Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Commando Subs Sending Drones, Robo-Torpedos Into Combat
July 28th, 2009Via: Wired: The U.S. Navy’s four Special Forces-optimized submarines are using a wide range of robots in combat in coastal areas, the Navy’s top officer for irregular warfare said in a surprisingly candid interview. The Ohio-class guided-missile subs, modified from surplus ballistic-missile boats, have been outfitted with robotic mini-subs and at least two types of […]
South Africa: ATMs Armed with Pepper Spray; Thieves Using Explosives
July 16th, 2009The video below isn’t real, but give it another ten years. Via: Guardian: Cash machines offer an ever-growing menu of services beyond merely dispensing money. For tampering criminals, this now includes a squirt of pepper spray in the face . The extreme measure is the latest in South Africa’s escalating war against armed robbers who […]
Big Brother Untangles Baby Babble
July 2nd, 2009Via: BBC: In 2005, the artificial intelligence researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab set out to understand how children learn to talk. “We wanted to understand how minds work and how they develop and how the interplay of innate and environmental influence makes us who we are and how we learn […]
Google Analyzes Your Vacation Snaps to Figure Out Where You Were
June 23rd, 2009Via: Popular Science: Where were we when this was taken? Do you remember, dear? Tired of trying to identify landmarks in your endless folders of travel photos? Google’s image recognition engine could help. Just upload the mystery image to an online album, point the engine at it, and zap — turns out it was the […]
Robot Warriors Will Get a Guide to Ethics
May 19th, 2009Oh sure. You better clip a clothes peg on your nose for this one. Via: MSNBC: Smart missiles, rolling robots, and flying drones currently controlled by humans, are being used on the battlefield more every day. But what happens when humans are taken out of the loop, and robots are left to make decisions, like […]
Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR)
May 17th, 2009Via: Robotic Technology Inc: The purpose of the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) (patent pending) project is to develop and demonstrate an autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling, which would otherwise preclude the ability of the robot to perform such missions. The system obtains […]
Army Tests Flying Robo-Sniper
April 27th, 2009Via: Popular Mechanics: In modern warfare, the advantage often goes to guerrillas who can attack, then quickly hide among the population or disappear into the hills. To counter those tactics, the Pentagon since 2001 has been arming unmanned aerial vehicles to identify and destroy targets with missiles. The Defense Department is seeking weapons for UAVs […]
Killer Robots and a Revolution in Warfare
April 22nd, 2009Via: Reuters: They have no fear, they never tire, they are not upset when the soldier next to them gets blown to pieces. Their morale doesn’t suffer by having to do, again and again, the jobs known in the military as the Three Ds – dull, dirty and dangerous. They are military robots and their […]
Phoenix: Radar Camera Employee Murdered
April 21st, 2009Via: Arizona Republic: It has come under attack from protesters, politicians and even a pickax-wielding resident, but sentiment against Arizona’s photo-enforcement program had not turned to bloodshed until Sunday night. Doug Georgianni, 51, of Cave Creek, was shot and killed while sitting in a van alongside the highway and monitoring cameras that snap photos of […]
Israeli Military’s 60-Tonne Robot Bulldozer Force to Double
April 13th, 2009Via: Jerusalem Post: The IDF Ground Forces Command plans to double the number of unmanned D9 armored bulldozers in the Engineering Corps arsenal after the vehicle provided exceptional results during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in January. The unmanned version of the D9 bulldozer – called “Black Thunder” – was developed several years […]
