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.
Featured Image: Ases Vorazes

Artificial intelligence is learning to see in the dark in order to drastically improve the quality of nighttime imagery:

Image: Intel/UIUC

The Truck Surf Hotel is a mobile hotel on wheels that sleeps up to 10, designed for following the waves by a surfer couple:

Image: Daniela Carneiro

MIT researchers have developed a virtual reality training ground called “Flight Goggles” that lets drones navigate rooms while avoiding virtual obstacles:

Image: MIT / The Drive

The drastically narrow scope of Google Duplex demonstrates how hard AI is, despite all the buzz. Is it time to abandon the big data approach and return to more nuanced “knowledge engineering”?

Image: John F. Malta

Caltech researchers have engineered mini robots that can propel themselves through water using their own bodies’ reactions to different temperatures – no motor or battery required:

Image: California Institute of Technology

Boeing-owned Aurora Flight Sciences’ autonomous helicopter (AACUS) made its first operational delivery to Marines in California:

Image: Aurora Flight Sciences

The Short Story Dispenser is a vending machine that spits out a short story printed on a long strip of paper at the touch of a button:

Image: Short Edition

UC Berkeley scientists are using holographic lasers to edit brain activity and unlock the language of the mind:

Image: NICHD/P. Basser via Flickr

With virtual reality struggling to crack mainstream markets, could VR arcades and theme parks be the silver bullet the medium has been searching for?

Image: Gilles Sabrie/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Weed-killing robots are threatening giant chemical companies’ business models:

Image: ECOROBOTIX

MIT researchers discovered a super-efficient app-based dispatching algorithm could cut Manhattan’s taxi fleet by nearly a third:

Image: batuhanozdel

Wearable computers aren’t just science projects anymore – are augmented reality glasses finally poised to enter the mainstream?

Image: BEN WISEMAN

To see stories like this as I find them, follow me on Twitter: @josiah17