Carter

Japanese designers have developed a 'wearable chair'

Aching legs from standing up for too long could soon be consigned to the past after designers in Japan developed a wearable chair that straps onto your body.

Respite can be found at any time when wearing the Archelis, or “wearable chair”, as it locks into place once users relax their legs and allows people to walk as they’re wearing it.

Archelis was initially built for surgeons who spend hours in the operating theatre but it could catch the eye of tired waiters, bored bar staff and even the weary commuter.

Source: http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/japanese-designers-have-developed-a-wearable-chair-719945.html

Google computers qualify as drivers in automated cars, US government says 

Google has managed to persuade the US government that the tech company’s computers – rather than humans – should be defined as the “drivers” of a growing fleet of autonomous vehicles.

In a significant precedent for Google and other companies developing autonomous car technology, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has ruled that the software behind some automated cars should be considered the driver.

The decision was contained in a letter that was sent from the federal agency to Google, now a unit within a wider company named Alphabet.

For automakers, the agency’s ruling is a key step in being able to mass-produce self-driving vehicles and sell them to consumers. And on a philosophical level, it’s the most high-profile instance in which a federal agency has said a computer fits the legal definition of a human.

The lengthy document was in response to a request submitted in a November by Google to see how federal safety regulations – such as rules about seats, mirrors and brake pedals – would apply to a self-driving car. The government agency sets and enforces safety standards for US vehicles.

Google wanted to know, for example, if its autonomous vehicles had to abide by a rule that requires vehicles to have an “occupant seat for the driver”.

The government agency responded that, because it interprets the term “driver” as the self-driving system, “the ‘driver’ in this provision would not need an occupant seat”.

Google’s cars “will not have a ‘driver’ in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years,” the NHTSA wrote in the letter, which was sent last week and unearthed by Reuters on Tuesday. “If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable to identify the ‘driver’ as whatever (as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving.”

Tech firms and automakers have been experimenting with self-driving cars for years. They can often be seen on the roads around Google’s Silicon Valley campus – though usually with a human ready to take the controls if needed.

But these vehicles have operated in a patchwork of state, local and federal regulations. If any automaker wanted to mass produce a driverless car to sell to consumers, it would need approval from the NHTSA.

Google in many ways has led a race among tech firms and automakers to bring driverless cars to the masses. Other competitors include Tesla, General Motors and Toyota. Uber, the ride-hailing app, has a research facility in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, working on technology that could replace its fleet of human drivers.

Google says its cars have self-driven more than 1m test miles, with trips in California, Texas and Washington state. Its latest model lacks a steering wheel and a brake lever.

That’s for safety reasons, according to the NHTSA letter. The tech company told regulators these features are missing because they “could be detrimental to safety because the human occupants could attempt to override” the self-driving system’s decisions, according to the letter.

The agency’s ruling likely won’t have any immediate effect on Google’s operations.

Although the NHTSA said it agreed the software was the driver in a Google car, it also said it had no test to evaluate whether the software was a good one. It also said the company would have to work around federal rules requiring cars to have basic safety features – like brake pedals. This could be done by having rules changed or by Google petitioning for an exemption, the agency said.

“Those standards were drafted at a time when it was reasonable to assume that all motor vehicles would have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, and brake pedal, almost always located at the front left seating position, and that all vehicles would be operated by a human driver,” the government said.

The US Department of Transportation so far has supported Silicon Valley’s push to take humans out of the driver’s seat, viewing it as a way to minimize traffic deaths. The White House budget, released this week, includes $4bn over the next decade to promote the development of self-driving cars.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/09/google-computers-self-driving-cars-human

Blog: https://www.madinks.ie

Better, Faster, Cheaper: Innovative 3D Printing Inks Open a Vast New World for Metal Printing 9th February 2016

Most everyone in the 3D printing industry is well aware that the future for high quality components seems to be in metal 3D printing. With that in mind, researchers have been steadily refining the process, and now a team at Northwestern University has come up with a process that even allows the use of inexpensive rust powder, which is more lightweight, offers greater stability, and is safer and more affordable in comparison to other iron powders.

