The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Perhaps that’s the thinking behind a proposal out of China to drill under the tallest mountain in the world. China Daily reports that a planned railway connecting the capital of Tibet to Nepal might include a tunnel beneath Mount Everest.
DJI’s Phantom is one of the most popular drones aimed at consumers, and its next bag of tricks includes the ability to live stream HD video directly to YouTube, using your mobile phone’s data connection. For about 23 minutes—that’s how long the Phantom 3’s battery is supposed to last—anyone in the world will be able to see whatever your drone sees, as it flies up to a mile away from the person behind the controls.
Bruce Willis was dead all along. Walter White dies at the end. Lots of people die at the Red Wedding. Spoilers are everywhere on the web, but a new Google patent may be able to save those who haven’t caught up on the latest TV shows and films from plot points their friends are wantonly dropping on social media.
William the Conquerer knew it. The Romans knew it. Even the Terracotta Army seemed to know it: In battle, a solider needs to be protected from his enemy’s volleys, but he also needs to be able to move. Otherwise, the results can be disastrous. Now a new study out of MIT, Popular Science reports, may have found a protective, flexible solution for today’s soldiers in an unlikely place: the sea.
One of the most difficult parts about constructing satellites, space stations, or other orbiting objects is getting the materials into space. For the most part, existing space structures have to be built on Earth. But one company wants to use the ingenuity of spiders to change the way we build for space, reports Space.com.
Apple’s newest emoji is boldly going to go where no pixellated emotion has gone before. The newest betas of both Apple’s next OS X and iOS operating systems will include an emoji based on Spock of Star Trek‘s famous gesture, the ”Live Long and Prosper” salute.
It’s an age-old problem: The batteries in the remote die. While you’re replacing them you get distracted for a second and can’t tell which batteries are dead and which work. Unless the batteries came with some sort of painful gimmick, it’s impossible to tell just from looking at them. Until this test emerged.
Five years ago today, the original Apple iPad went on sale in the US. Since 2010, Apple has introduced cellular versions, smaller versions, and ones thinner than part of a pencil.
Loosen your grip. Square your shoulders. Keep your head down. Plant your feet. Follow through. There’s a lot to keep track of when learning to play golf, and most of it is forgotten halfway through a swing. But a new patent awarded recently to Nike might be able to change that, whether you’re out on the links, at the driving range, or in your back yard.
Everything in our online life is indexed. Every idle tweet, status update, or curious search query feeds the Google database. The tech giant recently bought a leading artificial-intelligence research outlet, and it already has a robotics company on its books.
Somewhere between two world wars, inventing sports and then being bad at them, and constantly fretting about the weather, Britishness emerged as one of the most recognizable cultures in the world. Like many countries, the UK has long offered tax incentives to movies filmed in their country. Now it has a similar offering for video games, the Wall Street Journal reported this week, as long as they can pass a test of Britishness.
Whether or not we are headed toward a robot revolution, Google wants us to get comfortable with the next generation of robots. In a new patent awarded to the company today, Google outlines ways to download and customize the personality of a robot or computer.
With every passing week, it seems that we are edging closer to a 3D printer that might actually be useful. Recently, a printer was announced that could rapidly print objects that were previously impossible to manufacture, followed by the announcement of an even faster printer. But the issue with most 3D printers on the market is that they can only print something smaller than themselves. (For now, 3D printers can only print something that fits on the bed of the printer, otherwise it gets complicated.) Jordan Brandt, a futurist at Autodesk (the company whose design software powers most 3D printing projects), tells Quartz that the next stage of 3D printing will require going beyond thinking outside the box—to ditching the box altogether.
The European Aviation Safety Agency said today that it plans to update its safety policy regarding crew members in the cockpits of European planes. Up until now, the agency only required one pilot to be in the cockpit at any given time, which contributed to the tragic situation in the cockpit of Germanwings flight 9525 this week.
This post has been updated.
Robots are starting to take our jobs on the factory floor, around the home, and even in the newsroom. One company, Persado, has its sights set on advertising agencies. It has figured out how to use machine learning to manipulate our emotions to sell us more things. The next advertisement you see online could well have been written by a computer.
Most cars have airbags that are designed to protect passengers in a crash, but Google’s driverless cars may go a step further, with airbags designed to protect nearby pedestrians.
Dancing is difficult—just ask Google Chairman Eric Schmidt—but certain social situations require it. Those with two left feet have long been left to hide in shadows in these situations, but a new patent awarded to Google could potentially turn anyone with a wearable into Tony Manero.
Getting the perfect photo of one’s lunch or night out with friends may be about to get a lot easier. As AppleInsider reported, Apple has been awarded a patent for a new type of sensor for smartphone cameras that could dramatically improve how images are captured by its iPhones. The patent uses the same technology that’s found on this seminal prog-rock album cover: prisms.
Prominent scientists who are worried about the rise of artificial intelligence and robots, and about humanity’s place in the world if robots take over. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has added his name to that list.
Amazon has won a license from the US Federal Aviation Administration to start testing a drone program.
Global innovation has become a three-horse race. Three countries—the US, Japan and China—accounted for over 60% of patent applications in 2014, according to a report released by the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) today.
The keyboard has more or less remained unchanged from its original design at the advent of the personal computer, itself essentially an update of the typewriter keyboard. Although some companies have tried over the years to update the design, most laptops and computers—and some tablets—still sport the same space-consuming design. Google, however, may have hit on a new solution: no physical keyboard whatsoever.
Uber, the on-demand taxi service, is on course to revolutionize the way we travel in cities. It’s so popular that it has changed how we talk about other new on-demand services and it’s now valued at over $40 billion. But a team of researchers has shown that—at least in New York City—there are plenty of times when a regular old yellow taxi is cheaper than an Uber.
