Technology at Play

what made you look this up, if it's ok to ask? - Halil

"The PETMAN robot was developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the DoD CBD program. It is used to test the performance of protective clothing designed for hazardous environments. The video shows initial testing in a chemical protection suit and gas mask. PETMAN has sensors embedded in its skin that detect any chemicals leaking through the suit. The skin also maintains a micro-climate inside the clothing by sweating and regulating temperature. Partners in developing PETMAN were MRIGlobal, Measurement Technology Northwest, Smith Carter, CUH2A, and HHI." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

Terminator is here! - imabonehead

"Giving Anakin a run for his money, all the controls for this R2 unit were custom built. A Raspberry Pi running Rasbian acts as the brain. Facial recognition was implemented using OpenCV. Voice commands in either English or Chinese were made possible by PocketSphinx. Some of the other features he included are: message recording and playback, ultrasonic distance detection, motion detection, wifi, and a rechargeable battery. Many of those features were included in the original toy, but since this unit was broken, had to be rebuilt from scratch." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"...a powerful new type of computer that is about to be commercially deployed by a major American military contractor is taking computing into the strange, subatomic realm of quantum mechanics. In that infinitesimal neighborhood, common sense logic no longer seems to apply. A one can be a one, or it can be a one and a zero and everything in between — all at the same time." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

This looks close to a Stargate Atlantis' ZPM (http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki...) or Star Trek's dilithium crystals (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki...). - imabonehead

"Bartenders beware: A robotic drink-dispensing rig is aiming to steal your customers while pouring cocktail creations at the push of a touchscreen button. Its creators call it Bartendro." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Operated through an iPad interface, the open source, synthetic Al Swearengen holds up to 15 bottles of beverage plumbed into custom-designed, Raspberry Pi-controlled pumps. It’s capable of mixing dozens of drinks, including black Russians, Kahlua mudslides, or almost any other classy beverage of your choosing." - imabonehead

btw, I like that kitchen in the video. - imabonehead

"Scientists from the University of Lincoln and Newcastle University have created a computerised system which allows for autonomous navigation of mobile robots based on the locust’s unique visual system. The work could provide the blueprint for the development of highly accurate vehicle collision sensors, surveillance technology and even aid video game programming according to the research published today." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Dr Claire Rind has been working on the locust’s visual system for several years. She said: “Developing robot neural network programmes, based on the locust brain, has allowed us to create a programme allowing a mobile robot to detect approaching objects and avoid them. It’s not the conventional approach as it avoids using radar or infrared detectors which require very heavy-duty computer processing. Instead it is modelled on the locust’s eyes and neurones as the basis of a collision avoidance system." - imabonehead

"When the Federal Trade Commission told the public it would give $50,000 to anyone who could devise an effective and convenient way to stop telemarketing robocalls, proposals from more than 700 would-be inventors came in. Among those was Alex Ruiz, a 24-year-old Linux systems administrator from California. Ruiz saw a way to combine his programming and tinkering skills with a device we've written a lot about—the Raspberry Pi. During the past three months, Ruiz devised a system including a Raspberry Pi, an analog telephone adapter, and a network switch that uses whitelisting to pass legitimate calls through while blocking those annoying telemarketers." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"A Raytheon Co system built into big blimp-like balloons has demonstrated capabilities that could make it easier to detect and track certain enemy ballistic missiles, the company and the U.S. Army's manager of the program said. System tests in December at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, successfully tracked four targets mimicking tactical ballistic missiles in "high-threat" regions, Raytheon is set to announce on Tuesday." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"The hardware is known as Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS. It includes a targeting radar and a wide-area surveillance radar with a 360-degree look-around capability that can reach out to 340 miles." - imabonehead

"A password-cracking expert has unveiled a computer cluster that can cycle through as many as 350 billion guesses per second. It's an almost unprecedented speed that can try every possible Windows passcode in the typical enterprise in less than six hours." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"The five-server system uses a relatively new package of virtualization software that harnesses the power of 25 AMD Radeon graphics cards. It achieves the 350 billion-guess-per-second speed when cracking password hashes generated by the NTLM cryptographic algorithm that Microsoft has included in every version of Windows since Server 2003. As a result, it can try an astounding 958... more... - imabonehead

This was offered up to a fellow who forgot his master password. http://blog.whitehatsec.com/crackin... - Gimminy

"The helium-powered Pelican will be able to carry 66 tons of cargo, and doesn't need a runway to take off or land. It recently made an important step: getting off the ground." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"In Orange County, California, a hulking, 230-foot long, 36,000-pound beast is being groomed as the future of air travel. For the next few years, all eyes in the aviation space are on the Pelican: a prototype for a revolutionary new airship--neither a blimp nor a plane--developed by engineering firm Aeros on a $35-million contract from the Pentagon and NASA." - imabonehead

"What's so significant about the aircraft? First, it doesn't need a runway to land, which means it could deliver the 66 tons of cargo it's expected to carry anywhere in the world. This could change the game for military operations (hence the investors) but also for humanitarian aid, by getting supplies to hard to reach places after a disaster or to islands lacking in infrastructure. The... more... - imabonehead

