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Tech NewsMIT’s Robot Cheetah Now Jumps While Running, So Walls Won’t Protect You
MIT has already demonstrated that its incredibly nimble and fast robot cheetah can run free without the need for cables or safety tethers. But now it’s not only able run down its prey out in the open, it can also jump without losing its stride. So when the robot uprising eventually happens, ducking behind a … Continued
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Tech NewsTiny Lasers on Microchips Could Help Self-Driving Cars “See” The Road
Since self-driving cars don’t have drivers, the cars have to perceive their surroundings themselves. Lidar is a great option—it’s like radar but with lasers instead of radio waves—but it’s big and pricy. However, a new kind of lidar from DARPA could change that. DARPA, the U.S. Department of Defense’s emerging tech branch, announced the new … Continued
By Bryan Lufkin -
Tech News
This Vampire-like Suction Device Lets Patients Draw Blood At Home
Patients dealing with cancer or infectious diseases require frequent blood tests to monitor their conditions. And though important, frequent trips to the doctor to give samples can be very time-consuming. But a small device called the HemoLink that uses gentle vacuum pressure promises to let patients easily draw their own blood at home. Using the … Continued
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Tech NewsWhat It Feels Like to Shoot With the Military’s Experimental Smart Scope
You’ve probably never fired an M4 carbine. Until a couple weeks ago, I hadn’t either. But at a recent DARPA demo day, I loaded a magazine (also a first for me), snuggled up to the deadly assault rifle, and looked through one of the most technologically advanced smart scopes ever built. Then I pulled the … Continued
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Tech NewsWatch DARPA’s Scary Self-Guided Bullets Swerve to Hit Moving Objects
Military researchers at DARPA have been developing ammunition which can change its path in mid-air to ensure it always hits its target. Now, it can even correct itself mid-flight to hit a moving target. The Department’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) is a .50 caliber bullet that maneuvers itself as it travels through the air. … Continued
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ScienceHealth
New Self-Administered Blood Collection Device Could Replace Needles
Nobody really likes getting blood drawn. Best case, it’s painless and you’re out of the doctor’s office quickly. But then there are those instances where you end up killing an afternoon at the clinic, only to have an intern stab your arm in five different places before hitting a vein. A new DARPA-sponsored company would … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
DARPA Hacked Together a Super Cheap Google Glass-Like Display
Helmet-mounted displays are priceless on the battlefield. And expensive: The proto-Google Glass headset, for instance, is absolutely useful for the average soldier, but way too pricey to be practical. That’s why folks at DARPA are freaking out about the heads up display that researchers hacked together for a few hundred bucks. Let’s get one thing … Continued
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Tech News
DARPA’s Crazy But Genius Plan to Replace Batteries With Propane
If you’re a soldier doing reconnaissance in enemy territory, you’ve got a lot of problems. Taking fire, staying invisible, and enduring the elements are obvious. Battery life is a little less so. The idea that propane is a solution to these woes? That sounds crazy. And yet, battery life remains an increasingly cumbersome struggle that … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Smart Gun Could Be the Colt .45 of the Future
The above Terminator-like weapon is Colt’s latest, greatest invention. Developed with Defense Research and Development Canada, (our northern neighbors’ version of DARPA) this is the smart gun Canada wants to fight the wars of the future. And it’s hard to look at this insane level of firearm innovation and not think about the birth of … Continued
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Tech NewsWatch This Man Scale a Rock Wall With DARPA’s Bionic Arm
The DARPA-funded DEKA Arm System is an amazingly life-like prosthetic arm controlled directly by electric signals from the muscles. It’s the first such prosthetic available to the general public. And it can help you climb a rock wall like a badass. By plugging into the body’s electric signals, the DEKA arm allows for close to … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
Deep Web Search Engine Memex Fights Crime a Bit Like Minority Report
Exactly one year ago, DARPA announced a characteristically scifi-inspired mission: to create a search engine that could find things on the deep web that Google’s crawlers would miss. The so-called Memex project is now well underway, and for the first time we’re getting a look at the crime-fighting search engine in action. Pardon the clichéd … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidHow the Pentagon plans to launch rockets into orbit using jet fighters
DARPA’s Airborne Launch Assist Space Accessis not a new idea. In fact, they have been working on it for some time. Now the Pentagon’s research arm have a neat concept video to show us how they are planning to put stuff in low earth orbit. You know, like satellites and other secret darpish things. SPLOID … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9Robots Are Now Learning How To Cook By Watching YouTube Videos
DARPA-funded researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a system that enables robot a robot to interpret, learn and perform the tasks demonstrated in YouTube cooking videos. Engadget has details on the work led by University of Maryland computer scientist Yiannis Aloimonos: The team’s research is funded by DARPA’s Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation and … Continued
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io9ATLAS, The Pentagon’s Humanoid Robot, Just Got A Major Upgrade
Tremble at the sight of the new and improved ATLAS. Redesigned for DARPA by Boston Dynamics, this robot is now stronger, more energy efficient, more dextrous, and quieter than its clunky predecessor. And best of all, it no longer requires a safety tether. It’s called ATLAS Unplugged, and it’s the new standard that’ll be used … Continued
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Tech NewsThe New ATLAS Is Stronger, Faster, Scarier, and Battery-Powered
As if the original version of Boston Dynamics’ ATLAS robot wasn’t unsettling enough, ahead of the upcoming DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals in June about 75 percent of the robot has been redesigned and rebuilt to make it stronger, faster, quieter, and less encumbered by cables thanks to a battery-filled backpack that will now keep it … Continued
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io9Amazing Footage Of A Hawk Flying Effortlessly Through A Dense Forest
The speeder bike chase in Return of the Jedi? Amateurs, compared to this footage taken by a camera mounted on a Northern Goshawk as it hunts for prey, flying at high speed through thick woodland, avoiding obstacles. The video was posted by DARPA to show what it hopes to accomplish with a new class of … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
Tech NewsSploidVideo: Incredible view of a hawk flying through a forest of trees
Now this is a true bird’s eye view of flying. And in the future, this may be how DARPA drones fly too. The footage shows a Goshawk flying super fast through a dense forest and somehow navigating through it. Its wings occasionally hits trees but it still manages to zip itself through impossible narrow gaps … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech News
This Is What Plane-Mounted Laser Guns Could Look Like
DARPA is going gaga over the pew-pew. The department just awarded a Northrop Grumman a $20.2 million contract to begin the second phase of its Excalibur Program—one which aims to give the same kind of missile-frying laser cannon that’s currently patrolling the Persian Gulf to America’s Air Force. Specifically, Northop has been contracted as part … Continued
