Robots Learn to Walk Like Humans

Robots that walk like humans - that familiar staple of science fiction films - have been developed for real by scientists in the US and Holland. Robot (BBC) The batteries are in the arms Three bipedal designs, each built by a different research group, use the same principle to achieve their human-like gait. One even adapts its stride to changing terrain. Long considered a holy grail of robotics, getting machines to walk like people has proven notoriously difficult to achieve. Details were announced on Thursday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Washington DC. Though machines like those in the film I Robot are still a long way off, robots using this method of walking could have uses in dangerous space missions or in cleaning up nuclear and toxic waste. The work could transform the way humanoid robots are built and brings the prospect of robotic replacement limbs a step closer. In other humanoid walking robots, such as Honda's Asimo, motors control much of the movement. The new machines have less control over their movement and use up less energy than "mainstream" robots, yet they walk in a more human-like manner. Buckethead Two of the machines, developed at Cornell University in the US and Delft University in Holland respectively, are built in a very similar way. But while the Cornell robot is powered by batteries in its arms, the Delft robot uses gas canisters in an attempt to mimic human muscles. It has an empty bucket for a head, to emphasise that it uses no intelligence. The third robot, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been nicknamed the Toddler on account of its walking style. It uses neural networks to learn - adapting its movement according to the terrain it is on. It is about 43cm tall, weighs 2.8kg and has curved feet that look like clogs. "For the first time, we've demonstrated a robot that learns how to walk without anything in its control system that tells it how to," said Russ Tendrake of the cognitive and brain sciences department at MIT. "It learns how to walk in about 20 minutes from a blank slate and adjusts itself with every step." The Toddler transfers its weight from one foot to the other until it gains enough energy to start walking forward. It can start, stop, steer and walk backwards. The research could have much to tell us about the way humans walk: it suggests passive dynamic movement plays a key role in human locomotion. [BBC News]

Dell Announces 24″ Widescreen UltraSharp 2405FPW

I want this monitor... The 2405FPW starts shipping March 1st in the Americas and Europe, and like most 23-24? displays it boasts a 1920x1200 resolution – matching the Samsung 243T. Beating the pants off the Samsung (and others), the Dell 2405FPW actually has a 12ms gray-to-gray and 16ms black-to-white response, plus 1000:1 contrast ratio and 500nits brightness, meaning gaming and video should be simply outstanding. And, at a MSRP of $1199US, it breaks all price barriers for an equivalent display. How else does it one-up the competition? Let’s see. How about four USB 2.0 ports and a 9-in-1 memory card reader on the side of the panel. Clears up the clutter on your desk! Some models like the Apple 23? Cinema Display also offer USB2.0 ports, but many like the HP and Samsung offer none. In addition to DVI and VGA inputs, you also get S-Video, composite and component (hi-def) inputs. Hmmm... so you can use this as a gaming display, DVD player, hi-def TV and more! And it has both PIP and Splitscreen so you can take advantage of the size to watch two things at once. [Dell]

Inflatable Hotel Rooms in Space

Popular Science (via Caveat lector) has a cover story about Robert Bigelow project to build a 330-cubic-meter orbiting space hotel. Bargain-basement room rate: $1 million a night.Announced last year, the full-scale mock-ups of the Nautilus space-station module features two 22-foot-diameter inflatable modules. Developed at NASA as part of a project called TransHab, inflatable space-station modules weigh less, and they launch in a compressed state which allows them to use less-powerful launch vehicles and makes for roomier space stations. After a rocket fires a Nautilus into space, explosive bolts will release the girdle securing the compressed hull, and then the station’s life support system, housed in the core, will inflate the structure with breathable air. Power comes from solar panels. Bigelow Aerospace is also floating a $50-million prize to entice other companies to create a safe, reliable orbital space vehicle to transport guests to the front door—or rather, the airlock. If all goes well with orbital tests of one-third-scale modules to be launched at the end of the year, the first habitable Nautilus could be launched in 2008.

