What the number one concern that NFL players, and coaches have, are the fatal injuries and possible concussions that their players get with the tough physical impact between another football player. Not only could possible physical injuries happen during the actual games, but they could also happen during training and practice. That is why, the professional American football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are experimenting with robots, to try to replace some of their players that are used during practices. These are training robots, that help their players practice their physical skills specifically made for tackling action, which was probably a rough action to perform on a real person. The real question here is, will these training robots actually help the Pittsburgh Steelers or any other American football team help them on their game performance? 

MVP may look like just a regular punching bag or something, but ​actually it is fully equipped and has a purpose. 
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According to Oregonlive.com, "The MVP was initially developed and implemented at Dartmouth College after coach Buddy Teevens banned live tackling during practices. The engineers at Dartmouth created the MVP, which has the ability to cut, weave, stop and start - with varying speeds." In the beginning, this robot was only used for college football training, but as coaches began to realize how beneficial this robot came to be, they began to introduce it to the professional football teams in this case, the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

Also, Oregonlive.com, they state, "It's a great tool from a tackling tech standpoint," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "In today's NFL, with player safety the focus that it is, I think it's going to provide opportunities to improve in that area without the hand-to-hand or man-to-man combat associated with that teaching." Watching a robot flying around the field takes some getting used to, but the players say they're adjusting, especially since the robot doesn't get tired of running.  
"It's faster than we think, faster than it looks," defensive end Stephon Tuitt said. "You realize it's fast when you have to catch up to it. You have to keep running."

Like I said, this idea might seem a little bit over the line, but referring to the MVP that is helping the Pittsburgh Steelers, we will just have to wait and see if the is robot has actually helped them improve on their performance during the games? Will they be better in general? Or will they improve on JUST on their tackling skills, because that is what the MVP is made for? Will they possibly do worse than how they were usually performing? I guess, we will just have to see and wait for the results of the MVP! 

1.) First image of training session courtesy of culturedrip.com.  2) Video courtesy of YouTube.com/spotlightsport.  3) Soccer video courtesy of YouTube.com/nikesoccer. 

Now, the advancement of technology has allowed there to be more robots and drones that are able to perform certain tasks. It also seems like there are more things that robots are able to do for your own personal care. Do you have a battery stuck in your stomach?  Do you have a wound that needs to be patched in one of  your organs? How about if you need a particular medicine to be carried to one of your intestines? Well, that seems like it is no problem for the "edible robot," that the scientists at the University of MIT have designed and created. By the appearance of this microscopically small robot, it seems like it cannot do anything. In fact, I bet you can get mistaken by this robot, thinking it is an insect. 

You take this "robot," that is folded up inside of a capsule, that you take by mouth, like an ordinary pill. ​The "robot" is has a coating of ice inside of the capsule, so once it has entered your body, the ice melts by the esophagus' heat (in your throat).  Basically, since this robot is in the size of a pill formed like an origami, once it has entered your digestive system, it unfolds into its regular size to get ready into action. Once after the robot has been attached to for example, a battery, the robot and the battery make itself go through the digestive system, and is thrown out by the human body in solid waste form. 

You can check out this video above created by the University of MIT, that will help you understand more of the robot that they created.  

According to USAtoday.com, they state, '“[A researcher] bought a piece of ham, and he put the battery on the ham,” Rus said in a statement. “Within half an hour, the battery was fully submerged in the ham. So that made me realize that, yes, this is important. If you have a battery in your body, you really want it out as soon as possible.”' This particular robot uses a magnetic field system, and so this means that for example, when a particular battery is stuck in one of your intestines, the robot is quickly attracted to what it is looking for.
​It is called, the "edible robot" because for once, this robot is particularly designed to be eaten, or to be swallowed past by. Not only that, but this robot can also transport certain medicines to intestines that regular medicine taken by mouth cannot take to.  

