>> progress is not always linear. sometimes it is exponential. devices that are 1000 we areore powerful >> talking about feeding a planet. we need a new paradigm. >> the way we interact with technology.

>> to how we communicate. 10 major advances that in the coming year will reshape our world, creating smarter, faster. this is the year ahead in innovation. >> when we hear the word robot, a image comes to mind. robots today all share something. they are rigid. made from metal or plastic. changingall may be thanks to a new field called soft robots. it is exactly what it sounds

like. robots are made of soft material. in many -- hard material. in many applications that makes sense. areut rebecca and her team looking at making a different kind of robot. one that you can wear. >> our bodies are soft. it makes sense to me to try to put robots into our clothing. researchers have been working with exoskeletons for a very ofg time, but they are made clunky materials. x this might be in the far future. but i think of exoskeletons that wel be more light weight and

will not even know that we are wearing them. >> in the simplest definition of the word, a robot consists of two parts. actuators is one of them. >> our sensors are much further along than actuators. >> it turns out that making those robots out of soft parts are more difficult than it looks. cannot be ignored. depending upon materials, the robot will act different ways. material aref being looked at. made from metal that can be programmed to remember its

shape. >> right now you can get them as wired. we use a sewing machine to incorporate them into the fabric. >> what you are seeing is that shape memory alloy sewed into a cloth. when you apply a current to the wires, it causes it to pull up, pulling this with it. while still rudimentary, robotic fabric is getting some big attention. rebecca's research has received funding from nasa for its potential in space exploration. future applications may include smart athletic wear. >> even if you can take away just a small percentage of the energy that goes into every step over long distances, you can enhance endurance. it is very exciting to think that we might be able to change someone's life someday.

>> what rebecca's team is doing is about expanding with even possible. the dawn soft robotics, robotic fabric, has the potential to completely change the way we interact with machines on a daily basis. if what they're doing at purdue is successful, it may not the long before the word robot has a different meaning. coming up, "minority report" comes to life. how the myo armband might free us all from our desks. ♪

>> when we think of how we interact with the rest of the world, opening a door, drinking your coffee, we use our hands to interact with everything around us. if you have that intuition to move and expect something to happen in the virtual world, this is the natural evolution of that. what is the interface? what is the most that can lead you to? >> stephen lake is the cofounder of thalmic labs, a small tech company outside of toronto, preparing for a future where our interaction with technology will move beyond pointing and clicking. their solution is the myo

armband, which gets its name from the greek word for muscle. >> the myo armband is the new type of computer interface, so it lets you control computers, mobile phones, any electronic devices through hand gestures in motion. >> gesture control is not a new concept, but most existing systems require a camera or proprietary sensor, making them only useful in very specific circumstances. myo uses a novel technology that works by detecting what is happening under your skin. >> these are the sensors? >> exactly. each pod is one sensor. the different muscles correspond to different parts of the armband.

>> myo measures the unique electrical signals that your muscles generate every time you move. >> picking up muscle activity -- it's a tiny signal. in a medical setting, what they use to measure is a $15,000 big machine that can measure one muscle at once. they shave the hair off your skin. they apply gel. we need to put eight of those sensors in an armband that would cost $150 without shaving your hair or applying gel. this represents what's going on inside part of your forearm. make a fist. see, it is quite hard. there we go. all around your arm, muscles are being activated in different spots. >> all of this information is sent from the armband to a bluetooth-enabled device. the device can encode information into useful commands. >> it interfaces with existing

applications. that is the whole point. >> exactly. it works with existing software. right away you can open up powerpoint, itunes, you name it and work with that. >> flick your arm to the left, the video rewinds. snap your fingers and your music plays. myo works well with simple gestures to do simple commands, like this videogame, specifically designed for myo. if you think about replacing all the things you do with hand gestures, things can get complicated. for that reason, myo may not replace your mouse. thalmic labs does not want it to. >> the idea is that this should be a better mouse. it's in scenarios where you are away from your computer where myo shines. >> they see a future where devices like google glass and other wearables will require us to interact with machines seamlessly. >> five year some now, 10 years from now, these devices are going to be all around us, or even wearable computers. where does this go in the future is the question we are trying to answer as opposed to what are we trying to replace today. >> our history of interacting with technology has us required

