Posts
May 21, 2013
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Category F5 tornado near Elie, Manitoba, on June 22, 2007 Justin Hobson via Wikimedia Commons The remotely piloted vehicles could one day replace storm chasers, who risk their lives to capture valuable data about tornadoes. The best way for researchers to get information about a tornado is to send sensors high up into the storm-a maneuver that is too dangerous for a manned aircraft and, up until now, has been too complex for most remote-controlled craft. Engineering students at Oklahoma State
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May 20, 2013
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IceCube Telescope IceCube Collaboration/National Science Foundation After two years of searching, the icy observatory has finally found evidence of the high-energy particles, which may have come from a distant black hole or supernova. It looks like the IceCube Observatory neutrino detector at the South Pole has found what it was looking for just two years after opening. Neutrinos are strange subatomic particles that travel through the galaxy in straight lines, harmlessly passing through regular
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May 17, 2013
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8:00 PM | Drone-Vision Rifle Goes On Sale For $22K
TrackingPoint XactSystem Series 1) The hunter marks his prey. 2) The ballistics computer determines where the shot will land in current conditions. 3) The hunter corrects his aim and fires. Courtesy TrackingPoint A special heads-up display lets you tag a target onscreen before firing. The most inaccurate component of a rifle is the human behind the trigger, but starting Wednesday hunters can turn to drone-inspired vision for a little help. Provided they have $22,000 on hand for a new rifle,
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7:30 PM | 7 Reasons Why 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Is A Beginner's Guide To Star Trek [Spoiler Alert]
Star...Battles? The USS Enterprises faces off against a much larger warship. Paramount Everyday science, familiar plotlines, and an absence of jargon make this the most accessible Star Trek yet. Star Trek is hardly beginner-friendly. Five television series, 12 movies, and a nerd following that defines nerd followings present a serious obstacle to the casual moviegoer. J.J. Abram's 2009 reboot of the series was an attempt to make Star Trek more accessible, but it's the second movie of the
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May 16, 2013
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An MD-200 Quadrotor Two years ago Google purchased one of these quadrotors from German manufacturer Microdrones wikimedia commons The company's venture capital arm has just made a big investment in unmanned systems. Echoing a company belief in autonomous systems, clever algorithms, and replacing fallible humans with smart machines, Google's venture capital arm announced yesterday that it is investing $10.7 million in a company that makes drone brains. The company, Airware, builds autopilots
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6:00 PM | Robot Plane Flies Humans 500 Miles
Remotely Piloted Jetstream ASTRAEA Up, up, and away-without a pilot. The great thing about robots is that they take boring, repetitive tasks from humans, which frees up our superior minds for more creative endeavors (like building more robots.) Flying a commercial airplane, much like driving down long stretches of undifferentiated Eurasian steppe or piloting a cargo helicopter back and forth over the same route, typically consists of a few moments of human input mixed in with long stretches of
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May 15, 2013
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Robo-Nurse Tavis Coburn In the future, when machines run our lives, we'll need a way to keep tabs on all those helper bots. Two researchers have come up with a solution. The trickiest part of a future filled with helpful robots (think Roombas, but for everything) is keeping track of them all. Researchers at Wayne State University published a clever solution to this problem. In a paper titled "LOBOT: Low-Cost, Self-Contained Localization of Small-Sized Ground Robotic Vehicles," computer
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May 14, 2013
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FBI Headquarters Aude, via Wikimedia Commons The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed the Associated Press's telephone records. How much data will officials have access to? Yesterday the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Justice used subpoenas to collect telephone calling records for many of their journalists and editors. In doing so, the AP brought light to an interesting crisis at the nexus between secrecy, privacy, constitutional boundaries, and modern technology.
