--
Welcome to Cyber Dump number 56, your look at what's happening in this insane age of technology that we live in. As always, all source links mentioned are below.
- Youtube link
- Archive.org mirror
- Torrent
3D PRINTING
MIT Researchers Jamison Go and John Hart have been developing a new FDM 3D printing system, which can print 7 times faster than standard printers. It does this using a combination of improved gantry system, and extruder components, like a laser heated polymer liquefier, which heats up the fast moving filament extremely quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wVGaxgkmk4
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214860416303220
Other researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are also working on ways to speed up 3d printing, this time using volumetric stereolithography. Unlike regular SLA printers, these prototypes use 3 lasers, one for each axis, to print geometric designs in seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00H-hXufpQE
https://www.llnl.gov/news/volumetric-3d-printing-builds-need-speed
In other 3D printing news, some researchers proposed a way to create low tech wireless devices using 3d printed parts. Each piece can be designed so when a certain action happens, two pieces of conductive material temporarily touch together, creating changes in magnetic fields, which can be picked up by RF and wifi receivers, triggering other actions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU6-o9SIkMQ
DRONES
A team at Rutgers is working on the Naviator, an air and water drone that can seemingly transition between flying, to underwater swimming. The project was funded by the Office of Naval Research, and one of the potential use-cases is to locate underwater mines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM9azlYHafo
BITCOIN
This week Laolu from Lightning Labs successfully demonstrated a multihop payment which crossed over 3 different lightning network implementations.
As far as I know this is the first time something like that has worked, and it brings the potential for near-instant low-fee offchain payments to bitcoin sooner than we thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a73Gz3Tvx3k
And speaking of Bitcoin, someone posted a pretty comprehensive list of lectures on reddit covering various topics concerning cryptocurrencies and blockchains in general. Worth a look for those interested.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7il1sx/sixty_free_lectures_from_princeton_on_bitcoin_and/
VIRTUAL REALITY
I don't usually talk about games, but this looks awesome. Sony recently announced they are adding full VR support for their latest WipEout game. Get your sick bags ready.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StUMAuqkWXQ
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/wipeout-omega-collection-ps4/
https://www.roadtovr.com/wipeout-omega-collection-getting-psvr-support-exclusive-ships-in-free-update-trailer/
ROBOTICS
UC Berkeley researchers have created a robot that can teach itself how to move objects. It does this in a similar way to how babies play with toys, in that they pick up important information about the world, as well as also fine tuning their motor skills in the process. After a week of playing, the robot can move objects it's never seen before, and imagine what will happen, based on it's experiences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li_vZVpiFSA
Here's another weird robot from Japan. The Qoobo is a cat-like robot which wags it's tail when you pet it. It's dubbed as a therapeutic robot, and I'm not sure how I feel about it, considering people in the west and japan are already choosing pets over having children. Will robot pets be the next step?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6ypGUJBP5E
http://qoobo.info/?lang=en
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
Following on the back of many other car companies, manufacturer Land Rover began testing their self driving cars on roads of Coventry in the UK recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEYrLh2FM9c
Another company, PhantomAuto showed off their system which allows remote drivers to take full control of autonomous cars. There's not much info, but they seem to have some sort of low-latency, high-bandwidth technology to enable this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHzsMbBjI9w
And finally, after taking the jobs of factory workers and drivers, the robots now move their sights onto Tennis ball boys and girls. The TenniBot is an autonomous bot, which, you guessed it, automatically picks up tennis balls for lazy tennis players. What a time to be alive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ObJJHLSmuc
Alright, that's it for this week. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video. I'll probably announce the winners of the giveaway on the next Cyber Dump, so keep an eye out.
--
BY NODE