Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Insurance Companies Using Electronic Data About Lifestyle and Purchasing Habits to Generate Risk Profiles
November 26th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: Life insurers are testing an intensely personal new use for the vast dossiers of data being amassed about Americans: predicting people’s longevity. Insurers have long used blood and urine tests to assess people’s health—a costly process. Today, however, data-gathering companies have such extensive files on most U.S. consumers—online shopping details, catalog […]
British Innovation: New Speed Camera Can Catch Drivers Committing Five Offenses at Once
November 2nd, 2010Via: Guardian: A speed camera designed to catch motorists committing up to five offences at the same time could be heading to Britain’s roads. As well as catching speeding motorists, the Asset camera should be able to pick out drivers who are not wearing seatbelts and accurately measure distances between moving cars to identify tailgating. […]
The Disturbing Actroid-F Robot
October 28th, 2010Via: Plastic Pals: AIST opened the doors of their lab for a couple of days (October 14th ~ 15th) to show off their robotics development and middleware. On display was the Actroid-F, developed by Kokoro Co. Ltd. and ATR. The operator’s facial expressions and head movements are tracked and replicated by the robot. The android […]
Woman Kills Baby Because He Cried While She Played Farmville (A Game on Facebook)
October 28th, 2010Via: Florida Times Union: A Jacksonville mother charged with shaking her baby to death has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Alexandra V. Tobias, 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called Farmville […]
China: Vending Machine Sells Live Crabs
October 25th, 2010Via: Japan Probe: The inside of the machine is kept at 5 degrees celsius, a temperature cold enough to make the crabs go into a state of hibernation. A sign states that all the crabs in the machine are fresh: if the crab is dead-on-arrival, they promise to give you three free crabs. Research Credit: […]
Robotic Privacy Curtain
October 20th, 2010*har*
Google Developing Autonomous Vehicle Fleet; Humans On Board for Legal Reasons
October 10th, 2010Via: New York Times: Anyone driving the twists of Highway 1 between San Francisco and Los Angeles recently may have glimpsed a Toyota Prius with a curious funnel-like cylinder on the roof. Harder to notice was that the person at the wheel was not actually driving. The car is a project of Google, which has […]
Not The Onion: RatCar
October 5th, 2010This attempt was a flop, but with endless grant swindles, more quackademics each year and a steady supply of creatures to butcher in the spirit of Dr. Mengele, who knows? Via: IEEE: “The vehicle moved forward synchronously with a rat when it was placed inside,” says Fukayama, but he adds that the degree to which […]
Satire: New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users’ Ears
October 4th, 2010Via: The Onion: New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users’ Ears Research Credit: JH
