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Category: robotics/AI – Page 2,810

Russian Army to Introduce New ‘Robot Warriors’

Russia’s NextGen Robots are coming.

Russian military institutions are working on a program of robotization of the army that will introduce combat robots able to act independently on the battlefield, deputy head of the Defense Ministry Pavel Popov said in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

Special military units of robots will be operated by a united control system, Popov said, adding that many robotic and pilotless vehicles are already employed in the Russian military.

Military expert Viktor Murakhovsky confirmed that Russia is actively developing new robotic machinery, though the concept is not widely discussed, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.

Visa thinks your car should pay for its own fuel

The jury may still be out on the usefulness of the Internet of Things, but payments giant Visa is 100 percent sure that it doesn’t want to miss out. Today, it announced plans to push Visa payments into numerous fields. We’re talking “wearables, automobiles, appliances, public transportation services, clothing, and almost any other connected device” — basically anything that can or will soon connect to the internet.

Visa imagines a future where you’ll be able to pay for parking from your car dashboard or order a grocery delivery from your fridge. It makes sense, then, that Samsung is one of the first companies to sign up to the Visa Ready Program, alongside Accenture, universal payment card company Coin and Fit Pay. Chronos and Pebble are also working to integrate secure payments inside their devices.

To show off the technology, which works with any credit card, Visa or otherwise, the company has teamed up with Honda to develop an in-car app that helps automate payments. Right now they have two demos, the first of which concerns refueling. It warns the driver when their fuel level is low and directs them to the nearest gas station. Once the car arrives at the pump, the app calculates the expected cost and allows the driver to pay for the fuel without having to leave the vehicle.

China relocating thousands to build record-size telescope

This story reminds me of the building of ancient pyramids in Egypt as well as the building of ancient temples and cities in Mexico and India.

China has relocated 9K people to build their new giant telescope — in 2000 years from now the robots and Ray Kurzweil (who plans never to die) will be looking at the ancient telescope. And, Ray (the grand earth historian) can tell them all about the process and the reason why it was built.

The Chinese government plans to relocate some 9,000 people to make space for the world’s largest radio telescope. Photo: ChinaPhotoPress.

Challenge for Microsoft: Could we get more work done in our cars? (Should we?)

Does the connected self driving car, mean a connected work car as well?

SAN FRANCISCO — In the balancing act between business and pleasure, the modern connected car is mostly about pleasure. Drivers can easily stream music from the Internet and dictate text messages to friends, but staying connected to the office is still cumbersome, as anyone who has tried to join a teleconference while driving can attest.

People tired of checking corporate email around the clock may prefer it that way. After all, a request from the boss can still be reasonably deflected with a simple: “Sorry, I’m driving.”

Yet for Microsoft Corp., which dominates the workplace software market with its Office 365 suite, in-car productivity is a huge, untapped opportunity. Many people use cars as mobile offices, and as cars become more automated, putting together a slide deck behind the wheel may go from unsafe to commonplace.

Robot chores: Machines tipped to take 15m Brit jobs in the next ten years

“No offense; but your robots are ugly”

Robots today (especially for home and care giver usage) will need to improve drastically. We’re still designing robots like the are a CPU for homes which frankly freaks some kids out, scares some of the elderly population that it’s too fragile to operate, and my own cat will not come near one. If robotics for home use is ever going to be adopted by the large mass of the population they will need to look less like they are a robot part of a manufacturers’s assembly line, will need a softer/ low noise sound with volume controls for those with hard of hearing, will need modifications for the deaf and blind, will all need to be a multi purpose robot that can do 2 or more types of work inside the home vacumn/ dust/ cook/ wash dishes/ wash clothes, etc., not complicated to set up and operate, reliable (not needing repairs all the time & not over heat), less bulky, better sensors to determine stairs and can climb stairs, etc.

From mowing the lawn to cooking dinner, experts say automatons are set to take over some of our most tedious tasks.

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Researchers Propose a Simple Way to Prevent a Robot Uprising

Unfortunately, much of this (teaching morals, developing a defense plan in case of a preemptive strike, etc,) is not going to work and key reason is simple. Robots are and will always be a machine at it’s core foundation. And, as a result, criminals and terrorists will be able to pay enough money to someone to over ride the technology; therefore, enabling criminals and others to do whatever they wish with the technology.

Instead of trying to promote book reading as a means to preventing an up rising; let’s be a little more realistic in this by stating we’re teaching the machine to have more of an interpersonal approach in its communications and interactions with people. Also, I highly encourage robotic companies need to include a well diverse engineering team especially where robotics is being developed for domestic usage and caregiver usage; otherwise, you will be only as good as the next competitor’s product that did include a right mix of engineers and deliver a better product that meets both male and female needs as well as cultural needs.

In other words, it will be hard for a robot designed & created with a dominate male (20 to 30 something year olds) minded to relate how a female 50 yr old thinks about her house. Again, I would love to see more females get into this space especially female owned companies because they could truly own this market.
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This is going to require a few good books. But choose them carefully.

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Meet the man building Herb, the closest thing we have to Rosie the Robot

Where robotic companies are really messing up

The domesticated robot market is a hot market; could be dominated by female owned and operated robotic companies. When we look at the companies building robots today for home use; it is very male dominated meaning a woman that is in her 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s is stuck with robotics for her home designed and developed by 20 & 30 year old males.

Now, how does a 20 or 30 something year old understands how a female in her 30’s, 40’s, … thinks and “feels” about her house? They don’t so this is a huge gap and a problem in this space.

Ttp://www.digitaltrends.com/home/sidd-srinivasa-home-robots-5-years/

Sidd Srinivasa has been working on a robotic butler for the past 11 years. He tells Digital Trends where he hopes home robots will be in the near future.

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This LG Robot Ball Thing Is Insane

Nice gadget; however, still trying to understand it’s benefit. Some may say takes pics; well why I would have a drone. Maybe good for soccer.

Let’s talk about balls for a second. They’re super handy. They’ve done a lot for humans. And because of spherical objects, we have sports and automobiles. Heck—even the Earth is a giant ball.

But LG just took ball technology to the next level.

It’s called the LG Rolling Bot, and it’s like Star Wars BB-8 droid mated with a cat toy. This super ball is just one of many accessories designed with the LG G5 in mind, and it’s easily the most insane of the bunch.

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We All Need A Robot Like This To Iron Our Clothes

I could see dry cleaners in the future being one that you drive up, drop your clothing in a bin (like a drop off box), key in your name and phone number on a kiosk, you get a ticket, a self driving van/ truck collects from the drop off box, the robotics cleaner cleans and processes your clothes. You come to the dry cleaning center, you pay, and collect your clothes.

Also, if you opt to have your clothes delivered; at time of drop off you will be required to prepay and enter in your address at the drop off point. And, a drone delivers to your address.

Ironing sucks, but it’s the kind of precise activity that usually stumps robots. But no longer, because a wonderful team of engineers has developed a robot that can smooth the creases right out of your most wrinkled pair of pants.

The team has published a paper on the arXiv server that describes a new robotic system to smooth cloth using a regular iron. Using two Xbox Kinects, the system scans the surface of whatever it needs to smooth then works out the best way to iron it. The team explains in its abstract:

We present a novel solution to analyse the cloth surface by fusing two surface scan techniques: a curvature scan and a discontinuity scan. The curvature scan can estimate the height deviation of the cloth surface, while the discontinuity scan can effectively detect sharp surface features, such as wrinkles. We use this information to detect the regions that need to be pulled and extended before ironing, and the other regions where we want to detect wrinkles and apply ironing to remove the wrinkles.

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