Findings regarding this new process were recently discussed in a paper, ‘Metallic Architectures from 3D-Printed Powder-Based Liquid Inks,’ by Adam E. Jakus, Shannon L. Taylor, Nicholas R. Geisendorfer, David C. Dunand, and Ramille N. Shah, just published in Advanced Functional Materials. These researchers have discovered a way to create new and complex metallic architectures via 3D printing with a new class of inks that will extend to a range of metals and mixtures, alloys, oxides, and compounds.

Ramille Shah

“This is exciting because most advanced manufacturing methods being used for metallic printing are limited as far as which metals and alloys can be printed and what types of architecture can be created,” said Dr. Ramille Shah, assistant professor of materials science and engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and of surgery in the Feinberg School of Medicine, who led the study. “Our method greatly expands the architectures and metals we’re able to print, which really opens the door for a lot of different applications.”

With the new process, researchers are able to skip numerous time intensive and expensive tasks from relying on lasers or beams, to eliminating the need for a metal powder bed. The inks are created in any size volume from small to large as solvents, powders, and a biomedical elastomer called polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) are mixed together.

“The resulting 3D-printed green-bodies can be handled immediately, are remarkably robust, and may be further manipulated prior to metallic transformation,” state the researchers in their paper. “Green-bodies are transformed into metallic counterparts without warping or cracking through reduction and sintering in a H2 atmosphere at elevated temperatures.”

Beginning as a liquid, this new 3D ink is quick to become a solid as printing progresses through a simple syringe-extrusion process at room temperature. The new process is well-suited for making structures of any size (referred to as ‘green bodies’) that can be handled directly after printing.

“We used a biomedical polymer that is commonly used in clinical products, such as sutures,” Shah explained. “When we use it as a binder, it makes green bodies that are very robust despite the fact that they still comprise a majority of powder with very little binder. They’re foldable, bendable, and can be hundreds of layers thick without crumbling. Other binders don’t give those properties to resulting 3D printed objects. Ours can be manipulated before being fired. It allows us to create a lot of different architectures that haven’t really been seen in metal 3-D printing.”

The use of a furnace is another part of what makes this process so unique, and allows for uniform temperature that logically allows for uniform components without defects or problems often encountered like warping or cracking. Basically, the only thing limiting size of the prints is the size of the furnace. Many extrusion nozzles can be used at once (as opposed to one laser on a powder bed) to print extremely large sheets.

“To me, as a metallurgist, I’m amazed that the structure does not deform or break apart, despite shrinking extensively during densification,” Dunand said. “That is not something that I see often.”

With oxides such as rust that are then turned into metal via a reduction process, manufacturers should see numerous benefits.

“It might seem like we are needlessly complicating things by adding a third reduction step where we turn rust into iron,” Dunand said. “But this opens up possibilities for using very cheap oxide powders rather than corresponding expensive metal powders. It’s hard to find something cheaper than rust.”

The team sees this process as being conducive for the fabrication of items such as:

Batteries

Solid-oxide fuel cells

Medical implants

Mechanical parts for larger structures like rockets and airplanes

Onsite manufacturing of components

This process should be garnering a great deal of attention from those interested in 3D printing with metal as it offers such an expansive application as well as versatility, considering that 3D models can be built with inks made from both single and mixed oxide powders–and this can be done with over two dozen different metal-based materials. While many have seen a new world opening through metal 3D printing, this new process shows the potential to expand it substantially further.  Discuss the future of 3D printing in the Innovative 3D Ink forum on 3DPB.com.

Source: http://3dprint.com/114922/3d-printing-metallic-inks/

HP printer ink cartridges are washing up all over the UK 5th February 2016

LONDON — Thousands of Hewlett Packard printer cartridges have been washing up on the UK's beaches.

The plastic products have been particularly prevalent on the southwest coast of England, with beachcombers discovering them on sands across Cornwall. They were lost at sea following an Atlantic storm more than a year ago, HP says, and have also been spotted in Ireland, France and Portugal.

Cornish writer and beachcomber Tracey Williams has been keeping track of the cartridges on her Lego Lost At Sea Facebook page, which was initially set up to track Lego bricks spilt from a cargo ship but has broadened to cover all kinds of floating debris since, with photos submitted from beach cleaners worldwide.

"Many people post images of the items they find during beach cleans and we started to notice that HP cartridges were turning up in different parts of the country," she told Mashable. "We asked people to look out for them and started to keep track of who had found them and where. I live by a beach and am interested in (and concerned by) cargo spills, their impact on the environment and where all the debris ends up."

