Reklamë si kjo nuk shihni çdo ditë [Video]
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Honda njihet për reklamat e veçanta dhe shume të këndshme dhe koreografia në këtë video të lë pa mend.
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Si ta ktheni televizorin në një tablet të madh
Nëse ju pëlqen të luani me lojëra apo të “vërdalliseni” nëpër rrjete sociale, por nuk doni të qëndroni me celular apo tablet në dorë gjatë gjithë ditës, vjen një zgjidhje për ju. Një pajisje Android mund ta kthejë televizorin në një tablet gjigant.
Touchjet WAVE vihet sipër televizorit dhe me anë të sensorëve me rreze infra të kuqe ndjen prekjen e gishtit në sipërfaqen e ekranit.
Kjo pajisje është e dizenjuar për të punuar me çdo televizor që ka një vend për HDMI.
Amerikani Tom Li po grumbullon fonde për të nisur prodhimin e pajisjes.
/ Top Channel
Intel: Ja risia që do të ketë kompjuteri personal në të ardhmen
Kompjuteri personal në të ardhmen e afërt do të ndizet me një komandë zanore, duke shfrytëzuar një asistent virtual si Cortana e Windows 10, sistemi operativ i sapodalë nga Microsoft.
Kolosi informatik, Intel, sapo ka bërë publike brezin e gjashtë të procesorëve që do të qëndrojë gjithmonë “në linjë” për disa komanda me zë për kompjuterin.
Kjo e re është treguar në një forum të programuesve në San Francisco, sipas blogut Gizmodo, dhe ka të bëjë me procesorët e rinj Intel Skylake. Teknikisht kjo është përfshirë edhe në çipin Core M të vitit të kaluar, por sistemet për të shfrytëzuar këtë mundësi të kompjuterit, si Cortana, nuk ishin lançuar ende. Ky funksion përfshihej edhe në smartphone-in Moto X të Motorolës, falë asistentit “virtual” e zanor të Google Now, por për kompjuter nuk ishte krijuar ende.
Falë integrimit të Cortana në Windows 10 dhe futjes së Windows Hello, që na ndihmon të njihemi në kompjuterit nëpërmjet njohjes së fytyrës dhe gjurmëve, kompjuterët me procesorët e gjeneratës së re të Intel, mund të zhbllokohen me zë dhe siguri, me një prekje gishti.
Truri i njeriut në miniaturë krijohet në laborator
Shkencëtarët amerikanë kanë prodhuar në një laborator trurin e njeriut në miniaturë, një formë më e kompletuar deri më sot, një progres i rëndësishëm që do të avancojë më tej kërkimet për sëmundjet neurologjike si sëmundja e Alzheimer-it.
“Jo vetëm që ka pamjen si një tru i zhvilluar, por llojet e ndryshme të qelizave transmetojnë pothuajse të gjitha gjenet si ato të trurit human”, tha Rene Anand, profesor i kimisë organike në Universitetin e Shtetit Ohio i cili po drejton punimet.
Ai saktësoi se truri i prodhuar “in vitro” ka madhësinë e një gome lapsi. Ai paraqet një strukturë të trurit të fetusit pesë javësh me lloje të shumta qelizash, me të gjitha zonat kryesore të trurit dhe palcës kurrizore, por nuk ka sistemin e furnizimit me gjak.
Ky zbulim është një hap i rëndësishëm në fushën e kërkimeve në neuroshkencë në përgjithësi pasi truri na mundëson kryerjen e kërkimeve të drejtpërdrejta gjenomike dhe jo nëpërmjet modeleve kompjuterike siç është rasti i tanishëm.
Largoni dëshirën për cigare duke luajtur këtë lojë
Shkenctarët kanë zbuluar mënyrën se di të ndalet dëshira për të pirë cigare dhe çelësi qëndron tek loja elektronike Tetris.Deri tek ky përfundim kanë ardhur pas një studimi që është bërë me disa studentë të cilët janë pyetur për dëshirën e tyre për të pirë cigare dhe më pas u është lëshuar loja Tetris për të luajtur.
Studentëve i është dhënë një iPad për të luajtur këtë lojë dhe pasi është kryer ajo, ata janë pyetur prapë njëjtë, gjë që ka rezultuar me atë se dëshira e tyre për të pirë cigare është reduktuar për një të pestën.
Kërkuesit e Universitetit Plymouth konsiderojnë se luajtja e kësaj loje funksionon sepse ajo bëhet nga të njëjtat procese mendore që krijojnë dëshirat e tjera.
Studimi disa javor në të cilin u përfshi edhe një universitet prestiogjioz i Teknologjisë në Australi është bërë me 31 student të moshës mes 18 dhe 27 vjeçarë.
E paimagjinueshme, Iphone 6S thyen kufijtë e teknologjisë! (Video)
Projekti për e Iphone 6 është me të vërtet mahnitës.
