Tag: DARPA

DARPA has a fancy new spy drone that looks almost exactly like a hummingbird (provided you don't get too close to it). The tiny robot is able to zip through the sky, performing feats of aerial acrobatics similar to what an actual hummingbird is capable. The hope is that, when deployed, it won't draw much attention and will be able to find a perch near a potential target. The current version can ...

As part of a DARPA initiative, Boeing is developing a search-and-rescue aircraft that combines a helicopter's hovering capabilities with an airplane's long flight range. According to Aviation Week, Boeing will test a 20-percent scale model of the disc-rotor aircraft, called the CSAR DiscRotor, in a wind tunnel sometime next year. The aircraft uses rotor-mounted blades, much like a chopper, so ...

Most robot hands operate with claw-like pneumatic "fingers" that mimic human hands. But a new type of gripper -- developed by researchers from the University of Chicago, Cornell and the iRobot Corp (with funding from DARPA) -- eschews the traditional "hand" design for an amorphous gripper made out of a balloon, some coffee grounds and a vacuum. The grounds-filled gripper starts out soft and ...

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web. The DARPA Hoodie is so named because its designers at the San Francisco-based Betabrand and Otherlab studios actually won a grant from the mad scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to write algorithms that could convert 3-D forms into 2-D patterns. We're ...

When separate groups of university scientists recently demonstrated the frightening capabilities of elusive, deceptive robots, the expected nerdly and ominous hyperbole immediately followed. Well, get ready for even more apocalyptic 'Terminator' doomsday references (particularly the "My CPU is a neural-net processor -- a learning computer" line). According to the New York Times, researchers from ...

Such an unlikely event may seem inconceivable, but the Tokyo Institute of Technology appears determined to overthrow the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as robotic royalty. Almost one year ago to the day, DARPA promised the world a leaping robot capable of hurling itself over lofty structures as tall as 25 feet. While observers eagerly await the official debut of the high-flying ...

The inescapable and unstoppable robots from DARPA and Boston Dynamics frequently incite nerdy references to Skynet and the destruction of humanity. But, two groups of university eggheads -- who realistically should know better -- are apparently engaged in a competition to produce the most horrifying, nightmarish robots ever to grace (and eventually destroy) the planet. One-upping their ...

When will it end, DARPA? The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has cursed the earth with unmanned missile systems, all-terrain robots and machines that feast upon -- and then fuel themselves with -- human flesh. The group, which works directly for the U.S. Department of Defense, now hopes to turn actual humans into controllable, mindless and murderous cyborgs. The organization has ...

Space enthusiasts and science-fiction fans have promoted the benefits of a space elevator for over 50 years. Plans and funding for such technology have intensified recently, but satellites, floating debris and other forms of space trash present a formidable obstacle to constructing an effective lift. Star, Inc. and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (known as DARPA to those familiar ...

In the 1960s, Vint Cerf and other researchers at DARPA created ARPANET, the precursor to the modern Internet (and the precursor to their insane penchant for acronyms). In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee gave birth to the World Wide Web. In 1998, ICANN was formed to govern and protect the Web. So in 2010, ICANN, realizing that the Internet was under constant threat from hackers, malware and rogue ...

DARPA (Defense Advance Research Projects Agency) is always looking for the latest and greatest (and most 'Terminator'-like) in military and weapons technology. The creepy, high-tech government branch's latest project, dubbed Persistent Close Air Support (or PCAS), is all about speeding up and simplifying the act of raining death from above. As it stands today, when a soldier on the ground in ...

After decades of failed promises, flying cars may soon crowd the nation's streets and airspaces -- as long as shoppers can afford those $200,000 price tags. The FAA recently approved the Terrifugia Transition two-seater for takeoff, but another company's design may allow even unlicensed consumers to drive and fly, without the federal agency's stringent pilot requirements. Logi AeroSpace's ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Netflix has already bolstered its streaming catalog with the premium network Starz Play service, and a new deal with Relativity Media, which should continue to pressure movie channels like HBO and Showtime, now gives Netflix broadcasting rights to a growing library of recently released content. The first Relativity titles to ...

Maybe you heard about DARPA's (the creepy research arm of the government) secret, fake version of the Internet? It's been reported here and there, but, you know, those covert programs have a tendency to get swept under the rug. It was two years ago that DARPA received a directive from the White House and the Pentagon, as part of a $17 billion effort to strengthen national security, to build a ...

Given the unabashed awesomeness of robots, criticizing any type of bot elicits deprecatory feelings of shame. The prodigious robot specialists from DARPA and Boston Dynamics (BD) produce such astounding and extraordinary mechanical creations, though, that otherwise impressive feats of engineering sometimes seem pedestrian and outmoded. Such is the lamentable fate of one sad robot from Japan's ...