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Luís F. Simões

Singularity University, class of 2010: projects that aim to impact a billion people wit... - 8 views

www.kurzweilai.net/ty-webinar-today-sneak-preview

AI robotics biomedicine biotechnology electronics energy nanotechnology singularity futures social ethics space synthetic biology computer science defence

shared by Luís F. Simões on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Luís F. Simões on 22 Sep 10
     
    At the link below you find additional information about the projects: Education: Ten weeks to save the world http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100915/full/467266a.html
  • ...8 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 23 Sep 10
     
    this is the podcast I was listening to ...
  • Dario Izzo on 23 Sep 10
     
    We can do it in nine :)
  • LeopoldS on 24 Sep 10
     
    why wait then?
  • Juxi Leitner on 24 Sep 10
     
    hmm, wonder how easy it is to get funding for that, 25k is a bit steep for 10weeks :)
  • Dario Izzo on 26 Sep 10
     
    well, we wait for the same fundings they get and then we will do it in nine.... as we say in Rome "a mettece un cartello so bboni tutti". (italian check for Juxi)
  • LeopoldS on 26 Sep 10
     
    and what you think about the project subjects?
  • LeopoldS on 26 Sep 10
     
    I like the fact that there are quite a lot of space projects .... and these are not even bad in my view: The space project teams have developed imaginative new solutions for space and spinoffs for Earth. The AISynBio project team is working with leading NASA scientists to design bioengineered organisms that can use available resources to mitigate harsh living environments (such as lack of air, water, food, energy, atmosphere, and gravity) - on an asteroid, for example, and also on Earth . The SpaceBio Labs team plans to develop methods for doing low-cost biological research in space, such as 3D tissue engineering and protein crystallization. The Made in Space team plans to bring 3D printing to space to make space exploration cheaper, more reliable, and fail-safe ("send the bits, not the atoms"). For example, they hope to replace some of the $1 billion worth of spare parts and tools that are on the International Space Station.
  • Dario Izzo on 26 Sep 10
     
    and all in only a three months summer graduate program!! that is impressive. God I feel so stupid!!!
  • LeopoldS on 26 Sep 10
     
    well, most good ideas probably take only a second to be formulated, it's the details that take years :-)
  • Dario Izzo on 26 Sep 10
     
    I do not think the point of the SU is to formulate new ideas (infact there is nothing new in the projects chosen). Their mission is to build and maintain a network of contacts among who they believe will be the 'future leaders' of space ... very similar to our beloved ISU.
johannessimon81

Google combines skycrane, VTOL and lifting wing to make drone deliveries - 6 views

www.wired.com/...ffort-to-build-delivery-drones

technology drone_delivery VTOL skycrane FUN soundtrack

shared by johannessimon81 on 30 Aug 14 - No Cached
annaheffernan liked it
  • johannessimon81 on 30 Aug 14
     
    Nice video featuring the technology. Plus it comes with a good soundtrack! Google's project wing uses a lifting wing concept (more fuel efficient than normal airplane layouts and MUCH more efficient than quadrocopters) but it equips the plane with engines strong enough to hover in a nose up position, allowing vertical landing and takeoff. For the delivery of packages the drone does not even need to land - it can lower them on a wire - much like the skycrane concept used to deliver the Curiosity rover on Mars. Not sure if the skycrane is really necessary but it is certainly cool. Anyways, the video is great for its soundtrack alone! ;-P
  • ...4 more comments...
  • Paul N on 31 Aug 14
     
    could we just use genetic algorithms to evolve these shapes and layouts? :P
  • Ma Ru on 31 Aug 14
     
    > Not sure if the skycrane is really necessary but it is certainly cool. I think apart from coolness using a skycrane helps keep the rotating knives away from the recipient...
  • Thijs Versloot on 01 Sep 14
     
    Honest question, are we ever going to see this in practice? I mean besides some niche application somewhere, isn't it fundamentally flawed or do I need to keep my window opened on the 3rd floor without a balcony when I ordered something from DX? Its pretty cool yes, but practical?
  • Guido de Croon on 02 Sep 14
     
