Eviation Alice Is an All-Electric Airplane That May Replace Turboprops – Robb Report. Ideo - start. Robust Superconducting Cables Bring Fusion Power Closer to Reality | The Daily Fusion. Jacketed cable for ITER's toroidal field conductor: superconducting and non-superconducting strands surround a central channel for helium. (Credit: ITER) The superconductivity research group of the University of Twente (UT) has made a technological breakthrough crucial to the success of nuclear fusion reactors.
The crux of the new development is a highly ingenious and robust superconducting cable system. The superconducting cable system makes for a remarkably strong magnetic field that controls the very hot, energy-generating plasma in the reactor core, laying the foundation for nuclear fusion. The new superconducting cables are far less susceptible to heating due to a clever way of interweaving, which allows for a significant increase in the possibilities to control the plasma.
“The worldwide development of nuclear fusion reactors is picking up steam, and this breakthrough leads to a new impulse.
Japan invents strawberry picking robot. Japan invents strawberry picking robot A robot that picks ripe strawberries as the farmer sleeps was unveiled in Japan on Wednesday, with its developer saying it could cut workloads by two-thirds. The device, which can gather a piece of fruit every eight seconds, uses three cameras to determine which strawberries are ready to pick before darting out an arm and snipping them into its basket. The two-metre robot moves on rails between rows of strawberries, which are usually grown in elevated planters in greenhouses in Japan. It "calculates the degree of ripeness from the colour of the strawberry, which it observes with two digital cameras", said Mitsutaka Kurita, an official of Shibuya Seiki which developed the machine.
"It also uses the images from the two cameras to calculate the distance from the target, then approaches the strawberry it is aiming at," he said. A third camera then takes a detailed picture of the fruit, which it uses for the final calculation before moving in for the snip. MakerPlane.org | Open Source Aviation. Massive Airship Off to a Flying Start. Blimps and zeppelins plied the skies in the early part of the 20th Century, carrying passengers and cargo and even serving as military aircraft during the World Wars. But it didn't take long for airplanes to replace dirigibles for commercial and military flight and by the middle of the 20th Century, airships were mostly use for advertising, sightseeing and surveillance.
But blimps may be back. Montabello, Calif. -based Aeros is working on a rigid airship that can fly like a plane and float like a balloon. If realized, the 500-foot-long Aeroscraft would greatly alter the way cargo is shipped. The craft is designed to take off vertically and cruise at up to 130 miles an hour at an altitude of 12,000 feet. It will be able to travel thousands of miles on a single tank of fuel, carrying 66 tons of cargo -- that's three times the capacity of a C-130 and half that of the C-5, the largest military aircraft flown by the United States. PHOTOS: Blimplike Craft Hauls Tons of Cargo Anywhere. Is this Elon Musk’s secret design for a high-speed underground train? Elon Musk’s Hyperloop Explained: A Technically Possible Sci-Fi Dream He’s Too Busy To Work On Right Now. Elon Musk, the extravagant entrepreneur know for his futurey projects, has explained his Hyperloop project to Businessweek’s Ashlee Vance ahead of publishing his blog post and holding his press conference today.
It’s an ambitious project that borders on the crazy. This is the guy who built Tesla Motors and SpaceX, but he actually says he regrets bringing Hyperloop up to begin with and says it’s up to someone else to build it. “I wish I had not mentioned it,” he’s quoted as saying in the Businessweek article. “I still have to run SpaceX and Tesla, and it’s fucking hard.” The Hyperloop does indeed sound hard, and expensive, but it’s the alternative to a $70 billion high-speed rail plan that’s been widely criticized already, and that one’s going into production.