to hold an object. myo is the first step toward an objectless technology, something you can wear on your body all the time and use in new and different ways. in the future, the perfect interface may just be you. >> and myo is not the only technology changing how we were interact with the virtual world. >> getting inside your mental image. this project is important because it can change the paradigm of how we deal with 3-d. and interact with your body. my name is thomas dorta. i am the director of hyve-3d. >> on the top floor of the university of montreal's school of design lab is where the

virtual world is slowly merging with the real world. this a the hyve-3d, which stands for hybrid virtual environment 3-d. it creates a virtual environment by projecting it into an entire room. right now, the technology is primarily being used by design firms, architects, and automakers. animators are also getting on board, using the technology to storyboard fully animated worlds. drawing in 3-d is actually a much more radical concept than you might think. let's use the example trying to draw a cube in a two-dimensional space. when you're drawing a cube, you are using something that is forcing a perspective and tricking your brain into thinking it is seeing a 3-d object, when in reality, it is flat.

>> even today when you go to architectural school, how to do perspective -- it is used to learn from the renaissance. we are emphasizing another way to re-represent the 3-d world. >> creating that same cube in this technology is like building an object. another thing you'll notice, there is no need for special headsets or glasses. >> the headmounted display are inclusive. you need to wear it on your head and you are cut off from the reality. >> that is the hybrid part of hyve. it is the real you in a virtual space. you don't have to be virtually represented. not just you, but anyone around the globe can connect with this virtual world. on this particular morning, we were connected with tomas' colleague in france. collaboration is another part of the system because it exists on a server.

you can have people working on a project separated by oceans. >> here you can be teleported to a construction site, you can be lecturing without traveling. you are inside the project. ok, i am moving that wall, and you are putting here a door. >> it cost around $50,000, a lot less than competing systems, which can run you up to $1 million. that is because a lot of the hardware that it uses off-the-shelf. >> we focus more on the user experience rather than the technology. >> you made it an audi, didn't you? >> if we design a better user experience, that is more relevant than using another kind of technology. >> hyve is not about a bunch of new hardware. it is about a new way of interacting with the worlds around you, both virtual and real. where does technology go in five

years? >> you can be interactive with the system only using your phone. >> hyve-3d is the latest expression of virtual reality and telepresence. let's be honest, those are two buzz words we have been hearing a lot about over the last decade or so. maybe that is because they have never really fulfilled the promise. the kind of creativity that could be unlocked when people are actually working together, when they are action collaborating, that will require a whole new set of thinking, a whole new set of rules. the technology is there. the only thing that may be lagging is us. coming up, it's an agricultural revolution. >> we believe this is disruptive technology for the farming industry. >> how farming without soil is going to help feed thousands. >> it really takes grown locally to a whole new level. ♪

>> at aerofarms, we believe this is disruptive technology for the farming industry. if we're talking about feeding a planet of 9 billion, we need a new paradigm of how we grow our food. this is it. this is the future. >> inside an old nightclub in newark, new jersey, they are on the verge of an agricultural revolution.

>> we can take that seed and grow it. in 16 days, which would otherwise take 30. we have 22 crops during the year. in the field we would have three. we can do that using 95% less water, zero pesticides, herbicides, fungicides. >> they are using a system where plants grow in mist. >> we have a tray that is covered in a cloth. this cloth is our growth media. >> 24 hours to 48 hours later, that enters the vertical farm and moves further into the system as the plants grow bigger. >> the leaves are given a specific spectrum of light at a specific intensity and

frequency. we are optimizing oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperatures, ph, relative humidity to create a perfect growing environment for the plant. >> beneath the led lights and leafy greens is a system of nozzles that spray mist onto the roots. just over two weeks after the process begins, the plants are ready to harvest and be eaten. >> we have grown 233 different products, and the taste is fantastic. we optimize for taste and texture. you want a sweeter taste, softer leaf, harder leaf, we are looking at all those parameters. >> a vast majority of leafy greens in the u.s. are grown on traditional farms in california and arizona. plants are doused with pesticides, which end up in our food and in our environment. >> about 70% of our freshwater contamination comes from agriculture. it is the run off of all the fertilizers and pesticides that go to our freshwater streams that lead to dead zones. >> right after harvest, leafy greens require immediate refrigeration and shipping all

