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Posts Tagged ‘Video’

Cloo, which very Britishly stands for Community Loo, is an app currently under development (as in, not yet available) which will show a Google Maps layer overlaid with locations of friends and friends of friends who have put their own private bathrooms, in their own homes, where they live, up for grabs. (Presumably, that "friends of friends" thing will be done through Facebook, though Cloo hasn't made that clear.)

There are a few higher-level ideas at work, like a payment system that works kind of like that Bump app (you tap two phones together to exchange data, or, in this case, currency) and some vaguely-defined partnerships with toilet-supply companies so you don't have to cut into your own profit to buy toilet paper or hire professional cleaners like you'll probably want to, every week.

The app isn't out yet, though you can follow the Cloo team's progress on Twitter. For now, it seems like the kind of idea that one side of the userbase (the side that has to pee, or poop, or whatever, no judgments here) would absolutely love, while the other side (the side with the bathroom) would be pretty leery about. At least we can be thankful the app doesn't have a urination-related pun as a name. (Though we would kind of love it if you guys contributed your own ideas in the comments.)

[Cloo]

On his blog, which is endearingly named Eyeborg, Spence has posted a new twelve-minute video. He travels around the world, talking to those endowed with the cutting edge of cyborg-dom. Matter of fact, it's not too different from our recent feature, State of the Bionic Art, except Spence investigates the specific real-life counterparts to the crazy-futuristic prostheses and cyborg parts featured in the new Deux Ex game. It's a pretty cool video, game plugs notwithstanding--any video that features a man saying "I am now filming your bionic hand...with my bionic eye" has a way of getting in our good graces. Check out the video below, though a warning that there are a few images that might not be kind to those with weak stomachs.

We'll keep you up to date on Eyeborg--his site teases that there will be more to come on the making of his prosthetic camera-eye in the coming days.

[Eyeborg]

Back on August 11th DARPA launched, then lost, its Falcon hypersonic vehicle, also known as HTV-2. Today we found it. Not the actual glider, but a video of it streaking through the sky over the Pacific Ocean as captured by a crew member aboard a tracking ship. And as you can see in this video, it is indeed moving fast.

For those out of the loop on this, HTV-2 is an unmanned hypersonic glider meant to test the boundaries of hypersonic flight. HTV-2 was traveling at Mach 20--that’s 20 times the speed of sound--when an as-yet unexplained flight anomaly caused the vehicle’s automated systems to kick in and put the thing into a controlled dive into the Pacific. By the time that happened, three minutes into HTV-2’s independent flight, it was somewhere well on its way to Hawaii. It started at Vandenberg AFB in California.

In the video above, you can see a white contrail entering the left of the frame. That’s not just the HTV-2, but the third stage of the Minotaur 4 rocket that carried HTV-2 to the edge of space. From there, if you look very closely you can see HTV-2 separate from the rocket stage (it’s a really faint dot) and begin its aerodynamically stable hypersonic flight, in which it hits its objective speed of Mach 20.

Can’t see it? Try the video below.

Saw it that time, didn't you?

Investigators are on the scene trying to figure out the precise cause of the crash. It’s the second failed launch in a month for Roskosmos, which failed to put the Express communications satellite into the proper orbit after launching it aboard a Proton rocket from Baikonur on August 18.

We’re not yet sure how this effects the crew aboard the ISS, but we’ll update if/when more information becomes available. RT’s report is below.

[RT]

Troops require more rugged, easily deployable recon robots, and throwable bots fill the bill at this month's AUVSI drone convention

I’m at AUVSI’s (that’s the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International) Unmanned Systems North America convention at the Recon Robotics booth, checking out the company’s Scout reconnaissance robot, a tiny two-wheeled system weighing just more than a pound. It’s a diminutive machine, about the size of a tallboy beer can. And I’ve just been invited to chuck it over an eight-foot wall.

