Posted: 19 Nov 2013 07:00 AM PST
I’m always up for a good police story, and I hope you are as well. It seems with the influx of crime, police in every precinct are having to get extra creative in the ways they catch the bad guys. Apparently, the police in Florida have been having a tough time lately catching hunters who are hunting deer out of season. So what did they decide to do about it? They created a robot deer, of course. Isn’t that what you’d do too? To create the robot deer, they partnered with a local taxidermy to make sure the animal looked just right, and judging from the picture of a robot deer below, it seems they can get pretty accurate with all of the details.
That’s Not Bambi You’re Looking At
Once the deer was properly “outfitted”, police set it up in a location they felt was sure to attract poachers. Don’t be fooled and think that the robot deer just stood there, either. Using a remote control, the police were able to control the deer from a distance to make it act like an actual deer. All their hard work paid off too, because a certain hunter decided to shoot it through the neck from his vehicle. As soon as the shot was fired, police came out of hiding and arrested the hunter. This particular man could face a year and jail and a $2500 fine if he is found guilty.
I have to admit – this robot deer opens up all kinds of possibilities for police to catch criminals, and not just in the United States of America.
It also might make certain people a little more paranoid, thinking that the police have eyes and ears everywhere…which might just be true.
So, before you shoot that deer, please make sure that it is actually legal and that you are not hunting from your vehicle on the side of the road. Otherwise, you risk shooting at a robot deer controlled by the police, especially if you are in Florida.
[Image via OutsideOnline]
The post Robot Deer Take Aim At Illegal Hunters appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 19 Nov 2013 06:00 AM PST
Robots have been able to revolutionise operations in the army and have taken NASA’s space exploration to a new level but robots could be about to get a new assignment; herding cows.
According to Australian researchers robots could be the future in herding cows. A four-wheeled device named Rover, was tested by a team from Sydney University and they were amazed at how readily the cows accepted the robot’s presence.
It’s not a dog, it’s not a quadbike; it’s Rover the robot.
They attributed this to Rover’s steady manner, allowing the cows to move at their own speed. Dr Kendra Kerrisk, a dairy researcher and associate professor, explains that this is important if the farmers are to avoid lameness in cattle.
The Sydney University team were already using a robot to test and monitor fruit and trees on farms. It was this robot that was modified to create Rover, which is able to enter a field so that the team can gather data on robot-bovine interaction.
Rover Is In Demand
The research team feel that the robot could have other uses as well as herding. For example, it could monitor cows in a maternity paddock, or gather data on soil and detect issues with electric fences.
It seems that famers are keen on the idea and want to know where they can get one from.
“When we have discussed this concept with farmers they have been extremely excited and we have had a flurry of calls and emails asking how they can get hold of one,” said Dr Kerrisk.
“The research is in its very early stages but robotic technologies certainly have the potential to transform dairy farming,” she said.
The team have been able to secure funding in order to develop a second generation Rover.
[Image via Arisplex]
The post Rover The Robot Cow Herder appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 19 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST
The time has come round once again for Google to release its latest Chrome Web browser. The new Chrome Stable browser is known officially as Version 31.0.1650.48 and it is available for free to download for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome Frame, according to a recent post by Anthony Laforge of the Google Chrome team, on the Google Chrome Releases Blog. The 31′st Version of Google’s Chrome web browser has been officially released with a number of fixes and user improvements.
A total of 25 security fixes are included in the latest version, wrote Laforge. These fixes address a wide variety of issues in the browser’s code. Also included is a Flash Player update to Version 11.9.900.152. Now that this latest Stable version of Chrome has been released for users, Google continues to labour on the next beta release, Version 32.
One new feature being introduced into Version 32 beta is the ability for users to quickly get a warning on their browser tabs when there is a page that is producing disruptive sounds via a video clip or other content, according to a post by a Google software engineer, Yuri Wiitala, on the Google Chrome Blog. “Have you ever shuffled through your tabs to figure out where that sound or music is coming from?” wrote Wiitala. “We hear you! With today’s latest Chrome Beta release, you can now visually scan your tabs for a speaker icon to quickly find the offender.
Chrome will also indicate which tabs are currently using your Webcam or are being cast to your TV.” The alert will display a small icon on the affected browser tab to let users know which tab is playing the unwanted sound at that moment, wrote Wiitala. The sound alert is also activated for Webcam sounds and Webcasting volumes.
