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Over the weekend, Amazon - a company that employs more than 50,000 people in its warehouses alone - organized a contest where engineering teams from all over the world were invited to present a robot that can fulfill simple warehouse duties. Though some of the bots were quite impressive, all of them failed miserably at some point, even at a task so simple as grabbing an item from a shelf and placing it in a tub. It's not that they couldn't do this, rather they were so slow and clumsy that any warehouse worker witnessing the display might think he's a superhero and his job is safer than the pope in the Vatican. Well, that may be true ... but who knows for how long. After all, any repetitive task can be automated, eventually.
At the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) conference, a team from MIT, in collaboration wit the Technische Universitat in Germany, presented an incredible origami bot that can perform various complex motor tasks. Weighing only 0.3 grams, the bot can scuttle at about 4 cm/sec to crawl up an arm, carry twice its load, dig through a pile of foam, climb a ramp or push a tiny puck along a planned trajectory. At the end, the researchers demonstrate how the entire bot (apart from its magnet) can be dissolved in acetone. Later on, it's easy to imagine a similar origami bot traveling through your body where it performs various tasks like deliver a medical payload, diagnose for diseases or even perform surgery. It would be designed to be much smaller and with all its parts dissoalvable inside the human body after a while or when emerged in a certain bodily solution.
A team of researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stanford University has developed a method for making elastic, shock-resistant, high-capacity batteries from wood pulp.
As if Elon Musk's Hyperloop project wasn't attractive enough, it just got even hotter - Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of the company running the project announced that the super-fast transportation might actually be free for passengers, as they are thinking about other types of monetisation.
Artist Daniel Rozin has designed a surprising mirror-like device from… fur. Dubbed the PomPom Mirror, it relies on motion sensors and 928 faux fur pom poms manipulated by 464 motors to create a mirror reflection of the viewer in real-time. Sure, the mirror only works in black and white, but the effect is surprising and spectacular. This […]
It’s almost like a Disney movie: a roach helps a bird take off from its back in order to save their friends – except both the roach and the bird are robotic, and the recon mission was just a test conducted in a lab from the University of California, Berkeley. But this technology could save lives […]
It's more than just a nasty trick - scientists have actually 3D printed eggs to help them better understand bird behaviour. They were especially interested in bird perception and what particular characteristics make them identify real eggs from fake ones.
With the Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. signing a deal to build the first test track in California, Elon Musk's "fifth mode of transport", the Hyperloop, took its first big step from the realm of geeky to the concrete. Work on building the track is set to begin next year.
Hong Kong PolyU has designed a new FES (functional electrical stimulation)-robot hybrid that promises to ease recovery of mobility in stroke victims.
There are millions and millions of photos under the public domain, and no doubt for some these can be nothing short of a gold mine. For instance, some scientists could find them most useful to compare things like glacial retreat or deforestation with what we're seeing today or with results generated by models. Shifting through such a catalog is no easy feat, though. Almost mockingly, Google not only shows that this isn't half as challenging as it may seem, but also manages to turn image processing and sorting code into spectacular works of art. Using millions of photos scrapped from social networks like Flickr or Picasa, Goggle engineers made an algorithm that stitches them together to make 10,000 timelapse videos. Some are so accurate that you wouldn't think for a moment each frame is actually a photo taken by some random, different person. Quite amazing, and a nice demonstration of what can be achieved in the future using other, much older data sets.
Using a novel deep learning algorithm, a team at UC Berkeley demonstrated a robot that learns on the fly and performs various tasks that weren't pre-programmed. It starts off shy and clumsy, but eventually gets the ahead of it. For instance, after it stomped a bit around its environment, when given a new task, but with no further instructions, the robot learned by itself to assemble LEGO bricks or twist caps onto pill bottles.
