TED Talks Technology

By TED

Technology

What's TED Talks Technology about?

Some of the world's leading inventors and researchers share demos, breakthroughs and visions onstage at the TED conference, TEDx events and partner events around the world. You can also download these and many other videos free on TED.com, with an interactive English transcript and subtitles in up to 80 languages. TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.

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The artificial muscles that...

04.16.2019

Robot brains are getting smarter and smarter, but their bodies are often still clunky and unwieldy. Mechanical engineer Christoph Keplinger is designing a new generation of soft, agile robot inspired by a masterpiece of evolution: biological muscle. See these "artificial ...

TED Talks Technology episodes:

04.16.2019 The artificial muscles that will power robots of the future \| Christoph Keplinger Robot brains are getting smarter and smarter, but their bodies are often still clunky and unwieldy. Mechanical engineer Christoph Keplinger is designing a new generation of soft, agile robot inspired by a masterpiece of evolution: biological muscle. See these "artificial ...
04.10.2019 Wearable tech that helps you navigate by touch \| Keith Kirkland Keith Kirkland is developing wearable tech that communicates information using only the sense of touch. He's trying to figure out: What gestures and vibration patterns could intuitively communicate ideas like "stop" or "go"? Check out his team's first product, a ...
03.22.2019 The beautiful future of solar power \| Marjan van Aubel The Sun delivers more energy to Earth in one hour than all of humanity uses in an entire year. How can we make this power more accessible to everyone, everywhere? Solar designer Marjan van Aubel shows how she's turning everyday ...
03.15.2019 How to keep human bias out of AI \| Kriti Sharma AI algorithms make important decisions about you all the time -- like how much you should pay for car insurance or whether or not you get that job interview. But what happens when these machines are built with human bias ...
03.06.2019 How we can store digital data in DNA \| Dina Zielinski From floppy disks to thumb drives, every method of storing data eventually becomes obsolete. What if we could find a way to store all the world's data forever? Bioinformatician Dina Zielinski shares the science behind a solution that's been around ...
02.27.2019 The self-assembling computer chips of the future \| Karl Skjonnemand The transistors that power the phone in your pocket are unimaginably small: you can fit more than 3,000 of them across the width of a human hair. But to keep up with innovations in fields like facial recognition and augmented ...
02.19.2019 What is the meaning of work? \| Bryn Freedman Roy Bahat was worried. His company invests in new technology like AI to make businesses more efficient -- but, he wondered, what was AI doing to the people whose jobs might change, go away or become less fulfilling? The question ...
02.08.2019 Ink made of air pollution \| Anirudh Sharma What if we could capture pollution in the air around us and turn it into something useful? Inventor Anirudh Sharma shares how he created AIR-INK, a deep black ink that's made from PM 2.5 pollution. See how he hacked together ...
02.04.2019 How do we learn to work with intelligent machines? \| Matt Beane The path to skill around the globe has been the same for thousands of years: train under an expert and take on small, easy tasks before progressing to riskier, harder ones. But right now, we're handling AI in a way ...
01.11.2019 Quantum computing explained in 10 minutes \| Shohini Ghose A quantum computer isn't just a more powerful version of the computers we use today; it's something else entirely, based on emerging scientific understanding -- and more than a bit of uncertainty. Enter the quantum wonderland with TED Fellow Shohini ...
01.09.2019 What should electric cars sound like? \| Renzo Vitale Electric cars are extremely quiet, offering some welcome silence in our cities. But they also bring new dangers, since they can easily sneak up on unsuspecting pedestrians. What kind of sounds should they make to keep people safe? Get a ...
01.08.2019 How India's smartphone revolution is creating a new generation of readers and writers \| Chiki Sarkar India has the second largest population of any country in the world -- yet it has only 50 decent bookstores, says publisher Chiki Sarkar. So she asked herself: How do we get more people reading books? Find out how Sarkar ...
12.13.2018 How to be "Team Human" in the digital future \| Douglas Rushkoff Humans are no longer valued for our creativity, says media theorist Douglas Rushkoff -- in a world dominated by digital technology, we're now just valued for our data. In a passionate talk, Rushkoff urges us to stop using technology to ...
12.12.2018 Why you should treat the tech you use at work like a colleague \| Nadjia Yousif Imagine your company hires a new employee and then everyone just ignores them, day in and day out, while they sit alone at their desk getting paid to do nothing. This situation actually happens all the time -- when companies ...
11.27.2018 When technology can read minds, how will we protect our privacy? \| Nita Farahany Tech that can decode your brain activity and reveal what you're thinking and feeling is on the horizon, says legal scholar and ethicist Nita Farahany. What will it mean for our already violated sense of privacy? In a cautionary talk, ...
11.20.2018 How video games turn players into storytellers \| David Cage Have you ever watched a film or read a novel, wishing that you could change the narrative to save your favorite character? Game designer David Cage allows you do just that in his video games, where players make decisions that ...