Projekti në fjalë ka të bëjë me një smartphone, që vjen me ekran transparent ku një veçori tjetër e tij do të jetë edhe elasticiteti.
Pra mund të përthyhet dhe mund te rikthehet sërish në formën fillestare.
Një ide e Apple që duket se do rrëmbejë sërish vëmendjen e përdorueseve në mbarë botën.
Zbulohet modeli i ri i Lamborghinit, ja të veçantat (Foto)
Muajin e kaluar Lamborghini njoftoi se do të krijojë një version Roadster të modelit të ri Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce. Tani falë fotografëve të “Autoexpress”, është bërë konfirmimi vizual i modelit më të ri të Lambos pak para prodhimit të plotë.
Në fotografitë mund të shihen shtesat në trup sikurse te modeli SV Coupe. Vetura me trup sportiv dhe të egër pritet të dalë në shitje gjatë muajve të ardhshëm, shkruan “koha.net”.
Shefi i Lamborghinit, Stephan Winkelmann ka thënë se kërkesat për këtë model janë shumë të mëdha, edhe pse modeli nuk do të shpaloset zyrtarisht deri në gusht.
SV Roadster do të ketë 750 kuajfuqi dhe përshpejtimin prej 0 në 100 kilometra në orë e arrin për vetëm 2.8 sekonda. 350 kilometra në orë besohet se do të jetë shpejtësia maksimale e automobilit.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Facebook drones and giant slides
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.
Tesla's Model S got a lot of press when Elon Musk unveiled a "Ludicrous" upgrade that goes from 0-60 in 2.8 seconds -- but a new car built by a team of German students can go even faster than that. The electric vehicle can accelerate from 0-62MPH in a blistering 1.779 seconds, and it's currently awaiting confirmation for a Guinness World Record. In other news, Facebook just unveiled a solar-powered airplane that will beam the internet to remote locations. The Aquila has the wingspan of a Boeing 737, yet it weighs less than 1,100 pounds. This week, Inhabitat reporter Marc Carter spotted Chrysler's camouflaged new Town & Country minivan on the streets of LA -- and it looks like it's going to be a plug-in EV. Google's Street View cars show us towns and cities throughout the world -- and now they're getting equipped with pollution sensors to monitor the air we breathe. And if you're planning a road trip this summer, we've got two amazing mobile dwellings for you to check out: a stylish wood cabin on wheels and an old-school bus that's been retrofitted into a remarkable little home.
As the 2016 presidential race heats up, candidates are beginning to announce their environmental platforms. Hillary Clinton revealed plans to boost US solar power by 700 percent, but we still think Bernie Sanders may be our best defense against climate change. In other news, a new report shows that large-scale solar is nearly as cheap as other fuels in the world's three biggest markets, and a gadget called the SunPort allows you to power any device in your home with energy from the sun. It was also a big week for wind power as the United States' first offshore wind farm finally broke ground off the coast of Rhode Island.
Rotterdam, Netherlands, is building the largest electric vacuum cleaner in the world -- but it's not for tidying up your living room. The 23-foot-tall Smog Free Tower will suck pollution out of the sky and turn it into jewelry. In other architecture and design news, Spatial Design wants to combat homelessness by installing hanging pod homes on the sides of existing buildings. San Francisco has a public urination problem -- and the city plans to address it by coating buildings in liquid-repellent paint that bounces pee back on offenders. In London, Anish Kapoor's twisting Orbit Tower is being transformed into the world's longest and tallest tunnel slide. French architect Jacques Rougerie envisioned a giant self-sustaining city that looks like an enormous manta ray. And Israeli fashion student Danit Peleg debuted an amazing line of 3D-printed clothing that shows just how far the technology has come.
Living with Cortana, Windows 10's thoughtful, flaky assistant
"Hey Cortana, give me a printout of Oyster smiling."
It's a joke, couched in a bit of memetic stoner humor, but I couldn't help myself. After all, Cortana -- the digital assistant baked into Windows 10 -- feels like a potent mashup of Google Now's worldliness and Siri's charm. Scheduling reminders? Check. Opening apps? Done. Proffering weather forecasts? You get where I'm going with this. I was almost surprised that she (sorry, "it") didn't humor my lousy attempt at a joke because Microsoft agonized over how to give Cortana a personality, to make it feel like more than just a talented, algorithmic guesser in the cloud. I've spent the last week of my life talking to Cortana, asking it harebrained questions along with proper requests, and you know what? The company succeeded, mostly.