It’s striking how a company like Research in Motion (RIM) went under the radar so fast, considering it used to completely dominate the smartphone market only a couple of years ago. After all, Blackberry almost used to be synonymous with a smartphone, although competition wasn’t so fierce back then. Then the iPhone came out in […]
Meet Lily. I think Lily’s pretty awesome – after all, she’s the world’s first throw-and-shoot camera. All you have to do is throw it in the air, and it just starts following you and shooting. It’s waterproof, it’s compact, it can take both HD photos and videos, and it lands in your hand after flying up […]
A freak accident from his childhood in Iceland caused Gudmundur Olafsson's right ankle to collapse. After 28 years of living in pain and more than 50 surgical operations he decided to amputate his lower leg entirely. For years, he wore the Proprio Foot - a prosthetic motorized ankle developed by an Icelandic company called Ossur which can automatically adjust the angle of the foot using its built-in sensors. Now, Olafsson prosthesis got a major upgrade: his new Proprio is controlled subconsciously by electrical signals sent from his brain to special sensors directly embedded in his muscles, all via the nerves in the muscle itself. Then a decoded signal is sent to a control unit which directs all the fine moving parts that make up his new, robotic leg. All his intentions are translated seamlessly by the sensors and Olafsson, now 48, can walk almost entirely like a normal person. “The first time, to be honest, I started to cry," said Olafsson.
Don't make that face. It's not like you didn't see it coming, after all with each technological step forward porn has always shared the ride. Among the oldest surviving examples of erotic depictions are Paleolithic cave paintings and carvings. Prints became very popular in Europe from the middle of the fifteenth century, and because of their compact nature, were very suitable for erotic depictions that did not need to be permanently on display. An earthier eroticism is seen in a printing plate of 1475-1500 for an Allegory of Copulation where a young couple are having sex, with the woman's legs high in the air, at one end of a bench, while at the other end a huge penis, with legs and wings and a bell tied around the bottom of the glans, is climbing onto the bench. The oldest surviving permanent photograph of the image formed in a camera was created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826, porn likely soon followed there after. Imagine what happened once film came along. Nevermind the internet. Though the Oculus Rift is still in beta, and only a handful of developers own one, virtual reality is certain to change how people enjoy porn.
For the first time, researchers have discovered how to control liquid metal inside antennas using voltage. This could add increase functionality to antennas, allowing them to perform more functions and have greater tuning flexibility. Researchers have been interested in liquid metal antennas for years now, but the main drawback was the fact that you could […]
With grace and steady robotic clippers, this high-end remote controlled surgical system was used to stitch a piece of skin back over the exposed flesh of a grape. Like a pro, the Da Vinci Surgical System - named after the famous renaissance genius who first inspired working robots - can be seen in this amazing video putting the final touch, tying a knot, then using its scissor-hand to cut the loose thread. Job done!
Astronauts onboard the ISS may soon get a new "toy" - a space laser cannon to blast off space debris that might threaten the space station. Even a tiny scratch or dent could cause massive problems, and with us putting more and more stuff in space, the risk of damage constantly increases too.
A mini-drone that fits in the palm of your hand could give the military an upper hand on the battlefield by providing key intelligence readings. Hundreds of these small, plastic drones could be dropped off a flight and left to scatter across the battlezone. Though they don't have any engines, these "Cicada" drones are equipped with sensors that help adjust the gliding pattern, directing the drone towards a dropzone with an accuracy within a couple of feet. These are hard to spot since they easily disguise as a bird from afar and once behind the lines can use their sensors and microphones to spy on enemy positions. These can also prove very useful for civilian missions, most notably for gathering meteorological data.
NASA is offering up to $2.25 million to anyone that can successfully design a habitat that can be 3D printed on Mars. The announcement is part of a broader attempt by NASA to outsource ideas and projects.
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara made a simple neural circuit comprised of 100 artificial synapses, which they used to classify three letters by their images, despite font changes and noise introduced into the image. The researchers claim the rudimentary, yet effective circuit processes the text much in the same way as the human brain does. In other words, like you're currently interpreting the text in this article. Even if you change the font, printscreen this article and splash it with an airbrush in MS Paint, you'll still be able to read at least portions of it, because the human brain is so great at scaling patterns and abstracting symbols. This kind of research will hopefully usher in a new age of more refined, energy efficient computing.