11.20.2018 How a fleet of wind-powered drones is changing our understanding of the ocean \| Sebastien de Halleux Our oceans are unexplored and undersampled -- today, we still know more about other planets than our own. How can we get to a better understanding of this vast, important ecosystem? Explorer Sebastien de Halleux shares how a new fleet ...
11.09.2018 The case for a decentralized internet \| Tamas Kocsis Who controls the internet? Increasingly, the answer is large corporations and governments -- a trend that's threatening digital privacy and access to information online, says web developer Tamas Kocsis. In this informative talk, Kocsis breaks down the different threats to ...
11.05.2018 The case for curiosity-driven research \| Suzie Sheehy Seemingly pointless scientific research can lead to extraordinary discoveries, says physicist Suzie Sheehy. In a talk and tech demo, she shows how many of our modern technologies are tied to centuries-old, curiosity-driven experiments -- and makes the case for investing ...
10.31.2018 How tech companies deceive you into giving up your data and privacy \| Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad Have you ever actually read the terms and conditions for the apps you use? Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad and his team at the Norwegian Consumer Council have, and it took them nearly a day and a half to read the terms ...
10.30.2018 What everyday citizens can do to claim power on the internet \| Bryn Freedman Technology architect Fadi Chehadé helped set up the infrastructure that makes the internet work -- essential things like the domain name system and IP address standards. Today he's focused on finding ways for society to benefit from technology. In a ...
10.26.2018 How will we survive when the population hits 10 billion? \| Charles C. Mann By 2050, an estimated 10 billion people will live on earth. How are we going to provide everybody with basic needs while also avoiding the worst impacts of climate change? In a talk packed with wit and wisdom, science journalist ...
10.16.2018 Why we have an emotional connection to robots \| Kate Darling We're far from developing robots that feel emotions, but we already have feelings towards them, says robot ethicist Kate Darling, and an instinct like that can have consequences. Learn more about how we're biologically hardwired to project intent and life ...
09.24.2018 The simple genius of a good graphic \| Tommy McCall In a talk that's part history lesson, part love letter to graphics, information designer Tommy McCall traces the centuries-long evolution of charts and diagrams -- and shows how complex data can be sculpted into beautiful shapes. "Graphics that help us ...
09.17.2018 Your fingerprints reveal more than you think \| Simona Francese Our fingerprints are what make us unique -- but they're also home to a world of information hidden in molecules that reveal our actions, lifestyles and routines. In this riveting talk, chemist Simona Francese shows how she studies these microscopic ...
09.14.2018 3 ways to make better decisions -- by thinking like a computer \| Tom Griffiths If you ever struggle to make decisions, here's a talk for you. Cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths shows how we can apply the logic of computers to untangle tricky human problems, sharing three practical strategies for making better decisions -- on ...
09.10.2018 How AI could compose a personalized soundtrack to your life \| Pierre Barreau Meet AIVA, an artificial intelligence that has been trained in the art of music composition by reading more than 30,000 of history's greatest scores. In a mesmerizing talk and demo, Pierre Barreau plays compositions created by AIVA and shares his ...
09.06.2018 Let's launch a satellite to track a threatening greenhouse gas \| Fred Krupp When we talk about greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide gets the most attention -- but methane, which often escapes unseen from pipes and wells, has a far greater immediate impact on global warming. Environmentalist Fred Krupp has an idea to fix ...
08.24.2018 How we can use light to see deep inside our bodies and brains \| Mary Lou Jepsen In a series of mind-bending demos, inventor Mary Lou Jepsen shows how we can use red light to see and potentially stimulate what's inside our bodies and brains. Taking us to the edge of optical physics, Jepsen unveils new technologies ...
08.16.2018 What a scrapyard in Ghana can teach us about innovation \| DK Osseo-Asare In Agbogbloshie, a community in Accra, Ghana, people descend on a scrapyard to mine electronic waste for recyclable materials. Without formal training, these urban miners often teach themselves the workings of electronics by taking them apart and putting them together ...
07.25.2018 Fake videos of real people -- and how to spot them \| Supasorn Suwajanakorn Do you think you're good at spotting fake videos, where famous people say things they've never said in real life? See how they're made in this astonishing talk and tech demo. Computer scientist Supasorn Suwajanakorn shows how, as a grad ...
07.24.2018 How AI is making it easier to diagnose disease \| Pratik Shah Today's AI algorithms require tens of thousands of expensive medical images to detect a patient's disease. What if we could drastically reduce the amount of data needed to train an AI, making diagnoses low-cost and more effective? TED Fellow Pratik ...