over the country. it is a flawed system with high rates of spoilage and contamination, which is why aerofarms are bringing the farm to the city. one of the companies vertical systems is already in use across from downtown newark where growing leafy greens outside in winter is impossible. >> we are harvesting the plants right now. we are trying not to get a lot of stems. >> we are about enabling local food production. we want to build the farms near to where the mouths are. >> it really takes grown locally to a whole new level. >> aerofarms are going through a massive expansion. they are currently converting a factory into what will become the world's largest vertical farm. they say it will produce enough leafy greens for 80,000 people.

it's not cheap. that is the challenge. >> depending on the size of the farm, it could be a $20 million project when you take into account site prep, capital, as well as capital expense of the farm. >> it is a cost that so far has kept vertical farming out of places that may need it the most. >> the technology is a viable technology that works. we are going to do everything we can to make it available all over the world.

>> for now, they are keeping the focus at home, trying to reach local customers only a few hundred miles from their facility. in 2015, they will be launching a branded product, ensuring fresh product. and plants might change how and what we eat in even more ways. >> if you think about it meat, it comes from cows and fish and pigs. there is only so much efficiency you can wring out of that system. we need to think about it differently. i am ethan brown, and i am the founder and ceo of beyond meat. our mission is to create me directly from plants. >> people have tried to make imitation meat. the appeal has been limited because the imitation is not been convincing. >> i think about it from the perspective of what is in meat. lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, water. none of which have exclusive residence in the animal.

we are extracting them from plants and assembling the architecture of animal protein or muscle. by doing that, we are providing meat directly from plants. >> what makes beyond meat different from its predecessors is that instead of trying to take tofu and pass it off as chicken, it is figuring out what makes chicken chicken and rebuilds it from the molecular level. you might think that the key to creating an imitation meat is getting the taste right. flavor is important. it's not the most important thing. >> when i think about the most important innovation, it gets back to the texture. it is our familiarity with animal protein, with that feeling on the teeth. >> they are able to create this unique texture through a combination of heating, cooling, and pressurizing the natural protein. >> the texture is key here. you get that feeling of fibrous, stringy in a good way. >> without the structure and fiber, you will not get mainstream penetration.

>> ethan's company is currently selling two types of plant-based meats, chicken strips and ground beef. both are designed to be mixed with other ingredients, which makes their job easier. 2015 will be a make or break year for beyond meat. the company is preparing a new product. a burger. that is a way taller order. brown and his team think they have an edge. once you start rebuilding meat from the ground up, you can do more than just make a facsimile of it. you can make it better. >> what you're having right now has more protein than beef, more iron than steak, more calcium than milk. >> super meat. >> it is a super meat. >> and if they are able to create least true super foods, the question becomes, are we going to see a meatless future? >> i don't think it's necessarily realistic. i think a niche population will do that. you look at human health, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, these national disease as we have, they are correlated with meat consumption. that can make an impact in those areas by simply changing out the amino acids. >> for decades, meat

alternatives have been stuck in the health food ghetto. they want to break out of that, not by magically creating the entire steak, but by nudging us to plant-based alternatives that are indistinguishable from the real thing. if you cannot taste the difference between chicken and beyond meat chicken, if their product is better for you and their environment, the company is betting on the hope that you will become a vegetarian. coming up, a gel that can stop bleeding in seconds. how this small lab in brooklyn could change everything we know

about trauma surgery. >> our goal is to get this in every ambulance, in every soldier's belt, in every mom's purse. ♪

>> we know that the diamond is a gem. we know that it takes billions of years to form deep in the center of the earth. we know that it is beautiful, expensive, and rare, but diamonds can serve another purpose far beyond jewelry. it may just be that the diamond is the foundation of a new era in computing performance. >> if people understood all the technological applications that are possible with diamonds, jewelry would be an afterthought. >> one of those applications is your smart phone. over the last few decades, we have watched computing power increased by leaps and bounds while our devices miniaturize.