At an exhibition boasting some seriously mean-looking machines (QinetiQ’s MAARS robot sports a 7.62-millimeter machine gun and four 40-millimeter grenade launcher tubes) these little throwbots (that's a throwable robot, and also a brand name of one of Recon's variants) aren’t exactly an intimidating sight. But their portability and durability serve a mission profile that is becoming increasingly attractive to troops serving in theater, and at AUVSI’s robot roundup last week it showed. It seems like every company with a stake in the ground-based robotic recon game is bringing out a robot that you can literally hurl into action.

Tactical robots have gained a ton of traction within the military over the past decade for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that any time you send a robot to execute a dangerous task, you’re not sending a human. But robots are generally complicated, fickle machines packing a lot of moving parts (and a lot of extra weight). They often require soldiers to undergo special training just to learn how to use them.

What soldiers in, say, Afghanistan really need is a robot intuitive enough that any soldier can pick up the controls, and something highly portable and easily deployable on a moment’s notice so it can quickly begin feeding real-time intelligence to mission commanders when threats emerge on short notice.

In short, they need a small, simple robot they can throw or launch over walls or into second-story windows, something that soldiers can control with handheld Xbox-like controls that come naturally to young men and women of a certain generation, something that can beam them back video and/or other information from a safe distance (and as stealthily as possible). And at AUVSI that need was being met with a smattering of little robots that company reps couldn’t wait to let us abuse.

In a demo at AUVSI’s makeshift proving ground, I watched QinetiQ’s Dragon Runner series ‘bots roll up and over obstacles and dig in the sand for the lead wires of mock IEDs. The newest addition to the QinetiQ family, the Dragon Runner 10, is an 11-pound variant of its larger brother, the 20-pound Dragon Runner 20 which has been on the market for some time now.

Both are man-portable, but the biggest difference between Dragon Runner 10 and Dragon Runner 20 (besides the obvious weight/portability difference): Dragon Runner 10 is being billed as throwable at ranges up to 12 feet. That’s no 100-plus-foot plunge from a helicopter, but it’s enough to make it over a high wall when Marines want to see what’s waiting on the other side--in IR-enhanced low-light vision if necessary.

And Dragon Runner 10 has some other serious merits. Though heavy at more than 10 pounds, it has a 5-pound payload capacity that can accommodate extras like a robotic arm (which is how it was able to dig in the aforementioned sand for IEDs). It’s a throwable ‘bot that does more than just reconnaissance--at the cost of a little added weight.

Roll out with iRobot’s FirstLook and you can cut that poundage by more than half. FirstLook is purely a recon ‘bot--no manipulator robot arm here--but at just 5 pounds it offers the same IR capability and has front, rear, and side-facing cameras. It’s a two-tracked robot resembling a seriously pared down version of iRobot’s renowned PackBot. And the wrist-mounted touchscreen display lends that air of warfighter-of-the-future we’ve come to expect from iRobot.

Throwability is pretty good too, as iRobot claims FirstLook can manage drops onto concrete from 15 feet. If the company’s representatives have any misgivings about this claim, it doesn’t show. They were happy to toss FirstLook carelessly up and down the aisles at AUVSI purely for my--and their--amusement. And the robots never missed a step, save the few seconds it took for them to right themselves when they landed upside-down.

But for pure throwability, there’s still nothing like Recon Robotics’ Scout. The whole system is practically featherlight at 1.3-pounds (plus a couple more for the control unit, for a total of 3.2 pounds). Both robot and control unit can charge from the battery systems troops already carry with them into the field--no added weight in power supplies--and its titanium shell and cast urethane wheels ensure a listed drop shock resistance of 30 feet--twice that of any other we saw at AUVSI.

Its throw shock resistance is listed at four times that distance (that’s a 120-foot radius from the operator where this Throwbot can be deployed via hail mary or a launcher device Recon has in the works). It’s capable of the same IR night vision as Dragon Runner and iRobot, but is hands-down the smallest, most discreet of the three.

