Company develops real-life RoboCop Coming soon to a mall near you ? Image Credit: YouTube / Knightscope Inc. Knightscope has invented a futuristic autonomous robot that is able to predict and prevent crime. K5 might seem like a side project from the makers of RoboCop but it is in fact a genuine real world invention. Inventor Knightscope Inc. designed the robot to collect large amounts of information through an array of on-board sensors and to process it using a predictive analytics engine. "Population growth and constrained government budgets render today's methods of fighting crime unscalable," said Stacy Dean Stephens of Knightscope. Initial deployments of the unit are scheduled to be carried out next year. Source: UPI | Comments (18) Tags: Knightscope, K5, Robot
Mad Science: “We’re now able to eavesdrop on the brain in real life” Kimberly PaxtonActivist Post When do scientific advances cross the line between exciting progress over to a frightening chapter in a futuristic fantasy novel? How about when those advances intrude uncomfortably into the human brain, harvesting thoughts and recording them? A group of researchers at Stanford University have taken this leap into mad science with experimental “intracranial recording”. Or, put simply, they’ve taken the first step towards mind reading using electronic monitoring of brain activity. Using a novel method, the researchers collected the first solid evidence that the pattern of brain activity seen in someone performing a mathematical exercise under experimentally controlled conditions is very similar to that observed when the person engages in quantitative thought in the course of daily life. The procedure involves temporarily removing a portion of a patient’s skull and positioning packets of electrodes against the exposed brain surface. Related:
Google Validates Putting Robotic Intelligence in Every Home Nicholas WestActivist Post Google's $3.2 billion acquisition of Nest Labs has become a top news story. However, this is about far more than Google taking a major position in the future of Smart Home technology as it currently exists. Google's other major recent acquisition was in the area of robotics; and, significantly, artificial intelligence. These major purchases indicate that Google is poised to automate the concept of Smart Homes to a far greater degree than has been possible before. According to leading tech site, Gigaom, the robot invasion is about to begin in earnest as we move on to an expanded landscape interconnected and managed by an "Internet of Things." Until this point, the Smart Home has been largely conceptual due to the need for manual implementation by the end user. We often think of robots only in the humanoid sense - and indeed Google has invested in that element as well, as they seek to bring autonomy from the assembly line to delivery. The U.S. Other sources:
Robotic Bees to Pollinate Monsanto Crops by Russ McSpadden / Earth First! Newswire Traducción español aquí. Traduzione italiana qui. Pollinators participate in the sexual-reproduction of plants. But never worry, those real life pollinators—the birds and the bees, as they say—may soon be irrelevant to the food needs of civilization. The Harvard Microrobotics Lab has been working on its Micro Air Vehicles Project since early 2009. Of course, published reports from the lab also describe potential military uses—surveillance and mapping—but the dime-sized cyber-bees have yet to be outfitted with neurotoxin tipped stingers. If you think this bee news is strange, be sure to check out this recent article from the newswire: Anarchist Beekeepers Claim Responsibility for U.S. [The text of this work is free to share and distribute under the following Creative Commons License CC-BY-ND 3.0] Like this: Like Loading... Check out these related Newswire posts:
Google to Introduce Smart Contact Lenses: The Era Of Cyborgs Has Begun Update on the merger of human and machine Nicholas WestActivist Post Technology seems to be on a runaway course either to free humanity or to enslave us. Parallel to this trend, we are seeing advancements in neuroscience being made from global projects like the BRAIN initiative in the U.S. and its counterpart in Europe, the Human Brain Project. Recently, a respected scientific journal announced that the era of cyborgs has begun (read that story below) as an array of medical applications are joining us to machines and computer systems. Surgeons at the University of Michigan Health System have made the first officially FDA-approved "bionic eye" transplants, allowing patients with a degenerative eye disease to make out light and shapes. While the device does not offer any type of superhuman enhancement - it in fact only offers rudimentary sight - researchers are heralding this as a major step in a new direction. This is already the Argus II . . . BMI are often considered data suppliers.
The Cyborgs Era Has Started Medical implants, complex interfaces between brain and machine or remotely controlled insects: Recent developments combining machines and organisms have great potentials, but also give rise to major ethical concerns. In their review entitled "Chemie der Cyborgs - zur Verknupfung technischer Systeme mit Lebewesen" (The Chemistry of Cyborgs - Interfacing Technical Devices with Organisms), KIT scientists discuss the state of the art of research, opportunities, and risks. The review is published now by the renowned journal "Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed." (DOI: 10.1002/ange.201307495). They are known from science fiction novels and films - technically modified organisms with extraordinary skills, so-called cyborgs. In fact, cyborgs that combine technical systems with living organisms are already reality. Scientists are working on brain-machine interfaces (BMI) for the direct physical contacting of the brain. BMI are often considered data suppliers. Stefan Giselbrecht, Bastian E.
Nanobiometrics Will Track You By Smell Nicholas WestActivist Post In a few short years, we already have become accustomed to drone surveillance and an array of biometric ID tracking technology that has formed a pervasive matrix of identification and personal data retention. As discussed in How Close Are We to a Nano-Based Surveillance State? back in February of 2011, the next phase of ID will be on the nano scale. DARPA and their contractors have been working for quite a while on making you, not just your personal data, the tracking mechanism. A new announcement from a Spanish engineering firm highlights the direction that is being taken in extracting the most innate personally identifying information possible. Nanotechnology for identification purposes already has been introduced in the following ways, just to name a few: Nano sensors for use in agriculture that measure crops and environmental conditions. It is the misappropriation of science and technology that poses one of the greatest threats to our freedom.