Roku's Dropbox channel puts cloud files on your TV
Dropbox's Roku channel
You can already access your Dropbox files on all your PCs and mobile gadgets, but what if you want to put them on your TV? If you have a Roku player, you're set. Roku has launched a Dropbox channel that lets you browse your photos and videos on its set-tops, including in slideshows. Yes, you now have an easy way to recap your vacation on a big screen without turning to other cloud services. The channel isn't flawless -- TechCrunch notes that you can't play long videos, so this won't work if you're trying to stream full-length movies. Even so, it's a big help if you'd rather not have everyone gather around your computer to see your snapshots.
Microsoft Windows 10 vjen me 29 korrik
Më parë është folur rreth disa çmimeve të versionit të ri të sistemit operativ të Microsoft, Windows 10, ndërsa tani Microsoft ka njoftuar se do ta lëshojë softuerin e ri më 29 korrik.
Data e lansimit të Windows 10 është postuar në blogun e Microsoft, dhe me këtë kompania e ka konfirmuar se prej asaj date softueri i saj më i ri do të jetë në dispozicion për tabletë dhe kompjuterë personal.
Më pas, Microsoft e ka postuar edhe këtë video, e cila i prezanton specifikat kryesore të versionit të ri të sistemit të saj operativ.
Windows 10 do të jetë në dispozicion si një përmirësim falas për përdoruesit ekzistues të Windows që janë në Windows 7 dhe Windows 8, të cilët tani mund ti bëjnë para-regjistrimet për softuerin e ri të Microsoft.
Data e lansimit të Windows 10 është postuar në blogun e Microsoft, dhe me këtë kompania e ka konfirmuar se prej asaj date softueri i saj më i ri do të jetë në dispozicion për tabletë dhe kompjuterë personal.
Më pas, Microsoft e ka postuar edhe këtë video, e cila i prezanton specifikat kryesore të versionit të ri të sistemit të saj operativ.
Windows 10 do të jetë në dispozicion si një përmirësim falas për përdoruesit ekzistues të Windows që janë në Windows 7 dhe Windows 8, të cilët tani mund ti bëjnë para-regjistrimet për softuerin e ri të Microsoft.
Apple nuk ka të ndalur, iPhone Air telefoni i ri
Apple raportohet se është duke menduar prodhimin e një iPhone me ekran 4-inç dhe mund të cilësohet si gjenerata e re e telefonave të gjigantit amerikan.
Së fundmi është publikuar një video në të cilën mund të shihet se si mund të duket telefoni i ri i cili pritet të quhet iPhone Air.
Raportohet se iPhone i ri do të jetë i hollë vetëm 4.3 milimetra, 1.8mm më i hollë se iPad Air. Ekrani do të ketë rezolucion 1920×1080 Full HD ndërsa kamera do të jetë 13-megapixel.
Ende nuk ka ndonjë konfirmim zyrtar nga Apple, por telefoni me ekran 4-inç vështirë se do të prodhohet kur dihet se gjiganti amerikan është fokusuar në prodhimin e telefonave me ekran më të madh.
Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge – Top 7 Qualities
Samsung Galaxy S5 which was launched last year was not much favorite among people. But, now these new devices Galaxy S6 and galaxy S6 Edge will become more popular than last phone. Soon in the 2nd week of April, the smartphone will be in your hands.
In our last post, we talk about Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge: Specs & Features and Galaxy S6 Rumors. But, now we are going to share top 7 features/ advantages of these new smartphones.
7 Top Features of Galaxy S6
#1. Metal is phone’s closest companion
Samsung’s undoubted association with plastic has been decently reported. They’ve attempted their hands with metal (mostly) on the Alpha, A and E arrangement as of late however Galaxy S6 ought to be in a class of its own. Contending with the Apple and HTC’s of the world will be just conceivable, if Samsung trench plastic and acknowledges the need to incline toward metal from here on. Luckily, it appears requests to God have been heard and late board break show that Galaxy S6 will come wrapped in metal completing.
#2. Screen with an Edge
At the point when Samsung took off Note Edge variation, they were principally trying out waters with an exceptional structure consider before discharging item the Galaxy S arrangement of same kind. The item as a rule, has been generally welcomed yet for its development, the usefulness component stays advanced. Thus, until then anticipate that Galaxy S6 will pack a 2K presentation with Super AMOLED quality for surreal survey. Notwithstanding that Galaxy S6 Edge is exceedingly anticipated that would be declared.
#3. They both have awesome tech inside
Beside their clearly distinctive screens, the two kin have the same details. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge utilize Samsung’s new octa-center Exynos 7 processor. Both have super AMOLED screens and 3GB of RAM. Samsung has jettisoned microSD card spaces and rather offers the phones with altered limits of 32GB, 64GB or 128GB. Remote charging and speedier USB charging are incredible worth includes. Toss in an enhanced finger impression scanner and you have basically all that you’d need from an advanced smartphone.