phones started as the size of bricks, but now they are pencil thin, with the operating capabilities of a full computer. that trend has one major problem. >> electronics run exceptionally hot. >> adam khan is the founder and ceo of akhan technologies. he has figured out how to use diamonds as an alternative to cooling techniques. >> diamonds are incorporated directly on-chip. it will not need the same level of cooling. >> heat is the enemy of performance and electronics. it is also the enemy of -- size. these are parts to keep them from overheating. they take up a lot of space. >> we are at the point now where we cannot make systems smaller because they have to involve these heat sinking materials. >> attaching diamonds directly onto microchips eliminates the need for the heat sinks. it replaces them. it does a better job of keeping devices cool. that is because diamonds naturally diffuse heat.

in fact, it is the best conductor of heat that we know. these are not your average mined diamonds. these are synthetic diamonds, produced in labs. >> you take a substrate material, just a blank material and we put that inside of a reactor. >> inside the reactor, methane and hydrogen gases are combined during intense pressure to form the diamond, which then bond to the surface of the silicon wafer. because diamonds are so strong, they can be formed to incredibly durable but remarkably thin layers. >> you cut off the wafer into these discrete little chips, which you package, and those are our electronics. we are making the existing

materials and devices that we enjoy every day more energy efficient, utilizing less materials, producing less waste, and and developing the next generation of technology. >> the first diamond-based will product will be hitting stores as soon as the next 24 months. while we will see a great improvement in size and performance, the change in price will not be as substantial. >> the biggest misconception is the cost. cost include methane gas. methane is one of the most abundant molecules in the universe. it is really easy to source and cost-efficient. >> the cost of benefits are not just limited to consumers and small electronics. >> about 50% of cost associated with big data are just on the cooling side. >> that means the amazons and apples of the world are spending a lot of money to keep their servers and your data cool. they could see huge reductions in operating costs over the next few years as diamonds become more common in electronic systems.

>> being able to make devices and that are thinner, more powerful, handle more data, very important for not only addressing today's problems but also tomorrow's electronics. >> last year akhan technologies was able to charge a diamond, enabling it to conduct electricity and giving it the potential to make a devices report and smaller and powerful. >> it is an old story in technology. there are limits, and then there is a new technology that burst through those limits them opening up an entire world of possibilities. increased speed is not only vital to our technology, but also to our bodies. on the second floor of a humble brick building in new york, a small biotech firm is working on a product that could revolutionize emergency medicines. it is called vetigel, and it can stop dramatic bleeding almost in

instantly. >> we are definitely you and you and you hoping that you this changes the way the world looks at health care. not only stopping bleeding, but being able to treat burns. we can even apply this technology to the regeneration of organs one day. my name is joe landolina. i am the ceo of suneris. it started when i was a freshman at nyu. i had the idea to look in use a polymer to seal up a the wound quickly. in the beginning, i was not expecting the polymeric itself to be able to quickly stop bleeding. we realized that if we put it

onto a wound, something remarkable happened. it would change shape and color. it would interact with the you tissue in a way that was not expected. >> this is a video that joe and his team shot early in the development process. that is actual blood being pumped to a piece of liver. the bleeding stops. >> that was the moment that and showed we were on to something bigger. >> it is so affected because it works in tandem with the body's natural healing processes in a way that has not been tried before. >> the gel is made up of plant polymers. we extract pieces of the cell walls out of the plant, like lego blocks. when applied to a wound, these lego blocks will actually reassemble on whatever you put them next to. if you put them onto skin, it will reassemble into the pattern of skin. with that, you can get a fast and very durable clot form. >> this is the location in the lab where you are able to test

the efficacy of what you're creating. >> absolutely. >> the challenge now for the team is to find tune that gel into a market ready, fda approved product. at the station, they are measuring how quickly vetigel clots blood. >> we have blood on its own verses with our product. we are already getting that natural result. we have already caught it in a very short period of time. >> what does this mean for its application in the real world? >> let's say there was a soldier who was shot on the battlefield. he has three minutes to live. the next leading competitor can stop the bleeding in 10 minutes. you apply this, taking seconds, you can ensure that the bleeding stops. >> vetigel is about to make its real-world debut as a product for the veterinary market. it will have to prove safe and effective for animals if it's

