Futurist Foresight
MITs Cheetah shows just what robots can do on the track.
MIT’s Cheetah robot runs faster & more efficiently
Robotic Greyhound Races are closer than you think. From Engadget:
At the recent International Conference on Robotics and Automation, the Institute of Technology showed of its newest version, which reached a top speed of 13.7 mph. To accomplish this, the runner still needs parallel support bars to constrain movement in one dimension, reducing any roll, yaw — and the chances of a pretty expensive fall. The team says the new version’s cost of transport (COT is power consumption divided by weight, times velocity) is around 0.52. In comparison, Honda’s Asimo has a hefty COT of 2.
(via emergentfutures)
The problem of space junk or space debris is increasing. And with out greater dependence on satellites is a grave problem.
There’s a lot of debris floating around in space, and researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab are using supercomputers, optical sensors and other technology to track even small objects that could damage important satellites.
John Henderson, a space scientist at LLNL, explains:
“Everybody uses GPS to get from here to there. We have satellite television, we have weather reports, farmers use satellite data for monitoring crops. If you have a piece of satellite debris whacking into a satellite, in the worst case you now lose that capability. In February of 2009, that actually happened where there was an Iridium communications satellite that collided with a dead Russian Kosmos satellite and so that basically took out a $100 million dollar satellite.
There’s somewhere between 100,000 to 200,000 pieces of debris that we would like to be tracking. And so the supercomputing capabilities that we have here at Livermore are one way to keep track of that.”
Commander Chris Hadfield performing aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Simply superb!
A clip of a diesel hexopod, just because.
Mantis - Two Tonne Turbo Diesel Hexapod Walking Machine
An interesting clip on Steve Job`s view of how to change your world.
Steve Jobs’ Vision of the World by gocarlo
In another glimpse into life aboard the International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Chris Hadfield shows how Neutron radiation is detected aboard.
Radi-N2: Detecting Neutron Radiation on the ISS
Neutron radiation is a serious hazard and challenge for human space exploration. To better understand the levels in low-Earth orbit, CSA Astronaut Chris Hadfield is taking part in a Canadian/Russian experiment that uses bubble detectors to measure the neutron radiation levels on board the ISS.
Credit: CSA
A wonderful microdrone.
Robotics researchers unveiled an electronic housefly on Thursday, one that can hover in air, flapping its wings to steer in a first demonstration of controlled artificial-insect flight.
Another great video by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on how the International Space Station (ISS) is controlled (by canadianspaceagency)
More atomic innovation by IBM with this short movie using manipulated atoms. A scientific marvel!
World’s Smallest Movie is Made from Atoms
Scientists from IBM today unveiled the world’s smallest movie, made with one of the tiniest elements in the universe: atoms. Named “A Boy and His Atom,” the Guinness World Records-verified movie used thousands of precisely placed atoms to create nearly 250 frames of stop-motion action.
”A Boy and His Atom” depicts a character named Atom who befriends a single atom and goes on a playful journey that includes dancing, playing catch and bouncing on a trampoline. Set to a playful musical track, the movie represents a unique way to convey science outside the research community.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/world%E2%80%99s-smallest-movie-made-atoms
(via we-are-star-stuff)
This touchscreen will be something to watch.
Prototype Real / Digital Info Interface System
Using projection and gestures to create interactive relationship with information - video embedded below:
Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a next generation user interface which can accurately detect the users finger and what it is touching, creating an interactive touchscreen-like system, using objects in the real word.
“We think paper and many other objects could be manipulated by touching them, as with a touchscreen. This system doesn’t use any special hardware; it consists of just a device like an ordinary webcam, plus a commercial projector. Its capabilities are achieved by image processing technology.”
Using this technology, information can be imported from a document as data, by selecting the necessary parts with your finger.
More at DigInfo here
RELATED: This is very similar to a concept developed in 1991 called ‘The Digital Desk’ [link]
