On (most) Fridays I post here a roundup of interesting things I’ve read and/or posted on social media since my last roundup, generally stories about emerging technologies, experiential activations, interactive art, advances in scientific research, and other things I find interesting. This week an extra special ‘f*** you very much’ to Twitter for suspending my account of 10+ years on Tuesday for, as near as I can tell, no reason at all. Apologies to all my followers, hopefully they get that resolved soon.
Featured Image: LOCKHEED MARTIN
New voluntary guidelines from the NHTSA will allow Level 4 autonomous cars without steering wheels to drive on US roads:
Image: GM
Ford has filed a patent for “non-autonomous steering modes” in which passengers can use a smartphone to control a self-driving car like they would in a driving game:
Image: Ford/Autoblog
Australian engineers have developed an ultra-thin semiconductor only a few atoms thick for making a new type of electronic screen that could be used in bendable biodegradable smartphones:
Image: ANU
Facebook researchers in Montreal have created an AI system that analyzes food photos and generates written recipes:
Image: By Neil Conway (originally posted to Flickr as Banana Bread) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Chinese tech giant Tencent and London medical firm Medopad have teamed up to create an artificial intelligence system that can diagnose Parkinson’s Disease:
Image: iStockPhoto
NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers are using HoloLens AR headsets to assemble the new crew capsule Orion faster:
Image: LOCKHEED MARTIN
The demise of Rethink Robotics (maker of Baxter and Sawyer robots) shows how hard it is to make machines truly smart:
Image: MIT Technology Review / ORIGINAL VIDEO: RETHINK ROBOTICS | YOUTUBE
Baltimore startup Infinite Biomedical Technologies is using AI to create prosthetic limbs that can ‘learn’ to do certain tasks, like open a beer:
Image: INFINITE BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES
Mochibot is a 32-Legged spherical robot built by Japanese roboticists that moves like an amoeba:
Image: Keio University and University of Tokyo
To see stories like this as I find them, don’t look for me Twitter anymore and instead follow me on LinkedIn: @josiah17 or my brand new page on Facebook: @nyiconoclast