I think that maybe because the invention of this microscopic robot will possibly be beneficial for several people. What I mean by this is that, due to the large numbers of people who get batteries stuck in their stomachs' are probably the people who went to the Emergency Room. Now, if many people get ahold of this robot, then when something like this, or related occurs with somebody, then they would easily solve this conflict on their own. It would save and avoid the MAJORITY of people to end up in the hospital when things like this happen, and it helps people save money because then afterwards they wouldn't have to pay an expensive bill for their Emergency hospital check-up. 

​1) First image courtesy of nydailynews.com.  2) Button cell battery image courtesy of ictradenet.com.  3) Video courtesy of YouTube.com/MIT

After the futuristic tech gadget, the Google Glass, was cancelled from production, Google is still investing some money on this ongoing project. Was the purpose of a pair of the Google Glasses supposed to be a huge replacement for your personal device like your phone? Why did Google decide to discontinue the developing of this project, and decide to take this expensive piece of technology off many store shelves? Why did many consumers want this product so bad? How much did it go for? Was it worth the expensive price? Was this piece of tech able to be the future of many devices? How is a pair of the Google Glass rather much different than your usual pair of glasses that people wear today? What can this thing do? What are the special features of this piece of wearable technology that make it different from anything else? What was the TRUE reason why Google decided to end this huge money-making project? Did their consumers actually like it? What IS the Google Glass? 

The Google Glass is a piece of advanced technology that is still being worked on by their developers at Google, although it is not available for purchase anymore. ​The Google Glass went for a retail price of $1500, (for the I/O developers in the U.S.) the Explorer Edition, and was released on April 2013. The Google Glass was designed, developed, and created by Google X, (a group of designers and engineers at Google) who focus on advanced technology such as the Google Self-Drving Car. (If you want to check out my full article on the Google Self-Driving Car, click here!) The Google Glass has a very slim and slid design to it, which is one of the coupe reasons that make it appealing to its consumers. These Glasses are known 

the user to take photos, and record videos in 720p HD. The Google Glass features a display that is shown on the screen, in the right-hand side of the glasses. One of the biggest features the Google Glass contains is voice activation. Besides the trackpad, which gives the consumer the freedom to swipe and click on the interface, the Google Glass also uses a system called, "voice actions." Once "voice actions" is activated, the user has the ability to perform certain tasks like you can say, "Take a picture," "Record a video," Schedule a meeting with (Person's name in contacts), and so much more. The "voice actions" reminds me a lot of Siri, from Apple because when having for example an iPhone, you can command Siri to do certain things, for your own certain reasons. 

special features of the Google Glass. On the other hand, people who have no experience an whatsoever with the Google Glass, are people who say this piece of wearable tech is something fake, and seems like it was taken out of a movie. 

1) Google Glass image courtesy of pcmag.com.  2) Google Glass video courtesy of YouTube.com/Marques Brownlee. 3) First image of gallery courtesy of  Wired.com  4)Second image of gallery courtesy of technologyreviwer.com.  5) Third image of gallery courtesy of catwig.com.  6) Images 4-6 in gallery courtesy of flowjournal.com.  6)Elders React to Google Glass video courtesy of YouTube.com/Fine Brothers Entertainment. 

Recently, Stanford University has designed and created a humanoid robotic diver that has recovered many of the treasures and mysteries from King Louis XIV's shipwreck, La Lune. This robot is called OceanOne and has many outstanding characteristics to what it can perform. The interesting idea for this robot came from the need to be able to discover and study coral reefs and underwater ocean life in the Red Sea, whereas obviously human divers couldn't swim more than 100 meters deep to research. In order to do this, you would have needed to find someone who could have held their breath for long periods of time. (Of course, so far, this is impossible to do so). This discovery stayed out of range for many divers and researchers. This was when the idea for OceanOne sparked in the minds of many engineers and skilled deep-sea archaeologists from the University of Stanford.

