Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
‘Robots May Revolutionize China’s Electronics Manufacturing’
September 24th, 2013Via: Wall Street Journal: A new worker’s revolution is rising in China and it doesn’t involve humans. With soaring wages and an aging population, electronics factory managers say the day is approaching when robotic workers will replace people on the Chinese factory floor. A new wave of industrial robots is in development, ranging from high-end […]
Empty F-16 Jet Tested by Boeing and U.S. Air Force
September 24th, 2013Via: BBC: Boeing has revealed that it has retrofitted retired fighter jets to turn them into drones. It said that one of the Lockheed Martin F-16 made a first flight with an empty cockpit last week. Two US Air Force pilots controlled the plane from the ground as it flew from a Florida base to […]
Neurosynaptic Chips: Building Blocks for Cognitive Systems
September 19th, 2013Via: IBM: In many ways computers today are nothing more than very fast number-crunchers and information manipulators. They can process lots of data, but they really don’t think. They all adhere to the Von Neumann architecture, largely unchanged in the last half-century, in which computers are constructed by separating memory and processing and operate by […]
Tesla Enters Race to Build Self-Driving Car
September 18th, 2013Via: Reuters: Electric car company Tesla Motors is working to produce a car capable of running on “auto-pilot” within the next three years, CEO Elon Musk said, joining tech giant Google and rival carmakers in the race to roll a driverless car into the market. The California-based company’s autonomous car would allow the driver to […]
‘Dartmouth Researchers Discover How and Where Imagination Occurs in Human Brains’
September 17th, 2013“Understanding these differences will give us insight into where human creativity comes from and possibly allow us to recreate those same creative processes in machines.” Via: Dartmouth University: Philosophers and scientists have long puzzled over where human imagination comes from. In other words, what makes humans able to create art, invent tools, think scientifically and […]
Recovery: Widest Gap in Employment Rates Between Rich, Poor in a Decade
September 16th, 2013Via: AP / Newser: The gap in employment rates between America’s highest- and lowest-income families has stretched to its widest levels since officials began tracking the data a decade ago, according to an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press. Rates of unemployment for the lowest-income families _ those earning less than $20,000 […]
Oxford Researchers Say 45 Percent of America’s Occupations Will be Automated Within the Next 20 Years
September 15th, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review: Rapid advances in technology have long represented a serious potential threat to many jobs ordinarily performed by people. A recent report (which is not online, but summarized here) from the Oxford Martin School’s Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology attempts to quantify the extent of that threat. It concludes that […]
Will Robots Replace Rent-a-Cops?
August 31st, 2013Via: Motherboard: Has a fear of robotics ever kept anyone from robbing banks? I’m not talking about the surveillance systems, laser-armed tripwires, noisy alarms, or automated locks on the doors. I’m talking about actual robots—an evolution of the ROOMBA Vacuum cleaner, but with legs, not cute, and definitely not something you want to rob. Now, […]
Nissan: Multiple Autonomous Drive Vehicle Models Available by 2020
August 28th, 2013Via: Nissan: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced that the company will be ready with multiple, commercially-viable Autonomous Drive vehicles by 2020. Nissan announced that the company’s engineers have been carrying out intensive research on the technology for years, alongside teams from the world’s top universities, including MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon and the University […]
Australia: Giant Robotic Mining Trucks Haul Iron Ore
August 24th, 2013😯 Via: Medium: In the dusty red earth of Western Australia, robot trucks haul iron ore. The trucks themselves weigh about 500 tons when loaded—they are truly massive. They operate more or less on their own, navigating mining roads connecting the sprawling Pilbara iron mines with a guidance system provided by global positioning satellites, radars […]
