Tag: DARPA

In 'Minority Report' Tom Cruise's character, John Anderton, has a radical surgery to replace his eyes so that he can get past security systems that scan his retina to identify him. As he's lying in a tub recovering from his black-market procedure, tiny robots sneak into the room and scan his eyes in an attempt to track down the fugitive Future Crime officer. The ability to scan retinas to ...

Robotic engineers seem to focus an inordinate amount of time constructing cute, little doggy-bots, perhaps because no one expects man's best friend to lead the apocalyptic rebellion. Robo-dogs keep the elderly company, perform in orchestras and dance to Outkast. Some wack-jobs have even suggested that universities adopt cyber-mutts as their official mascots. Creators from the increasingly ...

DARPA, the U.S. military's awesomely terrifying Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, possesses an uncanny proficiency for constructing both devastating weaponry and catchy acronyms. The organization, which has previously spawned the GUARD-DOG (Analysis for Rapid Detection - Deployed on the Ground) and RATS (Robust Automatic Transcription of Speech), is reportedly now developing a SMITE ...

Based on observations made during our daily commute, people have trouble parallel parking. But, thanks to a project between Volkswagen and Stanford University, humans might not have to worry about squeezing into those small spots anymore. Our friends at Autoblog report that engineers have developed a car that can autonomously reverse power slide into a parking space. Originally part of the ...

Share In an effort to provide a faster turnaround, the U.S. Army could replace some human intelligence officers in war zones with a complex system of computers. According to Wired, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, or the freaky arm of the US Military) is hosting a workshop for a new project dubbed Graph Understanding and Analysis for Rapid Detection - Deployed on the ...

What better way to fight the dangers of biological warfare than with... biological warfare? As Wired's Danger Room reports, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is set on investing a full $6 million in a project called "BioDesign," an ambitious plan that, if successful, would spawn a whole army of genetically engineered organisms programmed to fight the good fight -- until the end of ...

Since James Cameron completed 'Avatar' he's probably looking for another project to occupy years of his life. (We're sorry if it makes you depressed to hear that it's really over). Instead of wasting time on another overrated technology demo posing as cinema, we think Cameron should use his talents for something a little more worthwhile. What could be better than a government-funded military ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Apparently, the Android marketing department suffers from a collective case of the munchies whenever it hold its brainstorming sessions. Following Cupcakes, Donuts, and Eclairs, the next Android serving will reportedly be known as Froyo, short for 'frozen yogurt.' [From: Engadget] The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research ...

Look, we've long been prepared for the proliferation of zombies. It's a good thing, too, because our own government is ready to turn hordes of soldiers into the undead. But first, they have to figure out how to make it work with pigs. According to ABC News, a recent medical breakthrough funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which involves putting the body in a state of ...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research arm of the U.S. military, has been hosting public contests with cash prizes, for the past five years. Previous years have seen challenges such as asking people to build robots that could walk from Los Angeles to Las Vegas (no one managed to do so), but this year, DARPA has a Web 2.0-based trial for contestants. Beginning ...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a research and development organization for the Department of Defense, aims to "maintain the technological superiority of the U.S military." It seeks to accomplish this goal by developing robots, lasers, spacecraft, and other awesome futuristic weapons of annihilation. It also apparently has no desire to heed the warnings of the 'Matrix' or ...

The Air Force has announced that it will do its part for economic stimulus by spending $400 million on a dirigible designed to float 65,000 feet above the Earth, where it will provide constant surveillance of an area (such as the Afghanistan-Pakistan border). ISIS (Integrated Sensor Is the Structure) is being billed as a cross between a satellite and a spy plane, kept aloft by helium and powered ...

We're always hearing about some fantastical, nigh-mythical creation that Carnegie Mellon University is in the midst of cobbling together from spare parts, crazy ideas, and pure, simple genius, so maybe we shouldn't be frothing over the new robotic truck they've partnered up with Caterpillar to create, but this one promises to be the "world's largest." Adapting software CMU used in the DARPA ...

You may remember this little dumbell-looking Recon Scout drone we saw last year, when it had just been implemented in the military. If you'll recall, the robot selflessly allows itself to be thrown into wild and unpredictable situations deemed "too risky" for people, then transmits grainy video back to an Operator Control Unit. Well, it turns out that the California Department of Corrections ...

If we had our way, all our military tax dollars would go to DARPA. Whether it be nano planes, robot arms, or high-resolution sniper scopes, it always has something interesting cooking, and today's defense-minded gadget is no different. It's called a DBAC device, for Deep Bleeder Acoustic Coagulation; basically a portable ultrasound wrap that can identify wounds ("bleeders") and reduce their ...