Williams has created a Google map of all the locations cartridges have been found globally.

Oddly, it's not just cartridges. Several people have found mini monkeys stranded on the sand too - a mystery that's yet to be solved by the beachcombers.

Plastic monkeys have also been discovered near the cartridges.

HP UK and Ireland told Mashable that "a number of cartridges" were lost at sea following an Atlantic storm. The company says it is "committed to collection and recycling the products as quickly and efficiently as possible."

"Based on global standards, we can confirm there is no risk to sea life from the ink as it is water based," the company added. They've set up a free phone line and email recycling service, encouraging anyone who finds the cartridges in the UK to call 0800 0969766 or email [email protected] (for Irish residents it's 1800 848 859 or [email protected]) and say they are setting up a fund to support the collection of cartridges.

Earlier this week, thousands of pink plastic bottles appeared in Cornwall. They were believed to have fallen off a container ship. The National Trust organised a clean up operation.

Source: http://mashable.com/2016/01/08/hp-cartridges-uk/#Zve7o_RjiuqP

Epson Deals on MEGA 10 PACK Printer Ink Cartridges 4th February 2016

Looking for printer ink cartridges for your Epson printer.  We stock a full range of money saving compatible Epson (10 pack) printer cartridges.  All our compatible Epson mega packs include FREE DELIVERY, next day throughout Ireland.  Our printer inks are manufactured to the highest standards, and we offer real value when you select our multipack options.

Epson 16XL Mega 10 Pack includes, 4 x Black, 2 x Cyan, 2 x Magenta, 2 x Yellow - All for just €44.99 or €4.50 per cartridge.

For more information on the compatible Epson 16XL range follow the link https://www.madinks.ie/Epson-T1636-267.html

Epson 18XL Mega 10 Pack includes, 4 x Black, 2 x Cyan, 2 x Magenta, 2 x Yellow - All for just €44.99 or €4.50 per cartridge.

For more information on the compatible Epson 18XL range follow the link https://www.madinks.ie/Epson-T1816-268.html

We have the most competitvely priced printer ink cartridges on the Irish market today.  If you are looking for cheap printer ink for your Epson printer and top quality printer ink cartridges that won't let you down, then you have come to the right place!  Madinks prides itself and our super fast delivery and great prices!

Report details Google’s “Project Skybender,” a 5G Internet drone program

If a report from The Guardian is to be believed, Google has yet another Internet-in-the-sky program in the works. This one is called "Project Skybender," and it aims to outfit drones with millimeter wave transceivers—radios that work in a slice of the spectrum that could be used in next-generation "5G" networks.

Apparently, Google currently has drones whizzing around the airspace of Spaceport America in New Mexico, where the project shares a hangar with Virgin Galactic. Currently, the drone hardware seems to be an "optionally piloted" commercial aircraft called the "Centaur," along with the solar-powered drones from Google Titan. Both aircraft are "plane like" drones with wings and front-facing propellers.

The report says that Google is using the drones to "experiment with millimeter-wave radio transmissions" and that the project "ultimately envisages thousands of high altitude 'self-flying aircraft' delivering Internet access around the world." The FCC has said that 5G millimeter wave networks could hit speeds between 1Gbps and 10Gbps. Currently, engineers are working around natural distance and signal propagation issues inherent in the higher frequency. While millimeter-wave transceivers might eventually be integrated into a smartphone, Google is presently using several stationary antennas around Spaceport America.

The company already has Project Loon, a "cell tower in the sky" program that uses high-altitude balloons to beam 4G LTE down to users. Last week we wrote about Google's FCC filings for a mysterious nationwide airborne network, but that still seems to be Project Loon, not Project Skybender. The filings that surfaced last week asked for two years of testing in the 71-76GHz and 81-86GHz bands, while The Guardian says Google has permission from the FCC to test this project at 28GHz until July. Google first starting flying the Titan drones in New Mexico in 2014, but back then it was testing in the 900MHz spectrum.

We've asked Google for a comment, and we'll post an update if we get a response.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/report-details-googles-project-skybender-a-5g-internet-drone-program/

Self-Driving Car Technology Poses High Hacking Risk: Study 1st February 2016

While major auto companies are working on introducing the futuristic self-driving technology in cars soon, this threatens to open new security problems for them as hackers have sensed an opportunity here, a researcher has predicted.