Robot Soldiers

The American military is working on a new generation of soldiers, far different from the army it has. "They don't get hungry," said Gordon Johnson of the Joint Forces Command at the Pentagon. "They're not afraid. They don't forget their orders. They don't care if the guy next to them has just been shot. Will they do a better job than humans? Yes." The robot soldier is coming. The Pentagon predicts that robots will be a major fighting force in the American military in less than a decade, hunting and killing enemies in combat. Robots are a crucial part of the Army's effort to rebuild itself as a 21st-century fighting force, and a $127 billion project called Future Combat Systems is the biggest military contract in American history. The military plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in automated armed forces. The costs of that transformation will help drive the Defense Department's budget up almost 20 percent, from a requested $419.3 billion for next year to $502.3 billion in 2010, excluding the costs of war. The annual costs of buying new weapons is scheduled to rise 52 percent, from $78 billion to $118.6 billion. Military planners say robot soldiers will think, see and react increasingly like humans. In the beginning, they will be remote-controlled, looking and acting like lethal toy trucks. As the technology develops, they may take many shapes. And as their intelligence grows, so will their autonomy. The robot soldier has been a dream at the Pentagon for 30 years. And some involved in the work say it may take at least 30 more years to realize in full. Well before then, they say, the military will have to answer tough questions if it intends to trust robots with the responsibility of distinguishing friend from foe, combatant from bystander. Even the strongest advocates of automatons say war will always be a human endeavor, with death and disaster. And supporters like Robert Finkelstein, president of Robotic Technology in Potomac, Md., are telling the Pentagon it could take until 2035 to develop a robot that looks, thinks and fights like a soldier. The Pentagon's "goal is there," he said, "but the path is not totally clear." [Full Story - NYTimes]

Samsung Develops DDR3 Memory Prototype

Samsung's DDR3 prototype is the first mempry chip to run on just 1.5 volts, making it more efficient. It doubles the speed of DDR2 and quadruples DDR, opening up the world of gigabit-rate data processing! It will be using highly advanced 80nm silicon and include self driver calibration and data syncing. [Designtechnica News]

Intel unveils laser breakthrough

Intel has unveiled research that could mean data is soon being moved around chips at the speed of light. Scientists at Intel have overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon being used to generate and amplify laser light. The breakthrough should make it easier to interconnect data networks with the chips that process the information. The Intel researchers said products exploiting the breakthrough should appear by the end of the decade. [BBC News]

Apple's Tiger OS Rumor

Rumor is... Apple engineers are buzzing that Apple's 10.4 OS, codename Tiger, might ship June 30th. [Via Mac Rumors]

PSP to Get Battery Upgrade within Next Year

Arguably when talking about the PSP, the most glaring flaw is its weak battery life, which can drop below two hours when playing certain power-intensive games. It’s also been the one flaw most often ridiculed by Nintendo, whose DS unit boasts an average 10 hours of battery life, while the Big N’s other native handheld, the GBA, often tops out at around 20 hours. In the past months, many have speculated that the PSP will receive a battery upgrade before its North American and European releases to address these concerns. Well, PSP hopefuls need speculate no longer. Sony has made a Japanese announcement indicating that the PSP will receive an improved lithium ion battery within the next year, boasting a 30% increase in battery life. [Sony]

Measuring The Experience of Thrill

Brendan Walker, researcher at the RCA in London, is working on a machine that can measure the experience of thrill. The Chromo11 project hopes to create an industry-standard measure that can be used to gauge thrilling experiences, and dynamically modify such experiences in real time. Walker has already built an auto-portrait machine (drawing above) that detects the sensation of thrill by utilizing the galvanic skin response. Now Walker wants to build a "Thrill Measuring Device" which would work as a thrill sensor during fairground rides or computer games, and modify the experience accordingly. For example, the device could be used on a fairground Waltzer to automatically tailor each ride experience to the sensibilities of each rider. In computer games, the possibilities are thriving. "Elements that a player found boring could be removed, and other thrilling elements enhanced," explains Walker. "A thrill profile could be built up, and a host of new tricks -- new characters, weapons, ways to escape, ways to collaborate -- could be tried out." Walker adapted the thrill-detection hardware at the heart of his auto-portrait machine with the help of James Condron, a scientist at Media Lab Europe. "Ironically," said Walker, "the Media Lab project was developed to control computer games encouraging the player to relax." Walker's auto-portrait machine and the portraits it took are being shown at the M+R gallery in London from Feb. 19 to 27. [Via Wired]

