Epic’s MetaHuman Creator lets you create human faces within minutes
Epic Games has unveiled its MetaHuman Creator, a new browser-based app that enables game developers and creators of real-time content to slash the time it takes to build digital humans from weeks to less than an hour.
Continue reading… “Epic Games’ MetaHuman Creator lets developers create realistic digital humans within minutes”Korean car manufacturer Hyundai has unveiled its latest vehicle.
By Rob Hull
But instead of being a family-friendly hatchback or a school-run SUV, the brand has revealed an autonomous vehicle that sprout legs and walk.
Called TIGER – short for Transforming Intelligent Ground Excursion Robot – it is an unmanned electric robotic vehicle designed to transport cargo and medication to the world’s most inhospitable locations.
Continue reading… “Hyundai develops an autonomous vehicle that sprouts legs to WALK across remote terrains to transport urgent goods and medication to inaccessible locations”by Nicholas Eberstadt and Evan Abramsky
The notion of a Universal Basic Income (UBI)—an unconditional minimum income, guaranteed for all without work, or means-testing—is enjoying a vogue. Progressives can support the concept in the name of economic justice. Techies can support it as social insurance against the great impending displacement of workers of which they warn. Even some libertarians can support it as an envisioned firewall against an otherwise expansive social welfare state.
Continue reading… “What Do Prime-Age ‘NILF’ Men Do All Day? A Cautionary on Universal Basic Income”By Lauren Rouse
3D printing meat is one thing, but 3D printing a mouthwatering steak is living-in-the-future level shit. A team in Israel has figured out how to do just that by bioprinting the world’s first cultivated rib-eye steak.
Aleph Farms announced it had produced the world’s first slaughter-free rib-eye steak through the use of 3D bioprinting technology and real cow cells. The company worked with the Technion Israel Institute of Technology on the project.
Continue reading… “3D Printed Steaks Are a Real Thing Now”By Deborah Bach
One day in mid-December, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Bruno Gobbato walked into an operating room in Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil, put on a HoloLens 2 mixed-reality headset and prepared for surgery.
Joining him remotely were fellow surgeons Professor Thomas Gregory, who was tuning in from Paris, and Dr. John Erickson, who is based in New Jersey. Gobbato’s patient had a collarbone fracture that hadn’t healed properly, so Gobbato needed to reposition the bone and perform a shoulder arthroscopy, which involved inserting a small camera into the joint to try to determine what was causing the man’s shoulder pain.
Gregory and Erickson were linked to Gobbato’s headset via the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist app and shared his field of view on their computer screens through Microsoft Teams. They could see the patient and the holographic images Gobbato generated from a CT scan, one showing the patient’s damaged clavicle and another replicating his healthy clavicle. The three surgeons on three continents discussed how to approach the procedure, conferring on each step and sharing their respective approaches.
Continue reading… “HOLOLENS PROJECT ENABLES COLLABORATION AMONG SURGEONS WORLDWIDE”Last week Louisiana-based shipbuilder Metal Shark announced that the U.S. Marine Corps had selected them to develop a Long Range Unmanned Surface Vessel (LRUSV), an 11-meter robot boat capable of operating autonomously and launching loitering munitions to attack targets at sea and on land. The unmanned boat is just the latest of a series of new platforms for launching drone swarms.
“This tiered, scalable weapons system will provide the ability to accurately track and destroy targets at range throughout the battlespace,” according to Metal Shark’s press release.
Loitering munitions, otherwise known as kamikaze drones, differ from other weapons in being relatively slow but able to patrol an area for a prolonged period looking for targets before identifying, selecting and attacking them.
Continue reading… “Robot Motherships To Launch Drone Swarms From Sea, Underwater, Air And Near-Space”A team led by GE Research has been given a multi-million dollar contract to develop 3D printed atmospheric water collectors for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE) program. The prototypes, which will use heat exchange principles to draw water from the air, could eventually supply water for companies of up to 150 soldiers, even in a desert environment.
The AWE is a DARPA program aimed at reducing the risks and expenses of getting water to U.S. troops stationed in arid climates. To cut down on the need for a water supply chain, they’re investing in water extraction directly from the air. While there are atmospheric water capture devices on the market today, they work on the same principles as dehumidifiers in a standard air conditioning unit, making them bulky and unusable in an arid environment. AWR is looking into smaller, lighter and more efficient atmospheric water extraction, with materials that stay stable over thousands of extraction cycles. The project has two tracks: expeditionary (which would supply water to a single warfighter) and stabilization (which could supply up to 150 people).
