View of the Week (W-End Edition): A Window Into The Future

Please enjoy courtesy of the Abundance Insider as we wish all a great week and to all our Muslim Brothers and Sisters around the World, A Happy Eid:

. In China, A Store of the Future: No Checkout, No Staff What it is: Wheelys, a crowdfunded startup based in Stockholm, recently launched tests of a 24-hour retail concept called Moby Store that runs entirely through technology -- no humans. Wheelys is testing this concept on Hefei University's campus (450 kilometers west of Shanghai), partnering with university professors on the technology required. At Wheelys, holographic faces greet shoppers; as they scan QR codes on each product, sensors detect when items are removed. Why it's important: Here's another take on the fully automated supermarket Amazon Go and others are developing. In a recent blog on the first jobs to go, Peter unveiled his vision of a near-term future of retail in which an AI agent provides highly personalized service, and shoppers simply exit the building to be automatically charged. The face of retail is about to change. Share on Facebook. Spotted by Marissa Brassfield / Written by Sydney Fulkerson Internet of Things Made Simple: One Sensor Package Does Work of Many What it is: Carnegie Mellon researchers, with funding from Google and the Lucile Packard Foundation, have developed a general-purpose, ubiquitous sensor that changes the way we think of the IoT. By combining machine learning with a package of sensors to monitor phenomena like sounds, vibration, light, heat, electromagnetic noise and temperature, the suite can determine whether a faucet's left or right spigot is running, or if the microwave door is open. "The idea is you can plug this in and immediately turn a room into a smart environment," said Gierad Laput. Why it's important: This is a promising user interface for smart rooms. The IoT market doesn't just include new connected devices -- it also includes products and services for retrofitting users' existing possessions. Will this ubiquitous sensor help enable a true Internet of Everything? Share on Facebook. Spotted by Marissa Brassfield / Written by Jason Goodwin IISc Bangalore Scientists Are Experimenting With Drone Seed-Bombing, And Hope To Plant A Forest What it is: IISc Bangalore scientists held the first ever drone-seeding trial on the Pinakini river this past World Environment Day (June 5). The goal of this experiment is to ultimately turn inaccessible areas into lush, green forests. The targeted area is a 10,000-acre patch of land spread around the Doddaballapur hill range (north of Bangalore) that will also contain a committee's initiative to build a 200-acre science center in Gauribidanur. Drones allow the scientists to view the landscape before dropping the seeds, which also allows them to geotag the path. In the future, Bangalore scientists see UAVs being used to drop seeds efficiently and at scale. Why it's important: This initiative transforms once-inaccessible land into forests. As drone technology continues to demonetize, ambitious projects that were once considered impossible are not only possible, but executable in a scalable fashion. Share on Facebook.