The Hyperloop features tubes with a low level of pressurization that would contain pods with skis made of the SpaceX alloy inconel, which is designed to withstand high pressure and heat. Www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf. Gallery | Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies. Why ET3? | Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies. Africa not just a mobile-first continent -- it's mobile only. Editor’s Note: Toby Shapshak is a technology journalist based in Johannesburg where he writes about tech and innovation in Africa. He edits the South African edition of Stuff magazine and has been named by GQ as one of the top 30 men in media. Follow him on Twitter: @Shapshak Story highlights The first time most Africans use the internet is on a mobile phone, says Toby Shapshak Shapshak: While many don't have electricity, mobiles mean anyone can have a phone Mobile money is big business - half of Kenya's GDP now moves via this method In South Africa, 25 per cent of Google searches are via mobile Johannesburg, South Africa CNN — The internet in Africa is entirely different to the internet used in the developed world.
In Africa, hundreds of millions of people will experience the internet for the first time on a 2-inch cellphone screen. They may not even know they are using the internet. Read more: How cultural differences affect mobile use Read more: 7 ways mobile has changed lives in Africa. AI and Ethiopia: an unexpected synergy. Getnet Aseffa In February of this year, KurzweilAI.net’s Amara Angelica put me in touch with an enterprising young Ethiopian engineer named Getnet Aseffa, who was interested in advanced technologies and their implications, and especially in their potential application to help Ethiopia and other African nations.
After some email dialogue, Getnet arranged for me to give a talk via Skype to an audience at Addis Ababa Institute of Technology. The themes of the talk were the Singularity and AGI; it was very well received, with many excellent questions at the end, covering everything from near-term practical AI applications to the potential risks of superhuman AGI. Inspired by the strong reception of my Skype talk, and based on an invitation from Getnet, I recently spent four days in Ethiopia — mostly in the capital, Addis Ababa — with a main mission of better understanding the science and technology scene there, and forming a picture of what sort of AI-related opportunities might be available. Four Days at the Frontiers of Ethiopian Futurism. Ben Goertzel October 25, 2012 Last month I spent 4 days in Ethiopia -- Addis Ababa and surrounds -- soaking up the culture and getting to know the nascent Ethiopian futurist community.
Inspired by this expedition, I've written an article for KurzweilAI on some of the potentials for AI and software development in Ethiopia. But I also thought it would be worthwhile to post a more personal record of what I saw and learned on this whirlwind tour; hence the current article.... As it happened, Ethiopia was sort of a convenient stop-off for me. I visited partly out of curiosity -- I'd never been to Africa south of the Sahara before (only to Morocco and Egypt) -- but mainly because of an intriguing invitation from a young Ethiopian named Getnet Aseffa to help him plan out the country's first AI R&D lab, and figure out how AI and Ethiopia might help each other.
Evenings were spent mainly out listening to various forms of traditional or modern Ethiopian music. DAY 1: Sunday DAY 2: Monday. Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero instruction. What happens if you give a thousand Motorola Zoom tablet PCs to Ethiopian kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they'll start teaching themselves English while circumventing the security on your OS to customize settings and activate disabled hardware.
Whoa. The One Laptop Per Child project started as a way of delivering technology and resources to schools in countries with little or no education infrastructure, using inexpensive computers to improve traditional curricula. What the OLPC Project has realized over the last five or six years, though, is that teaching kids stuff is really not that valuable.
Yes, knowing all your state capitols how to spell "neighborhood" properly and whatnot isn't a bad thing, but memorizing facts and procedures isn't going to inspire kids to go out and learn by teaching themselves, which is the key to a good education. Instead, OLPC is trying to figure out a way to teach kids to learn, which is what this experiment is all about. Airbus unveils its 2050 vision for ‘Smarter Skies’ Global aircraft manufacturer Airbus today releases the latest instalment of the Future by Airbus, its vision for sustainable aviation in 2050 and beyond. For the first time the vision looks beyond aircraft design to how the aircraft is operated both on the ground and in the air in order to meet the expected growth in air travel in a sustainable way. Charles Champion, Executive Vice President Engineering at Airbus, says: “Our engineers are continuously encouraged to think widely and come up with `disruptive’ ideas which will assist our industry in meeting the 2050 targets we have signed up to.
