Lifeboat Foundation

A team of Swiss researchers from Graubuenden University of Applied Sciences has broken the record for calculating the mathematical constant pi. It is now known to an incredible level of exactitude, hitting 62.8 trillion figures thanks to the work of a supercomputer.

Pi represents the ratio between the radius of a circle and its circumference. You may recognize the first 10 digits, π=3.141592653, though there is an infinite number of digits that follow that decimal point.

To write all of the digits for the new record out on A4 paper, you would need almost 35 billion sheets, equivalent to about 52 percent of the mass of the Empire State Building. Putting those pieces of paper head to toe they would extend for over 10 million kilometers (6.5 million miles).

Bags made from rice bran and milk cartons.

A local entrepreneur in the Japanese tourist destination of Nara has developed an alternative to plastic shopping bags, to protect the town’s sacred deer.

Hidetoshi Matsukawa, who works for Nara-ism, a souvenir wholesale agent, told CNN he heard last year that the deer, which roam the city’s park, were dying after ingesting plastic bags.

Continue reading “Japanese man invents ‘edible’ plastic bag alternative to save Nara’s sacred deer” »

We are working on how to make AI easier to understand, in this second part we look at some methods and examples of how to do this.

A new paper argues that the rise of artificial intelligence in agriculture could be the best—or worst—innovation for our environment.

For the 40-million amputees in need of prosthetic limbs, this personalized and affordable process for fitting prosthetics means hope for a better future.

For those who don’t want to be buried in a cemetery.

By turning ashes into diamonds, Eterneva is creating a new way to carry the memory of our loved ones with us long after their death.

Continue reading “The startup turning human ashes into diamonds | Challengers” »

Unlike humans, these eight-armed creatures can form crystal-clear memories even in their final weeks.

It’s impressive. But, i don’t see it doing anything that it hasn’t done before. The next step Has To Be equipping it with Human Level hands that can be teleoperated and possibly self operated.

Parkour is the perfect sandbox for the Atlas team at Boston Dynamics to experiment with new behaviors. In this video our humanoid robots demonstrate their whole-body athletics, maintaining its balance through a variety of rapidly changing, high-energy activities. Through jumps, balance beams, and vaults, we demonstrate how we push Atlas to its limits to discover the next generation of mobility, perception, and athletic intelligence.

Continue reading “Atlas | Partners in Parkour” »

Qualcomm has unveiled the world’s first drone platform and reference design that will tap in both 5G and AI technologies. The chipmaker’s Flight RB5 5G Platform condenses multiple complex technologies into one tightly integrated drone system to support a variety of use cases, including film and entertainment, security and emergency response, delivery, defense, inspection, and mapping.

The Flight RB5 5G Platform is powered by the chipmaker’s QRB5165 processor and builds upon the company’s latest IoT offerings to offer high-performance and heterogeneous computing at ultra-low power consumption.