Intel unveils a drone made for aerial light shows

Intel isn’t just using drone swarms to show off its robotics prowess — it’s building a business around them. The chip maker has unveiled the Shooting Star, a quadcopter drone tailor-made for light shows. Its companion software automates the animation process, telling the drone horde where to fly to create an intended image — it’ll even choose drones based on remaining battery life and GPS reception quality. Light shows that took weeks to design can now be ready in a matter of days, Intel says. You only need one pilot to run everything, and the LED light at the heart of the drone can shine in any of 4 billion color combinations.

The hardware is designed to minimize damage if there’s ever an accident. It’s built out of foam, flexible plastic and caged propellers that protect the human audience below. Shooting Star can fly in light rain, as well, so that big night won’t be ruined by less-than-perfect weather.

Intel hasn’t said how much Shooting Star costs or whether or not you’ll get to buy one yourself, although that’s not completely surprising. This is a machine you buy by the dozens or hundreds, and Intel had to get FAA approval to make its one-pilot drone swarms legal in the US. If you’re just flying solo, there are likely better options available that can fly longer than the Shooting Star’s 20 minutes, and at higher speeds. However, there’s no question that the technology could be very useful for entertainers. While it was a big deal when Intel flew 100 drones in a swarm early in 2016 (enough to set a Guinness World Record), Intel successfully flew 500 Shooting Star drones together in October. That’s enough to create truly complex patterns that are more likely to awe crowds.

Source: Intel (1), (2)

Adobe experiment slips new words into your voice recordings

If you’ve ever recorded a podcast or a voiceover, you know how frustrating it can be. One slip of the tongue may force you to chop up your recording, or even redo an entire segment. Adobe believes it has a better solution: change what you said. As part of a trio of experiments, the software pioneer has introduced a VoCo tool that would let you insert dialogue into existing voice recordings. All you need is enough audio for the software to get a sense of someone’s voice — after that, you can type what you want that person to say. The results aren’t always perfect in this early software, but they’re surprisingly natural-sounding.

And before you ask: yes, Adobe is aware that people might abuse this to put words in others’ mouths. You’d get audio watermarking to prove that you have the original, unaltered recording. That might not completely prevent fakes, but it would make it tougher to invent a political scandal or produce non-existent celebrity endorsements.

Other experiments include Stylit, tech that lets you transfer your real-world art style to digital, and CloverVR, a tool that would let you edit virtual reality video from virtual reality.

Adobe hasn’t said if or when you’ll see any of these experiments in shipping products like Audition, Photoshop or Premiere Pro. However, these features have found their way into the company’s software in the past. And VoCo is more practical than many of these tests. It could not only save time, but save you the hassle of bringing someone back to the studio just to record a slightly different take on a phrase.

Source: Adobe

US plans electric car charging networks along highways

While the range of modern electric cars is good enough that you can safely commute around town without running out of power, cross-country trips are still challenging. Tesla drivers have access to Superchargers, but what if you’re driving a rival EV with a less robust charging network… or you’re going somewhere that has no chargers at all? The Department of Transportation is changing that. It’s creating 48 EV charger “corridors” in US highways that will address 35 states and cover approximately 25,000 miles. You’ll find stations (both current and upcoming) every 50 miles, and states will use common signs to let you know when charging is available at the next exit.

Numerous companies are involved in making the corridors a reality, including automakers BMW, GM and Nissan as well as charging station veterans like ChargePoint and EVgo. GE, New York state and multiple power companies are lending a hand as well.

There’s one glaring omission in the plan: a timetable. It could be years before you can drive from one side of the US to the other without worrying about where and when you’ll top up along the way. Also, which standards will it support — will you have guaranteed fast charging no matter what you drive? However, the very existence of the plan is important. Much as the national highway system changed how Americans got around, the charging corridors could almost eliminate one of the major anxieties about ditching gas-powered cars. The biggest challenge after that is making sure stations keep up with both demand and evolving technology, since a robust network of small or outdated stations won’t be useful.

Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: White House, Department of Transportation

NASA is concerned about SpaceX’s rocket fueling practices

NASA is a little nervous about SpaceX’s future crewed flights. The Wall Street Journal has obtained a letter from December 2015 showing that an agency International Space Station committee has been worried about the safety of SpaceX’s planned fueling strategy. While the nature of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets will require that it fill up while the crew is aboard (it has to supply the supercooled fuel 30 minutes before launch), that goes against “50 years” of booster safety practices around the world, according to the letter. The committee raised the issue again with NASA officials days before SpaceX’s launchpad explosion, but hadn’t heard anything for weeks afterward.

This isn’t to say that those officials or SpaceX have ignored the jitters. SpaceX tells us that it has worked with NASA on a “detailed analysis” of every potential danger for the past year and a half, and its safety controls were approved by a NASA board in July. There’s “continued work ahead” to both prove that these controls are in place and adjust them (if necessary) following its explosion investigation, the company says. SpaceX is mainly counting on its Crew Dragon launch abort system to rescue astronauts if there’s a failure during the fueling process. You can read the full statement below.

NASA, meanwhile, says it has a “rigorous review process” for fueling crewed Falcon 9 rockets, and that SpaceX’s investigation will play a part in that review. It adds that a separate advisory panel is its main independent adviser for commercial spaceflight, not the ISS committee.

Will the concerns play havoc with SpaceX’s plans? Probably not. However, they show that SpaceX still has its share of doubters at NASA, even as it improves the reliability of its rockets. It needs to demonstrate that a different fueling process isn’t necessarily more dangerous, and it may not completely eliminate those fears until it has a rock-solid record of sending people to space.

“SpaceX has designed a reliable fueling and launch process that minimizes the duration and number of personnel exposed to the hazards of launching a rocket. As part of this process, the crew will safely board the Crew Dragon, ground personnel will depart, propellants will be carefully loaded over a short period, and then the vehicle will launch. During this time the Crew Dragon launch abort system will be enabled. Over the last year and a half, NASA and SpaceX have performed a detailed analysis of all potential hazards with this process. The hazard report documenting the controls was approved by the NASA’s Safety Technical Review Board in July 2016. As with all hazard analyses across the entire system and operations, controls against those hazards have been identified, and will be implemented and carefully verified prior to certification. There will be continued work ahead to show that all of these controls are in place for crewed operations and that the verifications meet NASA requirements. These analyses and controls will be carefully evaluated in light of all data and corrective actions resulting from the anomaly investigation. As needed, any additional controls will be put in place to ensure crew safety, from the moment the astronauts reach the pad, through fueling, launch, and spaceflight, and until they are brought safely home.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

Samsung’s own AI assistant will debut with the Galaxy S8

Get ready for another AI digital assistant.

Samsung was rumored to introduce a virtual assistant with the Galaxy S8, with the technology provided by Viv Labs, a company it acquired earlier this year. The South Korean manufacturer has now confirmed to Reuters that it will integrate Viv’s AI assistant in “Galaxy smartphones and expand voice-assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices,” starting with the Galaxy S8.

There’s not a whole lot of information when it comes to what the assistant will be capable of, but Samsung has stated that it will offer seamless third-party integration. From Rhee Injong, Samsung’s executive vice president:

Developers can attach and upload services to our agent. Even if Samsung doesn’t do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease.

Viv’s technology is similar to what Google, Microsoft, and Apple are doing in this space, which should come as no surpirse as its co-founders created Siri. However, Viv’s assistant has the ability to create its own programs for handling new tasks, and it can understand complex queries better.

With Samsung looking to integrate Viv’s technology not just into phones but also into its home appliances and wearables, the goal will be to create a unified voice-guided interface across its product range. Samsung will also be intent on regaining lost ground with the Galaxy S8, and launching an AI-powered assistant that’s billed to be significantly better than the competition is one way of doing that.

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