[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWDocXPy-iQ&hd=1[/youtube]
On Tuesday, laser experts reported that they’ve now succeeded in using an experimental camera to capture three-dimensional images of objects even when they’re hidden around a corner.
Continue reading… “Camera that sees around corners unveiled”
Robots now rule the warehouse.
Amazon just bought Kiva Systems for $775 million. The company makes robots that automate warehouse fulfillment.
The beauty of our system,” Raffaello D’Andrea says as he paces across the warehouse, ”is that you don’t have to walk over to the shelves to get things–the shelves come to you.” With that, he motions toward some 200 blue plastic racks sitting at the center of the building. A mechanical whir fills the room. And then the robots appear…
(incredible video after jump…)
Continue reading… “The amazing Kiva robots that Amazon just bought for $775 million”
Samsung’s latest sets feature built-in HD cameras, microphone sets and face and speech recognition software.
Top-of-the-line plasmas and LED HDTVs by Samsung offer new features never before available within a television including a built-in, internally wired HD camera, twin microphones, face tracking and speech recognition. These new features give you unprecedented control over your HDTV, but the devices themselves are more similar than ever to a personal computer and may allow hackers or even Samsung to see and hear you and your family, and collect extremely personal data.
Continue reading… “Your new tv could be watching you”
Free mobile apps, with all of those ads, drain your mobile phone battery quickly.
If you want to make your mobile device’s battery last longer, researchers have found that it may be better to avoid using free apps where possible.
Continue reading… “Free mobile apps are major battery drains”
TSA agent “inspecting” a passenger with his pants pulled down to proved he isn’t a terrorist.
Since 9/11, Americans have already spent over $60 billion on funding the TSA. This infographic shows how the whole system is flawed. There have been over 25,000 security breaches despite the increased security. And $36 million has been wasted on devices that now sit in warehouses.
Check out the infographic to read about even more disturbing statistics:
Continue reading… “TSA’s Grope and Pillage (Infographic)”
Sweden pointing the way to an almost cash-free economy.
There are so many things to dislike about analog money. Cash and coins are unwieldy. They’re heavy. They’re dirty. They leave no automatic record of the financial transactions that are made with them.
Continue reading… “Sweden goes cashless, the world will follow”
Cheaper, quieter and fuel-efficient biplanes could put supersonic travel on the horizon.
For 27 years, the Concorde provided its passengers with a rare luxury: time saved. For a pricey fare, the sleek supersonic jet ferried its ticketholders from New York to Paris in a mere three-and-a-half hours — just enough time for a nap and an aperitif. Over the years, expensive tickets, high fuel costs, limited seating and noise disruption from the jet’s sonic boom slowed interest and ticket sales. On Nov. 26, 2003, the Concorde — and commercial supersonic travel — retired from service…
Continue reading… “Biplane to break the sound barrier”
Small deposit. Big return.
Elephants in captivity are becoming too inbred, so a German researcher has amassed a sperm bank of wild elephant semen for zoos to draw on. There’s just one small problem – sperm is not a commodity bull elephants give up lightly. Zoos across the world are facing a growing crisis – the dwindling gene pool of their elephants. In fact, one rather drained male called Jackson has sired many of the captive calves born in the United States in the last ten years. That’s why, every couple of years, Thomas Hildebrandt of Berlin’s Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) takes to the South African skies in a helicopter over the savannah, searching for bulls. Once a potentially fertile specimen has been identified, the helicopter swoops down and Hildebrandt fires a narcotic dart to stun the animal.
There then follows a simple five-minute procedure, known as electro-ejaculation…
Continue reading… “Scientist seeks deposits for elephant sperm bank”
Finding new ways to fend off the feds.
Here’s something that’s so crazy it might be considered genius: the Pirate Bay wants to move its servers—the same servers that draw the ire of the feds—up in the air by using GPS controlled drones. It’s a move to stay ahead of every organization that’s on the Pirate Bay’s tail.
It’s also so crazy that it might be The Pirate Bay joking around, right? Right? Maybe? Who cares! The idea that the Pirate Bay detailed was to launch drones carrying the servers that redirected your traffic to servers in a secret location into the sky. This way, if law enforcement organizations wanted to take the servers down, they would need to use plans to literally “take them out”. The Pirate Bay hilarious says it would be “a real act of war”. What if the drone was over international waters? Who could stop The Pirate Bay then!
TPB’s plans aren’t set yet but the Pirate Bay said..
Continue reading… “The Pirate Bay wants to use drones to put its servers in the sky”
88 percent of law enforcement agencies use social media to investigate crimes.
Cincinnati police investigators stumbled upon an online video last year showing an act of armed robbery, helpfully taped by the perpetrators themselves. The city’s Real Time Crime Center analysts found the footage on a Facebook page while using the popular social-media site to investigate another crime. The suspects were eventually arrested.
Continue reading… “Social media role in police investigations growing”
“News is becoming a more important and pervasive part of people’s lives.”
The guy who bumped into you on the street with his eyes glued to his smartphone may just as likely be reading a news story as sending a text message. A new report says 27 percent of Americans now get their news using mobile devices, something that’s helping to increase news consumption nationally, despite a continuing decline in subscribers to print publications.
Continue reading… “27 percent of people in the U.S. get their news using mobile devices”
Daydreaming can make you smarter.
You probably won’t make it all the way through this article without thinking about something else. In fact, studies have found that our minds are wandering half the time, drifting off to thoughts unrelated to what we’re doing — did I remember to turn off the light? What should I have for dinner?
Continue reading… “People who daydream have sharper brains”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.