27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts in 2012 We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here. From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs in 2012. 1. At the University of Pittsburgh, the neurobiology department worked with 52-year-old Jan Scheuermann over the course of 13 weeks to create a robotic arm controlled only by the power of Scheuermann’s mind. The team implanted her with two 96-channel intracortical microelectrodes. 2. Once the robot figures out how to do that without all the wires, humanity is doomed. 3. Photo Courtesy of Indigo Moon Yarns. At the University of Wyoming, scientists modified a group of silkworms to produce silk that is, weight for weight, stronger than steel. 4. Using an electron microscope, Enzo di Fabrizio and his team at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa snapped the first photos of the famous double helix.Source: newscientist.com / via: davi296 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 3-D Printer Creates Full-Size Houses in One Session 10.
The app that lets you control a COCKROACH The Roboroach is an electric backpack that fits onto a cockroachIt uses impulses to stimulate the bug's antenna making it move left or rightThese impulses are controlled through the Roboroach smartphone app By Victoria Woollaston Published: 15:16 GMT, 8 October 2013 | Updated: 08:54 GMT, 9 October 2013 Cockroaches may be considered vermin but one team of scientists has found a way to keep the pests under control - remote control that is. Michigan-based Backyard Brains created an electric backpack that fits onto a cockroach and makes it turn on command using electric impulses, and the firm has now begun selling DIY kits meaning anyone can use the technology at home. The Roboroach stimulates the creature's antenna and forces it to turn left and right at the flick of a switch and the backpack links with a smartphone app that is used as the remote control. Scroll down for video Total Weight: 4.5g Stimulation Frequencies: 1Hz-200Hz Stimulation Pulse Widths: 1ms-500ms Stimulation Time: 5ms to 1000s
WATCH: How A Colorblind Cyborg 'Hears' Color TED and The Huffington Post are excited to bring you TEDWeekends, a curated weekend program that introduces a powerful "idea worth spreading" every Friday, anchored in an exceptional TEDTalk. This week's TEDTalk is accompanied by an original blog post from the featured speaker, along with new op-eds, thoughts and responses from the HuffPost community. Watch the talk above, read the blog post and tell us your thoughts below. Become part of the conversation! Since 2004, an antenna sticks out of my head that allows me to hear the color spectrum, from near infrared to near ultraviolet. Photo credit: Red Bulletin/Dan Wilton. I don't feel that I'm using technology, I don't feel that I'm wearing technology, I feel that I am technology. I feel cyborg. Becoming a cyborg is not only a life decision; it's an art statement. By installing this cybernetic eye in my head I've actually transformed my own body into a musical instrument as I can play music by looking at things now.
Dragonfly: World's Smallest Autonomous Drone Takes Flight Nicholas WestActivist Post The mimicking of nature heralds a new focus in the development of drones. While DARPA and their contractors have been working on true nano surveillance with biological components, it is the modeling of insects that is currently being released to the public. Recently we have seen Robobee take flight as a possible replacement for our rapidly dwindling natural pollinators. The following Air Force video leaves no doubt: Enter the Dragonfly "DelFly" explorer drone recently developed by Dutch scientists. The Dragonfly drone is part of a growing category of Micro Air Vehicles and their smaller counterparts Nano Air Vehicles. Developed during the 1970s, the CIA has displayed a mock-up of the micro UAV in its museum at its headquarters in Langley, Virginia since 2003. …. The micro aircraft has now been fitted with a new system of binocular vision. "Or imagine, for the first time there could be an autonomous flying fairy in a theme park," he said. Crazy?
count down to zerotime.com » Mark of the beast tech exposed remote control living organisms become a reality and chips which can read your mind Imagine a world where one person’s brain could be used to control the hand movements of another through electrode stimulation… Imagine machines that could be triggered and told what to do just by one man’s thought… Scientists are on their way to making this happen. A new report published in Nature Communications shows how US scientists are making progress in the remote control of living organisms. The progress is not as advanced and creepy as it sounds. Instead, these Harvard scientists believe that this progress could help paralyzed people regain control of their own body. For those with spinal cord damage and movement paralysis, this is great news. The scientists at the Harvard Medical School installed a chip, capable of monitoring the activity of up to 100 neurons, in the awake, or “master,” monkey’s brain. Thirty-six corresponding electrodes were implanted in the other monkey, which was sedated. Researchers from around the country are looking forward to more progress. Learn more:
Rolls-Royce is developing drone cargo ships....Drones On The Sea | Breaking Deception February 26th, 2014 (The Verge) Drones are already patrolling the skies, and eventually Rolls-Royce wants to see them take over the seas too. According to Bloomberg, Rolls-Royce Holdings is developing unmanned cargo ships that can be remotely controlled by captains using a virtual-reality recreation of a vessel’s bridge. Development on the ships began last year, and it expects the unmanned ships to eventually offer a safer, cleaner, and less-expensive option for moving cargo. “Now the technology is at the level where we can make this happen, and society is moving in this direction,” Oskar Levander, a marine engineering and technology executive at Rolls-Royce, tells Bloomberg. While now may be Rolls-Royce’s time to start moving, it’s far from the time when these ships will set sail. Bloomberg reports that it could be a pricy path to get there though, as Rolls-Royce will have to develop new safety and backup equipment to handle potential machine failures.