#4. No additionally disturbing Android
While Galaxy Alpha is a special case, most Galaxy items have persevered through dissatisfaction on the product front, generally because of TouchWiz interface. The most recent cycle of their custom stage is relied upon to wind up smooth and less-bloatware pressed. Android 5.0 Lollipop has the nonessential speak to turn into the widely adored, just if Samsung can simply keep things basic this time with Galaxy S6’s product.
#5. Another, lighter UI
Samsung says the Galaxy S6 has altogether smaller features than the S5 does, which for some other organization would be an unusual thing to be flaunting. Be that as it may if Samsung truly has figured out how to rein in its propensities to toss each conceivable peculiarity in, purchasers will be in an ideal situation.
#6. Samsung continues enhancing its cams
Both phones have 16-megapixel cams with optical picture adjustment. Another alternate way, twofold touching the unique mark sensor, opens the cam application regardless of what you’re doing, which makes it simple to get spontaneous shots. White equalization is enhanced because of the infrared capacities of the heart rate sensor on the back. HDR data is caught with all photographs as a matter of course, and nonstop self-adjust lets moving subjects stay sharp in features. Low light execution, which was at that point great, is guaranteed to be essentially better.
#7. Value no bar?
With all the previously stated gimmicks stuffed, Samsung could value the Galaxy S6 upwards of Rs 55,000 opened and its prosperity depends on how well the phone is bundled.
Russian Hackers Read Barack Obama’s Emails: Report
American President Barack Obama’s emails were accessed by Russian hackers last October in a White House security breach, according to the NYT report. The emails that were read during this computer system breach were of unclassified nature. Earlier this month, officials admitted that White House security system was hacked by Russian hackers.
According to the officers involved in the investigation, the servers handling President’s Backberry were not breached, instead, the emails were retrieved from the email archives of his contacts.
Many senior officials in White House have two computer systems in their offices for unclassified communication and are connected to the outside world.
Even though the officials said that the information accessed was unclassified, this could have involved sensitive information related to Obama’s schedules, memos or some strategic discussions.
The number of emails accessed wasn’t disclosed and nothing was told about the sensitivity and content. The very own email account of President doesn’t appear as hacked.
This should be noted that these hacking incidents are taking place at the moment of tension between Russia and United States due to the Cremia issue. The Chinese hacking groups are busy stealing commercial and design info, the Russian hackers are targeting the political matters.
Back during the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama was targeted by Chinese hackers. In another old news, the Pentagon’s unclassified military network was hacked.
This recent hack also lead to the partial shutdown of White House email system and till the end of October, the Russian hackers were swept away.
Venturi's Antarctica is the sports car of snowcats
This ultimate ice buggy is under development by Venturi Automobiles, the Monaco-based maker of electric cars. Its purpose: To allow scientists to more safely reach core-sample drilling locations on the Antarctic ice shelf – and do so in areas where combustion engines are banned, says Franck Baldet, head of the Venturi testing department.
It’s not easy to develop an electric-powered transporter that can work reliably in temperatures as low as -70°C (-94°F).
“Currently there is no other way [to reach drilling sites] except to walk or ski, which is dangerous and takes a lot of time,” Baldet explains.
Dog sleds have been banned on Antarctica since 1993, a move spurred by fears that the nonindigenous animals would spread diseases such as canine distemper to the native seal population.
Venturi was tapped to develop this electric snowcat after Prince Albert II, the reigning monarch of Monaco and a noted environmental advocate, returned from a trip to Antarctica in 2009. “Scientists from the French Polar Institute told him they needed a vehicle that could reach sites without creating pollution that could alter drilling samples,” Baldet says.
Funded by Prince Albert’s private foundation, which supports environmental and sustainability issues, this unusual EV meets four goals set by institute officials: emission-free propulsion, easy operation, a range of at least 20km (12.4m) and five-passenger capability. So far, so good, according to a recent prototype test drive in the Alps in southern France, with Prince Albert at the helm. The Antarctica easily (and quietly) manoeuvred on slopes as steep as 45 degrees and handled temps down to -20°C (-4°F). “It worked perfectly – incredibly easy to drive,” Baldet says. The vehicle’s top speed is a breezy 15mph.
It’s not easy to develop an electric-powered transporter that can work reliably in temperatures as low as -70°C (-94°F), Baldet notes. “It’s difficult for a battery to generate current at those temperatures, plus it’s more vulnerable to damage,” he says.
To deal with the extreme temperatures, designers snuggled the 23kWh lithium-ion battery inside a heated compartment that remains a toasty 0°C (32°F) – even when outside temps reach -40°C/F. The battery powers two mid-mounted electric motors producing a combined 89 horsepower; each motor drives four of the vehicle’s eight wheels, which usually are covered with removable caterpillar treads. Regenerative-braking technology pushes juice to the battery pack between charges, Baldet says.
