rtoz - Slashdot User

Submission + - Google is testing Delivery Drone System "Project Wing"

Submitted by rtoz on Friday August 29, 2014 @05:34AM

rtoz writes: Google's research division Google X is developing a system of drones to deliver goods.

This Drone Delivery System is named as "Project Wing".

Google X has been working on this project for the last two years secretly.

Recently it tested the drone delivery system at Queensland in Australia.
The Drones successfully delivered a first aid kit, candy bars, dog treats, and water to a couple of Australian farmers

The self-flying vehicle itself consists of four electrically-driven propellers with a wingspan of about five feet; it weighs just under 19 pounds and can take off and land without a runway.

Long-term goal of the Google is to develop drones that could be used for disaster relief by delivering aid to isolated areas.

Submission + - Amazon acquires Twitch for $970 million

Submitted by rtoz on Tuesday August 26, 2014 @06:16AM

rtoz writes: Amazon has agreed to buy the massively popular video game streaming website Twitch in an all-cash deal of around $970 million.

This deal came just months after numerous reports that Google had a deal to acquire Twitch.

According to the CEO ( Emmett Shear) of Twitch, Amazon plans to let Twitch operate independently, out of its offices in San Francisco. It seems Twitch decides to choose Amazon over Google because of this reason.

Twitch did not exist a little over three years ago, and it now has 55 million unique viewers a month globally.

Twitch specializes in live videos of the people playing games.

Submission + - Nuclear power plant was shut down at Busan, South Korea due to heavy rain

Submitted by rtoz on Monday August 25, 2014 @11:58AM

rtoz writes: Heavy rain hit the southern part of the south Korea, causing flash floods, landslides, and suspension of subway service in some areas.

The massive rain also halted the operation of a nuclear reactor in Busan.

The Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) manually stopped operation of the Gori-2 nuclear power plant in Busan for safety reason due to excessive water in the area.

There were no signs of a radiation leak or of any immediate risk, the KHNP said. It was the first time in history that a Korean nuclear reactor had been shut down because of rain. The Gori-2 reactor has been in operation since July 1983.

Submission + - Hackers brought down Vatican Website.

Submitted by rtoz on Monday August 25, 2014 @01:33AM

rtoz writes: Some hackers brought down the Vatican website www.vaticanstate.va

A twitter account named “Lizard Squad” is claiming responsibility for this hacking activity.
Previously they have brought down Sony’s PlayStation Network, which enables gamers to play each other online and access content.
It was hit by a so-called denial of service after it was overwhelmed by hackers driving artificially high traffic to its servers.

And, a flight carrying John Smedley, the president of Sony’s online entertainment unit was diverted for a security issue.

Submission + - Google has announced a new processor for Project Ara.

Submitted by rtoz on Saturday August 23, 2014 @07:35AM

rtoz writes: Google has just announced a new processor for Project Ara. The mobile Rockchip SoC will function as an applications processor, without requiring a bridge chip. A prototype of the phone with the Rockchip CPU, will be available early next year.

Via Google+ post, the Project Ara team Head Paul Eremenko says “We view this Rockchip processor as a trailblazer for our vision of a modular architecture where the processor is a node on a network with a single, universal interface--free from also serving as the network hub for all of the mobile device’s peripherals.”

Submission + - Power generation from the meeting of river water and seawater.

Submitted by rtoz on Friday August 22, 2014 @01:05PM

rtoz writes: A team at MIT has now developed a model to evaluate the performance and optimal dimensions of large PRO systems. In general, the researchers found that the larger a system’s membrane, the more power can be produced — but only up to a point. Interestingly, 95 percent of a system’s maximum power output can be generated using only half or less of the maximum membrane area.

A PRO system could potentially power a coastal wastewater-treatment plant by taking in seawater and combining it with treated wastewater to produce renewable energy.

Submission + - Leg Exoskeleton to sit anywhere without requiring Chair

Submitted by rtoz on Thursday August 21, 2014 @11:45AM

rtoz writes: A switzerland based start-up company has created a low cost leg Exoskeleton that allows you to Sit anywhere. It is named as "Chairless Chair".

This device offers a wearable alternative for work areas where chairs or stools would take up too much floor space.

According to the makers of this device, the Chairless Chair offers better posture than a conventional chair by keeping the back straight.

Freedom of movement of the user is not reduced by this device. The users can walk, run, and climb stairs while wearing this device.

Although the focus is on production lines, the device has many other potential applications in our daily life.

Submission + - Self-assembly of thousand little robots "Kilobots" to form complex shapes.