The students and researchers control this humanoid in a boat with a large set of monitors and joysticks. (It seems like they are playing a video game.) Basically, it is a virtual diver that is controlled by the people themselves. Because of this, the researchers at Stanford were able to use the OceanOne to dive more than 100 meters deep into the Red Sea. The OceanOne has several cameras, sensors, mini computers and much more advanced technology, that is absolutely waterproof. The OceanOne was able to dive deep to the sea grounds to the underwater site where the ship La Lune, sank. This humanoid was able to discover many of the unfound artifacts. In fact, according to news.Stanford.edu, the OceanOne was able to recover an accent vase from the shipwreck, since 1664. There are more artifacts to be found in other discoveries related to ones like these. 

Check out this video below from the SciShow, for further details on the OceanOne! 

1) ​news.stanford.edu.   2) Gallery images courtesy of news.stanford.edu. 3)OceanOne video courtesy of YouTube.com/SciShow. 

Do you remember when Amelia Earhart was the first female pioneer pilot who flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean? She broke several records because of this.  Across the Atlantic Ocean?! That is approximately 41,105,000 square miles long, according to oceanservice.noaa.gov. Who would fly in an airplane more than that, for a longer time, in a smaller plane? Will someone even make it to their destination even before they run out of gasoline? Recently, there has been an ALL solar powered called Solar Impulse 2. Yes, you heard it, all solar powered.  What is more surprising about this airplane was the journey that it took, as it is really outstanding! 

In the year of 2015, Solar Impulse began their attempt to their 'around-the-wrold trip.'
The Solar Impulse 2 took departure on March 9th, in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Arrival 1: Leg 2 was on March 10th, 2015 where the Solar Impulse 2 landed in Muscat, Oman.
Arrival 2: Leg 3 was on March 18th, 2015 in Ahmedabad, India.
Arrival 3: Leg 4 was on March 18th, 2015 in Varanasi, India as well.
Arrival 4: Leg 5 was on March 29th, 2015 in Mandalay, Myanmar.
Arrival 5: Leg 6 of this historic journey was on April 20th, 2015 in Chongqing, China.
Arrival 6: Leg 7 was on May 30, 2015 in the city of Nanjing, China. 
Arrival 7: Leg 8 was on June 28th, 2015 in Nagoya, Japan. 
Arrival 8: Leg 9 was on April 21st, 2016 in Hawaii, USA. 
Arrival 9: Leg 10 (Part: 1) was on April 24th, 2016 in San Fransisco, California, USA. 
Arrival 10: Leg 10 (Part: 2) was on April 24th, 2016 in Mountain View, California, USA. ​

Probably the most outstanding milestone the Solar Impulse 2 has broken, has been to fly ACROSS the ENTIRE Pacific Ocean, and that is 9,600 miles long (15,500 km). The Solar Impulse 2 still hasn't completed what they are aiming for because in order to go all-around the world, the all solar powered airplane still needs to fly across the United States, the Atlantic Ocean, Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and then back to where they began, Ahu Dubai. So, it seems like the Solar Impulse plane is at the center and at the climax of their very long journey. It is very amazing that this small and compact plane can fly across almost AROUND THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD, being fully solar powered! (With only a couple stops in between). If the circumference of the world is 24, 901 miles long around the earth's equator, then a single airplane that is COMPLETELY powered by the sun's energy, it seems like if this was something impossible that wouldn't become a reality. 

According to solarimpulse.com, they state in their webpage, "Solar Impulse is not the first solar airplane, but it is the first to fly day and night, without any fuel, only using energy stored in its batteries. It is also the first to have achieved an oceanic crossing: 5 days and nights from Nagoya, Japan, to Kalaeloa, Hawaii. Behind Solar Impulse’s achievements, there is always the same goal: show that if an airplane can fly several days and nights in a row with no fuel, then clean technologies can be used on the ground to reduce our energy consumption, and create profit and jobs." In other words, this means that the Solar Impulse 2 is a renewed model of being great example of making a difference for 'green' in the environment. 

