Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Robotics

MIT Is Improving Object Recognition For Robots 9

Posted by samzenpus from the all-the-better-to-recognize-you-with dept.
jan_jes writes: MIT have demonstrated their monocular SLAM supported approach that is able to achieve stronger performance against the classical frame based approach [where misclassifications occur occasionally]. The system is able to detect and robustly recognize objects in its environment using a single RGB camera. They have presented their paper at the Robotics Science and Systems conference last week. The system uses SLAM information to augment existing object-recognition algorithms. Robot with camera provide the improved object predictions in all views.

Comment Re:Of course (Score 1) 60

by Kohath (#50178175) Attached to: Study: Push Notifications As Distracting As Taking a Call

We could get rid of most traffic "laws" regardless of Teslas. We don't need a whole code of laws and penalties for everything everyone does. Change them from "laws" with penalties and police enforcement of every minute detail to "rules" with police enforcement reserved for recklessness and drunk driving.

People would drive more-or-less the same way they do now. No one wants to crash, and recklessness would still be punished by law. Police would be freed up to actually police bad guys instead of fundraising off of regular drivers.

Comment Re:Of course (Score 1) 60

by Kohath (#50175911) Attached to: Study: Push Notifications As Distracting As Taking a Call

So, maybe [our driving actions] should be policed.

The justification for policing actions is "danger". When danger is less, there's less justification for policing actions.

Driving is safer due to little things like mandatory seatbelt laws.

Seatbelts help in crashes because of "actions" the same as they help in any other type of crashes. Danger is less.

Comment Re:Of course (Score 1) 60

by Kohath (#50175825) Attached to: Study: Push Notifications As Distracting As Taking a Call

Just because driving is safer now than ever before does not justify someone txting on a phone while driving.

But it does justify less aggressive policing of driving in general. We shouldn't have to bear the burden of enforcing as many rules and having them enforced upon us when the dangers are low and dropping all the time.

Comment Of course (Score 2) 60

by Kohath (#50174053) Attached to: Study: Push Notifications As Distracting As Taking a Call

When the studies find out notifications aren't distracting, no one tells you about those studies.

These types of headlines tend to lead to suggestions of more driving restrictions. But driving has never been safer. We don't need our every minute policed by punitive government overseers. We need fewer citizen/police interactions -- those interactions can be very dangerous.
Transportation

Study: Push Notifications As Distracting As Taking a Call 60

Posted by samzenpus from the keep-your-eyes-on-the-road-your-hands-upon-the-wheel dept.
itwbennett writes: Researchers at Florida State University have found that simply being aware of a missed call or text can have the same damaging effect on task performance as actually using a mobile phone. 'Although these notifications are short in duration, they can prompt task-irrelevant thoughts, or mind-wandering,' the researchers wrote in their paper. In further bad news for chronic multitaskers, a new study by researchers at the University of Connecticut finds that 'students who multitasked while doing homework had to study longer, and those who frequently multitasked in class had lower grades on average than their peers who multitasked less often.'
Games

The French Scrabble Champ Does Not Speak French 113

Posted by samzenpus from the parlez-vous-francais? dept.
HughPickens.com writes: On July 20, Nigel Richards won the French-language world Scrabble championship. Richards does not speak a word of French. "He doesn't speak French at all, he just learnt the words," says Liz Fagerlund. "He won't know what they mean, wouldn't be able to carry out a conversation in French I wouldn't think." Richards reportedly memorized an entire French dictionary in the two months leading up to the competition. For living-room players, Scrabble is a test of vocabularies but for world-class players, it's about cold memorization and mathematical probabilities which is why top player are often computer programmers or mathematicians, not poets or novelists. Think of the dictionary as a giant rulebook of valid text strings not as a compendium of the beauty and complexity of the English language. A good competitive player will have memorized a sizeable chunk of the 83,667 words that are two letters to eight letters long. Great players will know a lot of the 29,150 nine-letter words as well.

