Scent-Sational VR, AI Drive-Thrus, 3-D Printed Moon Habits, and Much More

Emerging Tech Roundup — May 12

The Quantious team’s top picks for timely trending news in the tech world.

This week in tech: Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s Partners with AI Companies to Automate Drive-Thrus, GPTZero App Seeks to Thwart AI Plagiarism in Schools, Experiment Finds Rats Could Move VR Objects Using Only Their Minds, New Gene-Edited Drug Targets Bacteria with Implications for Cancer Treatment, Tiny Wearable to Become Smell-o-Vision for VR, 3D-Printed Moon Habitats Could be Built Using Glass Fiber in Lunar Soil, and First Commercial Space Station to be in Orbit in 2025.

Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s Partnering With AI Companies to Automate Drive-Thrus

(USA Today, May 7)

CKE Restaurants Holdings, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, is partnering with AI technology providers Presto Automation, OpenCity, and Valyant AI to expand AI-automated voice ordering to select drive-thru locations. Pilot programs of voice automation technology resulted in improved labor productivity and increased revenue at restaurants. Similarly, McDonald’s has been testing an AI-powered voice system at certain drive-thrus and is working with IBM to scale the automated technology to more locations.

GPTZero App Seeks to Thwart AI Plagiarism in Schools, Online Media

(Bloomberg, May 8)

GPTZero, an AI-generated text detector, has released a browser extension called Origin, which can determine if online text is written by AI. The tool analyzes the patterns and characteristics of text to fact-check online media and verify information sources. With an accuracy rate of 99% for human text and 85% for AI text, GPTZero is actively seeking partnerships with organizations like the BBC to support journalism through AI detection and analysis.

Rats Moved VR Objects Using Only Their Minds in an Experiment

(BGR, May 8)

In a groundbreaking experiment, researchers utilized AI to train rats to manipulate objects in a VR environment by simply thinking about their desired locations. By establishing a connection between the rats’ brain activity and their perceived positions within the VR setting, the rats successfully demonstrated the ability to mentally control the movement of a ball. This study sheds light on the functioning of the brain and offers potential applications in assisting individuals with paralysis to operate various devices through brain-interface technology.

New Gene-Edited Drug Targets Bacteria, Bringing Hope to Cancer Treatment

(Interesting Engineering, May 9)

Scientists at SNIPR BIOME are focused on creating a precise method for eliminating harmful bacteria while preserving the essential ones. Their drug, called SNIPR001, is designed to kill E. coli, with an aim to help patients with hematological (blood-related) cancer in the future. The researchers have identified a combination of four engineered phages that demonstrated the highest effectiveness against E. coli.

Researchers Hope This Tiny Wearable Could Become Smell-o-Vision for VR

(The Verge, May 9)

Researchers have developed two types of wearable odor generations that can recreate scents in VR by heating scented wax in a localized area. One type is a wearable device that attaches to the skin under the nose, and can create two scents. The other is a soft mask that can create up to nine scents. Researchers were able to generate 30 different scents, including rosemary, pineapple, and durian.

3D-Printed Moon Habitats Could Be Built Using Glass Fiber in Lunar Soil

(Interesting Engineering, May 10)

A team of scientists have proposed the construction of permanent structures on the Moon using lunar materials, including glass derived from lunar regolith. The researchers identified natural glass fibers in lunar samples for the first time, obtained by China’s Chang’e 5 robotic Moon mission in 2020. The scientists believe that the glass found on the Moon can be extracted and molded using 3D-printing technology, offering potential for building structures on the lunar surface.

Vast and SpaceX Aim to Put the First Commercial Space Station in Orbit in 2025

(Tech Crunch, May 10)

Artificial gravity space station startup Vast plans to launch its first commercial space station, named Haven-1, in August 2025 using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The station, measuring 100 meters long, will initially operate independently but will later connect with additional modules to form a larger Vast station. Designed to accommodate up to four crew members, Haven-1 will utilize SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule for transporting the first human occupants.