Airbus uses drones to speed up aircraft inspections

Aircraft inspections are one of the best things operators can do to ensure safety in flight, but ironically, the chore can be a little unsafe for inspectors themselves. To properly review an aircraft’s condition, workers often need to utilize cranes and lifts to closely examine an plane’s structure and components. It’s mildly risky, slow and laborious process — but soon, it may not be. Airbus has started testing drone inspections that may speed up the process by over an hour.

Airbus demonstrated its new inspection process at the Farnborough Airshow, where a drone equipped with an Intel RealSense camera autonomously circled an A330 while rapidly snapping photos. The images were then applied to a 3D model of the aircraft that allowed inspectors to get a close, detailed look at the subject. It still takes awhile to inspect the digital model, but in all, it’s much faster. Gathering the inspection data by hand takes about two hours. Using a drone takes only 10 to 15 minutes.

The company expects to finish initial testing the program by the end of the year, and hopes to include a wider range of aircraft in the program soon afterwards.

Via: Digital Trends

Source: Airbus

Mercedes’ autonomous bus makes a landmark trip on public roads

Mercedes-Benz’s CityPilot autonomous bus technology just got a real-world, long-range test drive on the streets and highways of the Netherlands. One of the company’s Future Bus vehicles successfully followed a 20km Bus Rapid Transit route between Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and the nearby town of Haarlem, navigating through tight turns, intersections and pedestrian areas all without the need for human input.

The CityPilot platform is based on a version of Daimler’s Highway Pilot autonomous trucking technology adapted to handle the specific needs of a city bus. With GPS, radar and a dozen cameras built into the vehicle itself, the bus can recognize traffic signals, pedestrians and other obstacles. The bus has a top speed of 70km/h (or about 43 mph) and all that data taken together allows the bus to position itself within inches of bus stops or raised accessibility platforms.

Although regulations still require a human operator sit behind the wheel in case of an emergency, the vehicle’s intelligent systems make for a much smoother ride for everyone. Unlike other autonomous vehicles, the bus is actually connected to the city network so it can communicate directly with traffic lights and other city infrastructure. The camera systems can even scan the road for potholes, so buses can avoid rough patches on their next run or share that data back to the city.

Technology aside, the vehicle itself is based on Mercedes’ popular Citaro bus with a completely redesigned interior that takes its design cues from city parks. (Albeit a city park with a whole lot of information screens.) With “designer” benches, expansive windows, and grab rails inspired by trees, the interior might even give that driverless Rolls-Royce a run for its money. While the Future Bus isn’t the first autonomous bus to start shuttling people around, it is the first to do so on a public transit system — a major milestone towards implementing driverless vehicles in cities around the world.

Cardinals scout sentenced to 46 months for hacking another team

Last June, the FBI began investigating the St. Louis Cardinals for hacking computers of the Houston Astros to access confidential scouting reports on the teams players. Christopher Correa, the Cardinals’ former director of baseball development, plead guilty to five charges of unauthorized access of a protected computer back in January. Today, the FBI in Houston announced that Correa was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for tapping into the Astros’ player files without permission. He’s also required to pay $279,038 in restitution for the incident.

The Associated Press reports that Major League Baseball could discipline the Cardinals for the ordeal, but has said it will wait for more info from federal authorities before making a decision. Penalties could include a loss of draft picks or a fine. Correa was able to gain access to the Astros’ files by using a password similar to one a former employee used on a computer while working for the Cardinals. That employee went to work for the Astros afterwards, and while the FBI didn’t offer a name, Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow left St. Louis to join the team in 2011. Luhnow revealed that the team had been hacked in 2014.

Correa was said to have viewed a scouting list of every player in the 2013 draft, trade discussions, player bonus details, stats and information on performance and injuries by the team’s minor-league prospects. In other words, details on nearly every facet of the team’s scouting operations. In total, the hacking was estimated to have cost the Houston Astros $1.7 million based on the fact that the stolen information was used to draft players for the Cardinals.

