Mud-spraying drones could be used to build homes in disasters areas
Drones are finding more and more uses beyond just capturing gorgeous footage from up high. Check out this effort, for example, where a flying machine has been modified so that it can help build emergency shelters. The drone performs multiple tasks that include lifting, spraying, and drying.
Digital Trends Live: Apple WWDC lead-up, Tesla pickup, and more
On this episode of Digital Trends Live, we discuss the lead-up to the Apple Worldwide Development Conference (WWDC), going on a safari with Google Search, Tesla’s upcoming pickup, in-display smartphone selfie camera, robotic lunar landers, and the future of untethered soft robots.
Top Oxford researcher talks the risk of automation on employment
The threat of robots and A.I. stealing jobs is hotly debated. In a new book, titled The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation, Oxford professor Dr. Carl Benedikt Frey sorts the truth from the fiction. Dr. Frey spoke with Digital Trends about his findings.
Mars 2020 will capture high-definition color images from the Jezero Crater
The Mars 2020 rover will be launching next year and heading to an area of Mars called the Jezero Crater, the site of an ancient lake. But to navigate and document the crater, the rover will need to collect visual information. For this purpose, it is being equipped with two high definition color cameras.
Melting pesky lunar dust with a laser enables 3D printing of tools on the moon
Dust is a major problem for lunar expeditions. Not only is it harmful to astronaut's health, it also gums up devices and causes technological problems. But now scientists from Germany have come up with an idea to make use of dust: by melting it with a laser and using it to 3D-print tools and equipment.
Eruption of ice volcano threw liquid water over the frozen surface of Pluto
Liquid water could once have existed on the frozen surface of Pluto, put there by the violent eruption of a cryovolcano, according to a new study. By analyzing the wavelengths of light in images of Pluto's surface, researchers can see what chemical compounds are likely located on the planet's surface.
Improved fluidic robot paves the way for untethered soft robotics
Soft robots may be the future of robotics, but there are still many limitations in their design. One big problem is that soft robots generally need to be tethered, meaning that they have to be connected to an external device by wires. Now scientists have taken a first step towards untethering soft robots.
Bouncing robot reaches new heights, artfully dodges moving obstacles
Meet Salto, a tiny adorable bouncing robot developed at UC Berkeley. The bot weighs just 100 grams and is about a foot long, and moves through its environment by bouncing and jumping. It can do hundreds of jumps in a 10-minute period, can jump 4 feet high, and can travel at eight to ten miles per hour.
Astronomers are worried SpaceX satellites could soon put an end to stargazing
SpaceX is starting work on a plan to provide internet services from a collection of satellites. Other companies have a similar idea. Now astronomers are worried that the new constellations of satellites, equipped with bright lights and orbiting the earth will start to limit our ability to stargaze.
Spitzer captures childhood, middle age, and maturity of stars in one image
NASA's Spitzer telescope has captured a stunning images of a pair of nebulas containing the star clusters Cepheus B and Cepheus C. The image includes a dense region of dust and gas which acts as a stellar nursery, a nebula which is shaped by winds of maturing stars, and fully mature star clusters.
Curiosity rover finds evidence that water once existed on the surface of Mars
NASA's Curiosity rover has found the highest amounts of clay in any sample taken so far during its mission to Mars. The rover snapped a selfie as it explored the clay-bearing unit where the newest samples were taken from. These new findings provide evidence there was once water in the region.
The promise and pitfalls of using robots to care for the elderly
There's something dystopian about the idea of a future in which robots care for the elderly. But is this something we should really fight against? A number of new projects show that a future of caregiving robots and artificial intelligence may be just what the doctor ordered.
Caltech’s new CO2 recycler could be a game-changer for space exploration
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a special reactor that can transform carbon dioxide into molecular oxygen. This could prove to be a potential game-changer for generating oxygen in space. Here's how it works -- and why it's potentially so exciting.
NASA nabs $125 million in funding to develop nuclear rocket propulsion
NASA has been awarded a sum of $125 million to develop nuclear thermal propulsion systems for its future spacecraft. The award to develop the technology was given as part of a total $22.3 billion of funding for NASA as approved by the House Appropriations Committee this month.
Robots are used to carry out daily health inspections at schools across China
China has reportedly installed health-checking robots at more than 2,000 preschools across the country. The robot uses cameras and an infrared thermometer to look for signs of possible disease in kids aged 2 to 6, ranging from red eyes or a sore throat to blisters and fever.
Parrot to build small surveillance drones for U.S. soldiers on the battlefield
Quadcopters are set to play an increasing role on the battlefield after French drone maker Parrot and five other firms were selected by U.S. officials to develop compact aircraft for soldiers' reconnaissance missions. Ongoing issues between the U.S. government and China likely led to drone giant DJI being overlooked.
The Tamagotchi Effect: How digital pets shaped the tech habits of a generation
Tamagotchis, the egg-shaped virtual pets that were the obsession of kids and the scourge of many parents and teachers in the late 1990s, are making a comeback. Here's how the originals helped shape the tech views of an entire generation of kids, now in their twenties and thirties.