Crooks raid US mega database

A FIRM managing a huge US database handed over personal details of more than 30,000 people to criminals posing as legitimate businesses, according to a report. ChoicePoint, which has data on virtually every US citizen, handed over names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit reports and other information in what is being considered a 'low tech' fraud. The outfit aggregates and sells such personal information to government agencies and private companies. According to MSN, the company has written to 30,000 people in California telling them to check their credit history to see if they have been the victims of ID theft. The letter said that several individuals, posing as legitimate business customers, recently committed fraud by claiming to have a lawful purpose for accessing information about individuals. It is not clear how the criminals managed to successfully pose as ChoicePoint clients. It seems that they have gotten away with the fraud so far. [via HardFeed] The outfit told MSN that it had tightened up its procedures, but one of the biggest worries is that the leak may have gone further. US Californian state law the company has only to notify the Californian residents of any data leak and not anyone else.

XBox 2 GPU Specs

The source is unclear, but here are the reported specs: 24 “Pipelines” 32 Texture Units 96 Arithmetic Logic Units (ALU) 192 Shader Operations per Cycle 700MHz Core 134.4 Billion Shader Operations per Second (at 700MHz) 256-bit 512MB 1.8GHz GDDR3 Memory 57.6 GB/sec Bandwidth (at 1.8GHz) 300-350 Million Transistors 90nm Manufacturing Shader Model 3.0 ATI HyperMemory ATI Multi Rendering Technology (AMR) Launch: Q2 2005 Performance: Over 3x Radeon X800 XT !!! (for single R520) 16x stochastic FSAA FP32 blending, texturing Programmable Primitive Processor/Tesselator Apologies to Joystiq for leaving out the credit and link [via Joystiq]

PSP: UMD movie price info

Sony recently announced that it would begin introducing a small number of movies in UMD format come April. However, they failed to offer a price quote. Well, guess what? We’ve now got that price quote: 3,800-3,900 yen (roughly $36-38) This is basically the same cost of DVDs (in Japan), which are typically cheaper in the states. So we can assume that UMD prices will reflect a given region’s DVD prices. [IGN]

256MB portable USB2 storage $30

Sandisk SDCZ4-256-A10 256MB Cruzer Micro portable storage device is on sale for $30 with free shipping at Amazon.com. Click the above link to find the product, and locate the "Amazon.com" add to cart button located under the "more buying choices" on the right side of the page. If you click the J&R "add to cart" button, they will charge you $5 or $6 for shipping, but the Amazon "add to cart" button has free shipping.

Record Radio Broadcasts in Real Time

The radio airwaves will never be safe again. The RadioSHARK adds an AM/FM radio to any Mac or PC€” but that's just the beginning. The RadioSHARK can record any AM or FM radio broadcast in real time. You can also program it to record a scheduled show, or to 'pause' live radio so you can return right where you left off moments or even hours before. Favorite station presets can be set with the click of a mouse, and new stations can be scanned and tuned with ease. The application is also where you program Time-Shift Recording, either to take a break without missing any of a show or to record your favorite broadcast to listen to later. The RadioSHARK connects to and is powered by USB. The fin-shaped device acts as an antenna and can be positioned for best reception and recording. Any recorded broadcast can be transferred to an iPod or any other AIFF-compatible digital music player to replay on the go. So, This sounds like TiVo for Radio... I see more of my time being wasted by NPR.

