ICYMI: The balloon bot that can actually stand upright
Today on In Case You Missed It: A scientist at UCLA’s Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory is experimenting with a way to get around the fact that robots have a difficult time maintaining a high center of gravity, aka they always fall down; so he’s built something that looks like a balloon on stick insect legs. It’s still very much a prototype but perhaps the idea will remain in future walking bots. Meanwhile, scientists at SLAC came up with a way to spot photosynthesis at room temperature, using an X-ray laser. Previous tests had always relied on freezing leaves to track it.
If you’re getting your projects in order for the coming weekend, we recommend the DIY fire tornado. If you’re looking for the Rubix Cube solving bot, that’s here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Old Apple computers make excellent plant pots
What should you do with old Apple hardware? Keep it and maintain it as the company intended, old software and all? Or maybe donate it to a museum, where fellow fans can gaze at its chunky keys and adorably low-res display longingly? Christophe Guinet, also known as ‘Monsieur Plant,’ has another idea. For his latest project, Plant Your Mac!, the Parisian artist has converted some classic Apple products into tiny gardens. All of the machines, which include the Macintosh Classic, the iMac G3 and G5, now house a selection of lush, exotic plants in unusual, imaginative ways.
The old Macintosh Classic, for instance, has a small bonsai tree sprouting out of the top. The soil and roots can be seen through the display — or rather, where it used to be — while an innocent sapling grows out of the mouse nearby. Some, such as the iMac G3, contain the foliage neatly within their original housing. Others, like the iMac G5 and PowerBook, have their new companions bursting out of the display in spectacular fashion. Together they’re a beautiful collection guaranteed to spruce up any home. We expect some purists will disagree with the treatment — but in our humble opinion, it’s a neat way of reusing some truly iconic technology.
Via: DesignBoom
Source: Monsieur Plant
Tesla runs an entire island on solar power
Now that Tesla has officially acquired SolarCity, it’s not wasting any time showing what the combined entity can do. Tesla has revealed that it’s running the island of Ta’u (in American Samoa) on a solar energy microgrid that, at 1.4 megawatts, can cover “nearly 100 percent” of electrical needs. It’s not just the 5,328 solar panels that are key — it’s the 60 Tesla Powerpacks that offer 6 megawatt-hours of energy storage. While Ta’u is normally very sunny, the packs can keep it running for three days without sunlight. They don’t have to worry about a cloudy day leading to blackouts.
The solar switch, which took a year to complete, has both its long-term environmental and immediate practical benefits. Like many remote communities, Ta’u previously had to run on diesel generators. That burns 300 gallons of fuel per day, which is neither eco-friendly nor cheap. Solar eliminates the pollution, of course, but it also saves the cost of having to continuously buy and ship barrels of diesel. And crucially, it provides a more reliable source of electricity. Locals previously had to ration power (say, if a diesel shipment wasn’t on time) or accept periodic outages. Now, they can assume they’ll have power at all times.
Ta’u is clearly an ideal test case. On top of its paradise-like weather, there are less than 600 residents with relatively modest power needs. It’d require much, much more power to accommodate a full-blown city, especially in climates where cloudy days are more commonplace. However, it could still serve as a good example. Tesla’s mission is to wean the world off of fossil fuels, and this shows that it’s a realistic goal in at least some corners of the globe.
Via: The Verge
Source: SolarCity Blog
NHS to use Google DeepMind AI app to help treat patients
Google and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust have announced a fresh five-year collaboration today, which will see the former’s DeepMind AI used to improve patient care across the trust’s various hospital sites. The partnership will focus on Streams, a mobile app the pair have been working on since late last year that’s been approved as a medical device by the UK’s health regulator. DeepMind will analyse blood test results as they come in and flag when patients might be at risk of acute kidney injury, proactively alerting carers through the Streams app.
It’ll go live across the trust in early 2017, and there are plans to expand the blood analysis to look for signs of sepsis and other causes of organ failure. The pair hope to add messaging and task management features over the course of the collaboration too, and Streams is said to be built on open standards that will allow other developers to easily add new services. The general idea is to significantly speed up response times, improving the treatment of kidney injury before it progresses any further.
Streams should also free up time for carers to do what they best — over half a million hours per year, apparently — which would otherwise be dedicated to admin and jumping between multiple paper-based and aging computer systems.
Google’s DeepMind AI has famously beaten a Go world champion, improved data centre efficiency, been trained to mimic human speech, and is currently learning how to play Starcraft II. In the UK, the DeepMind Health initiative was set up earlier this year to work with the NHS on healthcare applications. In addition to the Streams project, DeepMind is being used to improve the treatment of ocular diseases and head and neck cancer at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the University College London Hospital, respectively.