Intelligent pedestrian crossing system banishes the button
Pressing the button at a signalized crosswalk is no great hardship, but Austrian researchers are adamant there's a better way. By replacing the button with smart technology, they’ve created a system to improve both safety and traffic flow. The technology will be tested in Vienna before being rolled out more widely.
Will GPS ever become obsolete? Meet the ant-inspired tech that could replace it
GPS is today’s go-to navigational system and it’s great until it doesn’t work. Researchers at universities and some of the world’s top tech companies are developing advanced navigational techniques designed to fill in the gaps when GPS fails.
NASA pushes ahead with Moon 2024 mission despite funding uncertainties
The ambitious, even perhaps overly ambitious, plan for NASA to send astronauts back to the moon by 2024 is underway, with new developments coming this week. But the project remains troubled due to uncertainty about how much funding will actually be available
Samsung’s new A.I. software makes generating fake videos even easier
A.I. is getting better and better at producing fake videos. Now Samsung has developed software which makes creating fake videos even easier. The new software can create somewhat convincing fakes from just a few images of a person. Potentially, it could even work with a single image of a face.
Starlink: String of satellites captured in cool video a day after launch
A day after launch, a Dutch sky-watcher recorded a remarkable video of SpaceX's Starlink satellites orbiting Earth. In the clip, the 60 internet satellites appear as a string of bright dots several hundred miles above the planet. Marco Langbroek used a powerful camera and satellite-tracking tools to grab the footage.
China’s new maglev train can reach an astonishing 372 mph
China has unveiled a prototype maglev train capable of speeds of up to 372 mph (600 mph). After extensive testing, the high-speed passenger train, which is built by the state-run China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, is scheduled to go into commercial production in 2021.
Water on Earth could have an interstellar origin, according to comet data
Scientists have uncovered indications of the source of Earth's bountiful surface water. New research shows that water carried aboard comets may originate from the same source as water in the Earth's oceans, suggesting that water could have been carried to our planet on comets.
Mars 2020 spacecraft survives 8 days in a freezing cold vacuum chamber
Curiosity's little brother, the Mars 2020 rover, has been put through its paces in a further round of testing this week. The NASA Mars 2020 craft underwent acoustic and thermal vacuum tests which simulate the conditions of launch and of space to check the craft can withstand the extreme environments.
This galaxy, Messier 90, appears blue because it’s traveling toward us
A new Hubble image has been released showing Messier 90, 60 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster. It is located in the constellation of Virgo, part of the Virgo Supercluster which includes our galaxy. An unusual feature of Messier 90 is it is traveling towards the Milky Way, not away from it.
Scientists find organic matter from outer space in 3.3-billion-year-old rocks
Scientists believe they have located organic matter that is extraterrestrial in origin, in 3.3 billion year old rocks in the Makhonjwa Mountains in South Africa. This offers support to the theory that organic chemicals arrived on our planet aboard a meteorite and created the building blocks for life.
Motion-sensing shrubs and robo-Venus flytraps: Inside the world of Cyborg Botany
From motion-sensing plants to a Venus Flytrap you control using a computer interface, Harpreet Sareen is the brains behind a weird field called Cyborg Botany. Here's why he believes that it matters -- and what we can expect from this fast-growing (literally) area in the future.
Three rare exocomets spotted in orbit around a nearby star
Scientists have spotted three exocomets, or comets outside of our Solar System, in orbit around a bright young star called Beta Pictoris in the constellation of Pictor. They used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS) to capture detailed data about the amount of light being generated.
Jupiter’s vast magnetic field stretches over time, driven by atmospheric wind
Jupiter has the most powerful magnetic field in our Solar System, 18,000 times as strong as Earth's. It is large as well, extending seven million kilometers out from the planet towards the Sun. Now scientists have discovered that the field changes over time, in an effect called secular variation.
Scientists discover unexpected underwater volcano off the coast of Africa
Geologists first noticed something unusual in the Indian Ocean in November last year, when they detected a massive seismic event originating from a spot near to the French island of Mayotte. Now further research has revealed that the source of the seismic activity is an enormous underwater volcano.
Digital Trends Live: Starlink’s successful launch, Facebook’s Bitcoin rival
On Friday's episode of Digital Trends Live, we discuss the top tech stories of the day, including Space X’s successful launch of its Starlink satellites, Facebook’s plan to rival Bitcoin with its own cryptocurrency, the Senate passing a bill to curb robocalls, a Game of Thrones wrap-up, and more.
This plane-pulling robo-dog makes Boston Dynamics’ Spot look scrawny
Man's strongest friend, anyone? A robot dog created by researchers at Italy’s Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) has shown off its impressive ability to pull a three-ton airplane down a runway. In future, its inventors hope that it will be used as a rescue tool by firefighters.
What would it take to build a Matrix-level simulation of reality?
What would it take, technologically speaking, to build a real version of the Matrix? Now that we're rapidly approaching the point at which such a thing will be possible, MIT computer scientist Rizwan Virk explores what we'd need to do to build a Matrix-level simulation