Gadgets

Google’s Self-Driving Robocar at Singularity University

by Socrates
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Today the first 3 hours of lectures at Singularity University started with a workshop on robotic cars such as Google’s autonomous self-driving vehicle. We were pleasantly surprised when Brad Templeton – our awesome Networks and Computer Systems faculty chair, secretly brought one of the prototype cars on campus. Of course, for your benefit, I couldn’t help it but take a couple of short videos. The first one shows a few Singularity University students mobbing Google’s autonomously self-driven vehicle. The second video is a demonstration of the Lidar navigation and traffic control system i.e. the way that the car perceives the world around it. The third one is a 1 min video of the robocar exterior. You can see the roof-mounted lidar system used for traffic guidance and orientation. (For those video tech geeks of you who are about to ask me – the videos [...]

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Hey (Computer) Dude, Where Did You Park My Car?

by Socrates
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In America on average there are about 5 paved parking spaces for each car on the road. That is roughly about 1,000 square feet per car adding up to millions of square miles of black, asphalt-covered, sun-heat-absorbing, rain-water-drain-preventing, parking lots, which sit unused most of the time. The fact that overall on average cars get more allocated space than most big city dwellers raises a number of ethical and other concerns. Yet the problem is bigger than that. Just some of the other negative consequences are loss of productive farm-land, local climate warming and its consequent big-city heat-waves. (For example, if Los Angeles were to paint its flat-roofed buildings, parking lots and streets white, there would be an estimated decrease in temperature of about 5 °F (i.e. about 2.5 °C), which in turn will reduce heat-wave severity and related deaths, [...]

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Tobii and Lenovo Unveil the First Eye-Controlled Laptop

by Socrates
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The human-computer user interface has been one of the slowest to evolve and typewriter-style of keyboard and mouse controls are still the norm. The interface, however, is not going to be limited forever by the above combo, no matter how prevalent it may be today. We have already witnessed the introduction and growing success of touch-screen and voice-control devices becoming widely available to the public. Ultimately, the future of human-computer interface is one of direct brain-computer communication – you think of something and the computer starts doing it. Voice control and eye-control, however, are likely the intermediary stages on the way to direct brain-computer interface. We have already seen the wide introduction and consequent adoption of the former and it is about time we also start seeing the latter. Recently, my favorite laptop company – Lenovo, partnered with Swedish eye-control [...]

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Under Armour E39: Enter the Smart T-shirt

by Socrates
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The latest addition to the smart clothes coming down the pipe towards the end of 2012 is the Under Armour E39 compression shirt which uses sensors to track and transmit heart rate, breathing, g-force and horsepower. This smart t-shirt is based on Zephyr Technologies, who make similar gear for the US special forces, and has a removable “bug” sensor equipped with a triaxial accelerometer, processor, and 2GB of storage flanked by additional monitors that measure heart rate and breathing. In addition, the software provided by Zephyr can then record and transmit wirelessly all the relevant biometric data about the athlete’s movements to a number of devices such as laptops and cellphones and help identify performance issues. Hear the story of the world’s most innovative smart T-shirt directly from the Under Armour innovators responsible for making it. Under Armour E39 Commercial [...]

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My Blackberry Is Not Working (And I Also Got A Problem With My Apple)

by Socrates
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This is a very serious blog on a very serious topic written by some seriously (mentally) varied number of people. Thus, in the spirit of all seriousness, I want you to check out the attached seriously smart and dangerously funny skit from the BBC.  In it Ronnie Corbett and Harry Enfield (from BBC’s The One Ronnie show) make a seriously fruity assault on our now common daily Techno-lingo. The all-out leave-no-fruit untouched video doesn’t spare Blackberry, Apple, Orange or Microsoft. Warning: Watching this video is equal to a whole week’s worth of your recommended fruit intake and may lead to serious side effects such as uncontrollably dangerous laughter and fructose-giggle over-dose. Watch at your own risk. This blog is not responsible for the consequences. Related Articles: The Perils of Voice Recognition Technology Funny or Serious: Are We Giving Robots Too [...]

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Rebooting The First Computer: The Antikythera Gets Rebuilt

by Socrates
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The Antikythera is sometimes called the first known analog computer. It is estimated to date around 150 – 100 BCE and was designed to flawlessly calculate the astronomical positions of celestial bodies and in effect is a sort of a calendar computer. Its complexity and degree of accuracy and sophistication is absolutely extraordinary and can only be compared to that of 19th century Swiss watches, which came 2,000 years after it. The device is a mechanical, gear based analog calculator and is able to give exact estimates of the relative positions of the Sun, the Moon and some of the other planets. Though simpler, the Antikythera anticipates the more complex design of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine, which is another mechanical (analog) computer designed way ahead of its time. This video is a tribute from Swiss clock-maker Hublot and film-maker Philippe [...]

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NASA and GM Develop Robonaut 2

by Socrates
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The Robonaut is a robotic astronaut first developed about 10 years ago by DARPA and NASA with the goal of assisting human space exploration or, ultimately, conducting non-human space exploration altogether.  Though the original version never actually made it into space it seems that version 2.0 is being developed by NASA and GM. The new Robonaut R2 is more dexterous, stronger, smarter, faster and more efficient. It is supposed to automate tasks that are dangerous, dull, repetitive or otherwise challenging for human astronauts. One such task, for example, is space walking which requires long and tedious pre- and post-space-walk procedures for all human astronauts. Robots can potentially cut out operation time, minimize risk and even improve the quality of the work carried out during the space-walk missions.   the Original Robonaut Video   the new R2 Humanoid Robonaut Video   [...]

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Mind Over Matter: The Future Of Human-Computer Interfaces

by Socrates
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The human-computer user interface has been one of the slowest to evolve and typewriter-style of keyboard and mouse controls are still the norm. The interface, however, is not going to be limited forever by the above combo, no matter how prevalent it may be today. We have already witnessed the introduction and growing success of touch-screen and voice-control devices becoming widely available to the public. Ultimately, the future of human-computer interface is one of direct brain-computer communication. For example, check out the following 3 videos to see a few recent projects from labs across the globe. A Canadian company is developing a pioneering thought control technology that will eventually allow us to control objects and move matter only with our mind.  Check out the attached Reuters News video report by Jim Drury about the future of human-computer interface. Swiss researchers [...]

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