Raquel Byrnes's Blog

In order to get into the holiday spirit, I decided to share some interesting and hopeful tech coming our way. You know I'm a conservationist so I'm excited to tell you the artificial coral reefs are helping to save the oceans. How exciting is that?

In 2016 researchers at the University of Hong Kong installed artificial coral reefs made up of terra cotta tiles. They 3D printed the material in hexagonal shapes that were perfect for coral seedlings and other ocean species to find a foothold. Piece...

I have lived in southern California for most of my life. As the daughter of a marine, we moved a lot but we always ended up back at Camp Pendleton. I went to school here, married here, had kids here, and created a home here. And now, as I begin this new thriller series, I get to write about the state I love so much.

My first book takes place near the famous art town of Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains. A delightful town that has a dog as its honorary mayor, it's the largest town on the mo...

I'm closing out July with some interesting news from the tech world that really just tickled my little wanna-be adventurer heart. Coming out of the gate is the newest quadruped robot from CERBERUS, the ANYmal C, and its accompanying hover drone, RMF-Obelix, which are currently learning to explore underground mines and caves. They're using a path planner software to map out their exploration called, GBPlanner2. What's cool is all of the robots and drones are interconnected and share their map inf...

It's been a few weeks since I started to delve into neuromarketing. It started with an older article I came across while researching my novel. It was about Cheetos's Orange Underground advertising campaign that poked fun at the idea that we all get a little guilty pleasure zing when we have the cheesy orange powder on our fingers. Cheetos took their kid-friendly character and made him into a subversive figure that encouraged adults in their cheesy-powdered petty revenge against annoying coworker...

After my cautionary series on privacy and the consumer, I thought I'd switch gears and focus on some exciting medical technology advances coming your way.

First up is a recent bionic eye implant procedure on an 88-year-old UK woman. She'd lost her eyesight due to a condition most commonly associated with aging. Macular Degeneration can occur as you get older which is why it's important to get a full eye exam every year after the age of 45. Signs can be changes in how you see lines, blurred edg...

Suppose you had a sudden medical issue, so you call your pharmacy and stop your current medication until it's resolved. However, things suddenly take a turn. In pain and scared, you realize you need to make an appointment with a specialist. You look up the office number on your phone and make an appointment. Since it's a new place, you look up the directions on your phone map and use it to get to the office. In the lobby, you're scrolling social media while you wait to be called. After the appoi...

On a gorgeous Easter morning, my family was driving to a brunch when we were hit by another car. The injuries I suffered during that horrible accident still affect me today. I often wonder if it could have been avoided had the driver not been human. If the car had been autonomous, programmed with avoidance maneuvers, and equipped with powerful cameras...would my mother and I have ended up in a trauma center that day?

We are already living with autonomous assistance. Some cars will help you park...

Imagine you're walking down the street and your legs suddenly collapse beneath you. The neural stimulator implant on your spine has somehow malfunctioned, and now you're back to being paralyzed. Rushed to the emergency room, you learn that your implanted device is in failure. Calls to the company go unanswered, and soon you learn they're fighting bankruptcy and are no longer supporting your device. No upgrades, patches, or new equipment are available. There's just not enough money in it. Not onl...

Virtual Reality is forging its way into the public consciousness. Showing up in everyday apps more and more as we embrace immersive technology. The problem is, our private information is not as protected as you think.

Much like augmented reality which I covered in my previous post. We are used to allowing tracking of our location, who we interact with within a game, and even scanning of our faces to play with filters. We're not worried because, at first glance, it seems the type of information ...

This week's blog is part one of a series on how augmented and virtual reality are already affecting all of us. With experts predicting a privacy crisis on the horizon for the average person, this is something we should all pay attention to.

First up we're looking at AR, Augmented Reality, which is a technology that adds visual, auditory, or other sensory input onto our real world. It sounds super high-tech, like spyware, but we are already interacting with this technology. We use social app fac...