Good Morning! 🌞

If you like jazz, or just music in general, I would highly recommend checking out this amazing cover of “Creep” by Radiohead. The covers music is By Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ) and sung by the incredibly talented Haley Reinhart.

Innovation

Cars That Can See In the Dark

Pedestrian deaths by car surged 19 percent from 2019 to 2022, with three-quarters of fatalities occurring after dark, according to AAA. In response, automotive technology supplier Magna, a mobility technology company, is addressing this issue with thermal technology, now installed on 1.2 million vehicles and counting.

Originally named “Night Vision” and introduced on the 2005 BMW 7 Series, Magna’s thermal sensing product can see the road ahead up to four times farther than typical headlights. Currently available on 40 different vehicle models across 13 manufacturers—this technology aims to reduce pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

How It Works

A microbolometer, or an uncooled thermal sensor, which began as military technology in the late 1970s, was declassified after the 1991 Gulf War. Thermal imaging has since been adopted by many industries such as municipal firefighting services to see through smoke and is now widely used in the security sector.

Magna’s latest generation of thermal technology offers improved road coverage, enhanced detection capabilities, and a clearer image through fog, smoke, snow squalls, or complete darkness. Unlike visible light, thermal cameras are unaffected by headlights or sun glare, making them a robust solution against distracted driving. Its ability to see through smoke or fog and can also help avoid disasters like when fog caused a 158-car pileup in Louisiana last year.

An infrared video camera mounted in front of the vehicle detects temperature differences as small as 1/10th of a degree, creating a highly detailed thermal image of the road. Using convolutional neural networks, the software generates three-dimensional data for image classification and object recognition.

The system can detect animals, pedestrians, cyclists, buses, and more up to 100 meters and beyond and alert the drivers of the hazards.

Magna’s camera, once too large to fit in a trunk, is now the size of a golf ball and set to get even smaller. The next-gen thermal sensing technology, debuting next year, will include 360-degree visual range for better visibility in all directions, addressing back-over accidents and extending detection to up to three football fields, thus increasing stopping time and potentially saving more lives.

Here is an interesting video demonstrating this feature:

Entertainment

‘Shōgun’ Makes Emmys History

"Shōgun," the historical drama based on James Clavell’s bestselling novel, made headlines with its record-breaking Emmy nominations announced last week. It became just the second non-English language series ever nominated in the outstanding drama category, following 2022's "Squid Game."

"Shōgun" garnered a total of 25 nominations, the highest for any series this year, contributing significantly to F/X Network's impressive tally of 93 nominations, a record for the network. The series also secured nominations for its stars, including Hiroyuki Sanada for outstanding lead actor, Anna Sawai for outstanding lead actress, and both Tadanobu Asano and Takehiro Hira for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series.

In addition to "Shōgun," another F/X production, "The Bear," also made history this year, accumulating 23 nominations, surpassing the previous record of 22 set by NBC's "30 Rock" in 2009. F/X's lineup of acclaimed shows, including "American Horror Story: Delicate," the final season of "Archer," miniseries "Feud: Capote vs. The Swans," "Reservation Dogs," reality series "Welcome to Wrexham," and comedy "What We Do in the Shadows," also received nominations.

Science/Entertainment

First Vertical Landing

It took SpaceX years to successfully achieve the first vertical landing of its reusable Falcon 9 rocket. Inspired by this, model rocket designers have attempted to recreate the feat. Joe Barnard’s BPS.space finally accomplished it in 2022 after seven years of effort. Now, a high school student has joined the ranks of those who have achieved a vertical landing.

In a video uploaded to YouTube on July 5 under his company’s account, JRD Propulsion, Aryan Kapoor describes his journey, which began in August 2021, to design a model rocket capable of propulsive landing. After three years of development, testing, and many failures, he successfully landed his rocket on May 25 after four previous launch attempts.

Unlike Barnard’s iteration, Kapoor’s rocket is an original design rather than a scale replica of a SpaceX rocket. Kapoor's model uses two solid-propellant motors—one for liftoff and one for descent and soft landing. Kapoor’s rocket features an innovative design that replaces stability fins with thrust-vector controls using a 3D-printed gimbal mount.

Despite some issues with the propellent ejection, Kapoor’s rocket succeeded in its first landing.

Check out his video of the successful launch and how he approached the design. It shows some impressive innovation and determination.

Mind Stretchers 

⁉️ 

We may die a thousand deaths and we may break a thousand hearts,
But it isn't cause for worry, for we live our lives in parts.

The answer to yesterday’s Mind Stretcher was:
Your hands have ten, and ten has two, and two has one, and that's your clue.
- Digits

Bea Walter got the correct answer first!

Be the first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to [email protected] or reply to this email.

If you have any uplifting stories and experience you might want to share, send those over to [email protected] for the chance to be featured.