"We are a long way from securing the non-autonomous vehicles, let alone the autonomous ones," said Stefan Savage, computer science professor at the University of California-San Diago, in MIT Technology Review.

Pointing out security flaws to car companies which are into driverless car technology, the researcher said that extra computers, sensors and improved Internet connectivity required to make a car drive on its own increase the possible weak points.

Tech giant Google is working on autonomous cars as part of Google X project to develop technology for mainly electronic cars. The software installed in Google's cars is called Google Chauffeur.

Recently, with the help from Nasa space technology, automaker Nissan successfully test-drove its all-electric, driverless car at Nasa's Ames Research Centre in California.

Swedish automobile giant Volvo is also developing intelligent high bandwidth streaming capabilities in collaboration with Ericsson's cloud expertise and network to create a highway full of autonomous cars.

Tesla Motors, an American automotive and energy storage company, is also serious about self-driving car tech and hired processor design veteran Jim Keller to lead its autopilot hardware engineering team.

How does this technology work? The self-driving cars, or prototypes, rely on sensors to determine the surroundings and objects like pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles around it.

The software assisting the sensors then decides the speed and trajectory to drive safely.

How is this technology a threat to security? Savage said that it is possible to take control of conventional vehicles in various ways, for example by dialling into a car's built-in cellular connection or by giving a driver a music CD that makes the car connect to an attacker's computer.

Once inside the system, the hackers can take control of the brakes, engine or other components of a person's car remotely.

The developers are still not able to isolate these "important" parts of the car because everything must be connected to enable many functions people expect of cars.

This is also owing to the fact that carmakers do not know exactly what software is inside the vehicles they sell because the third-party suppliers guard the details of the software inside, things like the brake-control system or central locking components.

Source: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/others/news/self-driving-car-technology-poses-high-hacking-risk-study-796978

Madinks announces Jason Smyth as new Brand Ambassador!

Madinks is proud to announce that Jason Smyth, Paralympic champion and world record holder at 100m and 200m, has been appointed as Brand Ambassador.

As the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics approach later in 2016 Madinks is pleased to support Jason on his historic bid of defending his position of being the Fastest Paralympian on the Planet, and in becoming the first Paralympic sprinter in history to run in the Olympic and Paralympic 100m in the same year.

Jason Smyth – Jason, who competes for Ireland, is the reigning Paralympic 100m & 200m and world record holder.

Madinks – Madinks is an Irish business supplying compatible ink and toner products.

Find out more about Jason: http://www.jasonsmyth.ie/

The world's first robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily

The Japanese lettuce production company Spread believes the farmers of the future will be robots.

So much so that Spread is creating the world's first farm manned entirely by robots. Instead of relying on human farmers, the indoor Vegetable Factory will employ robots that can harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce every day.

Don't expect a bunch of humanoid robots to roam the halls, however; the robots look more like conveyor belts with arms. They'll plant seeds, water plants, and trim lettuce heads after harvest in the Kyoto, Japan farm.

"The use of machines and technology has been improving agriculture in this way throughout human history," J.J. Price, a spokesperson at Spread, tells Tech Insider. "With the introduction of plant factories and their controlled environment, we are now able to provide the ideal environment for the crops."

SpreadA worker at the Kameoka Plant. Not a robot.

The Vegetable Factory follows the growing agricultural trend of vertical farming, where farmers grow crops indoors without natural sunlight. Instead, they rely on LED light and grow crops on racks that stack on top of each other.

In addition to increasing production and reducing waste, indoor vertical farming also eliminates runoff from pesticides and herbicides — chemicals used in traditional outdoor farming that can be harmful to the environment.

The new farm, set to open in 2017, will be an upgrade to Spread's existing indoor farm, the Kameoka Plant. That farm currently produces about 21,000 heads of lettuce per day with help from a small staff of humans. Spread's new automation technology will not only produce more lettuce, it will also reduce labor costs by 50%, cut energy use by 30%, and recycle 98% of water needed to grow the crops.

The resulting increase in revenue and resources could cut costs for consumers, Price says.

