Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
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. […]
European McDonald’s Partially Replacing Employees with Touchscreen Terminals
May 16th, 2011Via: Financial Times: McDonald’s is to change the way customers order its meals in Europe, partly replacing cashiers and the use of banknotes at its 7,000 fast-food restaurants in the region with touchscreen terminals and swipe cards. … Mr Easterbrook said that the changes would make life easier for consumers as well as improve efficiency, […]
And Now… Scientists Afflict Neural Network with Schizophrenia
May 8th, 2011I was reading along, thinking that this sounded like run-of-the-mill grant swindling, but then this paragraph damn near slapped me out of my chair: After being re-trained with the elevated learning rate, DISCERN began putting itself at the center of fantastical, delusional stories that incorporated elements from other stories it had been told to recall. […]
Resisting the Rise of the Machines as Marketing Meme to Sell Cars?
May 3rd, 2011Via: Dodge / YouTube: Related: Life in Touchscreen Hell
U.S. Air Force Wants Miniature Drone to Covertly Drop Tracking Dust Onto People
April 28th, 2011Via: Wired: Here’s how the U.S. Air Force wants to hunt the next generation of its enemies: A tiny drone sneaks up to a suspect, paints him with an unnoticed powder or goo that allows American forces to follow him everywhere he goes — until they train a missile on him. On Tuesday, the Air […]
British Ministry of Defense on Killer Robots: ‘Incremental and Involuntary Journey Towards a Terminator-Like Reality’
April 18th, 2011Via: Guardian: The growing use of unmanned aircraft in combat situations raises huge moral and legal issues, and threatens to make war more likely as armed robots take over from human beings, according to an internal study by the Ministry of Defence. The report warns of the dangers of an “incremental and involuntary journey towards […]
ABB FRIDA Concept Robot for Industrial Dual-Arm Assembly Applications
April 14th, 2011Foxconn assembly line workers make about $3480 per year, or $34,800 over a decade. How much will one of those ABB FRIDA robots (and associated systems) cost? My guess is that Foxconn could pay two human factory workers for a decade for less than the cost of one of those robots. Eventually, though, a single […]
X-47B Killer Drone: Navy Wants Autonomous, Carrier Take Offs and Landings
April 12th, 2011Via: Wired: Take the X-47B experimental killer drone made by Northrop Grumman, the first drone intended to fly off an aircraft carrier. At the Navy League’s annual Sea Air Space convention outside Washington, Northrop and the Navy and unveiled new details about the tailless, triangular plane and their schedule to get it flying off a […]
