New Technology

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over the past forty years, much of the gains made up to the middle of the 20th century in living standards for the population at large have been eroded,

the fuck ?

If only we still had slavery, then no one would have to work.

Why compson my dear, i do declare, that that idea surely does give me the vapours.

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Hassani explains that for the past 60 years, mine removal techniques have stayed largely the same. “Local people are often the ones doing it,” he tells Co.Design over the phone. “Those who need the money. A lot of people end up getting hurt.” Typically, the professional removal of a single mine costs around $1,200, and can take days. In contrast, Mine Kafon will cost around $40 when it’s put into production, and can sustain up to four explosions before needing to be replaced. The system has undergone two years of testing, mainly at the hands of the Dutch government, who put Mine Kafon through a series of strength tests. Eventually, a full-scale mockup was tested in the deserts around Morocco (a documentary about the trip is forthcoming).

 

This week, the team exhibited Mine Kafon at the Dutch Design Week, and Hassani says he plans to launch a Kickstarter in a few weeks. The proceeds will fund the next round of testing, and hopefully, a finalized design ready for implementation. He’s also prototyping a similar device that can be controlled by a remote sensor, plus a cylindrical version of Mine Kafon that is modular, making it possible to create a long, rolling sweeper. Though he hopes to deploy the first Mine Kafon in his home country, he says the team is also looking to implement the device in North Africa, as well as Angola, which is riddled with more undetonated mines than Afghanistan.

vs

  On 11/8/2012 at 12:23 PM, spratters said:

thats so cool. prosthetics really are coming a long way. i saw something really cool on the science channel where they hooked up a computer to a quadriplegic's brain and he could control fake limbs.

In regards to the Augmented reality, it would be so awesome if they made a Pokemon game utilizing it. Just a remake of Pokemon Yellow, so I get to see my Pikachu follow everywhere. IN "REAL" LIFE!

That Terminator Arm is dope. I also remember watching double amputee Oscar Pistorius of South Africa competing in the London Olympics this year:



It'll be interesting to see how prosthetic technology will develop from here on.

(Leap is due out in February or March)

wow awesome

yeah, leap is fucking cool, and rather inexpensive too !

i for one am exaited for the day that white people only can use the most cutting edge technology, sort of like a white skin activation sensor like the prawn weapons in district 9.

??

Edit: Sorry

  On 1/6/2013 at 7:19 PM, luke viia said:

??

lol

Watson goes vulgar, IBM removes Urban Dictionary from his memory

  Quote

The biggest difficulty for Brown, as tutor to a machine, hasn't been making Watson know more but making it understand subtlety, especially slang. "As humans, we don't realize just how ambiguous our communication is," he says.

Case in point: Two years ago, Brown attempted to teach Watson the Urban Dictionary. The popular website contains definitions for terms ranging from Internet abbreviations like OMG, short for "Oh, my God," to slang such as "hot mess."

But Watson couldn't distinguish between polite language and profanity -- which the Urban Dictionary is full of. Watson picked up some bad habits from reading Wikipedia as well. In tests it even used the word "bullshit" in an answer to a researcher's query.

Ultimately, Brown's 35-person team developed a filter to keep Watson from swearing and scraped the Urban Dictionary from its memory.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/07/ibm-watson-slang/

that seems like bull. Shouldn't it be easy to just code some very clear, extreme circumstances where watson could access the UD?

http://www.oculusvr.com/

Peel-and-Stick solar panel fabrication technique developed at Stanford

I'm studying microfabrication techniques atm and actually just started working on a new silicon wafer this afternoon in the clean room before reading this... now I want to get my instructors to let me try one of these. :D

also flol @ watson, that's great

  On 1/19/2013 at 2:03 AM, luke viia said:

Peel-and-Stick solar panel fabrication technique developed at Stanford

 

I'm studying microfabrication techniques atm and actually just started working on a new silicon wafer this afternoon in the clean room before reading this... now I want to get my instructors to let me try one of these. :D

awesome, sounds promising! how do you think this will be used most? all around light/telephone posts and stuff maybe?

I'm not sure what form the technology would hit the market in, but I think it could be used to cover entire buildings, cars, phones or other devices, your bike helmet, your bike, whatever. I'm pretty excited about the future of solar energy. It's the quintessential "sustainable" energy, and we're finally getting good enough to turn our machines into digi-autotrophs. exciting times imo!