    Package delivery is indeed more complicated than it may seem at first sight, although solutions are possible for instance by restricting delivery to distribution centers. What we really need of course is some really efficient and robust AI to navigate without any problems in urban areas : ) The hybrid is interesting since it combines the advantage of a Vertical Takeoff and Landing (and hover), and a wing for more efficient forward flight. Challenges lie in the control of the vehicle under any angle and all that this entails also for higher levels of control. Our lab has first used this concept a few years ago for the DARPA UAVforge challenge, and we had two hybrids in our entry last year for the IMAV 2013 (for some shaky images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7XgRK7pMoU ).
  • Thijs Versloot on 04 Sep 14
     
    Fair enough, but even if you consider advanced/robust/efficient AI, why would you use a drone? Do we envision hundreds of drones above our heads in the street instead of UPS vans, or postmen, considering delivers letters might be more easily achievable. I am not so sure if personal delivery will take this route. On the other hand, if the system would work smoothly, I can image that I'm send a mail with the question whether I'm home (or they might know already from my personal GPS tracker) and then notify me that they are launching my DVD and it will come crashing into my door in 5min.
  • Paul N on 08 Sep 14
     
    I'm more curios how they're planning to keep people from stealing the drones. I could do with a drone army myself and having cheap amazon or google drones flying about sounds like a decent source.
Daniel Hennes

Japan is planning to build huge floating solar power plants - 4 views

www.sciencealert.com.au/...20140109-26104.html

shared by Daniel Hennes on 05 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Daniel Hennes on 05 Sep 14
     
    Japan has started construction of two floating solar power plants, which will become part of a huge, 60 megawatt floating renewable energy network.
  • annaheffernan on 06 Oct 14
     
    They should probably buddy up with the wave energy dudes and create the ultimate reneweable energy plant
johannessimon81

Practical Electrostatic Motor(?) - 3 views

www.youtube.com/watch

PHY science NRG Electrostatic Motor

shared by johannessimon81 on 14 Sep 14 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • johannessimon81 on 14 Sep 14
     
    Apparently a spin-off company of the University of Wisconsin is developing non-magnetic motors. Maybe this could be useful for reaction wheels etc. on satellites that monitor the Earth's magnetic field... (preventing magnetic interference with sensors)
  • LeopoldS on 20 Sep 14
     
    Duncan, this is one for you! - you can probably even build one in your kitchen ...
jcunha

NASA challenges designers to construct habitat for deep space exploration - 3 views

phys.org/...at-deep-space-exploration.html

technology architech competition FUN 3D printer

shared by jcunha on 19 May 15 - No Cached
  • jcunha on 19 May 15
     
    NASA is setting a $2.25 million competition to design and build a 3-D printed habitat for deep space exploration - new task for the future architect of the team?
  • Paul N on 26 May 15
     
    I kind of like Thijs's space mirror ablation method as a way of printing :))
LeopoldS

"new" tablet form an unusual place - 2 views

38north.org/...oductReview_RFrank102213-2.pdf

gadget

shared by LeopoldS on 05 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 05 Nov 13
     
    if any of you happen to pass by North Korea, get me one of these ... probably the only tablet on the market with out an NSA backdoor - unfortunately it can't connect to the internet either ....
  • Thijs Versloot on 06 Nov 13
     
    I am not so sure if its NSA backdoor proof (unless you mean no internet connection? :P), as it is build on Android OS (Ice Cream sandwich)
johannessimon81

IBM Speech Recognition, 1986 - 0 views

www.wired.com/...bms-speech-savvy-computer-1986

AI technology

shared by johannessimon81 on 09 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • johannessimon81 on 09 Nov 13
     
    Interesting historical perspective. Progress since the late '80 really seems to be fairly slow. ?: Do we need to wait for the singularity until speech recognition works without flaws?
  • ...1 more comment...
  • LeopoldS on 09 Nov 13
     
    funny - tried just yesterday the one built in on mavericks: sending one email took three times as long at least as typing it And now my speech PowerPoint Funny, trade trust yesterday they're built in speech recognition in Mavericks sending one e-mail to at least three times a talk as long as typing it. Well this was actually quite okay and relatively fast cheers nice evening
  • johannessimon81 on 13 Nov 13
     