ever going to be approved for human use. joe expects that his technology will eventually become ubiquitous in health care. >> our goal is to get this into every ambulance, every soldier's belt, and every mom's purse. it means having a product that is easy enough to be used by anybody. >> the folks behind vetigel know they have a long road ahead of them. any new medical breakthrough does. it is going to be time and paperwork before what they are devising and be used on human beings, which at that time, what we see here is not just some esoteric tool that can be added to a surgeons kit. this might just be the band-aid of the future. coming up, it's the drone that can bring the internet to any part of the world. why one group is years ahead of google and facebook. ♪

>> in greek mythology, zephyr was the god of the light westerly wind. today, a modern zephyr glides through the skies. >> zephyr is a light solar powered aircraft that flies at high altitudes above the weather.

>> zephyr is more than just an aircraft. it is a high altitude pseudo-satellite, created by airbus. >> what we can do is what the $2 billion observation satellite can do. we are so much closer to the user than the satellite. >> traditional satellites orbits hundreds of miles away from the earth surface and are in constant rotation around the globe. the zephyr operates at 65,000 feet and is geostationary. that means it can remain about the specific location for extended periods of time. >> it effectively is a cell phone tower in the sky. >> zephyr has the potential to disrupt many industries, from communications to whether to surveillance. to pull it off, zephyr needs to stay in flight for as long as possible. the key is the sun. the lightweight carbon body is covered in flexible solar panels that power small electric engines, but keeping those engines running day and night is the challenge.

>> it has very large wings. the batteries are charged up during the day, and when the sun sets, the aircraft is flying only on the batteries throughout the night. >> the lighter the aircraft, the longer those batteries last. engineers are constantly trying to make the zephyr lighter. >> we will always be disappointed at how heavy it is. to look at how they can be redesigned more efficiently. >> this is a structure from the aircraft. not only is it incredibly light, but it is strong. you have half the mass. we work to improve them and half the mass yet again. >> a ground crew can direct but for the most part, the aircraft is autonomous. airbus will use it as a low-cost solution to fill the gaps where conventional communication satellites and radar aircraft

struggle. it operates without feel, so it can provide continuous local coverage for a fraction of the price. >> the target is to stay below $1000 per flight. >> because of its low price, zephyr can extend the internet to places where you have a barrier to connectivity. >> you can go from low capability to good communications capability with one platform. >> google and facebook, looking from users, have announced their own plan to use aircraft-like balloons and drones to spread the internet to remote places. airbus is not worried about the competition. >> i think we are happy about the interest of google and facebook, because it proves we have a right to be in this market. they are where we were a couple of years ago. it is more difficult to do this kind of flying than it seems at first sight. >> connecting the world is a

global aim. we've gone through a proof of concept and know that it can work. >> for decades we considered outerspace as the next location for our highest technology endeavors. let's face it, launching satellites and rockets is really expensive and really hard. what zephyr shows us is that our future may not be in the stars, but just above the clouds. from the clouds in the sky to the waters in our oceans, how what we drink may be changing. southern california is in trouble. there's not nearly enough water to go around. even though the region sits right by the pacific ocean, turning the ocean water into something usable costs way too much.

meanwhile, the entire area sends 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater out to sea every day. one place has a solution for both of those problems. >> this is a gigantic scientific instrument. it is a manufacturing plant that manufactures drinking water on a massive scale. >> six miles on the shore the pacific is orange county's groundwater replenishment system. it takes water flushed down the toilet, cleans it, distills it, and returns it to the local water supply. >> the the product produces fresh drinking water. >> orange county did not choose to recycle its wastewater because it's a neat idea. it did it because it had to. >> it was formed about 80 years ago, 36,000 people here. today, there are 3 million.