Submitted by rtoz on Friday August 15, 2014 @08:29AM

rtoz writes: Researchers at Harvard university had demonstrated a self-organizing swarm which was formed by one thousand little robots known as "Kilobots".

The robots begin to blink at one another and then gradually arrange themselves into a five-pointed star, once after a computer scientist gave a command for forming a sea Star shape to 1,024 little bots simultaneously via an infrared light.

Just as single cells can assemble into complex multicellular organisms, the individual Kilobots can follow simple rules to autonomously assemble into predetermined shapes.

Submission + - Hyperlapse Technology to fix Shaky Time-lapse Videos

Submitted by rtoz on Tuesday August 12, 2014 @11:10AM

rtoz writes: Microsoft Research has demonstrated a new technology for converting first-person videos, for example, captured with a helmet camera during activities such as rock climbing or bicycling into hyper-lapse videos, i.e., time-lapse videos with a smoothly moving camera.

The Researchers are working on making their Hyperlapse algorithm available as a Windows app.

Comment So, we are going to have artificial Brains Soon? (Score 1) 105

by rtoz on Friday August 08, 2014 @08:16AM (#47629163) Attached to: IBM Creates Custom-Made Brain-Like Chip

I am just curious to know whether this chip can lead to the development of artificial brains to be used by Humans in future? And, I couldn't understand why this chip will not available in the open market.

Submission + - Extracting audio from visual information 1

Submitted by rtoz on Monday August 04, 2014 @05:52AM

rtoz writes: Researchers at MIT, Microsoft, and Adobe have developed an algorithm that can reconstruct an audio signal by analyzing minute vibrations of objects depicted in video. In one set of experiments, they were able to recover intelligible speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag photographed from 15 feet away through soundproof glass.

Submission + - New Display Technology that corrects for vision defects 1

Submitted by rtoz on Thursday July 31, 2014 @10:34AM

rtoz writes: Researchers at the MIT Media Lab have developed a new display technology that automatically corrects for vision defects without requiring glasses or contact lenses.

This technique could lead to dashboard-mounted GPS displays that farsighted drivers can consult without putting their glasses on, or electronic readers that eliminate the need for reading glasses.

This display is a variation on a glasses-free 3-D technology.

The 3-D display projects slightly different images to the viewer’s left and right eyes.

Similarly, this vision-correcting display projects slightly different images to different parts of the viewer’s pupil.

Submission + - Google, Linaro develop custom Android edition for Project Ara

Submitted by rtoz on Wednesday July 30, 2014 @10:22AM

rtoz writes: Google is working with open-source development organization Linaro to develop a special edition of Android for the Project Ara customizable smartphone.

A special edition of Android had to be created for the unique customizable design of Project Ara, said George Grey, CEO of Linaro.

Android can already plug and play SD cards. But Grey said additional OS functionality is needed for storage, cameras and other modules that are typically inside smartphones, but can now be externally added to Project Ara.

A lot of work is also being done on UniPro transport drivers, which connect modules and components in Project Ara. UniPro protocol drivers in Android will function much like the USB protocol, where modules will be recognized based on different driver “classes,” such as those for networking, sensor, imaging, input and others.

Some attachable parts may not be recognized by Android. For those parts, separate drivers need to be developed by module makers through emulators. “That will be need to be done in a secure system so the device can’t do damage to the system,” Grey said.

Project Ara is a very disruptive concept, and it turns around conventional thinking on how to build phones, Grey said.

Submission + - UK to allow driverless cars by 2015

Submitted by rtoz on Wednesday July 30, 2014 @07:32AM

rtoz writes: The UK government has announced that driverless cars will be allowed on public roads from January next year.

It also invited cities to compete to host one of three trials of the tech, which would start at the same time.

In addition, ministers ordered a review of the UK's road regulations to provide appropriate guidelines.

The debate now is whether to allow cars, like the prototype unveiled by Google in May, to abandon controls including a steering wheel and pedals and rely on the vehicle's computer.

Or whether, instead, to allow the machine to drive, but insist a passenger be ready to wrest back control at a moment's notice.

Submission + - Google's Baseline Study for defining Healthy Human.

Submitted by rtoz on Friday July 25, 2014 @10:00AM

rtoz writes: Google’s research division "Google X" has started another moonshot project named as "Baselne Study".

The baseline study project will collect anonymous genetic and molecular information from 175 people and later thousands more to create the complete picture of what a healthy human being should be.

The baseline study will help researchers detect killers such as heart disease and cancer far earlier, pushing medicine more toward prevention rather than the treatment of illness.

According to Google, the information from Baseline will be anonymous and its use will be limited to medical and health purposes. Data won't be shared with insurance companies.

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