AIR2WATER is one of five teams to be awarded in the most recent round of funding. The four-year, $14.3 million project aims to develop a water absorber that can be lifted by four individuals and supply water for 150 people. There are two arms to the AIR2WATER project: developing coating materials called “sorbents”, and developing 3D printed heat exchangers to make the sorbents more efficient.
Continue reading… “GE Developing 3D Printed Device to Convert Air into Water for US Military”5G is a catalyst for the technologies that are poised to transform industrial spaces like the warehouses and the manufacturing floor.
By Greg Nichols
Connectivity is the name of the game in manufacturing, and the game is getting a whole lot faster, as well as more reliable and secure. Technologies like 5G and edge computing are redefining connectivity in industrial settings like manufacturing and warehouses, bringing efficiency, reliability, and welcome security to the connected machines that make and ship the goods which drive the manufacturing economy.
Speed is the obvious differentiator with the arrival (first in private networks but increasingly in public networks) of 5G, but it takes some unpacking to understand what kinds of functionality that speed can unlock. The edge computing capabilities and lower latency of 5G opens a host of new possibilities for manufacturers to connect and manage advanced robotics, AR/VR deployments, AI, and more robust IoT installations than previously possible.
In other words, 5G will be the engine of digital transformation and a move toward greater automation in manufacturing, and the evolution has already begun. Here are some ways that a new generation of connectivity technologies will transform how products are made and distributed in the near future.
Continue reading… “From robots to XR: How 5G is unleashing next-gen manufacturing”Tesla is now able to hold Bitcoin in reserves, thus accepting Bitcoin as payment for its cars without necessarily converting it.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors is following in the footsteps of MicroStrategy and other companies by allocating part of its balance sheet to Bitcoin (BTC).
In Monday’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company announced it had purchased an aggregate of $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, to be held as an investment and store of value for its excess cash. It is currently unknown what is the average purchase price and number of BTC the company acquired. Tesla’s investment policy has been updated at an unspecified point in January 2021, which suggests that Tesla may be holding between 35,900 and about 45,500 BTC, corresponding to average prices of $42,000 and $33,000, respectively. Given Bitcoin’s price movement in the last few weeks, the 45,500 BTC estimate is likely closer to the true amount.
As part of the policy, Tesla expects to begin offering clients the ability to purchase its products in Bitcoin, the filing states. Unlike many other similar initiatives, the Bitcoin it receives will not necessarily be liquidated as soon as possible, thus possibly adding to its reserves.
Continue reading… “Tesla expects to begin accepting Bitcoin for payment”By Brian Heater
Additive manufacturing has proven an ideal solution for certain tasks, but the technology still lacks more traditional methods in a number of categories. One of the biggest is the requirement for post-printing assembly. 3D printers can create extremely complex components, but an outside party (be it human or machine) is required to put them together.
MIT’s CSAIL department this week showcased “LaserFactory,” a new project that attempts to develop robotics, drones and other machines than can be fabricated as part of a “one-stop shop.” The system is comprised of a software kit and hardware platform designed to create structures and assemble circuitry and sensors for the machine.
A more fully realized version of the project will be showcased at an event in May, but the team is pulling back the curtain a bit to show what the concept looks like in practice. Here’s a breakdown from CSAIL’s page:
Continue reading… “MIT is building a ‘one-stop shop’ for 3D-printing robots”Cape Canaveral: After hurtling hundreds of millions of miles through space since last northern summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars.
The stakes — and anxiety — are sky high.
The United Arab Emirates’ orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China’s orbiter-rover combo. NASA’s rover, the cosmic caboose, will arrive on the scene a week later, on February 18, to collect rocks for return to Earth — a key step in determining whether life ever existed at Mars.
Continue reading… “Three robotic spacecraft set to arrive at Mars this month”The Riverhead, New York, home is listed online through Zillow with an asking price of $299,999.
By Cole Higgins, CNN
(CNN)You’ve probably heard of 3D printed face masks and even 3D printed hands, as 3D printing technology has expanded over the past few decades. Now a company says it has listed the first 3D printed house in the United States for sale. The Riverhead, New York, home is listed online through Zillow with an asking price of $299,999. “This is the future, there is no doubt about it,” says Kirk Andersen, the director of operations at SQ4D Inc.SQ4D uses automated building methods, or 3D printing, to build structures and homes.”What we want to do is print homes fast, and cheap and strong,” Andersen said.
Continue reading… “A 3D printed house is for sale in New York. Builders say it will cut housing construction costs”