Needless to say, I didn’t have the space (or, likely, the arm) to test the limits of the Scout’s range at AUVSI. But I did get to throw it onto the roof of a faux building the company had constructed and then, with it out of view, drive the thing around via the tiny video screen embedded in the single-joystick controller that’s so intuitive and easy to use that I felt like a pro after ten seconds at the stick.

Hurling a robot overhand and then driving it around remotely is just as much fun as it sounds, but it also makes it demonstrably clear just how easy and effective these kinds of robots could be if, say, you're about to commit several breathing humans to breaching a walled compound.

And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Dragon Runner and FirstLook are brand new, but Recon's first variants of the current line of Throwbots have been available for a few years. To date, they have put 2,000 of them into service. Virtually every agency with reason to worry about what's around the corner has deployed them: the U.S. military, various police and firefighting departments, the FBI, DEA, U.S. Marshals, the State Department (for embassy security), the Border Patrol, and more than 200 SWAT teams. Just today, U.S. Special Operations Command announced that it is buying nearly 400 more.

QinetiQ's and iRobot's models will likely find similar traction alongside other small, throwable 'bots that are likely incubating in labs elsewhere, because they meet a critical need for fast, actionable situational awareness on the battlefield. It's been said that knowing is half the battle. It looks as if throwing could become an integral part of it as well.

Unlike existing applications that overlay virtual features onto real-world video, this program doesn't add any synthetic elements to the video feed. It creates a 3D model of the user's face, tracks their features, and then subtly warps the video. The user can then see how they would look with a smaller nose, wider mouth, or Powerpuff Girl eyes.

The software could be a valuable visualization tool for plastic surgeons. The creators are also considering adding in texture-based modifications that could allow the user to apply virtual makeup to their face. Check out the mirror at work in the video below:

[New Scientist]

Unveiled at this week's giant drone conference

When mines collapse, the biggest hindrance to a speedy search and rescue operation is the lack of information. Mining accidents generally bring about a buffet of dangerous conditions: structural weaknesses within the shafts themselves, poisonous vapors, explosive gases, flooded tunnels, etc. Rescue crews can’t charge into such conditions without proper reconnaissance, lest they risk compounding the situation by creating a second disaster on top of the first.

Gemini-Scout is designed to cope with all of these things so it can get down into a mine quickly, searching for survivors and assessing threats so human searchers can get into place as quickly as possible. Its tracked propulsion and articulated suspension allow it to climb rubble piles and crawl over uneven terrain. In the ground demo area at AUVSI, Gemini rolled easily over stair-like obstacles and into the sand and gravel pits, turning tight circles and kicking up a mess before climbing out just as easily. It took 45-degree climbs with no serious problems, and at less than two feet tall it maneuvered through tight spaces with ease.

But more specifically to its purpose, Sandia engineers explained, Gemini-Scout can move through up to 18 inches of water while sampling the air for toxic fumes (technically it can operate through deeper water, but doing so would immerse the air sensors on its mast). Those air measurements are critical because the data they collect paves the way for manned rescue operations. They also let rescue personnel know if they are dealing with explosive methane gases or other flammable vapors.

To that end, Gemini-Scout’s electronics are packed in explosion-proof casings. A blast triggered by something else might disable the robot, but its own electronics won’t provide sparks that could trigger a second explosion and complicate a search and rescue operation.

A thermal camera helps Gemini-Scout search for survivors and two way radios allow handlers to communicate with any survivors the robot locates. The ‘bot can even be configured to carry food, air tanks, or other supplies to trapped miners, or to drag them to safety.

And because mine disasters can happen unexpectedly anywhere in the world, Sandia engineers wanted to make it operable by just about anyone. Gemini-Scout is controlled with a standard Xbox 360 remote, so virtually anyone comfortable with Call of Duty can answer the call of duty in a time of crisis.