Printing your own mechanical parts or toys is really easy, not to mention fun, using a 3-D printer. But things get a bit trickier when you want to print the kind of parts that go into a car or airplane. Metal is a lot more complex to work with inside a 3D printer than polymers like ABS - the kind of film roles that get melted layer by layer to form a part of your liking once it cools down. Engineers at General Electric just demonstrated, however, that in practice it's not that complicated to print parts out of metal alloys as it sounds. The team used additive technology to build a fully functional jet engine, then test powered it to 33,000 RPMs. The company is already using 3-D printed fuel nozzles in its next-generation aircraft engines, slated to role out in 2016.
Mobile technology is revolutionizing nearly everything consumers do. From browsing price comparisons in the store to checking movie times for nearby theaters while you’re still on the road, it’s possible to streamline virtually every activity using your smartphone. Dining is one of the most recent additions to the world of mobile conveniences.
Next Thing Co, a fledgling company started by three budding hardware enthusiasts, just released a KickStarter campaign in which they promise to release a computer worth nine USD. The computer, called CHIP, can do everything 90% of all people usually use computers for: office apps, surf the web and play games. The team hoped to raise $50,000 to supplement their own budget and start rolling orders at an assembly line in China. Right now, $1,040,006 were donated as I'm writing this and the numbers are swelling with 24 days still to go. Are we finally seeing the fruits of liberalizing computing and economics of scale?
Climate models and environmental monitoring missions are ever more reliant on autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to scour the ocean depths and bring back valuable data like temperature, salinity, carbon levels and so on. Researchers at MIT have now upgraded the way AUVs perform their missions by adding an extra dimension to their autonomy. They demonstrate how a pack of AUVs, directed by a "captain" drone, is able to navigate obstacles and retrieve data with minimal intervention. This dramatically enhances performance and might revolutionize the way scientists study the oceans.
It generates as much oxygen as 400,000 square feet of natural woodland, it looks nice, and it can produce lots of biomass – the Urban Algae Canopy is a concept we should probably pay more attention to. It combines biology, modern architecture and electronics, creating a structure that not only generates energy, but also adapts and […]
Even the best chess players are no match for computers these days, but computers are still struggling when it comes to games that have a random or unknown component. In games like Bridge or Poker, humans still hold the crown. Scientists from the Carnegie Mellon University tried to change that, by designing Claudico - a computer program built to defeat humans. But Claudico lost, badly.
A few years ago, NASA unveiled one of the most interesting technologies I've seen recently - a portable radar unit based on technology used to detect alien life on other planets. Now, the first time this technology has been used in the field, it managed to find 4 people buried under meters of rubble, by detecting their heartbeat.
Scientists have managed to use a simple smartphone to test for blood parasites; the device and app was successful in small trials in Cameroon.
One of the most famous NSA whistleblowers (or the 'original NSA whistleblower'), William Binney, said the agency is collecting stupendous amounts of data - so much that it's actually hampering intelligence operations.
Physicists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used 3D printed materials and a simple glass bead to create a magnifying system that works with your smartphone's or tablet's built-in camera to magnify matter 100x, 350x or 1,000x. The whole system costs only 1$ to manufacture.
About a month ago, we were telling you about a new battery for houses Tesla was working on, that might revolutionize home energy and bring forth massive change in renewable energy - now, the official announcement is out. Homeowners will be able to get the Powerwall battery, in 7 or 10 kilowatt modules, which will cost $3000 and $3500 respectively.
Microsoft demonstrated just how far they’ve come with their augmented reality HoloLens project – and it’s far. Virtual browsers on your wall, virtual dogs, the weather in your cup, holograms following you to the kitchen… all that and many more were showcased by Microsoft at the Build Conference. I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t […]
Since 1990, Keith Londsdale went through no less than 45 different surgical procedures to remove basal cell carcinoma tumors, one of the most common skin cancers. The man survived the ordeal, but was left deformed as doctors had to remove his nose, upper jawbone and cheekbones. Basically, the 74-year-old-man now has a huge hole in his face.