To keep the vehicle as light as possible (the two-seat prototype weighs about two tons), Venturi designers may end up building the shell with extremely strong but lightweight materials used to make space satellites. “We want to optimize all systems so the vehicle consumes as little energy as possible, which leaves more energy to power the vehicle and provides more range,” Baldet says.
(Credit: Venturi Automobiles)
The Antarctica is controlled via a joystick – no steering wheel or throttle/brake pedals. “It’s very easy to drive – like a video game, more or less,” he says. “It’s a drive-by-wire system. There are no mechanical links between the control and the motors.”
To move forward, just push the joystick away from the driver. To brake, pull back on the stick. To turn left, move the joystick left; to turn right, move it right. It’s that simple, Baldet says.
It will be at least two more years before Venturi can deliver a fully realised version of the Antarctica to South Pole researchers. The cost? Baldet declined to provide an estimate, but did note that because of its advanced technology and exotic materials, the machine likely would be far too expensive to sell commercially.
“It will probably be the only vehicle of its kind on Earth,” he points out. “Unless the institute ask for two, then there will be two. And if they ask for three, there will be three. It will be very exclusive.”
The best exercise headphones
If I were looking for a pair of headphones to use in my workout, I'd want the Relays by Sol Republic. They are hands down the most comfortable headphones to wear while being active. They sound good, stay put without chafing or tugging, are light and resistant to sweat, and come with a lifetime of free tips (because you know those lil' buggers love to get lost in a gym bag).
I came to this conclusion after extensively testing 38 models. Our tests involved a professional listening panel, three stress tests, and real workout tests. After all that, I'm confident the Sol Republic are the best fit for your fitness routine.
Who's this for/should I upgrade?
Exercise headphones are for people who want to run, hike, bike, or hit the gym while listening to music, podcasts, or other media. That means they should be able to withstand a variety of stressors like sweat, rain, strain from dropping media players, and abuse from being thrown in a bag. The headphones should also sound decent, feel good, stay put, and stay out of the way while you're being active.
Our pick
The Relays by Sol Republic won because they were, hands down, the most comfortable headphones to wear while being active. What really solidified our choice was the run test. Where other headphones had cable noise, the Relays were quiet. Where other headphones tugged and chafed our ears, the Relays were comfy and so light that one could easily forget they were being worn. Where other headphones took a while to get into the correct position, the Relays popped immediately into place. And after our punishing drop, crumple, and moisture tests, the Sol were still in perfect shape. You can trust that they are up to the abuse that fitness headphones face on the daily.
Also they sounded great to our listening panel of audio experts; and although there were other headphones that we liked the sound of better, not a single panelist disliked listening to the Relays.
Plus, the Relays come with a fit-in-your-pocket small carrying case, have a 1-year warranty, and if you register your Relays on Sol Republic's website after purchase, Sol will send you free replacement tips whenever you ask. No more freaking out if one of your ear tips disappears in an errant roll across the gym floor. How handy is that?
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The Relays are not the best-sounding headphones in their price range and type. If you want the utmost best sound that $100 can buy, read our piece here on non-exercise headphones. But those headphones won't take the brutal punishment that we dished out.
Wireless exercise headphones (for a price)
Why wireless headphones? Two words: no cord. But you knew that. What surprised me when I first started running with Bluetooth headphones was the way it affected my posture and stride. I never realized that I actually carried my head stiff and straight to avoid snagging the cord on my shirt or arm and popping the buds right out of my ears.
If you don't mind charging your headphones once or twice a week or spending $140 on headphones in exchange for cutting the cord (you get about 8 hours of use per charge), you can't do better than the Jaybird Bluebud X.
They have fantastic bass, are light, stay put without chafing, and have a lifetime sweatproof warranty. I've personally recommended these to several people who have all have reported back that they are extremely happy. We like these a tiny bit better than the Relays in terms of sound balance, but the need to charge, the extra cost, and the tricky setup meant they were just barely edged out as our top pick. Still, you can buy these with confidence.
Open-ear and budget exercise headphones
The SOL and Jaybirds are our picks, but if you want to spend a lot less, the Koss Fitclips go over your ears and cost about $16. They don't sound anywhere as good as our main picks, but they're also much, much less money. If you want to spend a little more and get a microphone for taking phone calls on your runs, the $42 Skullcandy Chops are our pick. Although you should be able to hear outside noise fine using these choices, for those who need a heightened sense of awareness of the outside world while they run, bike, or exercise, the inexpensive $20 Panasonic RP-HS34 headphones are our favorite budget-friendly unsealed set.
How did we test?
I started out by researching professional reviews from fitness journalists as well as pro audio writers, users, bloggers, and forum members. This eventually lead us to try out about 38 models, narrowed down from the original 75 models we considered.
I burned in every model and then turned them over to our expert panel for audio testing.