"Our mission is to help create a sustainable society where future generations will not have to worry about food security and food safety," Price says. "This means that we will have to make it affordable for everyone and begin to grow staple crops and plant protein to make a real difference."

Spread

Spread is also developing sensors to provide data about how specific type of crops grow. These sensors would alert human workers if a crop is not growing correctly, allowing them to adjust techniques as necessary.

Farm robots will certainly eliminate some human jobs, but they could also create new and more interesting jobs for people. Spread's human farmers, for example, will be able to concentrate on developing sustainable farming methods and learning how to produce higher quality vegetables.

The Vegetable Factory will open next year, and eventually, Spread hopes to build similar robot farms around the world.

Source: http://www.techinsider.io/spreads-robot-farm-will-open-soon-2016-1

Spotify Adds Video Content

Spotify is finally ready to add video to its streaming service, eight months after promising it was doing so. In May 2015, Spotify announced big changes were on the way, and, while some have duly arrived, the video elements of the new Spotify haven’t yet been launched.

However, according to The Wall Street Journal, Spotify is adding video content this week, starting with the Android app, followed closely by the iOS app. Initially, this will be limited to Spotify users in the U.S., the UK, Germany, and Sweden, though more markets will follow.

It’s possible that you already have access to some video content, as around 10 percent of users have been testing the product over the last few months. But the vast majority of users, both free and paid, will get their first taste of Spotify video content in the next couple of weeks.

Shiva Rajaraman, Spotify’s vice president of product, insisted the delay in launching was all part of the plan, stating, “We are at the end of a journey of testing. We are going out effectively as planned. Our goal was largely to get a wide breadth of content and experiment and test”.

As for what to expect from the added video element, it will be a combination of short clips from shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live and Robot Chicken, alongside original content such as music-themed shows made specifically for Spotify. So, while it’s not intended as competition for Netflix, it’s certainly another reason to give Spotify a try.

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/spotify-video-content-twitter-removes-ads-tech-news-digest/

Facebook Is Building An Empathy Button, Not “Dislike”. Here’s How It Could Work 17th September 2015

The Dislike button has long been the most requested feature from Facebook users. So when Mark Zuckerberg today said in a public Q&A that the company was working on a way to show empathy for victims of tragedies and other things that are inappropriate to Like, news outlets around the world sprung into action saying the masses would soon get their wish.

But don’t hold your breath for a button called “Dislike”. Zuck explicitly said that’s not what Facebook is building.

What exactly did Zuck say?

Facebook is building a new button

“I think people have asked about the Dislike button for many years…today is the day where I actually get to say that we’re working on it, and are very close to shipping a test of it.”

But it’s not a Dislike button

“We didn’t want to just build a Dislike button because we don’t want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people’s posts. That doesn’t seem like the kind of community we want to create.”

There’s a gap in Facebook’s feedback mechanisms

“People aren’t looking for an ability to downvote other people’s posts. What they really want is to be able to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment, right? And if you are sharing something that is sad, whether it’s something in current events like the refugee crisis that touches you or if a family member passed away, then it might not feel comfortable to Like that post.”

So Facebook’s building a solution

“But your friends and people want to be able to express that they understand and that they relate to you.”

Really, this makes total sense. If Facebook built a Dislike button, it would just cause confusion. If I share a post about victims of a natural disaster, and you Dislike it, does that mean you Dislike that the tragedy happened? That you Dislike the victims? That you Dislike that I posted it? It’s extraordinarily ambiguous in a way that directly conflicts with how Facebook builds products.

How Facebook Might Build A “Sorry” Button

What makes much more sense is a button that conveys that you empathize or sympathize with a post’s author and/or those affected by the tough situation.

In fact, Facebook already has a version of this called “Recommend”. Websites can use it instead of the Like button to help people share stories that are tragic. But now Facebook is building something new to express condolences.

Whatever wording Facebook picks, it has to be widely understandable, translateable across languages, succinct and unambiguous.

One possibility for the name of the button could be “Sorry” or something of that nature. A word that when you read it, you know the sender understands the sadness of a story and feels for you and the victims.

To implement this, Facebook might give people posting stories the option to replace the Like button with this empathy button, or add one beside it. Facebook could potentially recommend the presence of the empathy button depending on the content of your post. For example, if it detected that what you’re saying is sad because you included the terms “died,” “passed away,” “hurt,” “fired” or “broke up,” or that you’re linking to a news story flagged as tragic.

