7 technologies that make our lives safer

1. Smart home

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 around the house, and a talking meteorological box reminds that it is raining outside the window and you should put on a raincoat and galoshes. 70 years after the story was published, a robot vacuum cleaner and a smart speaker will surprise no one.

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 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.

The heart of a smart home is 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 scripts. 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 the WHO, every year, road traffic accidents live 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 only cause about a third of road accidents. Cars should prioritize not speed or convenience, but the safety of other road users. For example, a drone can go slower in poor visibility or in areas with high pedestrian traffic.

There are several years left before the massive appearance of unmanned taxis on the roads: the Ministry of Transport, that this will happen in 2024. In the meantime, the cars of the future are being driven in test mode. Since the summer of 2019, such a project has been in Moscow, and an unmanned taxi is already working in the Kazan Innopolis.

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 theft and from irrecoverable loss, as is the case with physical media.

However, leaks still happen, but it is not cloud providers that are to blame, but users. Thus, 9 out of 10 corporate data leaks are caused by employees of companies storing valuable information in the clouds. The basic rules of cybersecurity have not been canceled. To keep your data secure, use strong passwords and two-factor authentication. 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

Security technologies: biometric payment

As soon as we got used to contactless payments, a more interesting option loomed ahead. It's a fairly common story in China. There is no 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 houses. 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 99, 99%, the system is capable of even twins.

5. Green energy

Global climate change is not a horror story of eco-activists, but a reality. Bill Gates, that 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 sources of energy that will be safe for the environment, and are increasingly using solar and wind power plants. In the US, clean sources will be able to supply 90% of the electricity needed by 2035. The proliferation of green alternatives in Russia is still due to cheap gas, but experts say that 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 are not yet able to 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, which, based on photographs of children, finds 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.

In Moscow, artificial intelligence 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, artificial intelligence warned about a pandemic in advance. Services and sensed something was wrong back in December.

7. A robot instead of a 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 search for problems and fix them via power lines.

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