Also of note in the beta 32 release is a new feature for Windows 8 users that allows better management of multiple Chrome windows at the same time, while accessing Chrome apps using an integrated app launcher, wrote Wiitala. Additionally, the latest beta 32 version includes a Safe Browsing alert that pops up to warn users before they are about to or download a malicious files visit a suspect Website. The latest beta version now includes automatic blocking of malware files, according to Wiitala.
The beta Version 32, officially known as Version 32.0.1700.6 for Windows, Mac and Linux, also includes a number of new extension APIs and apps as well as a host of fixes and aimed at increasing performance and stability, according to a post by Karen Grünberg, a member of the Google Chrome team, on the Chrome Releases Blog. As part of the introduction of Stable Version 31 and the beta Version 32 of Chrome, Google has introduced the latest Developer channel edition of Chrome, which is Version 33. By working on multiple browser versions simultaneously, the next versions are in the pipeline for future stable releases.
So what are you Chromesters waiting for? Time to download and upgrade!
[Image via computerbild]
The post Chrome 31 Browser Released appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 19 Nov 2013 04:00 AM PST
It hasn’t been more than two weeks since the Twitter IPO, but the microblogging company is not resting on its laurels. Not that it can, really, with its stock price going down (although it’s still not performing that badly).
What Twitter is doing in Silicon Valley, though, is something really concrete. 10,000 square feet concrete. Quite literally, actually.
The company is spreading its wings and has recently leased an additional 10,000 square feet at Sunnyvale Business Park, at 400 West California Ave. This isn’t Twitter’s first foray in the area, with an already existing 8,000-square-foot leased office there.
Compared to the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, which is nothing short of impressive at 320,000 square feet, the expanded Silicon Valley office can be considered tiny. More important than the size, perhaps, is the significance of this move. After all, the trend in this sector is for companies to move out of Silicon Valley to San Francisco.
Still, the San Francisco office is not going to stay stagnant. The news is that Twitter is going to get another 320,000 square feet. That’s a whopping total of more than 600,000 square feet! The general public may not know exactly what Twitter’s plans are, but I’m pretty sure that they won’t have any problems filling up that space.
Twitter is not the only tech company in the midst of physical expansion activities. There’s Google, who has recently bought more space in Silicon Valley and is planning an even more massive office in London across the pond. There’s also CableLabs and Walmart Labs, which have made their home in the same area as well.
All the tech expansion, leasing, and buying at this scale is impressive, sure, but one question that’s hanging in the air: does this mean we’re in another tech bubble or that one is coming up? What do you think?
[Image via Mashable]
The post Twitter Expands into New 10,000-Square Foot Silicon Valley Office appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 19 Nov 2013 03:00 AM PST
A Google software engineer has said that the company’s “deep learning” decision-making systems have been able to crack coding problems that the engineers who designed them can’t.
Quoc V.Le made the revelation at the Machine Learning Conference in San Francisco on Friday, where he also outlined how Google are able to use these large clusters of computers known as “deep learning” systems.
Google’s technology is based around a layered architecture, with each successive layer building upon what all the layers beneath it have learnt. So the bottom-most layer of the neural network can detect changes in color in an image’s pixels, and then the layer above may be able to use that to recognize certain types of edges. After adding successive analysis layers, different branches of the system can develop detection methods for faces, rocking chairs, computers, and so on.
This tech is used for services such as Google translate and Android’s voice-controlled search.
But as Quoc V.Le explains, the software has actually learnt to pick out features in objects that humans struggle to see, like a paper shredder for example.
Learning “how to engineer features to recognize that that’s a shredder – that’s very complicated,” he explained. “I spent a lot of thoughts on it and couldn’t do it.”
Qouc’s colleagues struggled to identify various models of paper shredders when shown photos of them, yet the computer system had no trouble and had a greater success rate. He admitted that he would be unable to write a program to do this.
“We had to rely on data to engineer the features for us, rather than engineer the features ourselves,” Quoc explained.
So for some things, Google researchers are no longer able to explain how the system has learnt to indentify certain objects. It would seem that the programming can think independently from those who created it and its complex learning processes are unfathomable. Although this “thinking” is limited to very specific situations, the proof is there that it can happen.
Cutting Back On The Human Experts
Google doesn’t think that this technology will ever develop into full blown artificial intelligence. But what is so appealing to the tech giant is that with “deep learning”, the company can hire fewer human experts because the systems will be able to solve problems the researchers can’t.
“Machine learning can be difficult because it turns out that even though in theory you could use logistic regression and so on, but in practice what happens is we spend a lot of time on data processing inventing features and so on. For every single problem we have to hire domain experts,” said Quoc.