This way, if you share something sad, people don’t have to be apprehensive about Liking it because they might give the wrong impression. This apprehension can fool Facebook’s News Feed sorting algorithm into thinking a post isn’t interesting. An empathy button will clue the algorithm in to when a post isn’t Likeable, but it’s still important for people to see.

Here’s Mark Zuckerberg’s full response to the request for a dislike button:

You know, I think people have asked about the Dislike button for many years and probably hundreds of people have asked about this. Today is a special day because today is the day where I actually get to say that we’re working on it, and are very close to shipping a test of it.

You know, it took us awhile to get here. Because you know, we didn’t want to just build a Dislike button because we don’t want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people’s posts. That doesn’t seem like the kind of community we want to create. You don’t want to go through the process of sharing some moment that’s important to you in your day and then have someone down vote it. That isn’t what we’re here to build in the world.

But over the years of people asking for this, what we’ve kind of come to understand is that people aren’t looking an ability to downvote other people’s posts. What they really want is to be able to express empathy.

Not every moment is a good moment, right? And if you are sharing something that is sad, whether it’s something in current events like the refugee crisis that touches you or if a family member past away, then it might not feel comfortable to Like that post. But your friends and people want to be able to express that they understand and that they relate to you.

So I do think that it’s important to give people more options than just Like as a quick way to emote and share what they’re feeling on a post, so we’ve been working on this for awhile. It’s surprisingly complicated to make an interaction that you want to be that simple. But we have an idea that we think we’re going to be ready to test soon, and depending on how that does, we’ll roll it out more broadly.

But thank you for all the feedback on this over the years. I think we’ve finally heard you and we’re working on this and hopefully we will deliver something that meets the needs of our community

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/15/the-sorry-button/#.fe6p5d:V1Oy

New Qualcomm Tech Could Lead to the Ultimate Drone

In recent years, a whole lot of high-end Android phones have been built around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 series SoCs (system on a chip). There’s a reason why it’s called a system on a chip: It’s a tiny piece of silicon with a multi-core processor, a graphics-processing engine for everything from games to 4K video to photos, components that help you squeeze more out of your battery, GPS and wireless radio, display drivers for high-res screens, and all the brains and guts of what a modern phone can do.

Now, Qualcomm is trying to become the default central nervous system for the next generation of drones, too. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight puts a Snapdragon 801 SoC with a quad-core 2.26GHz processor, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, support for real-time flight control systems, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, 4K video processing, and support for speedy recharging onto a little board that’s the size of a business card.

According to Qualcomm, the first drone to use the Snapdragon Flight reference platform will be a UAV made by Yuneec slated to launch in 2016. But if the board and the drone market both meet expectations, a steady stream of UAVs built around the Flight platform will be right around the corner.

“We first concepted Snapdragon Flight more than a year ago. It grew out of conversations and requests we were having with customers, as well as a need we were seeing in the market,” Raj Talluri, Qualcomm’s SVP of product management, told WIRED via email. Though he would not say which companies besides Yuneec Qualcomm is working with, he added that the company is “in talks with a number of OEMs looking at this space.”

The idea behind the Snapdragon Flight reference platform is that drone manufacturers can use it to build cheaper, lighter, smaller, and more energy-efficient UAVs with advanced capabilities. Along with the video and navigation tools on board, Qualcomm says the board’s processing mettle is strong enough to support automated obstacle-avoidance features.

“The board, including the Snapdragon 801, is combined with advanced drone software and development tools, making Snapdragon Flight more like a reference design than anything else,” Talluri writes. “Drone or robotic developers and OEMs using Snapdragon Flight can create more innovative designs with advanced features in faster time-to-market and with reduced development costs. This is achieved because Snapdragon Flight integrates virtually all the key elements developers need, and they’re already optimized to work together.”

In theory, these UAVs would fill a big gap in the market right now. In today’s world, anyone thinking about buying a drone is generally faced with a decision between an expensive, powerful UAV, and a cheap toy. They can buy a heavy, serious drone, with high-end imaging and stabilization, a lot of flight options, and a price tag of $700 or more. Those are the DJI Phantoms, 3DRobotics Solos, and Yuneec Typhoons of the world.

