Emergent Technology

Robert

Robert

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Thought I'd start a new thread to group together emerging technologies, upcoming gadgets and the like.

I'll kick it off with this article on Google Maps upcoming augmented reality implementation. No release date yet:
Google Maps unveils its first-ever augmented reality interface
No release window announced, but this is definitely Google Maps' future.
  • Instead of relying on an unclear blue dot while walking around a cluttered city, Google suggests this camera-fueled augmented reality interface may one day save the day.
  • Brief teases of business information attached to anything in your direct view pop up while using this new Google Maps mode.

Google used its Tuesday I/O keynote to unveil a pretty killer new feature that may one day come to Google Maps: camera-assisted walking navigation.

"Here's how it could—will look like," Google VP Aparna Chennapragada told the I/O crowd when unveiling a sample interface that combines Google Maps' 2D interface with the view from your smartphone's camera lens. A small semisphere of map data appeared at the bottom of the interface, while the camera perspective included bold images of where to turn and go—and floating panels that show information about businesses in your direct view.
 
Robo-callers, robo-cops, robo-runners, robo-car crashes, and more
Find out more about Google Duplex, the Atlas robot, and what caused Uber's deadly accident
atlas.jpg

Roundup Here's a summary of this week's AI news, beyond what we've already covered.
 
Boffins build smallest drone to fly itself with AI
Hand-sized quadrotor packs a neural network
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A picture of the Crazyflie 2.0 Nano Quadcopter. Image credit: Palossi et al.
A team of computer scientists have built the smallest completely autonomous nano-drone that can control itself without the need for a human guidance.

Although computer vision has improved rapidly thanks to machine learning and AI, it remains difficult to deploy algorithms on devices like drones due to memory, bandwidth and power constraints.

But researchers from ETH Zurich, Switzerland and the University of Bologna, Italy have managed to build a hand-sized drone that can fly autonomously and consumes only about 94 milliWatts (0.094 W) of energy. Their efforts were published in a paper on arXiv earlier this month.
 
Not so much emergent as relatively recent but I think this story fits well enough in this thread:
Amazon confirms that Echo device secretly shared user’s private audio [Updated]
The call that started it all: "Unplug your Alexa devices right now."
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Amazon confirmed an Echo owner's privacy-sensitive allegation on Thursday, after Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO-7 reported that an Echo device in Oregon sent private audio to someone on a user's contact list without permission.

"Unplug your Alexa devices right now," the user, Danielle (no last name given), was told by her husband's colleague in Seattle after he received full audio recordings between her and her husband, according to the KIRO-7 report.
 
Artificial intelligence... or advanced imitation? How DeepMind used YouTube vids to train game-beating Atari bot
I think I'm a clone now
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A screenshot of the agent playing Montezuma's Revenge.

Video DeepMind has taught artificially intelligent programs to play classic Atari computer games by making them watch YouTube videos.

Typically, for this sort of research, you'd use a technique called reinforcement learning. This is a popular approach in machine learning that trains bots to perform a specific task, such as playing computer games, by tempting them with lots of little rewards.

To do this, developers have to build algorithms and models that can figure out the state of the game’s environment, identify the rewards to obtain, and then go get 'em. By seeking out these prizes, the bots should gradually progress through the game world, step by step. The goodies should come thick and fast to continuously lure the AI through levels.

But a new method, developed by DeepMind eggheads and documented in a paper this week, teaches code to play classic Atari titles, such as Montezuma’s Revenge, Pitfall, and Private Eye, without any explicit environmental rewards. Instead, an agent is asked to copy the way humans tackle the games, by analyzing YouTube footage of their play-through sessions.
 
Scientists develop thermal camouflage that can fool infrared cameras

Invention can make an object appear to have the same temperature as its background
1916.png

Scientists have developed a thin, lightweight and flexible film that can outfox infrared cameras, allowing hot bodies to appear cool and cold items to appear warm. The invention can also help camouflage an object by making it appear the same temperature as its background.

The design was inspired by the colour-shifting capabilities of cuttlefish, says Coskun Kocabas, a co-author of the research from the University of Manchester.
 
Robert said:
Scientists develop thermal camouflage that can fool infrared cameras

Invention can make an object appear to have the same temperature as its background
1916.png

Scientists have developed a thin, lightweight and flexible film that can outfox infrared cameras, allowing hot bodies to appear cool and cold items to appear warm. The invention can also help camouflage an object by making it appear the same temperature as its background.

