Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
At New NYC Hotel, a Robot Handles the Luggage
June 22nd, 2011Via: AP: Forget the bellhop. Meet the luggage robot. It’s the first of several high-tech, sleek amenities guests encounter at the Yotel, a new hotel that aims to provide a trendy stay at an affordable price. … The 20-foot-tall robotic arm at the entrance automatically stores bags in lockers for guests who want to wonder […]
NATO’s First Combat Casualty of the War in Libya Was a Robot
June 22nd, 2011Via: Wired: NATO has suffered its first apparent combat casualty of the three-month-old war in Libya. And it’s a robot. Wing Cmdr. Mike Bracken said the alliance lost contact with the unmanned rotorcraft this morning. “This drone helicopter was performing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance over Libya to monitor pro-Gadhafi forces threatening the civilian population,” Bracken […]
Hiding Surveillance and Killer Drones in Plain Sight
June 20th, 2011Via: New York Times: Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds. The […]
The Secret History of Boeing’s Killer Drone
June 7th, 2011Via: Wired: When the pilotless, wing-shaped warplane lifted off a runway at California’s Edwards Air Force Base for the first time on the morning of April 27, it was like the resurrection of the dead. The Boeing Phantom Ray — one of the most advanced drones ever built — came close to never flying at […]
Flashback 1969: GE Walking Truck
June 2nd, 2011Look familiar?
Robot Juggles Five Billiard Balls at Once
May 30th, 2011The audio is the chilling part. Via: io9: This a robotic juggler built by the Department of Control Engineering at Prague’s Czech Technical University. Researchers have taught this machine to lob and catch five billiard balls all on its own. It’ll someday do the same with our skulls.
Presidential Signature for Patriot Act Extension Carried Out by Robot
May 28th, 2011I couldn’t make it up if I tried.
LAPD Chevy Caprice PPV
May 26th, 2011Via: AOL Autos: Taking a ride in a police squad car is typically an unenviable experience, but not today. Bradley teams up with our friends at the LAPD to check the tech on the all new Chevrolet Caprice PPV (Police Patrol Vehicle). From an infrared night vision camera to an automated license plate scanner, this […]
Pentagon Wants 80 to 100 Long Range, Nuclear-Capable Bombers That Can Operate With or Without a Pilot in the Cockpit
May 24th, 2011Via: Los Angeles Times: Deep in the Mojave Desert, surrounded by tiers of barbed-wire fence, the nation’s largest defense contractors work in secrecy designing and building the latest military aircraft at Air Force Plant 42. The military’s top weapons buyer quietly visited the Palmdale facility this month to talk with leading aerospace executives about plans […]
Air Force Wants to Track You Forever With a Single Camera Click
May 19th, 2011Via: Wired: Don’t bother with the iris scanner or the fingerprinting machine. Leave the satellite-enabled locators and tell-tale scents back on the base, military manhunters. If an Air Force plan works out as planned, all you’ll need to track your prey is a single camera, snapping a few seconds of footage from far, far away. […]