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RAE Larynx RAE Larynx on cordite fired catapult of destroyer HMS Stronghold, July 1927. Wikimedia Commons It's a momentous occasion for the autonomous drone, sure, but remote-controlled airplanes have been making naval history for 86 years. The U.S. Navy's autonomous X-47B drone took off from an aircraft carrier today. This is a big deal in the military world--an airplane that takes off from and lands on an aircraft carrier has the highly valuable ability to fight both at sea and over land. But
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4:30 PM | How To Turn An AK-47 Into A Soup Ladle
From AK-47 to Spoon Michael Izbicki A DIY metaphor for peace Changing swords into plowshares and spears into pruning-hooks is an ancient metaphor for turning away from violence and toward peaceful labor. Mike Izbicki, a former Navy midshipman who in 2011 was discharged from service as a conscientious objector, has created a modern-day, literal interpretation of the analogy. He recently transformed an AK-47 that had been used by the Romanian army during the Cold War into a (rather heavy) serving
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The K-MAX Optionally-Manned Helicopter U.S. Marine Corps via wikimedia commons The K-MAX drone made a name for itself transporting supplies to troops in Afghanistan. Will the unmanned helicopter start delivering commercial cargo in the U.S.? The K-MAX optionally-manned helicopter is a powerful battlefield work horse. Over the past 16 months, two (yes, just two) K-MAX drones delivered 3.2 million tons pounds of cargo to Marines in Afghanistan. This is simultaneously more like the future and less
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May 13, 2013
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4:15 PM | Iran Unveils Absurd New Stealth Drone
Iran's Hamaseh Drone Fars News Agency Weirdly, it bears a striking resemblance to non-stealth drones. Last week Iran unveiled the brand-new Hamaseh Stealth and Combat Drone. You can see it above. Note the non-retractable landing gear and externally carried missiles. However stealthy the Hamaseh's bulbous head may appear, exposed landing gear, missiles, and a push propeller are the opposite of stealth. Why? Because they stick out from the drone in a way that catches radio waves and makes
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May 10, 2013
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Ion Tiger UAV in Flight U.S. Naval Research Laboratory This long-range spy-bot is also nearly silent. In drone design, there's a trade-off between flying quietly and staying airborne for a long time. The Ion Tiger drone, which just completed a continuous 48 hour 1 minute flight, might be the breakthrough that changes this. The reason for the trade-off comes down to fuel. Hydrocarbons (gasoline and the like) store an incredible amount of power in a small volume, which allows a drone like the
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May 09, 2013
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10:45 PM | Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson On Being Asked To Remove 3-D Printed Gun Plans: "We Win"
Cody Wilson tests the 3-D Printed Gun Defense Distributed 100,000 downloads just might prove him right. Earlier today we reported that Defense Distributed, an organization that recently released open-source plans for a 3-D printed gun, received a letter from the U.S. State Department to remove the plans. Defense Distributed Founder Cody Wilson's reaction: "I'm disappointed, not surprised," he tells us in a phone interview. And besides, he says, "[The blueprint] has been downloaded over 100,000
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Biological agent entering a cell DARPA The agency wants researchers to invent a technology that can determine, in just 30 days, how a new chemical or biological attack works. The U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency has set a new challenge for scientists: Invent a method that can figure out, on a molecular level, how new chemical and biological weapons work-and that can do so within 30 days of a victim being exposed. DARPA is calling the five-year program Rapid Threat Assessment. A
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May 08, 2013
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FBI Headquarters Aude, via Wikimedia Commons Existing wiretap law is almost 20 years old and doesn't capture the nuances of modern internet use. Here's how the FBI plans to get around it. A new FBI proposal would compel internet communications companies to hand over information--or pay a fine. Existing wiretap law is almost 20 years old and doesn't capture the nuances of modern internet use. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act was first authorized in 1994, and it ordered
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Littoral Combat Ship U.S. Navy via wikimedia commons And Navy brass have known about the problems for a year, according to new revelations. The Littoral Combat Ship was supposed to anchor the Navy of the future. Instead, a report obtained by Bloomberg News reveals a program plagued by problems, high costs, and an inability to meet even simple docking requirements. Ideally, the Littoral Combat Ship is one vessel that can transform to fulfill one of three roles at a time: anti-mine,
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The World Wildlife Fund wants to thwart international crime with robots. Here is a complicated problem: Endangered elephants live in isolated nature preserves under the watch of woefully underfunded governments. Poachers can easily break in, hunt the animals in the dark using night-vision goggles, and then sell them to buyers in Southeast Asia (often using the proceeds to buy arms for militias.) Arrayed against this complex, tragic situation is a curious coalition of local governments,
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May 06, 2013
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The Liberator 3-D Printed Gun Defense DistributedWhat happens to anti-gun legislation when people can just make weapons in their homes? The Liberator, the 3-D printed gun that we reported on earlier today, is proof-of-concept for an inevitable and dangerous idea: what happens to anti-gun legislation when people can just make weapons in their homes? 3-D printers are only getting cheaper, and the tremendous economic potential of 3-D printing should make legislators cautious when reacting to a
