TELUS Pitch awards $100,000 to startup that develops wearable mobility tools for the blind

Bin Liu, CEO and co-founder of iMerciv, delivering his final pitch as the grand prize $100,000 winner of the TELUS Pitch small business competition in Toronto. Photo credit: Gray Aletter

The winner of the TELUS Pitch is doing good for both the blind and the partially-sighted. iMerciv Inc. emerged the grand prize winner and was selected from nearly 3,000 entries. The company works to improve the mobility, confidence, and quality of life of individuals who suffer vision loss. The company’s CEO and co-founder Bin Liu has personal experience with the matter as his father lost his vision and was diagnosed with inoperable glaucoma. The company recently introduced its first product called BuzzClip. It’s a wearable mobility tool to help those with vision loss avoid collisions. The device makes use of ultrasound to detect any obstacles that might be in the way. The wearer will feel intuitive vibrations to help them navigate around any object, especially those that are head level.

iMerciv will be using the $100,000 prize to boost its sales and marketing efforts and help expand their presence in the 11 countries where they are present. They hope to generate more revenue and help built new products. Liu and his team will also be injecting the money into research and development of its second product.

Cozmo Code Lab gets tons of new features

Cozmo Code Lab has opened the doors to all users interested in learning and engaging with robotics. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a drag-and-drop programming interface that’s been based on Scratch Blocks project, a collaboration between MIT Media Lab and Google. Aside from getting access to features like facial recognition and path planning, users of Code Lab will be getting a whole lot more starting December 5.

A free update to the app will bring many user-requested features like if statements, math operators, variables, function calls, etc. There will also be vertically-oriented block stacks that closely mirror the way text-based code is structured. Part of this new Code Lab experience, the existing interface will be called Sandbox Mode and the new one will be called Constructor Mode. On top of this, there will also be a new Featured Projects page where the user-created projects will be highlighted.

Andy Weir’s ‘Artemis’ comes to Audible, narrated by Rosario Dawson

You might be familiar with Andy Weir’s name because of his book The Martian. Now, he’s back with a new crime caper called Artemis, which is set on the dark side of the Moon. The book is now available not just in bookstores but also in audiobook form over at Audible with actress Rosario Dawson lending her voice to the project. The clip above has Dawson talking about her character and the recording of Artemis.

Artemis follows the story of Jasmine Bashara or Jazz, who is described as “another too-smart, devil-may-care twentysomething” who isn’t happy with the life she lives in a small town on Artemis, which is the first and only city on the moon. Life is tough in the city if you aren’t rich so competing petty crimes like smuggling in contraband isn’t unheard of. And when Jazz finds a chance to commit the perfect crime with an extremely lucrative reward it’s hard for her to turn it down. However, in the midst of this she finds herself caught up in a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself.

Tesla readies to unveil revolutionary electric semi truck platform

Tesla is moving from electric cars to semi-trucks. The company who started by building expensive electric roadsters for Silicon Valley millionaires has expanded into road cards, SUVs and even a more consumer friendly sedan. Now it is setting its sight on large transport trucks or semis, with an unveiling happening tomorrow.

Runour has it we're looking at an electric truck with a 300 mile range (on a full charge) and which could have some autonomous driving features. An interesting proposition for an area in automotive transport that's remained unchanged for decades.

Tesla Semi Truck unveil to be webcast live on Thursday at 8pm! This will blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension. Just need to find my portal gun ...

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2017

While tradtional car companies are scrambling to compete in electric vehicles, Tesla's confident enough to try and mark new territory with their semi platform.