Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Red Light Camera Industry Fights Citizen Vote
September 4th, 2014Via: WTSP: Florida’s leading red light camera-provider American Traffic Solutions confirms to 10 Investigates Wednesday that it has joined the fight to prevent a citizen-backed referendum on red light cameras from ever reaching a ballot. The city is also fighting the referendum on grounds that it infringes upon city council’s power. However, the enemy of […]
Robirds
September 4th, 2014Via: Slash Gear: Unless you look really close, this robot peregrine falcon would almost look like the real thing from a distance, especially while flapping its wings high above the sky. That resemblance to a real avian predator, however faint, might just be enough to scare away other birds that would other wise ruin crops […]
NASA Building Air Traffic Control System for Drones
September 2nd, 2014Via: The Verge: NASA is developing an air traffic control system for drones. The New York Times reports the US space agency is working on creating a management system for vehicles that fly at around 400 to 500 feet off the ground — much lower than conventional aircraft — at its Moffett Field base around […]
Man 3D Prints Concrete Castle in Backyard, Designing Kit to Print Two-Story Houses
August 31st, 2014Via: 3ders: In Minnesota, contractor Andrey Rudenko is currently working on a project of gargantuan proportions that seems to be stretching and exploring the limits of 3D printing technology. Using a printer that was substantially modified and expanded, he has printed a concrete castle in his own backyard. And at 3 by 5 meters, this […]
Inside Google’s Secret Drone-Delivery Program
August 28th, 2014Via: The Atlantic: After two years of development, the Silicon Valley company reveals to The Atlantic that it has substantial research effort into building flying robots than can deliver products across a city in a minute or two.
‘Robo Brain’ Will Teach Robots Everything from the Internet
August 25th, 2014This is the exact scenario from two recent cyber apocalypse stories; Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson and Transcendence. The goo escapes the cage in the lab and devours everything. Vis: Physorg: Robo Brain – a large-scale computational system that learns from publicly available Internet resources – is currently downloading and processing about 1 billion images, […]
“Want a Happy Worker? Let Robots Take Control”
August 24th, 2014Alternate Headline: Getting the Most Out of Your Remaining Human Meatsack Workers Until It Makes Economic Sense to Eliminate Them. Via: MIT Technology Review: If you’ve seen a sci-fi flick with autonomous robots in the last 40 years, you may be wary of giving robots any semblance of control. But new research coming out of […]
Bots on Patrol: Mobile Security Robot to be Mass Produced
August 22nd, 2014Via: Factor: In a move that will rock the job security of night watchmen everywhere, the world’s first commercially available security robot is set for mass production in the US. Designed by Denver-based Gamma 2 Robotics, the robot will now be manufactured entirely in the States, with a process that can be scaled up to […]
Despite FAA Setbacks, Amazon Prime Air Makes Notable Engineering, NASA And Aerospace Hires
August 21st, 2014Via: TechCrunch: Something big is going on with Amazon Prime Air, the e-commerce giant’s research project focused on delivering packages in 30 minutes or less using unmanned drones. … Prime Air is shaping up to be more than a marketing stunt, it seems. The company recently scored a few notable hires for this project, including […]
Navy Conducts First Series of Drone and Manned Fighter Jet Operations
August 19th, 2014Via: Los Angeles Times: The U.S. Navy said its jet-powered, bat-winged X-47B drone has conducted carrier deck operations and performed maneuvers alongside an F/A-18 fighter jet, marking the first time manned and unmanned aircraft have operated together on the same carrier. Navy officials hailed the test flights of the experimental drone, which were completed Sunday […]