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The Liberator 3-D Printed Gun Defense DistributedDefense Distributed creates a fully functional gun, with 3-D printed plastic parts. It started with a crowdfunding project last August. Now, nine months later, the world's first 3-D printed gun is here. Announced via Forbes exclusive on Friday, the design, called the Liberator, is now available for download. Here are what the parts look like: Before making a complete 3-D printed gun, Defense Distributed tested a printed part of an assault
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Light scattering with a laser Paul Kaye, University of Hertfordshire, UKWe can all breathe a little easier. Asbestos is an insidious killer, with a nasty habit of being most deadly when it is least visible. Fortunately, a new device can detect asbestos on site, without a lab test. Popular in construction because of its fire-retardant properties, asbestos is mostly harmless if left alone. However, friction or other damage can make asbestos-containing products release asbestos fibers into the
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May 03, 2013
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Beer Drone OppiKoppiTVNerds and frat boys: brothers in beer drops. This August, drones will drop payloads all over South Africa's OppiKoppi music festival, and there's a good chance no one will mind. Probably because the payload is beer. Customers thirsty for beer will order beer with their phones, then someone will attach a parachute to a beer, load that beer into an octorotor, and the octorotor will fly overhead, release the beer, and the beer parachutes to the person who ordered it
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May 02, 2013
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QueVision display in a Kroger via KrogerSurprisingly, it's not about catching petty thieves. The retail giant Kroger is using infrared cameras in 95 percent of its stores, and if all goes as planned, no one will even notice the cameras are there. A system called QueVision, first established in 2010, puts cameras above store entrances and cash registers, runs that data through secret-sauce software, then displays the number of registers currently open and predicts how many will need to be open
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A Robotic Hand Grasping A Battery iRobotIt can also pick up batteries and basketballs, use a key to open a door, and operate a drill! Robots, while awesome, tend to be clumsy in unpredictable human environments. Machines that use hands as deftly as humans do, with only minimal direction, would be a tremendous boon to rescue and hazardous work. They'd also be a major step toward useful, multipurpose household robots. Whereas prosthetic hands are designed to restore lost ability while still
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AVL Microquad Clings to a Ceiling via Autonomous Vehicle LaboratoryThis quadrotor uses a nature-inspired, dry adhesive to cling to surfaces for extra-covert spying. This drone could become the proverbial fly on the wall. Thanks to a joint research project between the University of Maryland's Autonomous Vehicle Laboratory and Stanford's Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Lab, there is now a quadrotor that can cling to walls and land on ceilings. Making a drone that sticks to ceilings like a
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April 26, 2013
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A Fire-powered Cell Phone Charger Point Source PowerAlso it might provide electricity to the undeveloped world. VOTO is a new device that turns fire into a power source for cell phones. Now, where there's fire, there can be modern civilization! The key is a fire-activated fuel cell. The fuel-cell end of the device is placed into a stove, below the charcoal, and can stay there while the stove is used for cooking. The rest of the device juts out from the stove, looking like a pot handle, and the
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Global Strike System Sensor U.S. ArmyAn Army research project wants to cover a battlefield with dozens of soda-can-sized sensors to detect invisible threats. Army researchers at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) are developing new technology that could help U.S. troops battle chemical warfare. The technology, a canister about the size of a soda can, can sniff out dangerous chemicals and relay information about potential hazards back to troops. The canister could be especially
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April 25, 2013
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Dzhokar Tsarnaev in a boat in Watertown, Mass. Image taken by a FLIR camera on a Massachusetts State Police helicopter. Massachusetts State PoliceYou can't hide from the infrared eye of the law. The night before police captured Dzhokar Tsarnaev, a convenience store robbery set off a series of events that included the death of an MIT police officer, a gunfight that ended with the elder Tsarnaev brother dead, and a 20 hour manhunt for the other alleged Boston Marathon bomber. The manhunt was
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Time Travel in Movies Mr. DalliardThis flowchart contains spoilers! This infographic by Mr. Dalliard documents the nature, logic, and scale of time travel in film. Most of the terms are straightforward, and then there's the "Novikov self-consistency principle." Developed by a Russian physicist between 1975 and 1990, it asserts that if an event exists that would give rise to a paradox, or to any "change" to the past whatsoever, then the probability of that event is zero. In short, it says that
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April 24, 2013
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Iraqi Soldier with an ADE 651 If there is a bomb in that car, that device won't detect it. U.S. Navy via wikimedia commonsThe British businessman's fraud likely killed many soldiers who relied on the bogus devices to detect explosives. It turns out someone can make millions in defense technology without any skill, innovation, or relevant expertise. Instead, as businessman James McCormick found out, it just takes some snakeoil, salesmanship, hurbis, a couple bribes, and a lack of scruples. A
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