After I had the top-rated choices in those categories, I took to the track and ran half a mile with each pair of headphones. Then, to check durability, I connected each headphone to a portable speaker, held the headphones from where they would connect to your ear, and dropped the speaker from a height several times to test the cord. Next, I put the headphones in their included cases or bags and shook, kicked, sat on, mashed, and smooshed the bag vigorously to simulate abuse in gym bags and workouts.
Because all of that wasn't enough, I next tested water resistance. Each headphone was sprayed with a water-filled utility misting bottle, and then plugged in to see how they worked when sweated on. Yes, I endured 10 wet-willies for you.
In closing
After testing all those headphones in all the different ways that exercise headphones should be tested, it's pretty clear to me that the Relays by Sol Republic are the best headphones for most people. And for those who want wireless, open-ear, or budget picks, we have those recommendations covered as well.
Why everyone may have a personal air vehicle
We are going to have personal air vehicles that are both cars and planes, at least that’s Missy Cummings’s vision of the future. It’s basically the intersection of a drone with a robotic car, so that your plane is also your car, but the big leap in technology is that you are actually driving neither, says the Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Drones have a negative bias in the media, says Cummings, because they are essentially seen as spy cameras. But most people don’t realise that when they are on a plane they are effectively travelling on a drone. The fly-by-wire technology that exists on all Airbus and many Boeing craft is the exact same technology that exists on drones.
The reason why drones are the answer to the future is that the truth is we are terrible drivers. Humans inherently have a half-second lag in almost any quick response that they need to have, like a ball rolling out in a street or seeing an aircraft in the sky and you have to take evasive action. Even a half-second delay can mean the difference between life and death, and computers and automated systems don’t have that – they have microseconds.
So, our transportation network of the future, both on the ground and in the air, will actually be safer when we turn it over to computers.
There really aren’t any technological hurdles to this idea, says Cummings. The biggest hurdles we have are psychological and cultural, in terms of giving up the car. But no new tech needs to be developed to have your own personal flying car. What we have to do is improve production and reduce manufacturing costs, and what that means is that we need more robots. So this is almost a self-circular process, where we need robots to build robots to make them cheaper.
Should we worry about the machines rising up and taking over? No, what Cummings says she is worried about is hackers and terrorists who want to do wrong. One of the things she is working on is trying to develop technology that allows any flying robot to be able to fend off any attack and be able to navigate itself without any GPS or any other external signal.
There are lots of different possibilities for what your personal air vehicle could look like. You could own your own in your driveway or garage, and you could jump in it. Or we could have a shared network like the plane version of Zipcar. People should be excited about this: it promises much in terms of safer travel, and in parts of the world where the road and air networks are poor, people will be able to get the goods and services they need.
So, when we look at globalising this concept of personal air vehicles, it means we will see the quality of life improve dramatically for everyone around the world.
Nature Inspired Robotic Materials Developed That Can Think
Scientists say that the advancement in material sciences, algorithms and manufacturing processes have given a major boost to the field of robotics and it has led to a revolution in the robotic materials. The way for development of prosthetics (artificial body parts) with a realistic sense of touch has been made smoother with the use of nature inspired robotic materials. Following this, now it is even possible to construct bridges that can self-repair themselves and vehicles that have camouflaging abilities just like animals and insects.
These nature inspired robotic materials are being developed by Nikolaus Correll and his team. The team looked at the organisms like cuttlefish, which alter their appearance based on their surroundings and environment, and the Banyan tree, which grows above-ground roots to support the increasing weight of its trunk. This made them wonder how to engineer such a system.
They wanted that while materials can already be programmed to change some of their properties in response to a specific stimulus, there should be such robotic materials that can sense stimuli and determine how to respond to it on their own. To develop nature inspired robotic materials, they worked on the example of artificial skin equipped with microphones which would analyze the sounds of a texture rubbing the skin and transmit information back to the central computer only when important events occurred. Correll said in a review published in a science journal that the human sensory system has the capability to automatically filter out things like the feeling of clothes rubbing on the skin. He added that an artificial skin with possibly thousands of sensors could do the same thing and it would only report to the Brain if it touches something new.
Nature inspired robotic materials
The development of all these sort of nature inspired robotic materials is now possible, but manufacturing of these materials on a large scale still remains to be a challenge. Moreover, researchers say that this field faces an education gap as developing robotic material require interdisciplinary knowledge which is currently not available through any of the material sciences, computer sciences or robotics curriculum alone.
Correll believes that in the future, the use of nature inspired robotic materials is going to be ever-widening. For him, robotic materials, in future, are going to be used in everyday life items like shoes soles that can sense pressure and then adapt their stiffness to adjust while walking or running.