These and the other tough environmental targets will only be met by a combination of investment in smarter aircraft design and optimising the environment in which the aircraft operates. That is why our latest Future by Airbus Smarter Skies concepts focus on not just what we fly but, how we may fly in 2050 and beyond.” Aircraft take-off in continuous ‘eco-climb’ Low emission ground operations.
Future - Technology - Lighter-than-air craft rise again. A behind the scenes look at the project to build a radical new airship that could soon criscross our skies. If you like the idea of cruising on a ship in laid-back luxury, but prefer the speed and convenience of air travel, there may soon be a solution. Drawing their inspiration from the airships of yesteryear, a new generation of airship-like vehicles could soon be making their way across our skies.
In a hangar outside Tustin in California, engineers are preparing one of the most radical designs for testing. The Aeroscraft, as it is known, is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak and has been made possible by advances in materials and computer control systems. “We are resurrecting [the airship] with new composite fabric structures, that are stronger, lighter, more versatile” says Fred Edworthy, of Aeros, the company building the lighter-than-air vehicle. The airship in the hangar is being built to test various key components of a design that could one day contain a hotel, casino or spa. ZERO MOTORCYCLES – The Electric Motorcycle Company - Official Site. Japanese geek builds awesome giant beetle robot for some reason (video) We are all doomed. A Japanese man from Ibaraki Prefecture with too much time has built a gigantic bug mecha that not only looks awesome but also actually works.
Takahashi-san is 60 and has begun building the thing in 1998 and now owns a fifteen ton robot. The monster is an impressive eleven meters long. The mecha, dubbed Kabutom RX-03, is equipped with a cool control panel, can be remote-controlled (which is especially awesome) and is shaped like a rhinoceros beetle. This is what I call a cool hobby project (Takahashi is an engineer, after all). The Kabutom RX-03 was shown on Japanese TV last night. Via AltJapan. Forget the Volt, Make Way for Electric Trucks. MAX Hits 100 MPG, You Can Build It - Green Transportation.
In 2008, we set out to build a car that would get 100 miles per gallon. Because we wanted this to be something interested MOTHER EARTH NEWS readers could build for themselves, we also set the goals of using off-the-shelf parts and staying within a budget of $10,000 — a reasonable price for a car. And we’ve done it! MAX (MOTHER's Automotive eXperiment) has been demonstrating its 100-mpg capabilities for a full year.
(Read more about the journey at 100-MPG Car: MAX.) Now, a few daring readers are making their own cars, and you can too. MAX’s remarkable fuel economy comes from the car’s 32-horsepower Kubota diesel engine and its streamlined body. We’re not done developing yet. MAX has toured 22 states to date, and while every state’s DMV has its own hoops to jump through, all states have ways to accommodate home-built automobiles, including MAX. So yes, it is possible to build an affordable car that gets 100 mpg. Van.eko | bio-based electric scooter. Ryan Calo: Ten Myths About Drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”), often called “drones,” are coming to American skies.
In February, President Obama signed a law that requires the Federal Aviation Administration to pave the way for public agencies and, eventually, private companies, to fly drones within the United States. The proliferation of domestic drones has been preceded by a proliferation of news stories about the technology — and of some misconceptions regarding what drones are, and how they might be used. A law professor and a professor of electrical engineering, we’ve identified ten commonly held myths related to the technology and legal framework involved in drones and their use.
Myth #1: A model airplane is a drone. A drone is an unmanned aircraft that can fly autonomously—that is, without a human in control. By contrast, model airplanes are largely flown within visual line of sight and in the presence of an operator who watches and maintains control of the airplane during flight. Is that really just a fly? Swarms of cyborg insect drones are the future of military surveillance.
By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 16:16 GMT, 19 June 2012 | Updated: 17:05 GMT, 20 June 2012 The kinds of drones making the headlines daily are the heavily armed CIA and U.S. Army vehicles which routinely strike targets in Pakistan - killing terrorists and innocents alike. But the real high-tech story of surveillance drones is going on at a much smaller level, as tiny remote controlled vehicles based on insects are already likely being deployed.
