Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Amazon Testing Delivery by Drone Aircraft
December 1st, 2013😯 Via: USA Today: Amazon.com is testing delivering packages using drones, CEO Jeff Bezos said on the CBS TV news show 60 Minutes Sunday. The idea would be to deliver packages as quickly as possible using the small, unmanned aircraft, through a service the company is calling Prime Air, the CEO said. Bezos played a […]
Coming Soon, a Night Watchman with Wheels?
November 30th, 2013I liked being a security guard in the early 1990s. haha. I wore a polyester uniform that made me look like like ten pounds of shit in a five pound sack. I think it paid $7 per hour. I had near zero contact with any other human beings the whole night. Now, why was this […]
Software Mines Science Papers to Make New Discoveries
November 26th, 2013In other news: Majority of Landmark Cancer Studies Cannot Be Replicated. Via: MIT Technology Review: Software that read tens of thousands of research papers and then predicted new discoveries about the workings of a protein that’s key to cancer could herald a faster approach to developing new drugs. The software, developed in collaboration between IBM […]
‘If our mechanical doubles make us paranoid, we may need to think again.’
November 26th, 2013Via: Telegraph: Researchers have tried to find the cause of the uncanny valley. One of the most interesting insights has come from an international team led by Ayse Pinar Saygin of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Saygin and her team conducted an experiment scanning the brains of 20 subjects aged 20 to 36 […]
How ‘Swarm Robots’ Are Learning from Insects
November 26th, 2013Via: CNN: In the dystopian future imagined within the popular Terminator franchise, robots learn to think, self-replicate and eventually kill their human masters. While this bleak vision assumes a number of seemingly distant technological and political developments, some ideas currently driving robotics research may, for some, bear an uncomfortable resemblance to those of the 80s […]
This Massive Robot Could Soon Join Marines on the Battlefield
November 23rd, 2013Via: Defense One: The future doesn’t always arrive with a gasp and a boom like Skynet inTerminator. No, sometimes it’s more like Office Space. At least that’s the idea I get watching this video of the Marines’ testing the Legged Squad Support System. DARPA built the LS3 to act as an autonomous pack horse that […]
Catapult-Launched Bat Drone Wages Electronic War
November 18th, 2013Via: Wired: Small, tactical drones may have a new role in military strikes after Northrop Grumman’s catapult-launched Bat demonstrated an electronic attack capability for the first time in new tests. With its 12-foot wingspan, the low-flying Bat, which maxes out at 70 miles per hour, was able to jam radar during tests. That means the […]
The Doctor Isn’t In: Hospitals Using Telepresence Robots
November 18th, 2013Just give it a few years: IBM’s Watson Goes to Medical School. Via: AP: The doctor isn’t in, but he can still see you now. Remote presence robots are allowing physicians to “beam” themselves into hospitals to diagnose patients and offer medical advice during emergencies. A growing number of hospitals in California and other states […]
The Wall Street Code
November 16th, 2013Via: Backlight: Research Credit: JF
Apple Spending $10.5 Billion on Automated Manufacturing Equipment
November 16th, 2013Via: Bloomberg: Apple Inc. is putting a record $10.5 billion to work in new technology — from assembly robots to milling machines — that consumers will never see. To get a jump on rivals like Samsung Electronics Co. and lay the groundwork for new products, Apple is spending more on the machines that do the […]