“We want to move beyond that … there are certainly problems we can’t engineer features of and we want machines to do that.”
Although this is exciting stuff, it also has an air of Skynet about it don’t you think? Should we be excited or afraid? Share your thoughts.
[Image via colleen sharen]
The post Google’s “Deep Learning” Computers Out-Smart The Creators appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 19 Nov 2013 02:00 AM PST
I think it’s safe to say that teddy bears aren’t going anywhere any time soon. Teddy bears have long been faithful companions to children, but they haven’t really done all that much for parents. Starting in 2014, though, a new teddy bear will be hitting the shelves, and this bear might just turn out to be Mom and Dad’s new best friend. Meet the Tedi Bear, a normal looking teddy bear on the outside, but a technically advanced baby monitoring machine on the inside. Gone may be the days when parents constantly peek inside their children’s rooms to make sure they’re still breathing. In the future, all parents may have to do is glance down at their phone.
A New Type of Teddy Bear
The Tedi Bear is definitely not your average stuffed animal. Inside its stuffing, the Tedi Bear is packed with most every kind of sensor a worried parent could imagine. It can check a baby’s temperature, breathing rate, grip strength, and can even record how often and how long a baby has been crying. The Tedi Bear records all of this information and then relays it to an iOS or Android app that parents can view on their smartphones or tablets, removing the need to physically check on their children multiple times throughout the night.
Apart from monitoring vital signs, the Tedi Bear also helps children fall asleep by playing various noises and/or recordings from Mom and Dad. It can even help with limited vocabulary development. It seems the Tedi Bear does most everything except actually cook meals and give time-outs. As long as you weren’t scarred by the movie Childsplay, Tedi Bear seems like a smart investment.
Parents can expect a price tag of around $99 when the Tedi becomes available in early 2014.
Would you be interested in giving this new teddy bear a try? Or, do you still prefer the the old tried and true method of actually checking on your children throughout the night?
[Image via thefemalegene]
The post Keep Watch Over Your Kids With A Tedi Bear appeared first on TechBeat.
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Posted: 19 Nov 2013 01:00 AM PST
Software pioneer John McAfee said on Wednesday last week that he will willingly testify regarding the murder of his American neighbour in Belize in 2012, as he is seeking to defend himself from a wrongful death charge which blames him for the killing.
68 year old McAfee, was named by Belize police as a person of interest in the November 11, 2012 shooting of Gregory Faull. McAfee fled the Central American country before he could be questioned by the authorities. He denies any involvement in the death of Faull, an Orlando contractor. McAfee had told Reuters in a telephone interview, that he would not fight a subpoena for deposition in the lawsuit. “Of course not, because the deposition will be here in America. I’ve told the police in Belize that I will sit for questioning in any neutral country in the world … I just will not go to Belize,” McAfee said.
The lawsuit, which was filed by Faull’s estate in U.S. District Court in Orlando, accuses McAfee of shooting Faull in the head or having him shot. The lawsuit also names two of McAfee’s former girlfriends, Samantha Vanegas and Amy Herbert, describing them as McAfee’s possible instruments in the killing. Faull’s estate is seeking a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000 on behalf of Faull’s 26-year-old daughter.
West Palm Beach lawyer Gary Roberts wrote on behalf of the family, a recent statement to news agency Reuters; “While continuing to grieve, the Faull family intends to pursue all possible avenues to ensure the individual or individuals responsible for the death of Gregory Faull are brought to justice. They are confident that with the tools available in civil discovery cases in the U.S. federal courts and with the information obtained in the criminal investigation in Belize, the true facts will come to light as to how and by whom Gregory Faull met his end,”
McAfee, now lives in Portland, Oregon has said he will file a counter-claim against Faull’s estate for defamation of character and personal injury. The deceased was found dead in his home on Ambergrise Caye. Residents of the island, where McAfee had lived for approximately four years, said McAfee and Faull, 52, had quarrelled at times, including rows over McAfee’s dogs. McAfee, who had previous encounters with Belize authorities and claimed to be in fear of them, sneaked illegally into Guatemala and went into hiding after the death of Gregory Faull. The tech pioneer, who made his money from his Anti-virus software, was arrested on immigration charges after being found by the authorities in Guatemala. McAfee through his lawyers blocked his deportation to Belize by appealing and he eventually returned to the US.
[Image via mashable]
The post McAfee To Testify About Belize Murder appeared first on TechBeat.
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Wednesday 20 November 2013
Robot Deer Take Aim At Illegal Hunters
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