Google
has revealed its first self-driving car prototype, which as you guessed
requires no driver. The prototype accommodates for two passengers and
is missing quite a few of the features you'd expect to see in a standard
car. With no need for a steering wheel, mirrors or braking and
accelerating pedals, the car comes fully equipped with special software
and sensors that feed information into an onboard computer, which then
drives the car.
on Thursday, 29 May 2014
Scientists
at Southwest Jiaotong University in China have reportedly built a
maglev train that could reach 1,800 mph (2,900 km/h). According to The Daily Mail,
a vacuum is used to minimize air resistance. Project lead Dr Deng
Zigang claims it could be used for military or space launch systems.
At Google, artificial intelligence isn’t just a means of building cars that drive on their own, smartphone services that respond to the spoken word, and online search engines that instantly recognize digital images. It’s also a way of improving the efficiency of the massive data centers that underpin the company’s entire online empire.
Augmented reality company Metaio is developing "Thermal Touch," a technology that combines infrared and visible light cameras to detect the heat signature from your fingers and turn any object into a touchscreen. The technology could be embedded in the smartphones and wearable devices of the future to offer new ways of interacting with our environment.
on Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Watson, IBM's supercomputer made famous three years ago for beating the very best human opponents at a game of Jeopardy,
now comes with an impressive new feature. When asked to discuss any
topic, it can autonomously scan its knowledge database for relevant
content, "understand" the data, and argue both for and against that
topic.
Butterfleye
is a wireless home surveillance camera that’s joining the growing ranks
of intelligent, smartphone connected webcam systems designed to keep
watch while you’re out and about. In addition to allowing you to check
in on a live video feed whenever you like via iPhone, this smart camera
comes equipped with a thermal sensor, motion detector, and facial
recognition technology.
on Monday, 26 May 2014
Japanese
company Power Japan Plus has announced the development and planned
mass-production of "Ryden," a disruptive carbon battery that can be
charged 20 times faster than an ordinary lithium-ion cell. The battery,
which is cheap to manufacture, safe, and environmentally friendly, could
be ideal to improve the range and charging times of electric cars.
on Sunday, 25 May 2014
Researchers from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies
(CINVESTAV) in Mexico have developed a pair of glasses that use a
combination of ultrasound, GPS, stereoscopic vision and artificial
intelligence to help the visually impaired to navigate their
environment. The device, perhaps the most sophisticated of its kind, is
slated to reach mass production early next year and will likely cost up
to US$1,500.
on Saturday, 24 May 2014
Google is working with Wi-Fi equipment maker Ruckus Wireless to
build a large-scale Wi-Fi network in the cloud off of which any
business could hang its wireless routers, according to a source familiar
with the project who asked not to be named.
The 3D format has had something of a renaissance in recent years, but
the technology still has some way to go before the potential of
"real-life" multiperspective 3D can be realized. The Camera Culture
group at the MIT Media Lab is developing a new 3D video projection
system that doesn't require glasses and provides different users
different perspective angles of the same object. The team sees it not as
a final answer, but as a transitional system that sits between current
technologies and true holographic video.
on Sunday, 18 May 2014
A group of researchers from Tufts University, Brown University and the
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are collaborating with the US Navy in a
multi-year effort to explore how they might create robots endowed with
their own sense of morality. If they are successful, they will create an
artificial intelligence able to autonomously assess a difficult
situation and then make complex ethical decisions that can override the
rigid instructions it was given.
on Saturday, 17 May 2014
By David Szondy
The chemical tree got a bit of a shake this week with scientists at IBM
announcing the discovery of the first new class of polymer materials in
decades. Discovered using a combination of lab experiments and computer
modelling, the new plastics have properties that could potentially have
a huge impact in manufacturing, transportation, aerospace, and micro
electronics.
The chemical tree got a bit of a shake this week with scientists at IBM
announcing the discovery of the first new class of polymer materials in
decades. Discovered using a combination of lab experiments and computer
modelling, the new plastics have properties that could potentially have
a huge impact in manufacturing, transportation, aerospace, and micro
electronics.
on Friday, 16 May 2014
By Lakshmi Sandhana
Getting
a needle into a patient's vein can sometimes be a complicated process,
especially if the veins aren't visible. Vein-spotting spectacles that
see through a patient's skin could help avoid the damage caused by
repeated needle pricks, and that's exactly what researchers at the
University Teknologi Petronas (UTP), Malaysia, are developing. Their
Smart Veins Locator is a wearable head-mounted display that allows
nurses to see the patient's veins in real-time, by overlaying a map of
their veins on top of their skin.
on Thursday, 15 May 2014
By Dario Borghino
Taking inspiration from the defense mechanism of the bombardier beetle, researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a film that, when damaged, instantly releases a hot foam to discourage malicious actions. The technology could be used as a simple, yet elegant and reliable way of discouraging theft and vandalism on ATM machines.
Taking inspiration from the defense mechanism of the bombardier beetle, researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a film that, when damaged, instantly releases a hot foam to discourage malicious actions. The technology could be used as a simple, yet elegant and reliable way of discouraging theft and vandalism on ATM machines.
on Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Think about it like this: In the Book of Genesis, God is the ultimate
programmer, creating all of existence in a monster six-day hackathon.
Or, if you don’t like Biblical metaphors, you can think about it in simpler terms. Robert Moses
was a programmer, shaping and re-shaping the layout of New York City
for more than 50 years. Drug developers are programmers, twiddling
enzymes to cure what ails us. Even pickup artists and conmen are
programmers, running social scripts on people to elicit certain
emotional results.
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