Google and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust may have partnered with the best of intentions when they originally started working on Streams, but the pair have drawn flak over the sheer amount of data being shared between them. Earlier this year, it came to light that DeepMind had access to the personal data and medical history of the trust’s 1.6 million patients. This makes sense because healthcare is complicated, and all that information is necessary to evaluate treatment options.
It wasn’t just the wealth of information being shared that inspired criticism, though, but also that the data-sharing agreement was established with implied consent from patients, and with little oversight. Ethical, privacy and data protection concerns have all formed part of the discussion, and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office confirmed it was looking into the agreement earlier this year.
The debate continues, and the DeepMind website attempts to explain at length how data security and privacy are protected. Within the Streams announcements today, both parties also describe how seriously they are taking data protection under the new five-year collaboration. DeepMind’s data centres have already passed NHS audits, and will be subject to more carried out by independent experts, who will also look at the Streams software.
Everything will be logged for the benefit of the trust, too, so there will be transparency around who, when, where and why patient information is accessed. “The data can never be combined with any Google services or accounts under any circumstances,” the trust’s release states, and in order to satisfy staunch skeptics, the new data-sharing agreement with DeepMind will also be published for all to scrutinise.
Via: BBC
Source: DeepMind, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
Volkswagen will build EVs in North America starting in 2021
Volkswagen introduced its new e-Golf at the LA Auto Show last week and today the automaker announced more plans for its electric vehicles in North America. As part of its plan for the next decade, the company wants to “evolve from a niche supplier into a relevant and profitable volume producer.” Part of that strategy includes building EVs in North America beginning in 2021.
Setting up shop in North America is the second part of a two-stage plan for production on the continent. Volkswagen’s brand Board of Management Chairman Dr. Herbert Diess explains that the company “will be making considerable investments in electric infrastructure” there. Diess also says that Volkswagen will “step up activities” in the US, mostly focusing on large SUVs and limousines.
At the Paris Auto Show in September, Volkswagen previewed its next-gen I.D. EV concept platform. With I.D., the automaker says it will eventually roll out 20 different models based on its so-called Modular Electric Drive Kit. Back at CES, the company showed off its BUDD-e concept that brought its iconic vans into the 21st century as an EV via the modular platform. The first I.D. vehicle is expected to arrive in 2020 with a 125 kW motor and a range of between 250 and 370 miles. Those EVs slated to be made in North America during the next decade will feature Volkswagen’s modular tech.
The company has already announced plans to reinvent itself as an EV outfit in the aftermath of its massive diesel emissions scandal. As part of the restructuring, the automaker will cut up to 30,000 jobs. Volkswagen says the goal is is to produce 25 percent more vehicles than it currently does by 2025 with fewer employees. And it wants to sell three million EVs by then, too.
Source: Volkswagen
Vivaldi’s web browser can control your Hue lights
Standing up and walking over to a light switch is so passé, apparently. To stand out from its competition, Vivaldi has added Hue light controls to its upstart desktop browser. With the latest version, 1.5, you can now link your smart bulbs under the “Theme” settings page. Select which lights Vivaldi should control and you’ll then get an intriguing light show — specifically, the bulbs will illuminate automatically depending on the “color of the web.” A gimmick? Absolutely, however Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner has hinted at broader and possibly more useful functionality in the future.
“Imagine a world where you get notified for a new email or web notification through a light bulb,” he said. “Vivaldi is all about customisation and flexibility. Integrating with IoT devices like Philips Hue makes it possible for Vivaldi to adapt to you and your everyday life.”
If, like me, you’re still using regular bulbs, Vivaldi has a few extra tricks to tempt you over. Tab selections and stacks, which act like folders for open web pages can now be dragged between windows. It’s a small, but useful feature if you tend to keep dozens of tabs open (and struggle to find the one you need half an hour later). There’s also a new reader mode button in the address bar, making it simpler to activate the browser’s cleaner web experience. Finally, the team has added automatic screenshots to notes, so that when you save a text snippet the source page is archived with it.
Source: Vivaldi (Press Release)
UK insurers detail the data they’ll want from driverless cars
As car makers outfit their vehicles with more autonomous features, insurance providers are carefully weighing up how to cover owners of driverless cars while figuring out exactly who should be liable in an accident. The UK government agrees it’s a major priority and has already laid down a common-sense framework to guide discussions, but the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has today published a specific list of rules that providers believe will best protect everyone involved.