"Darpa isn’t imagining planes or ships that melt into a metallic puddle when their replacements come off the production line. The research agency is thinking, in one sense, smaller: sensors and other “sophisticated electronic microsystems” that litter a warzone — and create enticing opportunities for adversaries to collect, study and reverse-engineer. Since it’s not practical to pick them all up when U.S. forces withdraw, Darpa wants to usher in the age of “transient electronics.”" - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"The program to create transient electronics is called VAPR, for Vanishing Programmable Resources. Darpa’s going to say more about it in the coming weeks. But thus far, the idea is to make small hardware that performs just like current sensors, only fabricated from materials that can rapidly disintegrate on command." - imabonehead

"Drones. These unmanned flying robots–some as large as jumbo jets, others as small as birds–do things straight out of science fiction. Much of what it takes to get these robotic airplanes to fly, sense, and kill has remained secret. But now, with rare access to drone engineers and those who fly them for the U.S. military, NOVA reveals the amazing technologies that make drones so powerful as we see how a remotely-piloted drone strike looks and feels from inside the command center. From cameras that can capture every detail of an entire city at a glance to swarming robots that can make decisions on their own to giant air frames that can stay aloft for days on end, drones are changing our relationship to war, surveillance, and each other. And it's just the beginning. Discover the cutting edge technologies that are propelling us toward a new chapter in aviation history as NOVA gets ready for "Rise of the Drones."" - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Those concerned with online privacy may soon get another weapon to defend it. Two Japanese scientists have designed glasses that confuse face recognition technology without affecting one`s vision. An associate professor at Tokyo's national Institute of Informatics, Isao Echizen, together with Professor Seiichi Gohshi from Kogakuin University, have created a pair of glasses preventing internet search engines, social networks and other services using face recognition technology from identifying photos of a wearer." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

they might not confuse ones vision but they will confuse ones social peers I think - Iphigenie

You could probably make them a little more streamlined and hidden in sunglasses form. The lights themselves are probably invisible to human sight. ... but then again, it wouldn't be very hard for camera makers to filter infrared. - Andrew C (✓)

"Ramen-loving students who want some entertainment served up with their noodles can look forward to the possible debut of the "anti-loneliness ramen bowl." The eating accessory is a simple bowl with a holder slot for a smartphone — perfect for browsing email messages or streaming a favorite TV show during meals." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

There's a restaurant here that has docks for phones and tablets built into the bar. If you walk in alone, they'll seat you there. This after telling you, "Have a seat anywhere." >.> - Anika

"A new private company called Deep Space Industries announced today that it intends to send a fleet of small spacecraft to near-Earth asteroids with the aim of mining resources and turning them into products using space-based 3-D printers. Last year was thick with audacious private spaceflight company unveilings, including the announcement from Planetary Resources, Inc. of their plans to mine relatively valuable platinum group metals from asteroids...There exists potentially extremely valuable material on asteroids, including nickel, silicon, platinum group metals such as platinum and palladium, and water, which can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen to make rocket fuel. DSI intends to create a fleet of prospecting spacecraft called “FireFlies” (perhaps trying to rouse interest in their plans from Joss Whedon acolytes) that will travel to asteroids in Earth’s vicinity on journeys of two to six months." - Lit from Bookmarklet

Guess they would have to develop the technology to easily direct asteroid re-maneuvering and movement first ;) ...Glad you enjoyed the posted material. :) - Lit

"The Fujitsu Primergy cluster high-performance supercomputer was constructed at the National Computational Infrastructure in late 2012. Located at The Australian National University, the machine has..." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Swartz believed deeply that information — particularly that which might benefit society — should be made available for free to the public. In 2011, Swartz was indicted on federal data-theft charges for breaking into the MIT computer system and allegedly downloading 4.8 million documents from the subscription-based academic research database JSTOR. Swartz was facing up to 35 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. He pleaded not guilty. His trial was set to begin this April. .... Swartz, who studied at Stanford University for one year before dropping out, would later become a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, where he worked with Lawrence Lessig, the renowned law professor and activist. Over the years, Swartz worked with Lessig on several major projects, including Creative Commons and Rootstrikers." - Lit from Bookmarklet

"A passionate advocate for social justice, Swartz founded the group Demand Progress, which played a crucial role in persuading the U.S. Congress to back down from controversial antipiracy legislation last year. In a statement, Swartz’s family criticized the way the federal government has handled the JSTOR case. “Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy,” his family wrote. “It is... more... - Lit

