7 technologies that make our lives safer

1. Smart House

Once upon a time, automatic systems that take care of the safety of the home and the comfort of its inhabitants seemed to be the dreams of science fiction writers. Remember at least the story of Ray Bradbury "It will rain gently", where cleaning robots scurry about the house, and a talking meteorological box reminds that it is raining outside the window and you should wear a raincoat and galoshes. 70 years after the story was published robot vacuum cleaner and you won't surprise anyone with a smart speaker.

With the help of a system of sensors and sensors, you can monitor what is happening in the apartment, even if you are tens or hundreds of kilometers away from home. A smoke detector will inform you in time if a fire suddenly starts, a water leak detector will save you from a flood, and sensors for opening windows and doors will notify that someone is trying to get into the room. Smart assistants allow you to remotely control equipment. You simply send a signal from your smartphone to the outlet, and it will de-energize the device that is connected to it. Anyone who has ever returned home halfway through a forgotten iron will appreciate it.

Heart smart home - a gateway that controls the operation of other devices. To this you can add a remote controlled socket and a set of safety sensors - you get a minimal starter kit. Then everything is limited only by your imagination, so experiment with automation scenarios. For example, a humidity sensor in conjunction with a humidifier will prevent the air in the room from becoming too dry, and a temperature sensor will tell the gateway that it is time to turn on the heater if it gets cold at home.

2. Unmanned vehicles

According to WHO, every year road traffic accidents carry away lives of 1.35 million people worldwide. In the long term, smart cars can reduce the number of accidents, and hence the number of victims. However, while these technologies have room to grow.

According to a study by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drones in their current form can prevent only about a third of accidents. Cars should give priority not to speed or convenience, but to the safety of other road users. For example, a drone can drive slower in poor visibility or in areas with high pedestrian traffic.

Before the massive appearance on the roads unmanned taxi a few years left: Ministry of Transport promisesthat this will happen already in 2024. In the meantime, the cars of the future are being driven in test mode. Since the summer of 2019, such a project launched in Moscow, and in the Kazan Innopolis is already working round the clock unmanned taxi.

3. Cloud storage

Information is also valuable, be it business information or personal data. Clouds come to the rescue: here confidential files are protected from both theft and irrecoverable loss, as happens with physical media.

However, leaks still happen, but it is not cloud providers that are to blame, but users. So, 9 out of 10 corporate data leaks occur through the fault of employees of companies that store valuable information in the clouds. Basic rules cybersecurity nobody canceled. Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication to keep your data secure. Also, do not post links to files and folders in public places and close public access to them if you no longer need it.

4. Biometric payment

As soon as we got used to contactless payments, a more interesting option loomed ahead. In China pay per person a fairly common story. You don't need to crawl into your pocket for a smartphone or card, just enter the phone number associated with your wallet and smile at the camera. The biometric identification system checks whether the account holder is true in front of the lens and approves the payment.

Something similar already exists in Russia. At the beginning of 2020, biometric acquiring was launched in one of the capital's coffee shop. To use the service, you need to provide the necessary data in one of the banks that work with the Unified Biometric System, and bind your card to a digital image. The developers assure that there is no need to worry about security. Recognition accuracy is 99.99%, the system is capable distinguish even twins.

5. Green energy

Global climate change is not horror stories eco-activists, but reality. Bill Gates predictsthat in the future, an environmental disaster could be worse than the coronavirus pandemic. For humans, this will not end well: by 2100, climate change will be five times more deadly than COVID-19.

States are forced to look for new energy sources that will be safe for the environment, and are increasingly using solar and wind power plants. In the US, clean sources can to provide 90% of the required electricity by 2035. The proliferation of green alternatives in Russia so far slows down because of cheap gas, but experts admitthat in the coming years, clean energy may cost less than traditional energy.

6. Machine learning and neural networks

These technologies can literally save lives. Robots cannot yet replace an experienced doctor - at least in the foreseeable future. But the algorithms are able to work well in tandem with people.

Israeli scientists have created neural network, which uses photographs of children to find out whether they have genetic diseases. Some of the ailments can be identified by changes in facial features. And the algorithm coped with this task no worse than doctors who specialize in congenital malformations.

Artificial intelligence in Moscow use for the diagnosis of coronavirus. The technology processes CT scans and makes a preliminary conclusion, but the final diagnosis still remains with the doctor. By the way, and oh pandemics artificial intelligence warned in advance. Services BlueDot and HealthMap sensed something was wrong back in December.

7. Robot instead of human

They are really slowly mastering new professions, but they are unlikely to completely survive people from the labor market. Here is another idea: why entrust dangerous work to a person, if you can entrust it to a technological mechanism? For example, he can easily crawl on power lines, look for problems and fix them.

Kazan scientists created a robot that is capable of performing complex operations at high altitudes. Even an experienced industrial climber is not always capable of such tasks. A robot can easily weld high above the ground, carry heavy loads in a warehouse or paint aircraft.