- [Narrator] Convergence!
Think atom smasher...
For your gadgets!
(upbeat techno music)
- You know, one of the topics
I like to talk about a lot
at Forward Thinking, and
everywhere else for that matter,
is the idea of convergence.
That's this concept of different ideas,
of different paths of
research and development,
different products,
all converging together
to make something new.
And I saw a really cool
example of convergence
on the showroom floor of CES 2016.
And that was the Orbitrec.
It's a bicycle from Cerevo,
and there are a lot of
things about this bike
that make it pretty interesting to me.
The first is it was made by 3D printing,
and you know us at Forward Thinking.
We love 3D printing.
Add in the manufacturing
is pretty awesome.
It's less wasteful than other methods
and it's really fast,
so if you build something
and it doesn't work,
you can tweak the design, print it again,
and so you could go
through rapid prototyping.
Another feature of this
bike is an integrated sensor
that gives information
about the bike's orientation
as well as the environment around it.
Now, this would be an example
of the internet of things.
Sensors around us that
gather data and share it.
But data's not useful unless
you're able to analyze it
and then present it or use it in some way.
So with this bike it sends the data up,
and then the data gets
sent back down to an app
through a visualization interface
so you can see what it means.
That would be an element of big data.
And just imagine if you had
a whole bunch of these
bikes together in an area.
A lot of bicyclists using this technology.
From a macro level, you
could study that behavior
and actually see where
bicyclists like to bike,
and if they're avoiding certain streets,
maybe it's time to look
at putting a bike lane
on those streets,
so it could actually
help with city planning
on a large level.
This is what I mean when I'm
talking about convergence.
All of these ideas that
normally would just be
on their individual paths
are starting to cross
and make something greater
than the sum of their parts.
And we're not just seeing
this in fitness or in travel,
we're seeing it everywhere-
with food preparation, with entertainment,
with communication and beyond.
I've got a question
for you guys this week.
What is your favorite
example of convergence?
Let me know in the comments below.
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Oh, and I can't forget,
you guys gotta check out
these other amazing videos.
(upbeat music)
