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Welcome to Cyber Dump number 53, your look at what's happening in this insane age of technology that we live in. As always, all source links mentioned are below.
ROBOTICS
You've probably already seen these doing the rounds on the internet, but Boston Dynamics have been showing off new teaser videos of their robots. Firstly with the new version of the SpotMini quadrupedal bot that I first mentioned quite a while ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgaO45SyaO4
They've also updated the capabilities of the Atlas bipedal bot, in what seems to be a massive step in manoeuvrability and balance. Obviously this is a technical marvel, but I'm not sure what to think about the implications of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRj34o4hN4I
Researchers at the National University of Singapore also unveiled the MantaDroid underwater bot, which takes biomimetic cues from it's organic counterpart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzO_XAQ2_xw
VEHICLES
This week Tesla showed off their new electric trucks, marking a new direction for the company. This thing is ridiculously fast for a big machine, with the ability to go from 0-60 in 5 seconds. What I'm interested in is what happens when they inevitably turn on full autonomous driving, charging, and perhaps loading and unloading.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n9xafjynJA
3D PRINTING
The 3D PotterBot is an interesting use-case for 3D printing that I hadn't considered before. This thing uses clay as it's printing material, giving users the ability to make custom ceramics at the touch of a button.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3wPm4FZurw
HEALTH
Researchers at Butterfly Network have developed the Butterfly IQ, a handheld ultrasound tool that plugs directly into a smart phone. It can fit inside a doctors pocket for quick use, and is aimed at emergency room situations. It would be interesting to see what the data security situation would be for a system like this, but cool device. I wonder how easy it would be to open source one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWftey4ag3o
CRYPTO
The Brave browser, which I introduced to a lot of you almost 2 years ago now, has just implemented a new feature which allows youtube creators to automatically receive Brave's basic attention token which can be converted to other currencies when users watch their videos. This could potentially be a way for creators to get paid directly by fans, without needing any third parties or advertisers.
https://basicattentiontoken.org/brave-expands-basic-attention-token-platform-to-youtube/
AUTOMATED WAREHOUSES
Lots of warehouse madness this week, first with an Amazon warehouse in Poland. Interesting way of doing things. Instead of the workers walking around the warehouse, the warehouse comes to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPWmJGKOA4c
JD.com also uploaded a video of their fully autonomous warehouse in Shanghai. Definitely check the full video out, there's so many different types of robots doing all sorts of tasks. Incredible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFV8IkY52iY
NEURAL NETWORKS
Researchers have developed a system which generates a real-time 3D avatar from a single 2D input image. This includes adding secondary components like teeth, gums, tongue and eyes for realism too. The goal, they say, is to make it very easy for anyone to generate unique avatars for use in VR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dERjpAaoNjk
VIDEOS
Two new videos this week. The first is a short movie called Slaughterbots which looks at a fictionalized future with weaponized drones. It's a little on the nose, but worth a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HipTO_7mUOw
The next is a short documentary which follows Professor Ed Damiano, and his quest to create a bionic pancreas for his son, who has type 1 diabetes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4eU6C3duwQ
Alright, as always, thanks for watching. I just wanted to mention that I am working on quite a few new projects, so look out for them in the future, and I'll see you in the next video.
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BY NODE