Technology
Tesla Motors CEO and entrepreneur Elon Musk has a new invention up his sleeve that will help power homes at low cost, and it will make living off-grid easier than ever.
By 2016, there will likely be a 6-foot tall police robot patrolling the streets and handing out parking tickets. The Telebot, developed by Florida International University’s Discovery Lab, has been field-tested and is undergoing final tune up. With a swiveling head and dexterous fingers, the humanoid robot is controlled remotely by a person wearing an Oculus Rift headset and motion-tracking vest, arm bands, and gloves. The voice of the remote operator is transmitted through the robot to the unfortunate citizen on the receiving end.
A study teenagers found that those who used a computer in the hour before bedtime were nearly three times as likely to get less than five hours sleep.
A Japanese theme park is opening the world’s first robot-staffed hotel in July. The hotel is named Henn-na Hotel – meaning Strange Hotel. Guests will be greeted by robots sitting behind mechanical desks and the luggage will be carried by mechanoid porters. The robot-receptionists will be able to engage in intelligent conversations with human guests. Even the room cleaning will be carried out by mechanical staff, and instead of keys guests will access their rooms using a facial recognition system.
Xavier Hames four-year-old boy in Australia became the first person to receive an “artificial pancreas.” The artificial pancreas features a sensor that reads blood sugar levels and communicates to the pump, which is connected to the body underneath the skin to administer the insulin. Unlike traditional pumps, this new technology does not deliver a constant stream of insulin to the body. Instead, the artificial pancreas uses an algorithm to track blood sugar levels over time, predicting when insulin is no longer required. This reduces the risk of dangerously low blood sugar levels, known as hypoglycemia.
Scientists from the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam have invented a real-life teleporter system that can scan in an object and “beam it” to another location. Not quite the dematerialisation and reconstruction of science fiction, the system relies on destructive scanning and 3D printing.
Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have warned us of the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, but is AI really going to be the downfall of humanity?
Jason Silva talks about “The Remix Revolution” and how we can use technology to upgrade our minds in this episode of “Shots of Awe.”
“Everything is a remix” – Kirby Ferguson
Jon Rappoport: I want to sketch the path along which virtual reality is going. Right now, companies are selling improved tech that allows a helmet-wearer to see landscape and people in a wider perspective, and hear layers of sounds to the left and right, and above and below him. He can also walk inside the virtual set up. He can’t touch everything he sees yet, but that’s coming. And perhaps one day, he’ll be able to sit down at a lavish meal and smell and taste the food. Sight, sound, touch, smell, taste. A five-sense envelope.
The ongoing investment in the field of neuroscience has opened up many pathways to theoretically making direct remote mind control possible, as well as mapping the brain for other social engineering applications. We are now beginning to enter an era where new findings are starting to become openly actionable.
Large crowds are being attracted to a shopping center where a robot salesgirl prepares ice cream for customers in the city of Shenyang in north-east China. The robot is installed in a transparent vending machine and makes six flavors of ice cream.
Real trees offer something substantive to the world in the way they omit oxygen. Now, the French company, New Wind has created fake trees that serve a great purpose as well –- they generate electricity. The “wind trees” they have created have steel trunks and mini plastic turbine leaves that can generate electricity form even the slightest breeze. They are extremely affordable, nice to look at, and much quieter than more traditional larger turbines.
Chunks of the Internet went offline in 2012, the last time scientists added an extra second (a leap second) to clocks to match Earth’s slowing rotation. Will we have the similar problems this year.
Riding in a self-driving car is not the white-knuckled, cybernetic thrill ride one might expect. The car drives like a person, and after a few minutes you forget that you’re being driven autonomously.
When looking back at 2014’s biggest moments, don’t forget to take a look at the biggest innovations in science. From monumental gains in space exploration to DNA and ancient dinosaurs, intrepid intellectuals made great discoveries. RT’s Lindsay France has more.