To the uninitiated, a scrabble game played by top players looks like they had played in Martian. Here's a taste: In a single game in last year's Nationals, Richards played the following words: zarf (a metal holder for a coffee cup), waddy (to strike with a thick club), hulloed (to hallo, to shout), sajous (a capuchin, a monkey), qi (the vital force in Chinese thought), flyboats (a small, fast boat), trigo (wheat) and threaper (one that threaps, disputes). Richards has a photographic memory and is known for his uncanny gift for constructing impossible words by stringing his letters through tiles already on the board. "He is probably the best Scrabble player in the world at this point," says John D. Williams, Jr.. "He's got the entire dictionary memorized. He's pretty much a Scrabble machine, if such a thing exists." So, really, how does he do it? As Richards said in an interview posted on YouTube, "I'm not sure there is a secret. It's just a matter of learning the words." All 178,691 of them.
Security

Remote Control of a Car, With No Phone Or Network Connection Required 160

Posted by samzenpus from the all-your-car-are-belong-to-us dept.
Albanach writes: Following on from this week's Wired report showing the remote control of a Jeep using a cell phone, security researchers claim to have achieved a similar result using just the car radio. Using off the shelf components to create a fake radio station, the researchers sent signals using the DAB digital radio standard used in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. After taking control of the car's entertainment system it was possible to gain control of vital car systems such as the brakes. In the wild, such an exploit could allow widespread simultaneous deployment of a hack affecting huge numbers of vehicles.
Wireless Networking

Cell Service At US Airports Varies From 1st Class To Middle-seat Coach 40

Posted by samzenpus from the can-you-hear-me-now? dept.
alphadogg writes with this NetworkWorld story about the wide disparity in wireless coverage available at airports across the U.S.. Atlanta scores very high while Los Angeles International is less than mediocre. According to the story: You can download an episode of your favorite show in less than a minute and a half on Verizon Wireless at Atlanta's airport—or spend 13 hours doing the same over T-Mobile USA at Los Angeles International. The comparison of 45-minute HD video downloads illustrates the wide variation in cellular service at U.S. airports, which RootMetrics laid out in a report for the first half of 2015 that's being issued Thursday. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson is the best place to go mobile and Verizon covers airports best overall, but just like security lines and de-icing delays, it all depends.
Science

The Science and Politics Behind Colony Collapse Disorder; Is the Crisis Over? 174

Posted by samzenpus from the bee-story dept.
iONiUM writes: An article at the Globe and Mail claims that there is no longer any Honeybee crises, and that the deaths of the Honeybees previously was a one-off, or possibly non-cyclical occurrence (caused by neonics or nature — the debate is still out). The data used is that from Stats Canada which claims "the number of honeybee colonies is at a record high [in Canada]." Globally, the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization says that "worldwide bee populations have rebounded to a record high." The story reports: "I have great news for honey lovers everywhere. The Canadian honeybee industry is thriving. Despite those headlines about mass die-offs and and killer pesticides, the number of honeybee colonies is at a record high. Last year, according to Statistics Canada, nearly 700,000 honeybee colonies produced $200-million worth of honey. Bee survival rates have rebounded even in Ontario, which was hard hit by unusually high winter die-offs."
Power

MIT Stealth Startup Charges Up Wireless Power Competition 63

Posted by samzenpus from the power-up dept.
gthuang88 writes: Wireless charging of electronics is an old concept, but there's a new player in the competition between companies like WiTricity, Energous, and tech giants Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm. A new spinout from Dina Katabi's lab at MIT, called Pi, may have a new take on how to charge mobile devices at a distance. The company isn't talking yet, but Katabi's research suggests the system uses an array of coils to produce a magnetic field and detect when a device is within range, like a Wi-Fi router. The array can then focus the magnetic field on a coil attached to a phone or mobile device and induce a current to charge the battery. But it's still very early, and the field of wireless charging needs to settle on technical standards and work out its commercial kinks.
Government

France To Reduce Reliance On Nuclear Power 484

Posted by samzenpus from the reducing-the-radiation dept.
AmiMoJo writes: French lawmakers have approved a bill to reduce the country's reliance on nuclear power from 75% to 50% by 2025. The policy was one of President Francois Hollande's campaign pledges. The legislation also includes a target of reducing the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030, compared to the level in 1990. The new law aims to eventually halve France's energy consumption by 2050 from the 2012 level. The ambitious goal came in the lead-up to the COP 21 climate change conference in Paris later this year. France will chair the meeting.

Slashdot Top Deals

"It is hard to overstate the debt that we owe to men and women of genius." -- Robert G. Ingersoll

Close