>> something has to give, more conservation, less usage, or that in combination with what we're trying to do, find a new source of water. >> that new source, wastewater, goes through filters and purifiers remove anything that is not hydrogen or oxygen. the first step is called microfiltration. >> they act like a straw in the affect that they are there to suck the water out of the individual bases we see. they strain into a hole that is small enough that we can remove the larger particles. >> those holes are about two microns in size, or about 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. after filtration, reverse osmosis. >> we force of through a membrane at the molecular level. those chemicals are left behind. they reform into a drop of water. >> by now the water should be pure. to be extra safe, there is a third stage. >> we put it to ultraviolet light. in this case we use it as an additional layer of protection.

ultraviolet light destroys any organic molecule that may have escaped. >> whatever is left, this will catch it. >> by early 2015, this plant will deliver an additional 30 million gallons per day of clear, fresh drinking water. critics of water recycling have called the process -- to reassure the public, orange county has an on-site lab to monitor quality. what matters most is that the orange residents feel

comfortable drinking this water. there is one way to find out. >> bottoms up. >> it tastes like water. >> all water that we drink today has always been recycled. there is no new water. it is the same water that has been here forever. >> talk to people about water recycling, and it's easy to walk away with two seemingly incompatible options. optimism and frustration. the optimism comes in seeing the science and technology behind water recycling can work. the frustration comes from seeing the lack of political will in some communities to address their water needs with sensible solutions like this one. sure, orange county's project costs a lot of money, but is actually less expensive than many of the alternatives. it is only less expensive than doing nothing at all. in the case, eventually, all that water would be gone. coming up, the oculus rift is primarily used for video games, but one company is using it to create the next big hollywood blockbuster. ♪

>> we've had the pc, we have had the web, we have had mobile

as a platform, and we believe virtual-reality is the next big platform for entertainment. everyone is going to be having the vr experiences as a natural thing in their daily lives. >> in this small, dark room at the silicon valley offices of jaunt vr, visitors are invited to try on a headset and experience the company's big innovation, cinematic virtual-reality. >> cinematic virtual-reality is a branch of virtual-reality that is not focused on video games, but focused on video. when you watch a jaunt cinematic vr experience, you feel like you have been transported somewhere else. you can look in any direction, to the right, to the left, behind you.

you also hear sounds in spatially correct locations. if you hear a phone ringing to the right, and you look to your right, you will see a phone ringing and now the sound will come straight ahead. >> to create immersive video expanses, jaunt had to come up with a new kind of video camera. >> the camera rig consists of a sphere of lenses, each lens pointing in a different direction and capturing a different part of the space. it's really different from traditional cameras in that it is an autonomous system. you don't have a cameraman. if you had a cameraman, he or she would be in the shot itself. >> this is not a new concept. jaunt's 360 degree camera is a motion picture version of the google streetview camera. that creates immersive still images. what makes jaunt unique is what they want to do with the technology. they want to put you inside a hollywood style movie. in order to make that happen, jaunt has established a partnership with new deal studios, a major hollywood special effects house. new deal's ian hunter is making a virtual-reality godzilla, with a miniature city and a man in a monster suit.

>> shooting in virtual-reality is different, where you have just one camera looking one direction. in this case, the camera sees everything. we have to leave the set during these takes. i usually wear a ski mask with tiny little eye holes that way i can hide in the shadows and still be able to direct. the virtual-reality experience is a different way of exploring narrative. there is every kind of genre out there, we can apply this technology to it until it in a completely different way.

>> this is erin, a bloomberg colleague. she is watching another cinematic virtual-reality movie. this one is in the horror genre. >> that was terrifying. >> jaunt is betting that we will get hooked on that type of experience. a type of experience that is about to become accessible to everyone. >> a lot is happening in the virtual-reality space. one of the most interesting is the mobile virtual-reality. it makes virtual-reality accessible to a large number of people. as this reaches a broader audience, there are great opportunities to build out a business delivering content to consumers. >> jaunt's technology is less

than two years old, and it still has a ways to go. it's going to require more than technological advances. it's also going to need a new kind of virtual-reality storyteller. a spielberg or cameron of immersive cinema who can turn this into the next blockbuster entertainment format.

>> the following is a paid program. >> star vista entertainment. >> here's johnny. >> from the moment he stepped on stage to the day he said goodbye -- the king of late night was johnny carson.