Before we understand the HOW the Solar Impulse 2 works, we need to know HOW solar panels work and proceed enough function to transfer power. According to highlightskids.com, they state that, '"One solar panel is made up of many small solar cells. Each of these cells uses light to make electrons move. The cell is made up of two different layers that are stuck together. The first layer is loaded with electrons, so the electrons are ready to jump from this layer to the second layer. That second layer has had some electrons taken away, so it is ready to take in more electrons. "When the light hits an electron in the first layer, the electron jumps to the second layer. That electron makes another electron move, which makes another electron move, and so on. It was the sunlight that started the flow of electrons, or electricity."' This means that the sun's rays are what feed the panels the energy in order to give something power and function. This whole procedure is caused by electro movements and how those are being used. 

Now that we have taken a closer look at how solar panels work, we can now fully understand how the Solar Impulse 2 is able to work, being powered by the sun! As similar how a solar panel works, the Solar Impulse 2 basically just functions like a solar panel, The difference is that during the night, since obviously there is no sun, the Solar Impulse 2 ​contains the energy from the sun during the day, and keeps some solar cell energy to use during the night. Other than that, this airplane is being powered by the sun's energy, and it has pure solar panels at the top of the plane, so these panels can collect as much of the sun's energy as possible. ​

This plane is relatively one of the largest planes ever, being bigger in size than the Boeing 747. The Solar Impulse 2 has a 72 meter wingspan, weighs 2.3 tons, and has a number of 17, 248 number of solar cells in the solar panels. This airplane has an average speed of 75 kilometers per hour, and the maximum altitude it has reached so far in it's flights is 28,000 ft high up in the sky. Sadly, this plane has the capacity to only hold one pilot, which is ​Bertrand Piccard. Bertrand Piccard is a unique pilot to be commanding a great airplane like the Solar Impulse 2. According to ​wikipedia.org they clearly state, "Bertrand Piccard (born 1 March 1958) is a Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist. Along with Brian Jones, he was the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe. He is currently is the initiator, chairman and co-pilot of the first attempted round-the-world solar flight. Piccard was born in Lausanne, Vaud, a Swiss canton, into a family of explorers." Bertrand Piccard is really fortunate to be flying a 'historic' airplane in a worldwide flight journey, as he is indeed coming from a family of explorers, being one of the best pilots in the world. 

in conclusion, it seems like a plane like the Solar Impulse 2 is going to be the future innovation of aviation and engineering. Who knows if the next planes of the future that we will be riding on will be all solar paneled? Since Bertrand Piccard's journey for the Solar Impulse 2 is not done yet, there are still more stops to be done, in order to complete the whole loop around the world. This is a huge milestone for the Solar Impulse 2 because they are figuring out the key to being 'green.' So does this mean that in the future of the aviation field, planes won't be gasoline powered? There has been success of this from electric cars, as we have seen, and now there is success of being 'green' in planes. What is next? 

As amazing as it might sound, the rumors of the futuristic Apple Car sounds like something a lot of people would want to buy. This is a very controversial topic lately in the tech news. Have an iPhone, iPad, iMac, then why not consider buying the Apple Car? The main question here is, how REAL is this thing? Recently, at the Pasadena's ArtCenter College of Design, staff members have illustrated several designs of the FUTURE IMAGINED Apple Car. MOTOR TREND has cooperated with the designs and have displayed this in articles on their website and on their automobile magazines. Both the illustrators at the college and MOTOR TREND state that this was THEIR perspective of the imaged Apple Car.  In other words, it seems like this sleek design of the Apple Car is clearly fake. Although this sounds like something REALLY REALLY cool, and has kept many people anticipating for the future, many automobile companies have payed really close attention to this. 