The private investigator who spies using drones
Chris Wright is a problem solver. Her clients come to her with an issue, a question, a mystery, and she figures out the best way to find the answer – using whatever tools she can. “I use a combination of new technology and old technology, because I have to solve a problem. So I’ve used everything from geese and dogs to Roombas to drones to GPS.”
Wright is a private investigator – and owner of the Wright Group – based in Anaheim, California. She’s worked in the business for more than 40 years, and has seen the tools available to investigators change dramatically. Early on, stakeouts in vans were important. More recently new technology in the form of tiny cameras and social media has begun to play a role. And she’s embraced those changes. Today, when the problem calls for it, she uses drones to do her work.
She gives me a few examples. If two people are meeting in a public place, a drone can be a helpful way to discreetly watch them. “We stay at about 50-75 feet [15-23 metres] above so nothing can be heard.” Drones are also helpful for aerial surveillance of locations that are hard to access on foot. And if a school or church is worried someone might be stealing or vandalising property, drones or small off-road vehicles (“Roombas on steroids” as she calls them) can film the property.
Chris Wright relies on gamers to pilot her snooping drones (Credit: Thinkstock)
In one case, Wright was asked to figure out whether or not a soda salesperson was crossing county lines and cheating on his contract. California is one of many states in which salespeople have regional contracts – for instance, Bob sells Pepsi in Los Angeles County and Nancy sells Pepsi in Orange County. If Nancy arrives at her usual businesses to sell her Pepsi and finds the soda supply has already been topped up, there’s a good chance that someone (perhaps Bob) has crossed county lines and sold illegally.
Hi-tech toys
Wright was asked to figure out whether this was happening. To do so meant visiting every major soda wholesaler from San Luis Obispo to San Diego – about 300 miles (480km) of California coast – and checking whether any were selling soda from the wrong salesperson. When there was illegal soda on sale, she would use a drone to follow the soda delivery trucks back to their depots. In one case, the warehouse the truck led her back to was out in the desert and would have been impossible to approach by car or foot without being noticed. But the drone was able to spy on the trucks covertly. “We could see between the warehouse door and the truck loading.”
Wright gets her drones from high-end toy stores, for about $200 each. They’re an expensive investment: not only do you have to buy the device, you also have to pay one or two people to pilot and spot the thing. And if you lose one during a mission, you’re out a good chunk of your budget. But it can be worth it, because for the cases in which they’re useful, they can be very useful indeed.
(Credit: Thinkstock)
Wright doesn’t pilot the drones herself. “I try to hire gamers. I go to the colleges and high schools and I find out who the geeks are, and then I hire them.” She said that her pilots are more skilled than she would ever be – and they like the challenge. Some of them are working towards their own private investigator licences, and their hours piloting the little devices can count as hours towards their certification. (None of Wright’s gamer pilots were willing to talk for this article. “They’re introverts,” she told me. “Not shy, but introverts.”)
Understandably, the idea of using drones to spy on people isn’t something everybody is comfortable with. In a case in Seattle in 2013, a woman reported that someone was using a drone to spy on her. “This afternoon, a stranger set an aerial drone into flight over my yard and beside my house near Miller Playfield,” she told the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. “I initially mistook its noisy buzzing for a weed-whacker on this warm spring day. After several minutes, I looked out my third-story window to see a drone hovering a few feet away.” Her husband asked the drone operator, who was standing nearby, to move along – but the operator claimed to be acting within his legal rights.
Tightening regulations
Whether that’s true isn’t always clear. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 35 states considered adding drone bills to the books last year, and 10 states actually did add new laws. In Iowa, for example, it’s now illegal for the state to use drones to enforce traffic laws. In North Carolina, no one can use a drone for surveillance of a person or private property. And Tennessee now specifies that it’s a misdemeanour to use drones for surveillance of people who are hunting or fishing.
Whether that’s true isn’t always clear. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 35 states considered adding drone bills to the books last year, and 10 states actually did add new laws. In Iowa, for example, it’s now illegal for the state to use drones to enforce traffic laws. In North Carolina, no one can use a drone for surveillance of a person or private property. And Tennessee now specifies that it’s a misdemeanour to use drones for surveillance of people who are hunting or fishing.
Wright’s drone operations might soon become legally questionable too. Earlier this month, a California senator introduced a bill that would extend property rights into airspace, meaning that drones flying over private property would be considered trespassers. Just a few days before that, President Obama and the Federal Aviation Administration announced new drone regulations as well, requiring – among other things – that drones must be under 55lb (25kg) and that operators must keep the flying vehicles in sight at all times.