Over recent years a range of miniature drones, or micro air vehicles (MAVs), based on the same physics used by flying insects, have been presented to the public. The fear kicked off in 2007 when reports of bizarre flying objects hovering above anti-war protests sparked accusations that the U.S. government was accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies. Researchers have now developed bio-inspired drones with bug eyes, bat ears, bird wings, and even honeybee-like hairs to sense biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Mysterious bird-like drone may have popped up in both Iraq and Pakistan, origin still unknown. Madison Ruppert The quite strange unarmed bird-like drone which was recovered by Pakistani forces in August of 2011 apparently did not just fly over Pakistan, but was also apparently spotted by Iraqi insurgents at least two years before making its way to Pakistan.
One might jump to the conclusion that the drone belongs to the United States since the U.S. is involved a great deal of drone operations in Pakistan – which the Pakistani parliament has unanimously declared must end. It also appears to be similar to some of the drone projects which are leaning towards designs influenced by birds and insects. A reader of The Aviationist tipped them off to a video posted on May 28, 2009 showing the drone captured by the Iraqi Hezbollah in Iraq which is eerily similar to the drone which was captured in Pakistan. Danger Room points out that the drone is quite similar to, but definitely not exactly the same as, Festo’s “SmartBird” drone. This article first appeared at Endthelie Incoming search terms: Flying drone controlled with mind power. Marine Drone. Company To Make Anti-Drone Tech Available To The Masses.
Allosphere. Why immersive virtual reality is the next generation of gaming: part 1. Oculus. Oculus Rift: Step Into the Game. Introducing the Leap. Our Fabulous Future: Corporate America’s Great Tech-Utopia Movies. Future Timeline | Technology | Singularity | 2020 | 2050 | 2100 | 2150 | 2200 | 21st century | 22nd century | 23rd century | Humanity | Predictions | Events. What Is Technological Unemployment? Economists See More Jobs for Machines, Not People.
Robot Serves Up 360 Hamburgers Per Hour. Industrial Robotics. Flying robots, the builders of tomorrow. Tiger-stone. Brick-road-laying machine. Two charts on technological unemployment. Buster Brown: Robo-Journos Put Jobs In Jeopardy. Technology will replace 80% of what doctors do. Technology Overview. Data that lives forever is possible: Japan's Hitachi.
Top Ten Transhumanist Technologies. The Most Interesting Developments in Nanotechnologies | RevoSeek.com. Scientists make fake skin that heals and feels. LG unveils flexible plastic e-paper display, aims for European launch next month. Scientists prove it's the same old song – only louder. First full colour images at 100,000 dpi resolution > Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) > Press Releases. Quantum Stealth; The Invisible Military Becomes A Reality. TV with 16 times resolution of HDTV passed by UN standards body. AS3 Particle Node Sequencer › Experimenting with the Tonfall Audio Engine. Inside Google pictures gives first ever look at the 8 vast data centres. The End of the Web, Search, and Computer as We Know It | Wired Opinion. The Pirate Bay ditches its servers, sets sail for the cloud. Megaupload Is Dead. Long Live Mega! | Threat Level.
10 Futuristic Materials. Lightest Material in the World. Graphene aerogel takes world’s lightest material crown. New wonder material replaces graphene for future electronic devices. Transparent Aluminum. Researchers Use Liquid Metal to Create Wires That Stretch Eight Times Their Original Length. Russian diamonds: Siberian meteorite crater said to hold trillions of carats. Supermaterials News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - Gizmodo. Wood pulp extract stronger than carbon fiber or Kevlar. Glass Works: How Corning Created the Ultrathin, Ultrastrong Material of the Future | Wired Science. Lighter-than-air material discovered | euronews, science. World's Strongest Material: Top 10 Uses.
Additive Manufacturing.