Archive for the 'Technology' Category
U.S. Army Prepping Robotic Combat Vehicles for Big Test with Soldiers in 2022
March 17th, 2021Via: Defense News: The U.S. Army has taken receipt of its light and medium Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) prototypes from industry teams and is putting them through the paces this year ahead of a major company-level soldier assessment in 2022. More: Textron Systems Readies All-Electric Ripsaw M5 UGV
Company Offering Realtime Tracking Information For “Specific Cars In Nearly Any Country On Earth”
March 17th, 2021Mobile phone tracking: Check License plate tracking: Check Vehicle telematics tracking: Check Via: Vice: A surveillance contractor that has previously sold services to the U.S. military is advertising a product that it says can locate the real-time locations of specific cars in nearly any country on Earth. It says it does this by using data […]
A Defensive Computing Checklist
March 17th, 2021For those who didn’t get enough from Who Controls Your Computer? (And How to make sure it’s you). This is more hilarious than anything else: defensivecomputingchecklist.com
VW Orders $14 Billion Worth of Battery Cells from Northvolt’s Gigafactory
March 16th, 2021Via: Electrek: Volkswagen Group confirmed that it placed a new order for $14 billion worth of battery cells from Northvolt’s Swedish gigafactory, and it is taking a bigger stake in the battery manufacturer. Northvolt is a battery startup founded by two former Tesla executives who worked on Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada with Panasonic.
Are U.S. Special Forces Quietly Using Armed Robots?
March 12th, 2021Via: Forbes: It seems Special Forces had an urgent need for an armed robot and bypassed the existing Army projects. An R&D budget document from the Office of the Secretary of Defense reveals that Special Operation Command developed a Lightweight Remote Weapons System (LRWS), a miniature version of the CROWS turret: “Description: LRWS rapidly developed […]
First AI System for Contactless Monitoring of Heart Rhythm Using Smart Speakers
March 11th, 2021Via: University of Washington: UW researchers have developed a new skill for a smart speaker that for the first time monitors both regular and irregular heartbeats without physical contact. The system sends inaudible sounds from the speaker out into a room and, based on the way the sounds are reflected back to the speaker, it […]
NY Testing ‘COVID Passport’
March 4th, 2021Via: Fox: With the limited resumption of sporting events at venues in New York, Madison Square Garden and the Barclays Center will be used as testing grounds for a new digital pass that could confirm the owner’s COVID status. It will confirm an individual’s vaccination or recent negative coronavirus test. First tested at the Brooklyn […]
SpaceX Successfully Launches and Lands Starship Prototype… Then It Exploded
March 4th, 2021Via: Space Flight Now: The latest prototype of SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle — Starship SN10 — took off from the company’s South Texas test site and flew to an altitude of more than 30,000 feet Wednesday, then descended to a controlled vertical landing after two previous test vehicles crashed at touchdown. Minutes later, the 16-story […]
Skydio: Drones With ‘Most Advanced AI Ever’ Coming Soon To Your Local Police Department
March 3rd, 2021Via: Forbes: It claims to be shipping the most advanced AI-powered drone ever built: a quadcopter that costs as little as $1,000, which can latch on to targets and follow them, dodging all sorts of obstacles and capturing everything on high-quality video. Skydio claims that its software can even predict a target’s next move, be […]
China’s ‘Sharp Eyes’ Program Aims to Surveil 100% of Public Space
March 3rd, 2021Via: Dave Gershgorn: One of China’s largest and most pervasive surveillance networks got its start in a small county about seven hours north of Shanghai. In 2013, the local government in Pingyi County began installing tens of thousands of security cameras across urban and rural areas — more than 28,500 in total by 2016. Even […]