Insurers are asking for a “basic set of core data” that will be shared in the event of an accident. It will tell them whether a car was operating in autonomous mode or being driven manually and indicate which features were in use at the time. Information would also include the time and GPS location of an incident, when the vehicle was placed into driverless mode and when the driver last interacted with it (including steering and braking), as well as whether there was someone in the driver’s seat and whether their seatbelt was secured.
The ABI says that it would want data from 30 seconds before to 15 seconds after an accident. However, insurers stress that they wouldn’t collect information on a driver’s performance when operating a vehicle manually.
If that data was made available, insurers say they’d be in a better position to determine liability and share information to aid emergency services’ investigations. There’s also the argument that claims could be processed quicker. With relevant data at hand, manufacturers could be held responsible for faults in their technology, helping them to improve the safety of their products as a result.
With the government’s consultation on driverless vehicle regulation now closed, car makers and insurers will wait to see what the UK has planned for the autonomous future. The World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, a body operating under the United Nations, will also bring its own rules into force in 2019. UK insurers want to help shape domestic and international regulations so that Britain’s drivers can own and operate driverless cars without fear of unfair reprisals.
Via: BBC
Source: ABI
‘Resident Evil 7’ $180 edition comes with a tiny haunted house
After scaring our socks off at Gamescom, Capcom has now revealed Resident Evil 7’s collector’s edition — and it’s not for the faint hearted… or the financially minded.
Costing a wallet-worrying $180, this special collector’s edition will net you six unique items, including your very own mansion. An ornately detailed eight-inch model, this replica of the game’s plantation mansion has its own speakers and LEDs, doubling as an incredibly creepy music box.
It may only be eight inches, but in this economy $180 for a mansion is nothing to be sniffed at.
This special edition will also include an exclusive metal case, a suitably grimy-looking VHS box, a bloody finger-shaped USB stick, an exclusive lithograph and lastly a creepy note. Well, they can’t all be winners, can they?
While Resident Evil 7 will be heading to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on January 24th, this collector’s edition will only be available on consoles.
Creator of ‘GBA4iOS’ Teases New SNES, Game Boy, and Nintendo 64 iOS Emulator ‘Delta’
Developer Riley Testut has begun teasing the launch of a new emulator, called “Delta,” coming this December in beta form, presumably for iOS devices. On Delta’s teaser site, hazy images of controllers for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo 64 are shown alongside the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color. Testut tweeted out the information for Delta yesterday, while also saying goodbye to his previous emulator GBA4iOS.
Users were able to get GBA4iOS onto their iOS device without jailbreaking it by setting the iPhone’s date back to 2012, but even a 2.0 update to the software made it easier to install the emulator and removed that requirement. A built-in web browser allowed users to install and play original Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Game Boy Color ROMs right on their iPhone or iPad. Although the platform has yet to be confirmed, Testut’s mention of GBA4iOS alongside the Delta teaser suggests that the new emulator will be for iOS devices.
The new website for Delta doesn’t confirm how the emulator will handle downloads yet, but will likely be in a similar vein to Testut’s previous software emulators. Responding to a few user questions in the original Twitter thread, Testut mentioned that tvOS support is something he wants, but “there are some technical issues right now standing in the way,” so the launch is expected to focus on iOS.
Goodbye GBA4iOS. Hello, Delta. https://t.co/If4W92MMmf
— Riley Testut (@rileytestut) November 21, 2016
Apple often takes a stringent approach to emulators that appear to download on its devices, but it was Nintendo which filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request against GBA4iOS in 2014, leading to the shut down of that emulator. Similar ends met emulators like iDOS and iMAME in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Tags: Nintendo, emulator, Nintendo 64
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Apple Opening Third Store in Paris at Marché Saint-Germain on December 3
Apple has announced it is opening a third retail store in Paris, France at Marché Saint-Germain on Saturday, December 3 at 10:00 a.m. local time.
Marché Saint-Germain render based on renewal plans
Apple will be one of several new stores opening this month at Marché Saint-Germain, or the St. Germain Market, which has been under construction for several months following a renewal project. The market is centrally located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Apple had been rumored to be a future tenant since 2015.
Apple Marché Saint-Germain will be the company’s first new retail store since opening its Via Santa Fe location in Mexico in late September. Apple has two other stores in Paris at the Opéra de Paris and Carrousel du Louvre, along with an Apple Watch boutique at Galeries Lafayette. It will be Apple’s 21st store in France.
Related Roundup: Apple Stores
Tag: France
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