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Welcome to Cyber Dump number 65, your look at what's happening in this insane age of technology we live in. As always, all the source links mentioned are below. Alright, let's go.
DRONES
Starting off with some drone news again this week. DroneShield released the RfPatrol, a wearable drone detection system. According to them, this device can detect drones up to 1km away, alerting the user of the make and model, based on commonly used frequencies etc.
https://dronelife.com/2019/05/17/australian-firm-releases-wearable-drone-detector/
https://www.droneshield.com/rfpatrol
MAVLab at Delft University showed off their tiny racing drone. What's very interesting about this is that it can fly completely autonomously, packing onboard vision and processing into it's 72 gram form factor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs_TzKWE14o
On the back of other drone delivery trials around the world, Google Wing announced they will begin drone deliveries to the Vuosaari district of Helsinki, Finland in the coming weeks. The trial will allow people to order food and snacks from a local market and cafe.
https://medium.com/wing-aviation/wing-to-launch-early-access-air-delivery-program-in-finland-in-june-13f8c1537ff2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSCNirIIosI
DIY
You know I love handheld computers, and I thought this project I saw the other day was cool. The HyperKeyboard by Chin Jinson is a project which turns the Pi 3 into a handheld, complete with custom PCB keyboard. More details are on the link included, but it's all in Japanese.
BTW, I've been designing a new version of the Zero Terminal which will have a custom keyboard, and hopefully you'll see it in a few months.
https://www.open-electronics.org/hyper-keyboard-pi-turn-your-raspberry-pi-board-into-a-handheld-gaming-console/
https://booth.pm/ja/items/1313818
VR/AR
Jeri Ellsworth and the Tilt Five team have released a teaser for their new augmented reality tabletop gaming system. The headset creates 3d holograms on the tabletop surface, allowing for multi-person interaction for games and learning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPOgLt_73cY
https://www.tiltfive.com
https://www.roadtovr.com/tilt-five-ar-tabletop-gaming-board-games/
Fundamental Surgery's VR system for surgeons is now used in St George's University Hospital's training programme, allowing students to test and hone skills in a controlled environment. The controller implement used also has realistic haptic feedback and resistance, which is pretty cool.
https://www.vrfocus.com/2019/05/fundamental-surgery-now-used-in-st-georges-university-hospitals-training-programme/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxbxK8LA6rI
https://www.fundamentalsurgery.com/
The team at Tested put out a video going over some of the best games and apps for the Oculus Quest. Even though I'm not a big Facebook fan, I still think this is something of a milestone for the future of VR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta6PQ2YRAmk
SELF-DRIVING VEHICLES
If you wanted to learn how self driving cars see, Ted-Ed uploaded a useful video explaining the LiDAR system used in many autonomous cars, and how they work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRg5RNU_JLk
And in a similar vein, a team of Cornell researchers have developed another way for self driving cars to detect objects in real time, without using LiDAR. Their system uses two cameras, and apparently is almost as accurate, but costs a fraction of the price.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlRbvlrS8AM
ROBOTICS
I showed the robotic hummingbird a couple weeks ago, well here it is wearing the hummingbird cover. I can imagine biomimetics taking off massively once better battery technology is developed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEoxPBsk7z0
In other news, Ford showed off a concept for robot deliveries recently. Combining self driving cars with the new Digit robot allows them to take packages from warehouse to the customers door without any humans. I wonder when we'll start to see robots that don't walk like they've got poopy pants?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHWciIxNK2c
Unitree Robotics teased their new AlienGo bipedal robot the other day aswell. This kind of form factor seems very popular at the moment. I wonder how long it'll be until we see robot guard dogs like those in Snow Crash?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq_-jo6liiU
Echord++ uploaded a video of their MARS agricultural robot in action the other day too. The MARS program aims to redefine how we use robots in farming, by using a swarm of small bots that work together instead of larger machines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJyjWokGwn8
http://echord.eu/mars/
And on top of all that, Carnegie Robotics also showed off their autonomous mine sweeper and IED detecting bot, the SREHD. Now this is a job I don't mind robots replacing humans in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SF-QsC6lXI
BRAIN INTERFACES
DARPA announced it has awarded 6 organizations funding in their Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology program, which aims to create a variety of technologies allowing humans to interact and control computers using only their brains. It's in the early stages yet, but I'm interested to see how this develops.
https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-05-20
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
And finally, AI Researchers have shown off a new system which can animate faces, using only a few input images. Other systems require a large dataset in order to generate video, but this system is capable of learning from a handful of photos, and even portrait paintings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1b5aiTrGzY
https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.08233v1
NODE UPDATES
This week I've been working on some new projects, that you'll see soon. I also wanted to let you know I am working on the Mini Server pre-order.
To start off I may offer just the PCBs for those who want to experiment and tinker. Then we can use that info to develop a better all in one product maybe? I don't currently know how I'll make like 1000 plastic cases yet without spending tonnes of money, but I am looking into it.
I've also been talking to many people about the Desktop Manufactory ideas, and I've started work on some pretty exciting stuff regarding that too. Watch this space.
I'm going to be restocking the shop this week, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.
https://N-O-D-E.shop
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CREDITS
Music: Xtract - Audiotool Day 2016 (CC License)
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BY NODE