Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
iRobot Corp.: Arming Robots with Tasers
July 1st, 2007Via: AP / MSNBC: RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm track-wheeled ‘bots for the police and the Pentagon. By adding Tasers to robots it already makes for the military, iRobot Corp. says it hopes to give […]
DARPA’s Better Bionic Arm
June 28th, 2007Via: Popular Mechanics: It’s an ambitious deadline: By 2009, DARPA hopes to have a mechanical arm whose functionality is on par with a flesh-and-blood limb. A new arm developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is just as ambitious, allowing its user to actually feel an object in his grasp. […]
Farms Fund Robots to Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers
June 23rd, 2007What do you want to bet that “Robot Compatible” cultivars will be developed… After all, if it can’t be grown/harvested by a robot, is it really worth it? I know! They can send smaller versions of these robots into the skyscraper farms to replace the idiots roaming around in lab coats. Via: Wired: Vision Robotics, […]
Vertical Farming in the Big Apple
June 20th, 2007I know. Urban hipsters want iPods, free love and electric SUVs. Absolutely any technology or policy that offers a glimmer of hope of keeping things going will be embraced with religious ferocity, regardless of the level of absurdity. As more and more people give up on the political process, they will seek comfort in the […]
Robot with Friendly Appearance to Rescue Wounded Troops
June 8th, 2007Via: BBC: The US military is developing a robot with a teddy bear-style head to help carry injured soldiers away from the battlefield. The Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR) can scoop up even the heaviest of casualties and transport them over long distances over rough terrain. New Scientist magazine reports that the “friendly appearance” of […]
Robo-Snipers, “Auto Kill Zones” to Protect Israeli Borders
June 6th, 2007Via: Wired: For years and years, the Israeli military has been trying to figure out a way to keep Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip from crossing over into Israel proper. The latest tactic: create a set of “automated kill zones” by networking together remote-controlled machine guns, ground sensors, and drones along the 60-kilometer border.
DARPA to Create Brain-Chipped Cyborg Moths
June 1st, 2007Via: The Register UK: Famed US military mad-scientist bureau DARPA (the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) is engaged in an effort to grow/build cyborg moths for use as spies. No, really. The program is called Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or HI-MEMS. In it, the arguably over-caffeined DARPA boffins aim to construct a tiny lepidopterine infiltration […]
Korea: Robots to Guard Schools
May 30th, 2007Via: Korea Times: Sophisticated security robots will be deployed in the near future to patrol schools around the clock to protect students from violence and other dangers. DU Robo said Wednesday that the Seoul-based venture start-up company plans to begin a pilot run of the security robot, dubbed OFRO, in a middle school. This is […]
They’re Sensors in Them Thar Hills
May 22nd, 2007Heading for the hills? Planning on taking a rifle with you? With the system described below, and currently available armed/unmanned drone technology, a lethal and autonomous response to trespassers/intruders/enemy combatants/etc. is easily possible. Right now. Autonomous acquisition and engagement of human targets is old news. See Israel’s robotic gun turrets. Picking out individuals for termination […]
The Ghost in Wall Street’s Shell
May 6th, 2007I’ve written several stories about how I’ve dabbled with this stuff. Here are a few colorful examples: Insider Crimes, Funny Money and Options Rackets The Magic Mystery Dot U.S. Dollar Index Breaches Significant Weekly Supports Now, here’s an interesting article that looks at the efforts of the people who play these games with billions of […]
