Jul 16
Our first real look at ATLAS: DARPA and Boston Dynamics sophisticated humanoid robot
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Jul 12
Jul 12
DARPA and Boston Dynamics seem bent on engineering the robot revolution, and it’s while wearing a suspicious smile that they introduce us to Atlas, their latest humanoid creation. Inorganically evolved from Petman and an intermediate prototype, Atlas will compete in DARPA’s Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials in December, where it will be challenged with “tasks similar to what might be required in a disaster response scenario.” The seven teams that made it through the Virtual Robotics Challenge stage, held in a simulated environment, will massage their code into the real 6′ 2″ robot, which sports a host of sensors and 28 “hydraulically actuated joints.” Also competing for a spot in the 2014 DRC finals are six “Track A” teams, including a couple of crews from NASA, which’ve built their own monstrous spawn. Head past the break for Atlas’ video debut, as well as an introduction to the Track A teams and their contributions to Judgement Day.
Filed under: Robots
Source: DARPA
Jul 12
We’re sure AeroVelo team members think every sleepless night and pedal push are worth it now that they can add the prestigious $250,000 Sikorsky Prize to their pile of bragging rights. They’ve completely demolished all the requirements needed to win the human-powered helicopter competition during one of their recent attempts. Atlas, their flying contraption, stayed in the air for 64.11 seconds, flew at a max altitude of 3.3 meters (10.8 feet) and never meandered beyond the designated 10 x 10 meter (33 x 33 feet) area. The University of Toronto’s creation was locked in head-to-head battle with the University of Maryland’s Gamera chopper for quite some time, but it’s finally bagged the prize that had remained unclaimed for 33 long years. That’s a tremendous accomplishment for anyone, especially for a project with humble beginnings, and if Leonardo Da Vinci were still alive, he’d extend a big congratulazione.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Popular Mechanics
Source: AeroVelo
Jul 11
As impressed by we all were by Petman
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Mar 08
As a prominent musician once noted: all that hype doesn’t feel the same next year, boy. And that’s sadly proving true for our old friend Higgs Boson, who shot to fame last Summer but is now waking up to find only a handful of fans camped outside his collider. Part of the problem is simply that things have become procedural and academic — CERN scientists met in Italy this week to share their latest findings, but the updates were mostly either inconclusive or suggestive of a rather mundane-seeming subatomic entity.
At the time of Higgs’ discovery, observers were especially interested in the possibility that this mysterious particle didn’t decay in exactly the way science had predicted. It seemed to break down into an excess of photons, such that it might potentially reveal something unexpected about dark matter and the structure of space-time. But as data continues to be gathered, it appears more likely that the extra photons may have been a statistical anomaly, leading one researcher to admit on Twitter that his ATLAS team is “not too excited” about it anymore. Nothing is confirmed at this point, however, and other scientists have since tweeted to caution against jumping to conclusions. At least we can say for sure that Higgs still exists. And if the poor thing can’t hold the universe together and mess with the laws of physics at the same time, then so be it.
Source: New Scientist, @Resonaances (Twitter)
Mar 05
Green Throttle officially launches its Android gaming platform, we go hands-on
Posted in: Today's Chili 
Thinking of rounding out your entertainment center’s arsenal with an Android-based game console? You’ve certainly got options: Ouya, GameStick and Project Shield are all vying for a spot on your couch. On the other hand, you might already have a perfectly serviceable Android device just waiting to be converted into a makeshift games console — that’s where Green Throttle Games comes in. By pairing a dual-stick gamepad with a console-like game launcher, Green Throttle aims to turn any Android device into a gaming platform. We spent some time with a developer build of the setup late last year, but today the company officially launched the Green Throttle Arena and its companion Atlas controller. We popped in to the firm’s Santa Clara office to see what changed.
Feb 21
A 50-foot wide, 10,000-ton meteor that packs triple the force of the nuke dropped on Hiroshima is nothing to scoff at. But in the grand scheme of things, the meteor that hit Chelyabinsk, Russia, last week is a cosmological runt. Space rocks as much as 100 feet across are estimated to strike every hundred years or so and those like the 160-foot diameter Tunguska meteor of 1908 hit maybe once a century. More »
Nov 17
Amid Nintendo’s latest piece of kit and the buzz for the next generation of home consoles, a quiet voice is whispering in the consumer’s ear: Android, it says. Between dual-analog gamepads, crowd funded hardware and hardcore gaming tablets, Google’s mobile OS is gaining ground among gamers. It certainly has Guitar Hero co-creator Charles Huang’s attention — he’s teamed up with Matt Crowley and Karl Townsend (who both had a hand in building various Palm devices) to create Green Throttle Games, an outfit that joins the ever-growing legion of firms out to convert your Android device into a full fledged gaming console. How’s it work? We dropped by their Santa Clara offices to find out.
Gallery: Green Throttle Gaming hands-on
Continue reading Green Throttle Games Atlas and Arena hands-on (video)
Green Throttle Games Atlas and Arena hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Nov 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nov 05
Gizmodo alumnus Joel Johnson says this is “perhaps the most fully realized Lego mech build I have ever seen.” I’ve seen many amazing Lego mechas in my life and I don’t agree. I think it’s the greatest, period. There’s no perhaps here. More »
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