, breathable shoes for hot days, and something comfortable to wear around the campfire. Or you could just bring these.
To put a quantum computer on your desk, Intel has a plan unlike any other
Quantum computers, once they become common, will complete difficult tasks thousands of times more quickly than current PCs. That could obviously threaten a classic chipmaker like Intel, but it plans to use its knowledge of silicon production to build quantum chips more quickly than its peers.
How do you re-create the air-ripping launch of 11,000-hp dragsters? Dolby Atmos
Dolby and the NHRA have been working together on something special. The two entities have been producing live drag races in spine-chilling Dolby Atmos. Digital Trends recently went behind the scenes at a race in Las Vegas to check out this newly forged partnership in action.
Inside a Bitcoin mine, fans, silicon, and frigid temperatures keep crypto pumping
Ever wondered what it's like inside a bitcoin mine? Since it's a digital currency, you can't just dig it up with a pickaxe -- so to get an inside look at how it works, we packed up our cameras and drove up to Wenatchee, Washington to see a mine in person. Check out the video to get an inside look!
Inside the Intel lab that put a legit gaming desktop in the palm of your hand
Meta description: Intel’s Next Unit of Computing, or NUC, has worked hard to miniaturize desktops over the last six years. Now, with the help of AMD’s Vega, its taking pint-sized performance to the next level. We took an inside look at the lab where it all happened.
DirecTV wants to make 4K HDR sports par for the course. Here’s how it’ll work
4K HDR TVs deserve live sports in 4K HDR, and DirecTV is doing its best to deliver more of that content to its subscribers while pushing an industry forward.
Inside the tech behind Marvel Universe Live’s ‘Age of Heroes’ stunt show
Marvel Universe Live: Age of Heroes features Black Panther, Spiderman, Doctor Strange, and more Marvel favorites in a live action stunt show.
Inside the high-tech labs that make sure your legal marijuana is safe
Just as your bottle of beer is tested and labeled for alcohol content before it makes it to the grocery store, legalized marijuana undergoes rigorous testing before it appears in a safe, accurately labelled jar at your local dispensary. Here’s the science labs use to do it.
Watch: IBM uses artificial intelligence to make music with Phony Ppl
We brought IBM's AI music composition program Watson Beat to R&B group Phony PPL to see if actual musicians could find a cool way to use it.
They’re real. We slipped on Nike’s HyperAdapt 1.0 self-lacing sneakers
We take a walk in Nike's first ever self-lacing sneakers, the Hyperadapt 1.0 and speak with Tiffany Beers, senior innovator at Nike about how it came about.
Starship Technologies’ cute sidewalk drones will roll into London soon
Forget quadcopters; Starship Technologies is bringing drone delivery back down to earth with a fleet of six wheeled robots that deliver goods on the ground.
PicoBrew’s Zymatic brews beer with a mouse click (and purists are pissed)
Automation allows PicoBrew’s Zymatic to crank out brew after perfect brew with a handful of ingredients and water. But home-brew enthusiasts are scoffing. Does tech take the soul out of good beer?
Next-gen artificial limbs help amputees grab onto a better life
Next-gen artificial limbs are allowing amputees to regain lost function once provided by one of nature’s most complicated engineering feats: the human hand.
Taking a spin on Ryno’s one-wheeled, self-balancing electric ‘microcycle’
Chris Hoffmann took his 13-year-old daughter’s sketch from a dream to a real, self-balancing, one-wheeled motorcycle that you can ride. And now he's ready to sell it to the world.
Blueshift’s bamboo Bluetooth beauty ditches D cells for supercapacitors
Bluetooth speakers are everywhere, but none are remotely like Sam Beck's Blueshift speakers. Check out what makes these portable speakers so amazing
There is such a thing as a badass scooter, and Works Electric calls it the Rover
In a tiny workshop outside Portland, Oregon, one man builds the only scooter you wouldn’t be ashamed to be seen on. We visited the shop to take it for a spin.
How a small Oregon company grew a business from garbage
Portland, Oregon-based Cass of Bass makes portable speakers from reclaimed and recycled materials to create truly unique portable speaker systems.