Chris Correa is sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for illicitly accessing Houston Astros computer #hounews #hacking

— FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) July 18, 2016

Source: FBI Houston (Twitter)

Artificial cell membranes could lead to more effective drugs

Medical science often targets drugs at the proteins in cell membranes. But how do you study everything about their behavior when you can’t control them? That’s what UC San Diego researchers aim to fix. They’ve developed artificial cell membranes that grow and model themselves just like those in mammal cells, making them ideal for testing how drugs will behave. The trick is to use reversible chemical reactions that remodel phospholipids (key molecules in the cell membrane) and make the cell ‘recycle’ them, rather than generate them from scratch. That, in turn, saves the cell a lot of effort as its membrane grows.

So long as scientists can refine their synthetic membrane technique, there’s a lot of potential. They could create more effective drugs, or get a better sense of what happens when disease ravages those membranes. Don’t be surprised if this seemingly small discovery leads to big improvements in treatments in the future.

Via: Phys.org

Source: Devaraj Research Group, Devaraj Lab (YouTube)

GOP platform praises NASA’s ability to foster innovation

The Republican party has officially adopted its platform (warning: PDF) for the 2016 election season. And inside is some slightly surprising praise for NASA and talk of investing in it as a means to foster innovation. Specifically the GOP called the agency (along with the Department of Defense) critical to maintaining the country’s edge in space. Of course, the specifics of the language are very carefully chosen. The platform doesn’t whole-heartedly embrace a government-driven path to space-based dominance. Instead it calls out the agencies, as well as their public-private partnerships with the likes of SpaceX, that it claims have saved tax payers money.

Still, it’s worth noting that NASA’s relationship with the Grand Old Party has always been a somewhat contentious one. Sure, there’s no greater demonstration of American exceptionalism than the parade of space-based firsts that the agency has racked up. It has been at the forefront of exploring our solar system, unlocking the mysteries of the universe and generally building things that would have sounded like science fiction just a few years ago. But, it’s also an easy program to target for budget cuts. Many of NASA’s missions don’t have an immediate impact on the lives of everyday Americans, except for maybe a sense of pride and patriotism.

The agency has also frequently butted heads with Republican lawmakers over its Earth-based research programs. Especially those that support the concept of man-made climate change. Knowing that, it’s hard not to take notice of the fact while the party platform does call for “launching more scientific missions,” it limits that call explicitly to space-based ones.

There is not a single mention of research into our planet.

However, this is still a change of tone from the one established early in the campaign by the presumptive nominee Donald Trump who said that NASA was “great” but that “right now, we have bigger problems.”

iOS 10 Beta 3 Tidbits: iOS 9-Style Touch ID Option, New Keyboard Sound, and More

With any major beta update, there are several small changes and tweaks as Apple aims to refine the operating system ahead of its public release, and iOS 10 beta three, seeded to developers this morning, is no exception.

Today’s update, available as an over-the-air download for those who installed the first two betas or the beta configuration profile, features new Touch ID accessibility options, new haptic feedback when locking the iPhone, better keyboard sounds, and more.

We’ve rounded up all of the new features in beta three in the video below, so make sure to check it out to get a quick look at what’s changed. We’re also listing the changes in the post below.

Locking haptic feedback – When locking an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, there’s a small haptic vibration to let you know the device has been properly locked. On other devices, there’s a new sound when pressing the power button.

Touch ID – There’s a new Accessibility option that allows users to open an iPhone with Touch ID with just a finger on the button, which is the way Touch ID worked in iOS 9. The setting was initially added in beta two but wasn’t functional.

Keyboard sound – The muted popping-style keyboard sound that was introduced in beta one and removed in beta two has been reintroduced in beta three.

Siri – In Settings, there’s a new “App Support” section of Siri that will display information on which apps work with Siri and access your data.

Audio fix – Audio playback through the internal speaker will no longer stop because of haptic feedback.

Quick Actions – In iOS 10 beta 3, a 3D Touch on an app icon will now bring up a Share option that includes the name of the app. Previously, the app name was not included.

Health – There’s a new “Improve Activity” option that allows you to send anonymous health-related information to Apple under Settings –> Privacy –> Diagnostics and Usage. When you open the Health app for the first time in iOS 10, there’s also a pop-up that gives you the option to enable it.

iOS 10 beta three will likely be seeded to public beta testers later this week. Apple will release iOS 10 to the public at the end of the beta testing period, likely in September alongside new iOS devices.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
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