New Polymer allows Fishing Line to Change Color Under Stress

A new fishing line developed at Case Western University uses a polymer that, when viewed under a UV light, changes color when it’s under stress. The idea is that an angler could check his lines with a UV prior to casting, to make sure they haven’t been stretched almost to the point of breaking. The polymer blend, now in the proof-of-concept phase, has other applications as well, including tamper-resistant packaging, which would change color if it’s been opened and resealed. Researchers are also working on versions that could change color under visible light, eliminating the need for a UV bulb. Imagine fishing with this line... Hey man, your line's turning red! Reel it in!

TiVo for your Radio on PC or Mac

The RadioSHARK can record any AM or FM radio broadcast in real time. You can also program it to record a scheduled show, or to ‘pause’ live radio so you can return right where you left off moments or even hours before. RadioSHARK includes a full-featured application that controls all radio and recording functions. Favorite station presets can be set with the click of a mouse, and new stations can be scanned and tuned with ease. The application is also where you program Time-Shift Recording, either to take a break without missing any of a show or to record your favorite broadcast to listen to later. The RadioSHARK connects to and is powered by USB. The fin-shaped device acts as an antenna and can be positioned for best reception and recording. Any recorded broadcast can be transferred to an iPod or any other AIFF-compatible digital music player to replay on the go. So, this is like TiVo for Radio... I see more of time being wasted er uh... saved listening to NPR.

Intel's Next Centrino... Napa, Unveiled In Israel

HWzone has written an article on Intel's upcoming "Napa" based Centrino platform. Intel Israel is one of Intel's most important development centres, and in fact, the company owes most of its success in mobile computing to the development centres in Haifa and Yakum. As you well know, one of Intel's biggest achievements in the past few years has been the Centrino platform for mobile computers. The new generation of the Centrino, the Sonoma, has been announced several weeks ago but this week Intel Israel has displayed two working systems based on the next generation Centrino platform codenamed "Napa", which is due to replace the Sonoma in 2006. This is a first public display in Israel (and second in the world) of a working system based on the next Centrino generation, which is still under development. However, unlike the first announcement of the Napa during IDF 2004, this time we bring you photos of the actual platform as well as a demonstration of its dual-core operation. The 3rd generation Centrino platform consists of the following components: 1. Yonah - a dual-core processor manufactured in 65 nanometers. 2. Calistoga - The chipset on which the platform is based, includes an improved graphic accelerator and more efficient power management, which is supposed to extend the battery life over 5 hours. 3. Golan - a network unit that is an improved version of the current Pro/Wireless chip. Will feature better WiFi performance and will probably support the cellular 3G standard. Intel has not revealed any further information about the Napa, but during the entire event both platforms were playing a movie and running a graphic benchmark simultaneously, in order to display the ability of the dual-core processor, as you can see in the following photo: The temperatures of the CPU were not reported, but after physically touching the the heatsinks on the CPU and the north-bridge, we can definitely say the heat emission isnt high at all. In fact, we'll even risk and say that the temperatures are on the same level or even lower of the current Pentium-M processors. Although you cannot see it in the photo, the Yonah processor supports the regular mobile socket, and not the new LGA775, to which Intel is migrating its current Pentium 4 processors. Since this is an early demonstration system, and there is plenty of time before the final announcement in 2006, we still don't know if the LGA775 will become a part of Napa.

Macrovision Introduces RipGuard DVD to Dramatically Reduce Digital DVD Piracy

Macrovision Corporation, the world's leading supplier of content and software value management solutions, today announced the worldwide availability of RipGuard DVD™ a digital rip-control solution for DVD Video. RipGuard DVD plugs the "digital hole" created by PC-based DeCSS ripper software, which allows millions of average consumers to make unauthorized perfect digital copies of copyrighted DVDs in mere minutes. These copies can be burned to inexpensive recordable DVDs or uploaded onto the peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. P2P downloads and the "rent, rip, return" of DVDs are an ongoing source of billions of dollars in annual revenue losses for the movie studios.