In the other corner, there are smaller, cheaper, and more toy-like UAVs with lower-end cameras, no gimbal-based stabilization mounts, and less-impressive features. But those are generally safer, lighter, and easier to manage: Things like Parrot’s AR.Drone and MiniDrones. No matter the price or size, today’s drones usually get around 20 minutes of flight time per charge—and they normally have recharging times of at least an hour.

With those limitations in mind, Qualcomm hopes its little board can be used to create the holy grail of drones en masse: Something with the big-time processing power and imaging capabilities of a pricey drone, the smaller and ultimately safer size of a toy-like drone, and better charging speeds and battery life than either of them. The timing could be perfect for Qualcomm to enter the market, as drone sales are gaining serious momentum. The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that the worldwide drone market will reach $1 billion in three years, about a tenfold increase from the $105 million in projected revenue this year. But of course, there are growing pains:

People are doing dangerous things with drones

, and the FAA is still wrestling with regulation questions.

“Action cameras are moving into the mainstream, and drones are a natural extension of that with the market poised for major growth this year and beyond. We believe Snapdragon Flight will help drive it to the next level,” Talluri says.

Source: http://www.wired.com/2015/09/new-qualcomm-tech-lead-ultimate-drone/

If uBeam has its way, dead batteries and charging cords will soon be a quaint memory, much like rotary dial telephones. The Los Angeles-based company has developed technology that transmits ultrasonic waves (at a register well beyond what’s audible) that are translated by devices as a microscopic quiver; this vibration is converted back into an electrical charge to power anything with a battery, no wires or wall plugs required.

Meredith Perry, who began tinkering with wireless charging as a paleobiology undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania, started the company in 2011. “Just think of my grandpa, who could have his pacemaker powered remotely, or my other grandpa, who can’t hear if he forgets to change his hearing-aid battery,” she notes of the technology’s broad potential.

Areas where uBeam could reshape business include powering tablets at retail, wireless headsets at warehouses, battery-powered tools at construction sites—devices would always be charged and ready to go. Offices, too, now designed by necessity around fixed infrastructure like wall sockets, would be open to reinterpretation.

Because of that vast potential, Perry nabbed $10 million in 2014 in a Series A round led by Upfront Ventures, with investment from Andreessen Horowitz, Marissa Mayer, Tony Hsieh and Mark Cuban, among others. Total funding to date is $13.2 million.

The money is going into the first product, a transmitter that will automatically recharge smartphones, scheduled for release in 2016. But Perry is looking beyond handhelds to the world of connected appliances, cars and other everyday tools. “For us, the goal is to have control over the entire charging experience for the entire Internet of Things,” she says.

Perry does not have the field to herself. She’s competing against WattUp from Silicon Valley’s Energous Corp., which beams a 5.8 GHz radio frequency that wireless devices convert into DC power, and may debut in early 2016 in devices developed by SK Telesys (a Korean rival of Samsung) and manufactured by Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn.

While WattUp may win the race to market, Perry and her investors are counting on uBeam’s technology to win the war. WattUp can transmit power only up to 15 feet, and signal strength degrades as it moves away from the transmitter; uBeam’s transmitter reaches significantly farther and delivers more juice, resulting in speedier charges.

Ultimately, Perry says, consumers will be the real winners, as recharging gadgets becomes as simple as walking into a store, office or home.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249127

3D Printer Used to Recreate an Ancient Irish Instrument 4th September 2015

An Irish archaeologist has used modern technology to solve a 2000 year old mystery. Billy Ó Foghlú, who is currently a Phd student at ANU College of Asia-Pacific, has found evidence that an Iron Age artefact may have originally been used as a mouthpiece for a musical instrument (it was previously thought to be a spear-butt). Using a 3D-printer, Mr Ó Foghlú produced an exact replica of the artefact, which he then added to an ancient Irish horn to produce a richer, more velvety tone.

“Suddenly the instrument came to life,” said Mr Ó Foghlú. “These horns were not just hunting horns or noisemakers. They were very carefully constructed and repaired, they were played for hours. Music clearly had a very significant role in the culture.”

Although prehistoric horns are well attested in the Irish archaeological record, mouthpieces appear to be largely absent. Mr Ó Foghlú was convinced that these objects must have existed and was intrigued by the so-called Conical Spear-butt of Navan.

