Lifeboat Foundation

If you’ve ever tried to learn how to spin a pencil in your hand, you’ll know it takes some concerted effort—but it’s even harder for a robot. Now, though, researchers have finally built a ‘bot that can learn to do it.

The reason that tasks like spinning a stick are hard is that a lot happens in a very short time. As the stick moves, the forces exerted by the hand can easily send it flying out of control if they’re not perfectly co-ordinated. Sensing where the stick is and varying the hand’s motion is an awful lot for even the smartest algorithms to handle based on a list of rules.

Continue reading “This Robot’s Teaching Itself to Twirl a Stick” »

Twenty-five years after the introduction of the World Wide Web, the Information Age is coming to an end. Thanks to mobile screens and Internet everywhere, we’re now entering what I call the “Experience Age.”

When was the last time you updated your Facebook status? Maybe you no longer do? It’s been reported that original status updates by Facebook’s 1.6 billion users are down 21 percent.

The status box is an icon of the Information Age, a period dominated by desktop computers and a company’s mission to organize all the world’s information. The icons of the Experience Age look much different, and are born from micro-computers, mobile sensors and high-speed connectivity.

Continue reading “The Information Age is over; welcome to the Experience Age” »

“Eric E. Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, may have unique insight into the multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed against his company by another Silicon Valley heavyweight, Oracle Corporation.”

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“In case you missed it, this week on the Recode Decode podcast, host and Recode co-founder Kara Swisher interviewed our other co-founder, Walt Mossberg, about the past and future of tech and media.”

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Working with Singapore researchers, IBM has engineered a chemical that blocks viruses like Zika, Ebola, dengue, influenza, herpes, and more.

The HoloFlex prototype is the world’s first flexible, holographic smartphone, and it’s remarkable.

An international team of scientists has created molecular motors that can communicate and synchronize their movements.

The team, led by physicist Saw-Wai Hla of Ohio University, published an Advanced Online Publication today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology demonstrating that scientists can control the coordinated motions of tiny machines at the nanoscale. The research has implications for the future development of technologies that can be used in computers, photonics and electronics as well as novel nanoscale devices.

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Not alone? Kepler and K2 Missions found 9 planets that can be just right for sustaining life. NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

If you’ve been staying on top of artificial intelligence news lately, you may know that the games of chess and Go were two of the grand challenges for AI. But do you know what the equivalent is for robotics? It’s table tennis. Just think about how the game requires razor sharp perception and movement, a tall order for a machine.

As entertaining as human vs. robot games can be, what they actually demonstrate is much more important. They test the technology’s readiness for practical applications in the real world—like self-driving cars that can navigate around unexpected people in a street.