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The Military

US Navy Tests 3D Printing Custom Drones On Its Ships 66

Posted by timothy from the just-in-time dept.
itwbennett writes: Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School are testing the use of 3D printers on ships to produce custom drones outfitted for specialized missions. The idea, said Alan Jaeger, a faculty research associate at the school, is that ships could set sail with kits of the core electronics parts, since they are common to most drones, but have the bodies designed according to specific requirements for each mission. A prototype drone was designed by engineers on shore based on requirements of the sailors at sea, and the 3D design file was emailed to the USS Essex over a satellite link. Flight tests revealed some of the potential problems, most of which were associated with operating the drone rather than the printing itself, Jaeger said. 'Even with a small amount of wind, something this small will get buffeted around,' he said. They also had to figure out the logistics of launching a drone from a ship, getting it back, how it integrated with other flight operations, and interference from other radio sources like radar.
Shark

Researchers Demonstrate the World's First White Lasers 118

Posted by samzenpus from the amazing-laser dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists and engineers at Arizona State University, in Tempe, have created the first lasers that can shine light over the full spectrum of visible colors. The device's inventors suggest the laser could find use in video displays, solid-state lighting, and a laser-based version of Wi-Fi. Although previous research has created red, blue, green and other lasers, each of these lasers usually only emitted one color of light. Creating a monolithic structure capable of emitting red, green, and blue all at once has proven difficult because it requires combining very different semiconductors. Growing such mismatched crystals right next to each other often results in fatal defects throughout each of these materials. But now scientists say they've overcome that problem. The heart of the new device is a sheet only nanometers thick made of a semiconducting alloy of zinc, cadmium, sulfur, and selenium. The sheet is divided into different segments. When excited with a pulse of light, the segments rich in cadmium and selenium gave off red light; those rich in cadmium and sulfur emitted green light; and those rich in zinc and sulfur glowed blue.

Comment Re:Normal human translation (Score 1) 574

by RogueWarrior65 (#50194267) Attached to: Clinton Promises 500 Million New Solar Panels

It's pretty simple. Profit motive. The time of the solitary inventor devoting his life to the joy of inventing is long since passed because of an ever increasing need of money to pay for things that we have no choice about. A major example is insurance. You have to have it and you have to have several different kinds. In some cases, you have to have insurance to protect you from people who don't have it even though they are required by law to have it. What a scam! The other big one that most people don't fully realize are fees. Fees upon fees upon more bullsh*t fees. Take a look at the statement for every monthly bill you get and study the laundry list of fees that have nothing to do with the commodity you're using. And some of those fees are so byzantine that you can't tell what they're for. Case in point: my electric bill for the workshop space that I rent has a $30 per month "metering" fee. The same line item for my house is only $3. So I called to find out what the eff. The first person I spoke to had no clue what it was. A supervisor told me that it's for a three-phase meter. I said, "But I don't have three-phase service inside the shop." Doesn't matter. The meter is the meter. Beyond that, we're rapidly going down the rat hole where the average person can't own anything anymore. They'll "rent" everything forever and wonder why they're broke all the time.
The Almighty Buck

19-Year-Old's Supercomputer Chip Startup Gets DARPA Contract, Funding 150

Posted by samzenpus from the show-me-the-money dept.
An anonymous reader writes: 19-year-old Thomas Sohmers, who launched his own supercomputer chip startup back in March, has won a DARPA contract and funding for his company. Rex Computing, is currently finishing up the architecture of its final verified RTL, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The new Neo chips will be sampled next year, before moving into full production in mid-2017.The Platform reports: "In addition to the young company’s first round of financing, Rex Computing has also secured close to $100,000 in DARPA funds. The full description can be found midway down this DARPA document under 'Programming New Computers,' and has, according to Sohmers, been instrumental as they start down the verification and early tape out process for the Neo chips. The funding is designed to target the automatic scratch pad memory tools, which, according to Sohmers is the 'difficult part and where this approach might succeed where others have failed is the static compilation analysis technology at runtime.'"

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