    "I thought I would give it a try on my android sexy seems to work pretty well and I'm speaking more less at normal speed" Actually I was speaking as fast as I could because it was for the google search input - if you make a pause it will think you finished your input and start the query. Also you might notice that Android thinks it is "android sexy" - this was meant to be "on my Android. THIS seems to work...". Still it is not too bad - maybe in a year or two they have it working. Of course it might also be that I just use the word "sexy" randomly... :-\
  • Paul N on 13 Nov 13
     
    The problem is that we don't yet understand how speech in humans actually works. As long as we merely build either inference or statistical language models we'll never get perfect speech recognition. A lot of recognition in humans has a predictive/expectational basis to it that stems from our understanding of higher lvl concepts and context awareness. Sadly I suspect that as long as machines remain unembodied in their perceptual abilities their ability to either properly recognize sounds/speech or objects and other features will never reach perfection.
Thijs Versloot

How Einstein Thought: Why "Combinatory Play" Is the Secret of Genius - 0 views

www.brainpickings.org/...ought-combinatorial-creativity

shared by Thijs Versloot on 30 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 30 Jun 15
     
    by Maria Popova "Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought." For as long as I can remember - and certainly long before I had the term for it - I've believed that creativity is combinatorial: Alive and awake to the world, we amass a collection of cross-disciplinary building blocks - knowledge, memories, bits of information, sparks of inspiration, and other existing ideas - that we then combine and recombine, mostly unconsciously, into something "new."
johannessimon81

Breaking the optical diffraction limit by a factor 3-4... ideas for telescopes? - 0 views

www.sciencemag.org/...aab3500

science telescope diffraction microscope optics

shared by johannessimon81 on 01 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • johannessimon81 on 01 Sep 15
     
    In this article the authors describe an improvement of their optical microscope techniques for which some of the received a Nobel prize in the past. They achieve resolutions far beyond the optical diffraction limit which is supposed to limit detail resolution due to quantum-mechanical effects. Their techniques include structured illuminiation (producing interference patterns), switchable fluorescent markers as well as multi-frame super resolution enhancement. Authors are able to take a single image in about 0.3 seconds which allows the study of protein processes in the cell: http://spon.de/vgTb7 . Although it is hard to imagine the application of many of these techniques for telescopes (except for super resolution), I am wondering if any of this could help building telescopes with increased optical power or reduced weight. Any ideas..?
Nina Nadine Ridder

Microscopic fish are 3-D-printed to do more than swim: Researchers demonstrate a novel ... - 1 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...150826081726.htm

technology science robotics 3D-printing

shared by Nina Nadine Ridder on 27 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • Nina Nadine Ridder on 27 Aug 15
     
    Useful for space exploration, e.g. subsurface water reservoirs such as Europa or Enceladus? Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego used an innovative 3-D printing technology they developed to manufacture multipurpose fish-shaped microrobots -- called microfish -- that swim around efficiently in liquids, are chemically powered by hydrogen peroxide and magnetically controlled.
Nina Nadine Ridder

Quantum computer around the corner after Australian scientists make key breakthrough - 1 views

www.abc.net.au/...s4325962.htm

technology quantum_computing science

shared by Nina Nadine Ridder on 07 Oct 15 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Nina Nadine Ridder on 07 Oct 15
     
    Australian scientists have cleared one of the final hurdles for designing and building a quantum computer. The team of engineers from the University of New South Wales has successfully built a core component needed for the computer to operate and the work is published today in the journal Nature.
Alexander Wittig

Outernet: Humanity's Public Library - 1 views

www.outernet.is/en

technology space

shared by Alexander Wittig on 11 Jun 15 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Alexander Wittig on 11 Jun 15
     
    Humanity's Public Library #ImagineIf censorship did not exist information was free for everyone, education was truly universal, every home had a library, disasters could be anticipated. Get your Lantern Portable, solar-powered, multi-frequency Outernet receiver. Maybe we should get/build one of those receivers for the ACT just because it's geeky:)
aborgg

Graphene sponge can absorb light and emit energetic electrons for breakthrough solar sa... - 1 views

nextbigfuture.com/...onge-can-absorb-light-and.html

space technology

shared by aborgg on 04 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • aborgg on 04 Aug 15
     
