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Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), the intelligence community’s research arm, will soon launch two programs designed to detect fake fingerprints and develop devices to collect fingerprint data without the aid of a human operator, according to a report by GCN.

The Odin program, which is scheduled to begin with four prime developers in early March, will develop detection technologies that can spot presentation attacks on biometric devices that attempt to spoof physical biometric samples, said Chris Boehnen, senior program manager at IARPA.

Boehnen said that prosthetic fingers, fake fingerprints made with wood glue and other tactics can dupe current fingerprint sensors.

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Squeezed between two pieces of man-made diamond in the laboratory, hydrogen has finally been transformed into a metallic form that is believed to exist inside planets such as Jupiter, scientists revealed last Thursday.

Metallic hydrogen, deemed the rarest and potentially among the most valuable on Earth, was theorized almost a century ago. If certain theoretical predictions hold true, the hydrogen could turn into a solid metal that can remain solid once crushing pressure is removed. It could also serve as a room-temperature superconductor, conducting electricity sans resistance.

“This is the holy grail of high-pressure physics,” said Harvard physics professor Isaac Silvera, who created the material along with postdoctoral fellow Ranga Dias.

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Here is a thought besides Robots with muscles; Robots working out in gyms or robot body builders. We’re already talking about Civil Rights for Robots and muscle for tough robots. Why not a gym along with the pyschologist for robots. And, don’t get me started on the whole substance abusing robots.


Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robot videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We’ll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here’s what we have so far (send us your events!):

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Is Synbio the next big thing? Hmmm; depends. If we’re talking about ensuring that we have a solid foundation/ infrastructure (including platforms; etc.) on QC 1st then with the existing evolution and maturity of the fundamentals around Synbio as a 1st step; then accelerating the further maturity of Synbio into creating super humans and singularity? My answer is yes. If we’re not even considering that we need QC and just focused on Synbio only; my answer is No as QC will be required as a foundation for things like real Humanoid AI, cell circuited humans/ super humans, etc.


Why we might soon be buying silk, wood, and more fabricated out of genetic code.

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Hmmm; Have a feeling the over crowed satellite junk problem in the upper atmosphere is nothing compared to what we see with this in the next 5 years as we look at Amazon, UPS, FedEx, USPS, PizzaHut, Dominos, Local delivery services via drone, EMS drone responders, comcast troubleshoot & repair drones, etc.


Description: Collision ‘only narrowly avoided’, Author: Linsey McNeill — TravelMole Media Group LLC, Publish Date: 27 January 2017, Image:, Category: Travel News.

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And, the laws are slowly try to catch up to tech.


SANTA FE, N.M. (Jan. 27, 2017) – A bill introduced in the New Mexico Senate would limit the warrantless use of surveillance drones. The legislation would not only establish important privacy protections at the state level, it would also help thwart the federal surveillance state.

Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque) introduced Senate Bill 167 (SB167) on Jan. 19. Titled The Freedom from Unwanted Surveillance Act, the legislation would prohibit federal, state and local law enforcement from using a drone with the intent to gather evidence on private property without a warrant in most cases.

The proposed law would allow for the warrantless drone surveillance when exigent circumstances exist.

In Brief

  • Two more teams of researchers have found ways to create time crystals, lattices that repeat not in space but in time, breaking time-translation symmetry.
  • Though applications are unclear, the research could help us better understand quantum properties and solve the problem of quantum memory associated with quantum computing.

Time crystals are strange. At the very least, they are a contradiction. A time crystal is quantum phenomenon that demonstrates movement while remaining in its ground, or lowest energy, state. Essentially a non-equilibrium form of matter, time crystals are lattices that repeat not in space but in time, breaking time-translation symmetry.

When the idea of a time crystal was proposed in 2012 by physicist and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, it was only a theoretical possibility that would challenge many of the laws of physics. Then, in October 2016, a team of researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) managed to make a “floquet time crystal.”

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