A DARPA-funded technology demonstration recently finished a successful testing of vision-driven robotic-arm payload emplacement using MLB Company’s tail-sitter UAV, V-Bat. This UAV is capable of both hover and wing-borne flight, making the delivery and precision emplacement of a payload possible. A special robotic arm was designed with the capability of carrying up to 1 pound. …
Wired – The 3-D printing industry is on track to be a $3.1 billion business by 2016 and the innovations on display this week show its foundation is growing — both in revenue and in physical print size. The big news out of Euromold is really big — a 3-D printer so large that it …
Samsung shipped more than twice as many smartphones as Apple Inc. in the third quarter, as the South Korean company dramatically expanded its lead over its U.S. rival, according to ABI Research. Worldwide handset shipments decreased 1.9% YoY to 387.3 million units in Q3 2012, according to new data from market intelligence firm ABI Research. …
There are multiple potential paths to a technological singularity. Although many people think a singularity would result if computers acquired sentience and general intelligence, a singularity might also happen if methods were found to increase the IQ of individuals and populations. In Singularity Rising: Surviving and Thriving in a Smarter, Richer, and More Dangerous World …
1. EETimes – a veteran PC executive (Shapiro) claims the new operating system marks the beginning of the end for PCs and the OEMs who make them. Shapiro claims over time Microsoft will deemphasize traditional desktops and their compiled x86 apps in favor of iPad-like tablets like Microsoft Surface and their interpreted apps. The move …
EETimes – Intel Corp. has found a way to create a 10 nm process technology using immersion lithography. In addition, the processor giant is on track to start making chips in a 14 nm process technology before the end of next year, said an Intel fellow in a talk at the Intel Developer Forum. The …
The Carnival of Space 166 is up at Venus Transit Peter Lake takes a look at the newly discovered 375m Asteroid that will pass at about 7.4 lunar distances on the 14th. It is a little unusual these days to find such a big asteroid less than three weeks before its closest approach. (Video) Nextbigfuture …
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday issued a veiled warning about China’s rising influence in Russia’s resource-rich Far East, saying it was essential to defend the area against “excessive expansion by bordering states”. Speaking days after Russia’s first deputy defense minister said two new nuclear submarines would be sent to the Pacific Fleet, Medvedev also …
1. New Energy Times covers the Celani demonstration of excess heat at Austin conference. For this demonstration, Celani loaded the nickel wire for three days in Rome before bringing it to Texas. Because he and Letts could not bring cylinders of pressurized gas into the convention center, they took the wire that had been pre-loaded …
1. Mining Weekly – India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) would permit private miners to process beach sand and supply monazite tailings to the government-owned Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) to increase the latter’s capacity to extract thorium and uranium. At present, private miners were allowed to extract rare earths from beach sand but not …
Hypersonic technologies have the potential to provide the dominance once afforded by stealth to support a range of varied future national security missions. Extreme hypersonic flight at Mach 20 (i.e., 20 times the speed of sound)—which would enable the department of Defence to get anywhere in the world in under an hour—is an area of …