The design was inspired by the colour-shifting capabilities of cuttlefish, says Coskun Kocabas, a co-author of the research from the University of Manchester.
Click to expand...
Related:
Salt-infused graphene creates an infrared cloaking device
Infrared emissions that are controlled by salt infusion make good camouflage.
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That's not a Warhol. That's the material described here, showing fine control over whether it's hotter or colder than its surroundings.
 
First hydrogen-powered train hits the tracks in Germany
Trains on the 62-mile route in Northern Germany will be refueled in Bremervörde.

French train-building company Alstom built two hydrogen-powered trains and delivered them to Germany last weekend, where they'll zoom along a 62-mile stretch of track that runs from the northern cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde, and Buxtehude. The new trains replace their diesel-powered counterparts and are the first of their kind, but they are likely not the last. Alstom is contracted to deliver 14 more hydrogen-powered trains, called Coradia iLint trains, before 2021.
 
Skynet ahoy....

Top drone: Reaper scores drone kill in air-to-air missile test
In test last November, Reaper fired a heat-seeking missile, downing a smaller drone.
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The US Air Force has revealed that an MQ-9 Reaper uncrewed aircraft successfully shot down a smaller drone with a heat-seeking air-to-air missile in a test last November. The details, provided by Col. Julian Cheater, commander of the 432nd Wing, came in an interview with Military.com at the Air Force Association's Air, Space, and Cyber Conference in Washington, DC, yesterday.
 
Solar panels replaced tarmac on a motorway. Here are the results.
Several factors work against this oddly popular idea.
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A road to nowhere?
Four years ago a viral campaign wooed the world with a promise of fighting climate change and jump-starting the economy by replacing tarmac on the world’s roads with solar panels. The bold idea has undergone some road testing since then. The first results from preliminary studies have recently come out, and they’re a bit underwhelming.

A solar panel lying under a road is at a number of disadvantages. As it’s not at the optimum tilt angle, it’s going to produce less power and it’s going to be more prone to shading, which is a problem as shade over just 5 percent of the surface of a panel can reduce power generation by 50 percent.

The panels are also likely to be covered by dirt and dust, and would need far thicker glass than conventional panels to withstand the weight of traffic, which will further limit the light they absorb.

Unable to benefit from air circulation, its inevitable these panels will heat up more than a rooftop solar panel too. For every 1°C over optimum temperature you lose 0.5 percent of energy efficiency.

As a result a significant drop in performance for a solar road, compared to rooftop solar panels, has to be expected. The question is by how much and what is the economic cost?
 
Orkney Islands routes are front-runners for first commercial electric flights
The eight-seat passenger aircraft could be retrofitted to go all-electric.
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A Britten Norman Islander plane, similar to the kind used in the Orkney Islands to shuttle people short distances.
Up in the remote northeast of Scotland, residents of the Orkney Islands use small island-hopping aircraft to commute around the archipelago. The longest flight in the area is 15 minutes, traveling 33 miles from the city of Kirkwall to the island of North Ronaldsay. The shortest flight takes an average of 80 seconds to travel 1.7 miles between the islands of Westray and Papa Westray. That flight holds the Guinness World Record as the shortest commercial flight route in the world.



FURTHER READING
Boeing just made a big bet on drones and electric planesNow, Scottish airline Loganair and aircraft modifier Cranfield Aerospace Solutions are working together in the hopes of turning the Orkney Islands' 10 inter-island routes all-electric, perhaps even establishing the world's first all-electric commercial flight routes.
 
Ion drive meets drone, as small plane flies with no moving parts
A solid-state propulsion system works by ionizing the air.
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The Johnson Indoor Track at MIT probably won't go down in history in the same way as Kitty Hawk has, but it was the scene of a first in powered flight. A team of researchers has managed to build the first aircraft powered by an ionic wind, a propulsion system that requires no moving parts. While the flight took place using a small drone, the researchers' calculations suggest that the efficiency of the design would double simply by building a larger craft.
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Given a bungee-cord-based launch catapult, the craft could fly about 10 meters when powered off. Fire up the ionic wind, and it could cover 60 meters and would frequently gain altitude while powered on. Measurements showed the thrusters collectively generated five newtons for each kilowatt of power, which is actually similar to the output of jet engines. But because of many inefficiencies in the system, the overall efficiency was only about 2.5 percent—well below that of conventional aircraft.
 
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