A technology official described her pursuit of a future force that includes high-powered lasers a self sustaining combat outposts.
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Category: drones – Page 166
A few weeks ago DJI unveiled its newest drone, the Phantom 4, the first craft to offer robust obstacle avoidance at a price the average consumer can afford. It relied on computer vision to power its autonomous flight, and since DJI had shown off this kind of tech before, we assumed that all the hardware on the Phantom 4 was homegrown, or backed by a giant like Intel. But today the chipmaker Movidius announced that its latest offer, the Myriad 2, was at the center of the onboard processor powering the Phantom 4’s incredible new abilities.
As it turns out this isn’t the first time Movidius has partnered with a big name to develop cutting edge technology. Back in 2014 its first chip, the Myriad 1, was revealed as the brains inside of Google’s first generation of Project Tango tablets. After a decade toiling in relative obscurity, the small 125 person company is suddenly poised to emerge as a leader at the intersection of several major markets — from drones to phones to virtual reality — which are looking for ways to enable cheap, power-efficient computer vision.
“The company was founded in late 2005, so we’ve had a long gestation,” says CEO Remi El-Ouazzane with a laugh. In its early years it found some business converting old movies into 3D, helping to shore up content offerings for the 3D TV market that never took off. In 2010 its chips were put to use as an engine for 3D rendering, but it was competing with plenty of established chip makers in that market. It wasn’t until 2013, and its partnership with Tango, that the company realized how widespread the application of computer vision could be, and focused in on optimizing for what it believed would be the next wave of devices.
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking techies to help fight terrorism. The US military, after spending decades in a struggle to defend itself against improvised weapons, is now inviting inventors to get explosively creative.
Whatever device this article is currently being read on, in the wrong hands, could become a weapon. Technology such as USBs, off-the-shelf software and cell phones have all been deployed against US or US-backed forces. Now the US hopes to return the favor, according to Ars Technica.
What makes fighting against improvised weapons so difficult is that they can be made from almost anything, from non-military drones to gardening tools. In its announcement, DARPA encouraged inventors to use anything from widely-available commercial technology to “highly specialized, domain-specific technology such as construction, salvage, or surveying equipment.”
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Tree Planting Drones
Posted in drones
I like this article; why? Because if I plan to make any investment into a robot that is my personal assistant, or housekeeper, or caregiver, etc. I want to ensure that they fit my own needs as a person. Many of us have taken some sort of a personality profile for work; interview for jobs where you were reviewed to be a “fit” culturaly, etc. as well as met people 1st before you hired them. So, why should be any different from the so called “humnoid robots?” And, this should be intriguing for some of us where only 6% of your gender thinks and processes information like you do.
Emotional behaviors can make your drone seem like it’s an adventurer, anti-social, or maybe just exhausted.
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Interesting Question to ask.
The battle between the FBI and Apple over the unlocking of a terrorist’s iPhone will likely require Congress to create new legislation. That’s because there really aren’t any existing laws which encompass technologies such as these. The battle is between security and privacy, with Silicon Valley fighting for privacy. The debates in Congress will be ugly, uninformed, and emotional. Lawmakers won’t know which side to pick and will flip flop between what lobbyists ask and the public’s fear du jour. And because there is no consensus on what is right or wrong, any decision they make today will likely be changed tomorrow.
This is a prelude of things to come, not only with encryption technologies, but everything from artificial intelligence to drones, robotics, and synthetic biology. Technology is moving faster than our ability to understand it, and there is no consensus on what is ethical. It isn’t just the lawmakers who are not well-informed, the originators of the technologies themselves don’t understand the full ramifications of what they are creating. They may take strong positions today based on their emotions and financial interests, but as they learn more, they too will change their views.
Imagine if there was a terror attack in Silicon Valley — at the headquarters of Facebook or Apple. Do you think that Tim Cook or Mark Zuckerberg would continue to put privacy ahead of national security?
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New Drone Stopping Gun that enables the public to target and gently bring down drones without damage. I see this offering some good use for victims of stalkers and robberies. However, criminals can use this to collect property from drone doing deliveries for companies like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, etc. However, most criminals today use rifles and shotguns to bring drones down; and the goods that they are carrying is often damaged as well. This will change that for them.
Capturing drones just got a little intense.
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