Many states in the US are already clamping down on the use of drones (Credit: Thinkstock)
Because the laws are murky, many private investigators steer clear of drones. “The use of drones for surveillance is highly restricted by law,” said Kelly Riddle, a private investigator in Texas. “There are air space regulations as well as privacy laws that can easily be violated. Obtaining video using a drone has thus far been something that we have been advised is illegal.” That’s because drones are often used to observe activities that can’t be seen via a direct line of sight at ground level. Going out of your way to spy on such activities is considered an invasion of privacy, says Riddle. A lot of Wright’s work sidesteps this privacy question, because it involves helping schools and churches monitor their own property.
In all likelihood, the use of drones will be restricted under a more comprehensive set of rules and regulations in the United States sooner than later. But in the meantime Wright will continue to use them when they can help with her work. But she also says that regardless of the legality, if someone thinks their privacy is being compromised, they’re going to do something about it. That can mean shooting down drones – another activity that may or may not be legal. “I think a lot of my colleagues have lost them and realised that it is a tool, and if you invade someone’s privacy, well, if they can hit it they will.”
Dark matter map unveils first results
A huge effort to map dark matter across the cosmos has released its first data.
Dark matter is the invisible "web" that holds galaxies together; by watching how clumps of it shift over time, scientists hope eventually to quantify dark energy - the even more mysterious force that is pushing the cosmos apart.
The map will eventually span one-eighth of the sky; this first glimpse covers just 0.4%, but in unprecedented detail.
It shows fibres of dark matter, studded with galaxies, and voids in between.
The international collaboration, known as the Dark Energy Survey (DES), will present its preliminary findings on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Physical Society and publish them on the Arxiv preprint server.
The survey involves more than 300 scientists from six countries and uses images taken by one of the best digital cameras in the world: a 570-megapixel gadget mounted on the Victor Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, high in the Chilean Andes.
Incredible detail is required to detect dark matter, based purely on the way it warps the light from very distant galaxies.
Mapping the invisible
"Our goal all this time has been to see the invisible - to see dark matter," said Sarah Bridle, an astrophysics professor at the University of Manchester and co-chair of the DES weak lensing group, which produced the map.
"To be able to look at a map and say, 'That part of the sky's got more dark matter in it, that bit's empty,' is the dream that we've had all this time," Prof Bridle told the BBC.
"It's been a long time coming."
The survey commenced more than two years ago and will run for another three. This preliminary map was made using data from the camera's very first test images.
"We were testing out the quality of the camera," Prof Bridle explained.
"It takes a very, very long time to process all of this data and do the analysis. We're currently looking at more data and eventually we're going to have a map 30 times this size."
Even this preliminary effort is something of a landmark.
"This is the largest contiguous dark matter map that's been made," Prof Bridle said.
An earlier series of four images covered a bigger swathe of sky but the images did not overlap and had nowhere near the detail of the DES.
Subtracting interference
The business of mapmaking is complicated when the stuff being mapped is invisible and millions of light years away.
To spot dark matter, astrophysicists must pick out distortions - caused by dark matter's gravitational "lensing" of passing light - within very accurate images.
The distortions are much smaller than the warping of light by our own atmosphere, and even the irregularities added by the telescope itself. So those quantities first have to be subtracted.
"Most of the hard work goes into trying to remove those effects, to be able to uncover the gravitational lensing effect underneath," Prof Bridle said.
In the last two years, she and her many DES colleagues have measured the shapes of no less than two million galaxies within the first crop of images. And they've measured those dimensions to an accuracy of within 0.1%, which has required countless hours of heavy-duty computing.
Combining the imprint of all these miniscule distortions, the new map shows exactly where dark matter is concentrated within this particular patch of sky.
It paints an impressively clear picture, with no big surprises.
"Our analysis so far is in line with what the current picture of the universe predicts," said Chihway Chang from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Dr Chang was one of the report's lead authors.
"Zooming into the maps, we have measured how dark matter envelops galaxies of different types, and how together they evolve over cosmic time," she said.
Stalking Einstein
Bigger surprises may come when the survey reaches its ultimate goal: testing the idea of dark energy.
Once the DES team has finished its map of dark matter, spreading its massive tendrils across the cosmos, they will be in a position to measure just how fast those tendrils, along with all the matter we can see, are flying apart.
This expansion of the universe is happening at an increasing rate, and dark energy is the force physicists have proposed to account for that increase.
"How fast the dark matter clumps together tells us about how fast the universe is being stretched apart," explained Prof Bridle.
So by comparing dark matter "clumpiness" in different ages of the universe - which we can see as different distances - scientists will be able to pinpoint the rate of expansion. And that will point to the nature of dark energy.
It might simply yield a precise measurement of this mysterious force.
Or it might go further, Prof Bridle said:
"It's also possible, with the same data, to show that dark energy is not a good theory for explaining what's going on - and in fact, general relativity itself is wrong."
The simplest theory for explaining dark energy, which is based on Einstein's relativity, she added, is "terrible" - but it is the best available.
The DES might just shake things up.
"We expect something weird to happen," Prof Bridle said.
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