Unable to gain access to the original bronze artefact, Mr Ó Foghlú instead used the exact measurements of the object to produce a replica on a 3D-printer. He then added this ‘new’ piece to his own replica ancient horn to produce a distinctive sound, not unlike that of a didgeridoo (see the video above).

The addition of a mouthpiece would have given greater comfort and control to ancient horn players and may have increased the range of their instruments. However, few mouthpieces have been found. The dearth of them may be explained by evidence that the instruments were ritually dismantled and laid down as offerings when their owner died, said Mr Ó Foghlú.

Source: http://irisharchaeology.ie/2015/09/3d-printer-used-to-recreate-an-ancient-irish-instrument/

NASA developing tractor beam for satellites using hoverboard tech 3rd

With the help of a start-up’s hoverboard technology, NASA is hoping to develop a tractor beam system that could manipulate a satellite’s movements using magnetic fields.

While journalists are quick to exaggerate technology in space as being akin to what we’ve seen in science fiction, the technology being developed jointly between NASA and Arx Pax is, in effect, a tractor beam.

Launched last April, the ‘magnetising’ start-up first gained notoriety for its hoverboard Kickstarter project, which flew off the virtual shelves after pro-skater Tony Hawk was filmed using it in a skate park.

But now, the company has teamed up with NASA as part of a Space Act Agreement (SAA) to bring the same magnetic field technology to space to be able to manipulate satellites to their will.

The purpose of the collaboration, Arx Pax said, is to use its Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology to create micro-satellite capture devices that can aim a magnetic tractor beam to couple satellites from a distance.

These microsatellite devices will likely be comprised of CubeSats, tiny satellites that are increasingly launched in large payloads, each performing different scientific tasks.

Both Arx Pax and NASA will work together to design a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance that must be able to repel satellites as well.

Arx Pax’s lab calculations. Image via Arx Pax

From orbital trash collectors, to revolutionary guidance satellites

Given that objects in orbit are travelling thousands of kilometres per second, and the growing threat of collision leading to potentially harmful space debris, a contactless solution of manipulating satellites is considered an important NASA project.

With this in mind, the very notion of a magnetic satellite could also pave the way for orbital space trash collectors, using the satellites to gather potentially harmful debris that could put astronauts or other satellites in harm’s way.

According to Fortune, it would also allow not just one satellite to manipulate another, but have a fleet of these CubeSats working together in formation creating a hive-mind satellite that could make reading data from Earth much more accurate, such as GPS location.

“Our collaboration marks a significant milestone for Arx Pax,” said Greg Henderson, co-founder and CEO at Arx Pax. “It’s exciting to work hand-in-hand with NASA’s brilliant team of scientists and engineers. We’re thrilled about the potential impact we can make together.”

Source: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/2015/09/03/tractor-beam-satellites

Bono's group has made more money from Facebook investment than from all his music

Bono has written dozens songs during his long and enduring career.

But a group he set up several years ago has made more money from an investment in Facebook in 2009, than from all of the music he has written and recorded over the years.

Reports said the 55-year-old rock frontman bought a 2.3 per cent share of the social media site for nearly $86m 2009 through Elevation Partners, an investment group he co-founded.

Contrary to some reports, the investment has not made him the world’s wealthiest musician; the $1.4bn will be split between the six founding partners of Elevation Partners, which only get 20 per cent of profits.

The take-away for Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, is  approximately $43m from the deal, according to Value Walk. He is still some way behind both Paul McCartney and Madonna on the richest pop stars list.

The investment group' overall return is estimated to be more than that earned by Bono and U2 over the years, during which they have enjoyed 150m record sales. The Irish Examiner claimed recently U2 had accumulated a net worth more than a billion dollars.

Bono’s success comes just days after he announced an upcoming campaign he will be involve in to empower women.

He and top African male musicians D’banj, Diamond and Banky W announced last week that they will be included in a remix of the song Strong Girl - a rallying cry for women’s empowerment which features top African female talent.

Bono, whose ONE advocacy group is the creative force behind the campaign for women empowerment, has said music can create awareness and help shift policies to empower women.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/bonos-group-has-made-more-money-from-facebook-investment-than-from-all-his-music-10480378.html