Tech and wellbeing

Technology contributes to human wellbeing

MOTHERLY FRIEND

Motherhood is a life changing experience and with the changes that ensue on becoming a parent come struggles. Many women find being a mom hard – often, they feel emotionally isolated in the early stages of parenthood.

Peanut is a Tinder style ‘friendship finder’ app for mothers, which helps them connect, chat, meet and strike up friendships with like-minded women who are mothers too.

The app shows women’s profiles based on location and proximity, as well as those with children of similar ages. It creates matches based on shared interests and concerns, and transforms motherhood from a time of potential isolation to one of forming new bonds and connections.

GROUP RECYCLING

It’s hard to ignore the fact that people need to do more when it comes to recycling. Good intentions however, don’t always translate into action. Yoyo is a French startup that’s taking a more active approach by engaging those who are passionate about recycling with others who want to do more in that arena.

Recyclers or sorters fill recycling bags that have been previously distributed and bring them to coaches who record the bags on an app. Once each coach has filled their allocated storage space, Yoyo transports the bags to a recycling facility where sorters can view the impact of their (recycling) efforts on the community.

Yoyo aims to bring a sense of community to recycling by connecting potential recyclers with coaches who will teach them effective and efficient ways to recycle, and motivate them through a rewards system of points.

Points can be redeemed for locally based rewards such as workshops or the theatre. This will further encourage community building and in turn foster greater commitment to recycling.

GREEN SEARCHING

Ekoru is a search engine aiming to turn online searching green in an effort to combat the massive carbon footprint caused by internet searches. The stress that various industries put on the environment is a widely discussed topic.

However, one significant contributor to the world’s carbon footprint often slips under the radar.

The internet, which is fuelled by data centres around the world, uses a massive amount of energy to power servers and air conditioners. It’s a constant but unnoticed contributor to negative environmental impact with Google alone producing 500 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide every second!

Even though Ekoru functions as most search engines do, 60 percent of its revenue is donated to ocean cleanup efforts with the hard to ignore claim that every search contributes to saving the world’s oceans. The engine’s data centres are powered by hydroelectricity, and they use air and water cooling to reduce the need for air conditioning.

The engine’s architecture is also green, optimising software to deliver results with the least possible consumption of energy. As climate change has led to increasing concerns, slight adjustments in daily routines (such as switching to a greener search engine) will complement efforts to achieve environmental sustainability.

TAKE RIGHT TURN

Visibility and turning are among a cyclist’s main safety concerns. While visibility can be tackled by special apparel, an intention to turn can be harder to indicate.

The Lumenus jacket helps nighttime cyclists ensure greater visibility for motorists who are behind them as well as themselves. Cyclists enter a predetermined route on the companion Lumenus app, and LEDs embedded in the jacket’s cuffs flash to indicate upcoming turns and their direction.

In the meantime, LEDs on the back of the jacket flash to indicate an intention to turn or sudden braking to motorists. Increased visibility of cyclists and pedestrians at night will help reduce the high number of fatalities, and make our roads safer for everyone.