An Easier Way To Rip and Keep Your Napster Tunes

There have been reports circulating that Napster To Go subscribers can easily rip their copy-protected Windows music files to WAVs using a Winamp plug-in called Output Stacker. The actual details of how to accomplish this can be found at marv on record. However, this might be a good time to remind people interested in this kind of activity that an even better stream ripper solution has been available for quite some time. The marvel application, Replay Music by Applian technologies (MSRP $49.95). Basically, Replay Music can save streamed audio through your PC as high-quality, individual MP3 files, automatically tagging them with the artist, song title, album, and genre information using their proprietary song recognition technology. It doesn't get an easier than that folks!

Next IE update divorced from Windows

Bill Gates said Tuesday that the company will ship an update to its browser separately from the next version of Windows. A beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 7 will debut this summer, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect said in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 here. The company had said that it would not ship a new IE version before the next major update to Windows, code-named Longhorn, arrives next year. In announcing the plan, Gates acknowledged something that many outside the company had been arguing for some time--that the browser itself has become a security risk. "Browsing is definitely a point of vulnerability," Gates said. The new browser version will work on machines running on Windows XP Service Pack 2, a security-focused update to the operating system that the company launched last summer, Gates said. Mike Nash, an executive in Microsoft's security business and technology unit, said in an interview that Microsoft has not determined how or when the final version of IE 7 will ship, but that it is planned ahead of Longhorn.

Electro Shock Coat

London designer Phil Worthington's prototype coat is covered in strips of fur that become electro-statically charged when the wearer is uncomfortable. The charged fur stands on end, sending the universal "back off" message that any one who's ever tried bathing a cat should be familiar with. If the personal space invader persists, the fur begins to crackle with energy and finally shoot a hundred thousand volts through them if they actually touch the coat.

Keep Your Napster to Go Songs Permanently

Here is the link to some guy's blog where he tells you how he and a couple of friends turned Napster's 14 day free trial into 252 full 80 minute CDs of free music. Now I'm not promoting stealing music... but here's a hack for Napster.

Motorola and Oakley's RazrWire Bluetooth Sunglasses

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and Oakley, Inc. (NYSE: OO) today unveiled a new line of premium Bluetooth® wireless technology eyewear designed to keep consumers comfortable and connected. Named RAZRWire, the invention frees the wearer from cumbersome wires and allows active users to quickly answer or place calls with the touch of a button. RAZRWire represents the fusion of world-class Oakley optics with Motorola’s industry-leading Bluetooth technology. Available in three frame colors RAZRWire delivers communication in a fashionable, convenient package. The product was developed to meet the needs of active consumers seeking seamless mobility, offering them an integrated easy-to-use design. For cyclists, skateboarders, rock climbers, golfers – practically anyone who is active outdoors – the innovative eyewear encourages hands-free connection while on the go. “Motorola’s leadership in Bluetooth wireless technology has opened doors with industry leaders like Oakley, who have the credibility and engineering expertise to collaborate on breakthrough products,” said Bruce Hawver, Vice President and General Manager, Motorola Companion Products group. “This new line of wireless wearables creates a seamless experience for active consumers – they can go from one environment to the next and stay connected at the touch of a button.” “Technology is shaping the future of fashion,” said Cos Lykos, Vice President Business Development, Oakley. “RAZRWire is a uniquely positioned product that innovates fashion with science to blend form with function, optimizing both.” The unique features of RAZRWire include Oakley’s comfortable, lightweight frame made of O-Luminum, a durable alloy that is 40 percent lighter than pure titanium. RAZRWire includes patented XYZ Optics®, an innovation that maintains razor-sharp clarity at all angles of vision. Customers also get the impact protection and 100% UV filtering synonymous with Oakley performance eyewear, and all this technology comes with the convenience of never having to worry about tangled wires again. The product is expected to be available in the second half of 2005.

Developer links GPS to Google Maps

Australian developer Glen Murphy has created a GPS plug-in for the recently released Google Maps service. Although the tool currently requires Windows XP or 2000 (which means, of course, you need a full-size laptop hooked up to your GPS), we can easily envision a version that works with a Palm or Pocket PC PDA. While this may never take the place of dedicated mapping software, the idea of getting your GPS to interface with the Web has its appeal. [Engadget]