Author Archives: Navarre Bartz

Thermal Batteries for Lower Carbon Industrial Processes

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A photo of a large warehouse with many skylights and windows near the roof. In the middle of the image extending out into the distance are hundreds of grey refractory bricks stacked on top of a smaller set of brown bricks stacked on top of pallets. There appear to be rails on the floor of the warehouse and small dollies underneath the pallets.

Heating things up is one of the biggest sources of cost and emissions for many industrial processes we take for granted. Most of these factories are running around the clock …read more Continue reading Thermal Batteries for Lower Carbon Industrial Processes→

This Polaroid-esque OCR Machine Turns Text to Braille in the Wild

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A black and white device sits on a beige table. A white rotary knob projects out near the base of it's rectangular shape nearest the camera. Near it is a black rectangular section of the enclosure with six white dots protruding through holes to form a braille display. A ribbon cable snakes out of the top of the enclosure and over the furthest edge of the device, presumably connecting to a camera on the other side of the device.

One of the practical upsides of improved computer vision systems and machine learning has been the ability of computers to translate text from one language or format to another. [Jchen] …read more Continue reading This Polaroid-esque OCR Machine Turns Text to Braille in the Wild→

AI Might Kill Us All (With Carbon Emissions)

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So-called artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage right now between your grandma asking ChatGPT how to code in Python or influencers making videos without having to hire extras, but …read more Continue reading AI Might Kill Us All (With Carbon Emissions)→