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Stand-up wheelchair gives users outdoor mobility

Self-stabilising wheelchair from Israeli technology start-up lets you cruise through town while standing. Matthew Stock reports.

Nearly 20 years ago Amit Goffer suffered an accident that confined him to a wheelchair. Increasingly dissatisfied with what was on offer, the electrical engineer built this — the UPnRIDE. It’s a robotic exoskeleton that helps people paralysed from the waist down to stand tall in the outside world. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER AND FOUNDER OF UPNRIDE, DOCTOR AMIT GOFFER SAYING: “The UPnRIDE device, the whole idea is that you can use it outdoors as well as indoors and in a safe manner because they, it automatically balances you and stablizes you… The concept is new because you don’t see any disabled person rolling outside in a standing position so this is a breakthrough in the industry of wheelchair manufacturing, I’m sure that others will follow.” It goes from seated to standing at the push of a button. A gyroscope — similar to that in a two-wheeled Segway — along with self-stabilising software helps manoeuvre upright over uneven urban terrain.

DARPA Launches Contest to Make AI-powered Military Radios that are Really Smart

Got to love this stuff.


Teams that join this DARPA program, the “Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2),” will have to demonstrate new technologies that represent a “paradigm shift” with both military and commercial applications.

“The real crux of the problem is — when you look at users of the spectrum, whether they are commercial users of the spectrum, whether they’re consumers or they’re the military — the thing that is ubiquitously true is we all are placing more and more and more demand on the spectrum. And all of that demand is really adding up and going to stress the way that we actually manage the spectrum,” said Paul Tilghman, program manager.

“Where do we put our communications systems? Where do we put our radars? Where do we put our (electronic warfare) systems?”

Turing’s new phone: Too good to be true in reality

Turing Robot Industries (TRI) has huge plans regarding its new phone. The third in the series phone, has such high-tech plans lined up for it that these plans itself make you cringe on the grounds of practicality and reality. The plans of the company for this phone include an 18 GB RAM, three Snapdragon 830’s, 6.4-inch 4K display, 1.2 TB storage 60MP iMAX 6K Quad Rear Camera Triplet Lens at f/1.2, and a 20MP front camera.

It will have 4G VoLTE enabled 4 Nano SIMs, support Parallel Tracking and Mapping API. This entire package will be powered by a 120wh battery which will also use a triple power source. This would be in the form of a supercooled 3,600mAh graphene battery and a pair of 2,600mAh Li-Ion Hydrogen Fuel cells powering your device (and maybe also your home).

AVIA Provides Systematic Test and Evaluation for Autonomy Systems

For vessels operating at sea, avoiding collisions is a basic operational requirement. When those vessels are operated by humans, collision avoidance is part of basic operator training. And when those vessels become highly autonomous, collision avoidance must be incorporated into complex autonomy algorithms that must be thoroughly tested before the vessels enter the water.