Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Robopocalypse Report #67

Drones:



Flamethrower equipped drones may not be such a great idea.

This fire fighting drone bridges some of our categories here by being 3d printed titanium.  Obviously designed to deal with the above.

Fleye could be taking drones to the next level of usability.

DJI has developed a thermal camera for their drones.

A new drone will chase thieves and take their pictures.

Tokyo Police used a drone with a net to catch another drone flying illegally.

CNN has received FAA go ahead to use drones for the news.

North Korea has been using drones to cross the Inter-Korean DMZ.

The first droneport is being built outside of Las Vegas.

FAA drone registration begins on December 21st.

Self Driving Cars:


Do people really want self driving cars?  

Baidu, a Google rival, is testing its own self driving cars.  In fact, rumor has it Baidu will launch sales in 3 years in China.  Baidu's car already has made several milestones in Beijing.  Baidu also wants to have a self driving bus in three years, too.

George Hotz, a famed hacker, built his own self driving car in his garage.

Google is looking at "insourcing" its LIDAR components to save money, much like SpaceX has been.

Google sees Britain as a key place for its development of self driving cars due to the relative lack of regulation and has been meeting government officials to begin work there.

Nevada is being petitioned by Hyundai and Mercedes to allow their self driving cars at CES.

Kia Motors has also started testing self driving cars in Nevada.

Ford is accelerating its own self driving car technology efforts.

What are the differences between the Google and Tesla self driving car technologies?

What happens when you tie self driving cars to vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication?

Why everyone is jumping into the self driving car business.

How self driving cars could turn into a nightmare.

Self driving trucks will radically shift the transportation industry.

3d Printing:



The ZMorph Hybrid 3D printer is the first step to a true SFnal 'faber.'  There's still a lot of hands on work still for assembly and whatnot, but they made custom 3d printed, milled and laser cut custom mechanical clock.  See above video.

A 3d printed gun was found loaded in a meth lab in Australia.

3d printing is going to complicate weapons' proliferation, even nuclear proliferation (pdf). 
Bling is now 3d printable.

CyBe Construction has developed a 3d concrete printer that may come to market in 2016.

There is a wood mimicking filament for 3d printing now.

Ikea might make 3d printed meatballs for its in-store restaurants.  Just don't ask what they are made from.

Micro scale 3d printing is coming, too.

Robotics:



Here are highlights from iRex, a robotics convention.

Robots want to NOT just be your helper, but your friend.  uh huh.

Google's tentacles are getting into surgery bots.

Casinos are considering robot dealers.
Software Bots:

Multiple sources are reporting computer scientists have figured out an algorithm allowing computers to learn like people do.

Everyone may have software bots that manage their money in the future.

AIs are being developed to understand stories.

A new bot has been developed to weld pipes from the inside of the pipe.

AI Hardware:

Facebook has released the specifications for the hardware for the "AI" work they are doing.

Philosophy and economics:

 OpenAI was founded to make sure AI serves human interests.  hmm.

The Robopocalypse is going to have some pretty profound consequences for our urban infrastructure.

Robopocalypse, threat or menace.  Again.

There are concerns about the US military venturing into AI as part of its Offset Strategy.

Is OpenAI trying to fix the wrong problem?

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