Source: http://gizmodo.com/researcher-hacks-airplanes-through-in-flight-entertainm-1615780083
If you're about to get on an airplane, you might want to wait until you land before you read this post. Because cyber security whiz Ruben Santamarta says he has devised a method that can give hackers access to a passenger jet's satellite communications equipment through the passenger Wi-Fi and in-flight entertainment systems*.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/04/djis-s900/
DJI's Phantom 2 Vision+ is a great introduction to aerial video -- we know from personal experience -- but it won't be long before you're jonesing for more power. If you really want to dominate the skies (or, y'know, use a bigger camera etc.) then DJI's new Spreading Wings S900 Hexacopter is more like it. In DJI's family of pro-level drones, the S900 flies neatly between the S1000 and S800 with a max load weight of 5kg and 18 minutes of fly time to cram with epic sweeps -- just don't do them here. It works with DJI's own Zenmuse Z15, GH3, GH4, and BMPCC gimbles, so particularly good news for Lumix GH3/GH4 and Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera owners. If you set on hanging with the pros, then expect to pay out like them, too. The Spreading Wings S900 will thin your money clip to! the tun e of $3,800, but that's small change for a big fish like you, right? However, if moths are the only thing flying around your wallet, then enjoy vicariously via the video after the break.
Filed under: Misc
Source: DJI
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/03/spray-painted-solar-cells/
Scientists have dreamed of painting solar cells to generate energy on just about any surface, but efficiency has been a problem; researchers were happy to get one percent just a couple of years ago. At last, though, it looks like viable paint-on power is close at hand. A team at the University of Sheffield has developed spray-on cells that should be both cheap and capable. The trick is to coat an object in perovskite, a calcium titanium oxide mineral -- it's inexpensive like organic solar cells, but absorbs light nearly as well as silicon.
In the lab, the technology isn't quite ready for prime time. A spray-based cell gets about 11 percent efficiency versus 19 percent at perovskite's ideal performance. However, it's still early days. Scientists believe that their approach could scale up to the same manufacturing techniques used for spray painting vehicles. If that happens, it's conceivable that your future car (and virtually any other device) could harvest the sun's rays without the steep costs and awkward product designs that are frequently involved when you use old-fashioned solar panels.Filed under: Science
Via: ExtremeTech
Source: University of Sheffield, Royal Society of Chemistry
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/decision-making-robots-could-rule-humans-2014-7
If robots become more cognitively capable than humans, then what happens to ... everything?
"In such a future —perhaps a mere fifty years from now — the planet will be completely filled with cognitive and intelligent systems, which will intervene in all aspects of biological life, and humans will be influenced every moment by the decisions these machines make automatically," Alexandre Pupo writes in a World Future Review report titled Cognitively Everywhere: The Omnipresence of Intelligent Machines and the Possible Social Impact.
In the future, machines with brain-like capabilities will be able to know everything about everything using tools already in place, such as the internet, and then will be able to reason and put that knowledge to use like people.
Pupo lists a few of the ways that this will have a drastic impact on human civilization.
When robots become able to reason and think like humans, we will only need to ask one a simple question without overly thinking about how to properly word to get the answer we are looking for, such as with search engines today. Machines will also operate in conjunction with each other to ensure they can produce the knowledge needed to get the answer a person is looking for.
Pupo uses the example of searching for a travel route through MapQuest. In the future, machines will be able to give you an entire plan for the event or meeting you're going to, rather than just giving the best possible route there. These machines will consider who else is going and what their preferences are, past experiences, and what to do after the event or meeting. In a sense, machines will be offering us advice.
The Google Now service already does some of the basics Pupo outlined in his paper. Google's somewhat futuristic time managem! ent serv ice helps to find the best routes based on traffic, weather, and method of transportation while also providing a user with information based on their personal interests. The service is marketed as something that "learns how to help manage your day, letting you focus on what matters," according to the site.
Where Pupo's report gets even more surreal is when he claims robots will act as "digital bodyguards" for humans and be able to advise them on things they should and should not do based on the information they are able to collect.
So when robots become smart enough to give us advice about things such as our next trip to Rockaway Beach with some friends, people will start to rely on them for all sorts of interactions with others.
Pupo claims that the robots will make these interactions more peaceful, as they could quickly gather information about anyone, adding that it would be nearly impossible to hide criminal intent or ulterior motives from a machine.
Cultural barriers won't be important, and the machines will be able to process information in any language, making communication between someone speaking German and someone speaking English a non-issue.
This will cause "human interaction will be governed more by human desires than by knowledge of other cultures and languages," he writes.
Essentially, different customs and traditions that divide groups of people will no longer be relevant.
With robots being able to reason about a much larger amount of information than any human could ever be able to dream about processing, people will look to the machines for answers and advice about everything.
And if people are trying to get advice from the machines about everything, he range of possibilities for an interaction will drastically shrink, as machines will be giving you the best possible answer for any dilemma. With this rel! iance co mes a single answer solution for every problem, which will lead to society being guided by the machines, Pupo writes.
Questions such as "What should I say at this meeting?" or "How should I approach this girl at the bar?" will be answered by machines within a matter of seconds.
He goes on to write about how, at this future point, most interactions will be mediated by the robots.
"The possibility of getting to know a new person, explore a new place, or learn something simply because you want to may be drastically reduced because machine reasoning will direct people along calculated paths after having concluded that a given opportunity is not the best choice for a particular person," he writes.
But would people really just be okay with giving up all of this control to the machines, even if they have good answers? One would think many people would have enough foresight to possibly prevent this massive societal change. As a matter of fact, io9 lists "Human Adviser" and "Descision Maker" as the first two future jobs robots will never be able to take.
Kathleen Richardson, a robot anthropologist, put it best when discussing the subject of humans looking for robots to perform the most human of tasks, such as taking care of the elderly, with researchers at Cambridge University.
"Unfortunately, these roles are not best suited to machines, but to other people," she said. "So the question is: why would we prefer a machine to do them for us?"
While not everyone agrees with Pupo's ideas, they are important to consider, since they could lead to a very dangerous place. Machines could start to think of humans as just another species roaming the earth, and, when thinking about how to best preserve the planet, they could even humans are bad for Earth's long-term stability and could even seek to eliminate us.
Think of it as a leaky faucet, he writes. If someone has a leaky faucet, they fix it, "without regard for the millions of microorganisms that depends on the trickling water to survive."
SEE ALSO: Robots Will Take Care Of Old People In The Future
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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/01/HP-gilt-smartwatch-michael-bastian/
Despite their utility, smartwatches remain a geeky niche item thanks to a certain lack of je ne sais quoi. However, HP is partnering with a retailer called Gilt to build an Android and iOS compatible smartwatch that may finally tick the style box, thanks to US designer Michael Bastian. He'll take care of the design, which will feature a circular, 44mm stainless steel case and three swappable bands: black rubber, brown leather, olive green nylon and a limited edition black.
Bastian says the design cues came from luxury automobiles, namely interior features like the dashboard and trim. Meanwhile, HP will will add the watch's smart features, which will include notifications like email, text and calls, along with user controls for music and other apps. HP will also supply the software, meaning the watch may be platform agnostic and not tied to Android Wear, for instance. It'll reportedly arrive this fall, but there are no other details like the type of display, memory or pricing -- but we imagine it will be in the "if you have to ask" category.
Via: Hypebeast, Fashionista
Source: Gilt
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