Hasta La Gadget!

If Google Fiber is the company’s attempt at bringing superb Internet connections to developed areas, Project Loon is Google’s plan to connect areas that may otherwise have no access to the Internet at all. These can be rural areas, urban areas with coverage gaps, areas struck by disaster and areas where nerds are having birthday parties.

Google says it will launch balloons to an altitude of about 20km (appx. 12 mi.). Each balloon can supposedly cover a ground area about 40km (about 25 mi) in diameter and provide “speeds comparable to 3G.” Each balloon is made of plastic that’s about 49 ft. wide and 39 ft. tall when fully inflated.

A solar panel will power the electronics onboard each balloon. The panel will also charge a battery on each balloon so that it can still work at night. On the ground, users will connect to the balloons using antennas with – guess what – balloon-shaped covers. Here’s a slightly more technical explanation of Project Loon:

Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots? Come on. How can you argue against a guy with a name and title like that? The first Project Loon balloons will be launched in South Island in New Zealand this month. Check out the Project Loon website if you want to learn more. Also, alert the Resistance.

[via Electronista]

If you fancy yourself a good air hockey player, this robot may have a thing or two to teach you. It comes from Japanese researchers at Chiba University’s Namiki Lab. It is pretty good at competing against human players because the robot changes its strategy based on its human opponent’s playing style. Think you have what it takes to win?

The system is comprised of an air-hockey table, a four-axis robotic arm, two high-speed cameras, and an external PC. The robot tracks the movement of your puck and paddle, using position data from the camera images that are processed by the PC, and uses that data to figure out how to react.

You may think you are fast, but the robot is faster, tracking the game at 500 frames-per-second. This ‘bot already knows its next move when you are reacting to that last shot. It already knows your next move as it counters your last hit. It can’t be stopped. It can’t be reasoned with… Sorry. The point is that you aren’t fast from the robot’s point of view. It is playing in a kind of Matrix-style bullet-time, because it is so much faster than you.

To make it more fair for those who play this robot, researchers programmed the robot with a three-layer control system. The first layer is responsible for basic motion control of hardware. A second layer decides its short-term strategy. Things like whether it should hit the puck, defend the goal, or stay still. The third layer is all about long-term strategy and throwing it’s superiority in your face. If you are playing aggressively, it will too. If you are defensive, it will become defensive. How can you win? Well, you can kill it at least. It’ll never see that sledgehammer coming.

[via IEEE Spectrum via Botropolis]

3D printing tech can be quite amazing, but it’s usually done by melting plastic – or maybe sugar. But this is the first time I’ve heard of 3D printing using bees – or as it’s being called “3-B” printing.

As part of a promotion for its new honey-infused Highlander Honey, Dewars has been putting 80,000 of its highlander honey bees to work, building 3D sculptures.

By having the bees work within custom-shaped forms, they have already made a giant honeycomb shaped like a scotch bottle, and are currently buzzing away on another sculpture – a man’s bust. Or in this case, Dewars’ “Drinking Man.”

Head on over to Dewar’s Facebook page to see the 3-B printing experiment in action, and enter for a chance to win the Drinking Man honeycomb sculpture for yourself.

P.S. That Highlander Honey is pretty tasty stuff too.

A good PSA leaves a lasting impression and makes the person watching it choose to follow what’s being advised in the announcement. An excellent PSA, on the other hand, manages to do that and go viral as well.

Guess which descriptor best fits this PSA on drunk driving that was made by London’s Department of Transportation.

So many people lose their lives because of drunk driving, whether they’re the ones behind the wheel or the ones out in the streets at the wrong place, at the wrong time. To drive the point across that people shouldn’t drink and drive, London’s DOT decided to scare the crap out of a bunch of guys who were using the bathroom at the bar (or should I say pub?) they were in.

As they wash their hands, a bloody mannequin smashes through the window complete with sound effects.

I guess the DOT decided to go the “scare ‘em into sobriety” route – or at least make them never want to wash their hands again. What do you think?

[via Geekologie & The Awesomer]

Fast food is designed to be served quickly, but it could always be faster. Aimed at expediting service, the world’s first iPad-controlled flying food serving tray is here to help. It can be found at YO! Sushi in Soho, London, where it’s serving meals to customers.

The iTray is a serving tray that can fly at 25mph for a distance of 50 meters to deliver your food.

On-board cameras provide live video feed to waiters and kitchen staff to make sure all is well. The iTray is lightweight, and made of carbon fiber. So they should be safe if they get involved in food delivery crashes. Just order your food and it will be flown to your table.

This awesomely ridiculous food delivery method will be introduced in 64 UK branches by 2014 if the pilot phase is successful. And how can it not be? Unless iTrays start dropping food on customers or smacking them in the head, of course.

[via Damn Geeky]