07.18.2018 What your smart devices know (and share) about you \| Surya Mattu Once your smart devices can talk to you, who else are they talking to? Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu wanted to find out -- so they outfitted Hill's apartment with 18 different internet-connected devices and built a special router to ...
07.16.2018 The mission to create a searchable database of Earth's surface \| Will Marshall What if you could search the surface of the Earth the same way you search the internet? Will Marshall and his team at Planet use the world's largest fleet of satellites to image the entire Earth every day. Now they're ...
07.12.2018 A new way to monitor vital signs (that can see through walls) \| Dina Katabi At MIT, Dina Katabi and her team are working on a bold new way to monitor patients' vital signs in a hospital (or even at home), without wearables or bulky, beeping devices. Bonus: it can see through walls. In a ...
06.29.2018 How autonomous flying taxis could change the way you travel \| Rodin Lyasoff Flight is about to get a lot more personal, says aviation entrepreneur Rodin Lyasoff. In this visionary talk, he imagines a new golden age of air travel in which small, autonomous air taxis allow us to bypass traffic jams and ...
06.19.2018 Technology that knows what you're feeling \| Poppy Crum What happens when technology knows more about us than we do? Poppy Crum studies how we express emotions -- and she suggests the end of the poker face is near, as new tech makes it easy to see the signals ...
06.14.2018 The incredible potential of flexible, soft robots \| Giada Gerboni Robots are designed for speed and precision -- but their rigidity has often limited how they're used. In this illuminating talk, biomedical engineer Giada Gerboni shares the latest developments in "soft robotics," an emerging field that aims to create nimble ...
06.06.2018 How technology can fight extremism and online harassment \| Yasmin Green Can technology make people safer from threats like violent extremism, censorship and persecution? In this illuminating talk, technologist Yasmin Green details programs pioneered at Jigsaw (a unit within Alphabet Inc., the collection of companies that also includes Google) to counter ...
05.30.2018 How we'll become cyborgs and extend human potential \| Hugh Herr Humans will soon have new bodies that forever blur the line between the natural and synthetic worlds, says bionics designer Hugh Herr. In an unforgettable talk, he details "NeuroEmbodied Design," a methodology for creating cyborg function that he's developing at ...
05.18.2018 Why fascism is so tempting -- and how your data could power it \| Yuval Noah Harari In a profound talk about technology and power, author and historian Yuval Noah Harari explains the important difference between fascism and nationalism -- and what the consolidation of our data means for the future of democracy. Appearing as a hologram ...
05.17.2018 How Pakistani women are taking the internet back \| Nighat Dad TED Fellow Nighat Dad studies online harassment, especially as it relates to patriarchal cultures like the one in her small village in Pakistan. She tells the story of how she set up Pakistan's first cyber harassment helpline, offering support to ...
05.03.2018 To design better tech, understand context \| Tania Douglas What good is a sophisticated piece of medical equipment to people in Africa if it can't handle the climate there? Biomedical engineer Tania Douglas shares stories of how we're often blinded to real needs in our pursuit of technology -- ...
04.23.2018 SpaceX's plan to fly you across the globe in 30 minutes \| Chris Anderson What's up at SpaceX? Engineer Gwynne Shotwell was employee number seven at Elon Musk's pioneering aerospace company and is now its president. In conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson, she discusses SpaceX's race to put people into orbit and the ...
04.17.2018 A printable, flexible, organic solar cell \| Hannah Bürckstümmer Unlike the solar cells you're used to seeing, organic photovoltaics are made of compounds that are dissolved in ink and can be printed and molded using simple techniques. The result is a low-weight, flexible, semi-transparent film that turns the energy ...
04.12.2018 How we need to remake the internet \| Jaron Lanier In the early days of digital culture, Jaron Lanier helped craft a vision for the internet as public commons where humanity could share its knowledge -- but even then, this vision was haunted by the dark side of how it ...
04.02.2018 How we can teach computers to make sense of our emotions \| Raphael Arar How can we make AI that people actually want to interact with? Raphael Arar suggests we start by making art. He shares interactive projects that help AI explore complex ideas like nostalgia, intuition and conversation -- all working towards the ...
03.27.2018 How quantum physics can make encryption stronger \| Vikram Sharma As quantum computing matures, it's going to bring unimaginable increases in computational power along with it -- and the systems we use to protect our data (and our democratic processes) will become even more vulnerable. But there's still time to ...
03.14.2018 3 myths about the future of work (and why they're not true) \| Daniel Susskind "Will machines replace humans?" This question is on the mind of anyone with a job to lose. Daniel Susskind confronts this question and three misconceptions we have about our automated future, suggesting we ask something else: How will we distribute ...
02.27.2018 A funny look at the unintended consequences of technology \| Chuck Nice Technology should work for us, but what happens when it doesn't? Comedian Chuck Nice explores the unintended consequences of technological advancement and human interaction -- with hilarious results.

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