    The unique structure and properties of graphene and the morphology of the bulk graphene material make it capable of not only absorbing light at various wavelengths but also emitting energetic electrons efficiently enough to drive the bulk material following Newtonian mechanics.
  • aborgg on 04 Aug 15
     
    Hard to believe this should actually work, but would be quite a breakthrough indeed. I wonder, since the material should build up a significant electric potential over time, thus, pulling back the ejected electrons. Well, the paper apparently is not peer-reviewed, and I found some rather critical comments in some forums. Let's see if the experiment will be verified by another research team in due course.
pacome delva

Plan for 'nuclear clock' unveiled - 0 views

physicsworld.com/...42813

clocks nuclear_clocks phy

shared by pacome delva on 01 Jun 10 - Cached
pacome delva liked it
  • First there were atomic clocks that beat at microwave frequencies. Then along came optical clocks that provide higher frequency standards. Now, physicists in the US have unveiled plans to build the first “nuclear clock” that runs at still higher frequencies. And because it is based on a solid material, the team claims that such a frequency standard could be far less complicated than gas-based atomic and optical clocks – while delivering the same or better accuracy.
Joris _

Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | ESA needs to 'tighten the belt' amid budget crisis - 2 views

www.spaceflightnow.com/...08esaspending

shared by Joris _ on 09 Jun 10 - Cached
  • ESA is freezing spending
  • France is planning to boost its funding by 12 percent
  • ESA selected Thales Alenia Space and OHB Technology to build the satellites, but the production contract is still bogged down by Germany's complaints about the distribution of MTG work between France and Germany
  • Joris _ on 09 Jun 10
     
    no much news in regard to the january's talk of Dordain althought just a thought : what if ESA tries to make money - as CNES does - rather than just spending it ?
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Nicholas Lan on 09 Jun 10
     
    to begin with european industry (and probably governments) would complain that ESA was taking business away from industry? or any part that started to make money would be quickly spun-off
  • LeopoldS on 09 Jun 10
     
    really bad interview in my view ... btw: how is CNES making money and how much?
  • Joris _ on 09 Jun 10
     
    CNES is known to be a semi-autonomous agency in the sense that it can auto-finance parts of its activities. Besides the money coming from the state, money comes from the participation of CNES in private companies (e.g. Arianespace) and its own activities (e.g. SPOT among others...). It is about 400M€ per year (almost a class-M mission in Cosmic Vision). For the figures (in French): http://www.cnes.fr/automne_modules_files/standard/public/p4354_c050f7963b54a839a843723401bfddf2budget.pdf
Joris _

OpenLuna Picks Up Where NASA's Moon Mission Leaves Off - 0 views

ostatic.com/...-nasas-moon-mission-leaves-off

MAD Open science

shared by Joris _ on 18 Aug 10 - Cached
  • The ambitious project will tap the resources of private enterprise to build several small scout rovers that will be shipped to the south pole of the moon via a single lander. Rock and earth samples will be returned to Earth for testing, then auctioned off to secure funding for the next phase of the plan
LeopoldS

Cappuccino Web Framework - Build Desktop Class Applications in Objective-J and JavaScript - 2 views

cappuccino.org

INF technology

shared by LeopoldS on 25 Aug 10 - Cached
  • LeopoldS on 25 Aug 10
     
    of interest for us?
Isabelle DB

Electric solar wind sail spacecraft propulsion - 6 views

www.electric-sailing.fi

propulsion energy

shared by Isabelle DB on 15 Oct 10 - No Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Isabelle DB on 15 Oct 10
     
    Do you know this one ? (no time to go through the bookmarks...)
  • ...2 more comments...
  • duncan barker on 15 Oct 10
     
    Not sure whether the group has seen this idea before, but it seems interesting. I like it
  • LeopoldS on 18 Oct 10
     
    yes, we did have a look at it, I think back in 2007 but its maybe time to re-assess it ... will put it on the miscellaneous list for Dejan, the new propulsion and plasma RF to come in January ...
  • Luís F. Simões on 09 Dec 10
     
    They just got 1.7 million euros from the EU "to build the laboratory prototypes of the key components of the electric sail": http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/press-release/121643
  • LeopoldS on 11 Dec 10
     
    very interesting info indeed!!
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