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Google LLC is an American multinational tech company and its parent company Alphabet became the third American tech firm to score USD 1 trillion market value in early 2020. Hence it is obvious that Google is a money rich company and wants to experiment with innovative sci-fi movie-like technology to make it a reality one day.
The History
In 2010, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started this special workspace to try out moonshot ideas. Google started its secret lab called Google X and began multiple projects to offer solutions for world problems through radical technology. Even though Google did prefer not to reveal much information about their projects, they have made some project details available to the world, to let people know what they have been up to.
Driven By Purpose
Google X, the Moonshot factory describes their ultimate goal as “10x impact of the world’s most intractable problems, not just 10% improvement”. Out of the hundreds of moonshot projects developed in Google X, many have already matured enough to grow as independent businesses and it is the main fact that shows the ultimate talent and the advanced technology deployed in this massive workspace.
Mineral, Tidal and Taara are some of the interesting projects under Google X.
Mineral X
Still in development, the Mineral Project started with the sole purpose of providing a solution for the upcoming world food crisis in 2050. They claim there should be a massive change in what we grow and how we grow as there are more than 30,000 edible plant species in the world but less than1% is cultivated for human consumption.
Mineral X believes in embarrassing the complexity of nature rather than trying to simplify it as we used to do when it comes to agriculture. By identifying the plants which are resilient under climate changes and understanding each plant’s unique interaction with the environment, we can create a sustainable and efficient food system. Mineral X is developing new technologies to support that effective food system. Plant buggy is an innovative device that they use to collect high-resolution imagery of field crops to identify what’s happening in the field for real.
Tidal X
Tidal aims to protect the ocean while sustainably feeding human needs. Oceans cover 70% of Earth and provide Food, Oxygen and Livelihoods for many people. It is obvious that humans are returning the favour by destroying this vital resource by polluting and exploiting the benefits out of it, rather than sustainably managing the ocean ecosystems.
Project Tidal has developed an underwater camera system and machine perception tools that reveal a pathway to explore and understand what really happens inside the ocean. So we could gather information to make relevant decisions to protect the oceans around the world. Tidal works towards expanding ocean farming to fully fill the growing need for protein as well. The project educates ocean farmers on how to farm fish sustainably, as it seems many farmers do not have proper knowledge of how to.
The Tidal project started in a Kiddies pool at Google X lab. Once it was well developed, it was taken into the ocean farm system in Norway to broaden the test scope. Project Tidal is still developing to further perfect its technology and systems to serve oceans and Ocean ecosystems.
Taara X
Taara -X aims to provide fast access to the internet with beams of light. The project is still in the developing stage. Global internet traffic is growing by 24% annually. Internet access needs affordable and reliable infrastructure and deploying the said infrastructure is a complicated procedure.
Project Taara has developed a technology, where it can use light to transmit information. This is a super-high-speed technique and uses a thin invisible beam through the air to transmit the information. Taara has piloted its technology in India and Africa already.