#AaronSwartzChat http://friendfeed.com/search... - polymath22

"Set to launch next week in London as part of a collaborative project with fashion designer Johanna Bloomfield, Harvey’s line of “Stealth Wear” clothing includes an “anti-drone hoodie” that uses metalized material designed to counter thermal imaging used by drones to spot people on the ground. He’s also created a cellphone pouch made of a special “signal attenuating fabric.” The pocket blocks your phone signal so that it can’t be tracked or intercepted by devices like the covert “Stingray” tool used by law enforcement agencies like the FBI. And if that’s not enough, Harvey has also made what he calls an “XX-Shirt,” which uses material designed to “protect your heart from X-ray radiation.”" - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Inside a small bungalow on the street separating Kansas City, Kan., from its sister city in Missouri, a small group of entrepreneurs are working on their ideas for the next high-tech startup, tapping Google Inc.'s new superfast Internet connection that has turned the neighborhood into an unlikely settlement dubbed the "Silicon Prairie."" - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Over that BBS-worthy bandwidth, Operation Ice Bridge pushes and pulls three main types of data. One of them is IRC chat, which allowed for the crew on the DC-8 to coordinate with the ground crew in Punta Areas, Chile, and has also been used during the summer to coordinate with weather forecasters for thunderstorm-chasing over Kansas. During the latest Antarctic mission, IRC was also used to communicate with students in 49 school classrooms in the US and Chile. One IRC server is aboard the aircraft and another at the ground station, reducing the number of connections that need to be handled over the narrow IP network pipe." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Until today, the grossest robot we'd ever had the pleasure of meeting was Ecobot, which poops. This robot is much, much grosser. Its name is Vomiting Larry, and it's designed to do one thing: puke just like a human." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

this is my kind of pet project! - imabonehead

"Stanford researchers, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have designed a robotic platform that could take space exploration to new heights." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"The mission proposed for the platform involves a mother spacecraft deploying one or several spiked, roughly spherical rovers to the Martian moon Phobos. Measuring about half a meter wide, each rover would hop, tumble and bound across the cratered, lopsided moon, relaying information about its origins, as well as its soil and other surface materials." - imabonehead

"Developed by Marco Pavone, an assistant professor in Stanford's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the system relies on a synergistic relationship between the mother spacecraft, known as the Phobos Surveyor, and the rovers it houses, called "hedgehogs." The Phobos Surveyor, a coffee-table-sized vehicle flanked by two umbrella-shaped solar panels, would orbit around Phobos throughout the mission. The researchers have already constructed a prototype." - imabonehead

"Dyson has been working on a robot vacuum, for, like, ever, man. Seriously. This thing has been a project for a solid decade, perhaps longer. We haven't heard a peep on the subject for years, but apparently, Dyson released a few new normal vacuum models recently and dropped some hints about why the heck it's taking them so long to come out with a robot." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

"Amazon spent another year invading everyone's territory and pushing the limits of its business strategy. The e-commerce company continued to dabble in book publishing and Web site hosting and tried its hand at video-gaming development. Anything slightly related to its business -- Amazon jumped on it. That's not surprising given Amazon's history with identifying and mimicking both services and products to strengthen its bottom line. Here are the five biggest Amazon stories of 2012: 1. Go big on hardware or go home Amazon beefed up its hardware selection this year, releasing three new devices to add to its previous line of e-book readers and its tablet. The new devices, the Kindle Paperwhite, the Kindle Fire HD, and the updated Kindle Fire, are part of the company's strategy to make money off content. Amazon actually loses money on the sale of the devices, but that doesn't matter to the retail giant. It wants people to buy into its ecosystem of apps, books, movies, and music. The... more... - Lit from Bookmarklet

" 3. More sales tax drama Ah, the ongoing sales tax battle. This dates back years -- and continued to be an issue for Amazon in 2012. As part of Amazon's quest for faster, cheaper shipping, the company started building fulfillment centers in additional states, forcing sellers to start collecting sales tax in several states this year, including California, Texas, and Pennsylvania. These... more... - Lit

"Free books from NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope's science team and the European Space Agency bring Earth and the heavens to life — as long as you have an iPad, and the patience to wait for a longish download. Even if you have a regular old computer, you can still download the books about Hubble and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, as PDF files. But you'll miss out on all the interactive features. Those two books were unveiled today by the Baltimore-based Space Telescope Science Institute, which takes care of the science programming for the two NASA-funded telescopes. They're joining the ESA's first iBook, "Earth From Space: The Living Beauty," on my iPad bookshelf. The Hubble book guides you through scores of pictures from the world's most famous space telescope, organized into categories ranging from cosmology to planetary science. There's also a chapter on the telescope itself, with a 3-D model and a diagram you can tap on to learn about all the components. (Our... more... - Lit from Bookmarklet

"The 74-page e-book about the Webb telescope uses a similar approach to explain the science behind the $8.8 billion observatory, which is currently scheduled for launch in 2018. There aren't any pictures from the Webb, of course, but the book's interactives, videos and photo galleries explain how the telescope will observe the cosmic frontiers in infrared wavelengths. "These new e-books... more... - Lit

""By turning the virtual pages of this iBook you will discover how some of the latest technology has changed the way we see Earth," Volker Liebig, director of ESA's Earth observation programs, said in the space agency's publication announcement. "So, it was time to bring these ‘scientific voyages’ to you in a dynamic way. I believe that electronic media hold a huge potential, just like... more... - Lit