Now, let's take a closer look into the specs and details of the 'imagined' Apple Car, from what we know form a company like Apple, and other car retailing companies. After reading more than five extent articles like from: motortrend.com, theverge.com, jalopnik.com, macrumors.com, and cnet.com, there is a lot to discuss about! Will the futuristic  Apple Car be a challenge for other automobile companies? Although the Apple Car design provided by MOTOR TREND is absolutely fake, it is believed that Apple IS WORKING on an electric car project, according to macrumors.com. It is believed that it will be all electric-powered, and possibly may or may not be autonomous. It is rumored that the target for it to be launched is by 2019, or 2020 the latest. This vehicle is called, "Project Titan." It will be believed that Siri, will 'drive' the car, and also be your personal assistant. As usual for regular cars, they have wing mirrors, but in the case of Titan, it will have focused accurate cameras that will be indeed more useful than the mirrors we have today. Titan will have their doors oped upwards those similar to the ones Tesla has on their vehicles. 

Besides the little amount of features that we already know, has the rumors of the Apple Car that Apple is working on themselves gong to cause a little bit of a challenge with other automobile companies? Companies that are trying to work on HUGE electric or autonomous car projects like: Tesla, Google, Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet, Nissan, and so much more. Will Apple get in the way of these successful automobile companies? After an extent amount of pure research, it turns out that the electronic car company Tesla's CEO director, Elon Musk, clearly states, "The CEO described Apple’s rumored foray into designing an electric car as “obvious” in a recent interview with the BBC. “It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it,” he said." according to fortune.com. Also, according to fortune.com, in one of their very recent articles they state, "In the BBC interview, Musk welcomed Apple to the field. “It will expand the industry,” he said, echoing comments he has previously made. “Tesla will still aspire to make the most compelling electric vehicles, and that would be our goal, while at the same time helping other companies to make electric cars as well.” So it seems like Tesla will be willing to help Apple in the in the automobile industry? As Elon Musk said it himself to an interview with the German Newspaper Handlesblatt, '“They have hired people we’ve fired. If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding."' according to fortune.com. ​

Makes me think of other electronic companies. Seems like Google will step into the competition with their Self Driving Car model? (Want to learn more about the Google Self-Driving Car? Click here to read more...) Tesla with their recent 2016 Model S? Toyota with their new 2016 Toyota Mirai? How about the 2016 Ford Focus Electric? The 2016 Chevrolet Volt? How about the 2016 Nissan LEAF? The continuos list can go on and on...

In conclusion, the Apple Car is something that is still something a lot of people anticipate, especially from a company like Apple. Many of us already know what is expected from Apple, with their amazing best-selling products. In particular, what we don't know is that if this big project is going to be made into a competition within other automobile companies. What will go on between Tesla and Apple? What we DO know is some of the outstanding features that are expected from the Apple Car, Titan, also some important rumors that should be taken into consideration. Will Apple now transition into the automobile field? If they are, there MUST be a lot of expectations from several people. Although Apple has tried to keep this project a secret, there must be a lot of curiosity. 

"This real hoverboard can go up to 10,000 ft, unlike those exploding ones," says dailytimes.com. Remember watching the awesome 1989 Back to the Future II film and saw the cool flying hoverboards? Yeah, and remember how Martin McFly rode his cool pink hoverboard roaming the streets in the film?  Well, it seemed like since then, almost everyone wanted and craved the idea of the hoverboard. There has been some pretty decent but STILL dangerous models of what they call the "hoverboard," but it is practically a piece of plastic being held up with two unbalanced wheels that can cause and HAVE indeed caused several injuries, accidents, and even some fatal deaths. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, they turn on fire and into HUGE flames that can burn your house down! I mean, that's all! Who needs that when you can pretty soon have the REAL hoverboard in your own hands?

