Lifeboat Foundation

In-car satnav systems and mobile mapping apps have made it much easier to travel from one place to another without getting lost, but a new innovation promises to help fix a remaining pain point – getting in the right lane at intersections.

Today’s mapping apps aren’t always much help if you’re at an unfamiliar intersection and aren’t sure exactly where on the road your car is supposed to be: the apps often don’t have the detail or the knowledge to warn you in good time about changing lanes.

The system developed by researchers at MIT and the Qatar Computing Research Institute uses satellite imagery to augment existing mapping data, but the smart part is applying artificial intelligence to work out the layout of roads hidden by trees and buildings.

The first person diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus in the United States is being treated by a few medical workers and a robot.

The robot, equipped with a stethoscope, is helping doctors take the man’s vitals and communicate with him through a large screen, said Dr. George Diaz, chief of the infectious disease division at the Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington.

An #Israeli startup is hoping to help stop the spread of the deadly #coronavirus by shipping meters of anti-pathogen fabric to produce face masks or other protective clothing to #China.

“We see an epidemic,” said Liat Goldhammer-Steinberg, CTO of Sonovia Ltd., an Israeli company whose technology is based on a lab scale sonochemical process that was developed at Bar-Ilan University. “We have the ability to help prevent the virus from spreading.”

Continue reading “Could Israeli startup help stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus?” »

From January 23

Gilead Sciences Inc said on Thursday it was assessing whether its experimental Ebola treatment could be used against the new coronavirus that has sickened hundreds of people in China and led to at least 18 deaths. “Gilead is in active discussions with researchers and clinicians in the United States and China regarding the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and the potential use of remdesivir as an investigational treatment,” a company spokesman said in an emailed statement.

(Reuters) — Gilead Sciences Inc said on Thursday it was assessing whether its experimental Ebola treatment could be used against the new coronavirus that has sickened hundreds of people in China and led to at least 18 deaths.

Continue reading “Gilead assessing potential use of Ebola drug as China virus treatment” »

The Crew Dragon is expected to launch a new era of US spaceflight. NASA will then stop relying on Russia to launch its astronauts.

By robotic suit walk Grace Harvey reveals the mixed emotions she had after walking for the first time in a robotic suit.

The deadly animal-borne coronavirus spreading globally may have originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan linked to China’s covert biological weapons program, said an Israeli biological warfare analyst.

Radio Free Asia last week rebroadcast a Wuhan television report from 2015 showing China’s most advanced virus research laboratory, known the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The laboratory is the only declared site in China capable of working with deadly viruses.

Marty, the googly-eyed robot that helps with cleanups at grocery stores, celebrated its first birthday Saturday.

It has been one year since the wheeled robot was rolled out into nearly 500 grocery stores, including about 300 Stop & Shop stores.

Proving once again that truth is often stranger than fiction, a Swiss researcher has recently developed an astonishing new type of robotic hand that can actually lift small items via invisible sound waves. While it might appear to be a clever conjuror’s trick, it’s really employing an old invention called ultrasonic levitation, whereby objects are captured and levitated using the sorcery of science.

Researcher Marcel Schuck of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich is utilizing a strange phenomenon whose history dates back 80 years, but fusing the technology into modern robotics applications. Schuck’s initial touchless gripper resembles a halved gourd attached to a network of wires and containing dozens of miniature loudspeakers.