Hasta La Gadget!

NASA is considering setting up a $1.5m bounty for anybody who can develop an autonomous drone capable of safely navigating the crowded skies above the US. Potentially part of the Centennial Challenges, the Unmanned Aircraft System Airspace Operations Challenge would search for a workable drone piloting system that could track and avoid other aircraft, even those not equipped with the same AI technology. The end result could be surveillance and other types of drones capable of remaining aloft for extended periods without human intervention.

At present, NASA is merely throwing the possibility of a challenge out there, requesting proposals no more than five pages in length that comment on the expected rules and guidelines, state intention to take part, or give feedback on what an autonomous drone should be able to do. “The approach being considered would require competitors to maintain safe separation from other air traffic while operating their UAS in congested airspace, under a variety of scenarios” NASA says. “This will be accomplished through the use of sense and avoid technologies.”

If NASA decides to go ahead with the challenge, the first trials would take place in 2013. The first part – Level 1 – would allow the assumption that all other devices in flight would be equipped with the same Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) system, used to communicate exact positioning between aircraft.

However, Level 2 would remove that crutch, and demand that ADS-B equipped systems also be able to operate safely around aircraft that weren’t so upgraded. The drones must also be able to communicate verbally with air traffic control, in such a situation that the ADS-B might fail.

Drones are already widely deployed in military situations, but usually simply divorce the controller from being physically aboard the craft itself. Rather than being autonomously navigated, such drones can generally maintain their position but require remote piloting to actually move around.

Of course, any eventual system that results from the challenge wouldn’t just be useful for drones. Unmanned needn’t mean passenger-free, and while Jetsons-style flying cars are still probably some way off, ADS-B systems could be a first step toward independent self-flying vehicles that could safely navigate the skies above crowded highways.

Unmanned Aircraft System Airspace Operations Challenge preliminary guidelines:

The Level 1 Competition (L1C) would focus on a competitors ability to fly 4-Dimensional Trajectories (4DT) to provide a reasonable expectation that they will be where they are supposed to be, when they are scheduled to be there, successfully employ Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), maintain safe separation from other ADS-B equipped air traffic, and operate safely in a number of contingency situations.

The Level 2 Competition (L2C) would extend the requirements in each of these areas while adding a requirement to maintain safe separation from air traffic not equipped with ADS-B and a requirement that the vehicle be able to communicate verbally with the Air Traffic Control system under lost link conditions. Competitors would be required to have a working Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation (HiLSim) for their flight vehicle.

[via Network World]

NASA weighing $1.5m autonomous drone challenge: Jetsons cars ahoy! is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A couple of days ago, Foxconn admitted that child labor is being used at one of their factories in China. As it stands not many people have very good images of Foxconn in their mind, especially after the various issues that have stemmed from the factories that help manufacture some of the most high-profile gadgets today. In case you did not know, Nintendo’s Wii U is being manufactured at Foxconn and after hearing the manufacturer admit to using child labor, Nintendo has launched their own investigation into the matter.

According to a Nintendo spokesperson (via IGN), “Nintendo is in communication with Foxconn and is investigating the matter […] We take our responsibilities as a global company very seriously and are committed to an ethical policy on sourcing, manufacture and labour. […] If we were to find that any of our production partners did not meet our guidelines, we would require them to modify their practices according to Nintendo’s policy.” While there have been various issues stemming from Foxconn’s factories, this admission has confirmed what many have said against the company in the past.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Diablo on Game Boy Color was nearly realized, Nintendo Wii sees price slash to $129.99,

If you’re in the market for an Android tablet, Acer has finally announced the Iconia Tab A110 Android tablet which will be going on sale come 30^th October for $229.99. Granted it’s not as cheap as the Google Nexus 7, but perhaps its specs might be able to justify its extra cost. So what sort of specs are we looking at here? For starters you can expect to find a 7” 1024×600 display and it will be powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra-3 quad-core processor. It will pack 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded via microSD, Bluetooth 3.0, HDMI out, microUSB 2.0, and best of all it will come with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean preinstalled! This sounds like a good call considering that there aren’t that many tablets or smartphones these days that come with Jelly Bean preinstalled, which means that users who don’t know or don’t want to root their phones to flash Jelly Bean-based ROMs like CyanogenMod 10, this will save them a lot of time and hassle. So, any takers?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Acer Iconia Tab A110 will now ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Acer Iconia Tab A110 expected to launch in the UK by the end of September for £179,

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Mitt Romney’s proposed cap on itemizing tax deductions could not on its own raise enough new government tax revenue to compensate for revenues lost by the Republican presidential candidate’s plan to slash income tax rates, a think tank said on Wednesday.

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group that has weighed in on other Romney proposals, said his deductions cap could raise up to $1.7 trillion over 10 years. The center said earlier this year Romney’s 20-percent tax rate cut would cost $4.8 trillion.

The former Massachusetts governor has argued that his plan will not cost $4.8 trillion. At a debate on Tuesday with Democratic President Barack Obama, Romney reiterated that he would pay for his tax cut proposal by capping tax deductions by a set dollar amount. Taxpayers could choose their deductions under the cap, such as the home mortgage interest and charitable donation write-offs, among others, he said.

“I’m going to bring rates down across the board for everybody, but I’m going to limit deductions and exemptions and credits, particularly for people at the high end,” Romney said at the debate in Hempstead, New York.

The Tax Policy Center acknowledged its latest estimates were based on an incomplete picture of Romney’s tax plan.

“The Tax Policy Center has again inserted their own assumptions in order to reach a biased conclusion,” a Romney campaign spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The Romney campaign had previously criticized the Tax Policy Center’s estimates, saying they did not account for economic growth that can pay for tax cuts and that the center excluded some tax breaks in their studies.

The campaign has said the limit on itemized deductions would be only part of its plan to fund the rate cut. For instance, it would also revamp the tax treatment of healthcare, which now comes in the form of an exclusion when health insurance is workplace-based.

Romney has shifted the dollar amount taxpayers might be able to deduct. “I’ll pick a number – $25,000 of deductions and credits, and you can decide which ones to use,” he said.

Romney earlier this month floated a cap on deductions set at $17,000. His campaign later said that proposal is one of a range of options. Romney has also said $50,000 could serve as the cap.

The higher the cap, the less money Romney’s tax plan could raise to offset tax rate cuts, the center’s estimates show.

A cap of $17,000 would raise $1.7 trillion over 10 years while the $50,000 cap would raise only $760 billion. If Romney eliminated all itemized deductions, his plan could raise $2 trillion over 10 years, the center has estimated.

Obama has called for a cap on itemized deductions of 28 percent of adjusted gross income for individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and families earning more than $250,000.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

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