But how can air, a mixture of gases, (78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen) be able to 'lift' a person up? It seems like we need to take a closer look into how a hoverboard works, and some principals of how air functions. Basically, a hoverboard simply works with air, thrust is the pushing force against a surface. Also, we need to take a closer look at Issac Newton's 3rd Law which according to sparknotes.com, they state, "Newton's third law proclaims: 'to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."' This meaning that for example in the case of the hoverboard, the hoverboard works with air pressure, so the air is pushing against the ground, to cause elevation. 

So, it seems like with the basic principals of air, and how a hoverboard would work, we could take a closer look into how the Flyboard Air works with these functions. So, in a video featured by Zapata Racing themselves, the hoverboard is absolutely powered by the force of air that is pushing against not a flat surface, but over a water source. 

Since there are a lot of people who crave the idea of the flying REAL hoverboard, to show you HOW MUCH people want it, Zapata Racing has been selling several of their Flyboard Airs for more than $3,499.99 as you can see above on eBay. Only someone with lots of money who would pretty much die to get their hands on this Flyboard Air for themselves. (Oh yeah, I almost forgot, plus shipping and handling is +$13.95 more.) 

In conclusion, what we may consider the "hoverboard" may change throughout the future times. Back then, people used to look at the hoverboard as something that wouldn't become a reality. Now, in the 21st century, there are more and more companies like Zapata Racing, that are trying to make what used to be called "science-fiction" now a reality. I mean before, in such instances like in the movie Back to the Future II, the year 2015 would be seen as all futuristic and filled with lots of advanced technology. No, things can't happen in a quick matter of time, but what can happen are the movements that more companies are trying to make a possibility. Who knows, what if the word "hoverboard" will be seen in a different perspective in a couple of years into the future? 

The company Google, has been recently working and improving on their Self-Driving Car Project.    It is believed that this car is going to make the roads safer, and replace the use of humans as drivers. It has sensors and cameras to detect when it is their turn to go, and their turns to stop. Even though this car has been in recent accidents, we still don't know if this vehicle is going to become a success and actually make the roads safer.

In the article, Alberto Broggi, professor studying autonomous cars at the Università di Parma in Italy,  believes that the vehicle won't be able to quickly respond to street or route changes through out a "map-dependent system." If you actually think about what Alberto Broggi is saying, perhaps the self driving car won't be able to detect if a certain street is closed in the route to go to a location with its sensors and cameras,  what will the vehicle do in this scenario? Maybe this is something Google needs to improve on, having their autonomous car detect particular route changes and having the ability to make quick responses. 

According to technology review.com, Michael Wagner (Carnegie Mellon researcher on robotics) strongly thinks that it is very important that Google doesn't stress out themselves on what their autonomous car can and cannot do.  “This is a very early-stage technology, which makes asking these kinds of questions all the more justified," according to the article. This seems like, Michael Wagner is trying to say that Google is trying to fit TOO many things into their autonomous car, and aren't focusing on what it can do.

It sounds like, the Google Self-Driving car is the start of electric future autonomous cars. Even though this is still an improving project, we still don't exactly know if this vehicle is going to become a success and actually make the roads safer, which is what Google's final goal is to the end of this project. 
​

After reading this article, it is a really interesting topic to be looking at. I mean nowadays, more automobile companies and industries are finding better and 'greener' solutions to the fact that regular cars are releasing CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), to where you are charging your own car. However, besides the VBB-3 being a 'green' car, it is outstanding how this vehicle can travel over 370 mph, so this means that this is NOT your average car that you can drive in the streets. In particular, what stood out to me the most, was that this whole vehicle was powered by battery charging. In my opinion, I think that besides this car 'bullet' being used in the Formula E series race, other than breaking velocity records, what other purpose will this vehicle be used for? I mean, who is going to use a fast car, and for what reason? It is a cool form of engineering, but I think what will most likely be used more than the ACTUAL car itself, is the technology, and design that went INTO the creation of the 'bullet.'  The vehicle is nice and fast, but who else in the world is going to use a fast car, and for what particular purpose? ​
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