Each year, hundreds of millions people fly by plane to meet family, do business or travel for leisure. Quite a feat, considering humans don't have any wings. Like all advanced technology we have at our disposal today, flying is also taken for granted. In the early days, however, just getting a few feet off the ground for a couple of seconds was considered a triumph. Like human pioneering flight, nature also had to experiment a lot before flying creatures could evolve. One newly discovered dinosaur species fits well into this story. Unearthed in 160 million year old sediments in China, this queer dinosaur strangely had bat-like wings. It's uncertain however if it was able to fly or even glide, owing to the degraded state of the fossil records. One thing's for sure, it makes the evolution of flight much more interesting to study.
Boom!
Each year, we cut down 26 billion trees, for lumber, agriculture, mining and development projects. Every year, we plant about 15 billion trees, so that still leaves us with a huge deficit - something which is not sustainable and has to be addressed as soon as possible to avoid further problems down the road. Now, a former NASA engineer has found that drones could play a key part, and he plans to plant up to 1 billion trees a year using them.
IBM claims to be one step closer to developing functional, scalable quantum computers. According to the company, they managed to overcome two key hurdles, demonstrating for the first time a new, square quantum bit circuit design - the only physical architecture that could successfully scale to larger dimensions.
A report issued by a committee at MIT concludes that the decline in science funding will have drastic consequences for the country's economy and security, making the US trail behind other countries like China which is spending immense amounts of money on science. In fact, one study estimates China will become the world's leading science and innovation producer by 2020, outpacing the US. The MIT report identifies some 15 fields where inadequate budgets seriously hampers progress, from Alzheimer's research, to nuclear fusion, to disease and agriculture.
It's common sense - in order to brush your teeth, you need water, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. Well, a company from Japan wants to change all that: they've developed a nanotechnology toothbrush that basically eliminates the need for toothpaste.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) has sealed a deal with Intel worth $200 million to build what's supposed to be the world's most powerful computer in 2018: the Aurora. The behemoth will be based on a next-generation Cray supercomputer, code-named “Shasta,” and will use Intel’s HPC scalable system framework. Aurora will likely reach a peak performance of 180 petaflop/s, or 180 quadrillion floating point operations per second (completed algorithm action, not just instruction). For comparison, a 2.5 GHz processor has a theoretical performance of 10 billion FLOPS.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge in England claim to have unraveled one of the great mysteries of electromagnetism, and believe their work in ultra-small antennas could not only revolutionize global communications, but also explain some of the tricky areas where electromagnetism and quantum physics overlap.
What happens when NASA and IBM sponsor a hackathon and offer their infrastructure to 10,000 researchers, coders, entrepreneurs end educators? Well, I'm not really sure... but it's definitely gonna be something awesome.
The future is here - scientists at a Polish company have developed a liquid body armor. Technically speaking, it's a non-Newtonian shear-thickening fluid (STF) that is lighter than current body armor materials, and might resists the impact better than Kevlar.
Tomorrow's bridges, tunnels and other engineering structures might be built with a different type of "smart" concrete: Belgian researchers at the University of Ghent have created a self-repairing type of concrete.
With the advancements in 3D printing, it only seems like a matter of time until it starts to actively affect our lives. Especially prosthetics may be revolutionized by 3D printing, as we've already seen time and time again. Now, a group of dentists believe they can 3D print teeth using a simple and cheap technique, only taking a few minutes for it.
What do fires and deep sounds have in common? Not much right now, but they might have a lot in the future.Two George Mason University students have designed a device that uses sound waves to put out fires, thus potentially eliminating the need for carrying around huge quantities of water and costly cleaning operations. Here's how it works:
Tesla Motors are out to change the world - and they're doing it fast, and in style. Like many other of their projects, this one seemed to pop up out of nowhere: Tesla have designed a battery that can power your home and even larger utility buildings. In other words - it could take your house out of the grid.
China is the largest polluter in the world at the moment, and they’re also reaping what they sew. But you can’t accuse the Chinese for not trying to right their ways – at least some of them; in an effort to mitigate the ridiculous amounts of smog that clouds some of China’s cities, scientists have […]
Boeing, a major aircraft and military manufacturer, just secured a patent that describes a Star Trek-like force shield, meant to protect vehicles operating in war zones. I love it when engineers are inspired by science fiction - it means that the authors really did a great job, not only at foreseeing the future, but also in offering the incentive to bring these sort of contraptions to real life.
