Lifeboat Foundation

SEATTLE Boeing Co is looking ahead to a brave new world where jetliners fly without pilots and aims to test some of the technology next year, the world’s biggest plane maker said in a briefing ahead of the Paris Airshow.

The idea may seem far-fetched but with self-flying drones available for less than $1,000, “the basic building blocks of the technology clearly are available,” said Mike Sinnett, Boeing’s vice president of product development.

Jetliners can already take off, cruise and land using their onboard flight computers and the number of pilots on a standard passenger plane has dropped to two from three over the years.

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The Poás Volcano in Costa Rica is home to two crater lakes, and they could not be more different. The first fills an inactive crater, its water is clear blue and its rim lush with vegetation. The other could be accurately described as a hell hole.

Laguna Caliente—literally hot lagoon in Spanish—derives its hellish qualities from the churning of magma underneath the active crater. Sulfur-rich vapor rises out of the lake, gagging anyone unlucky enough to get a whiff and poisoning anyone unlucky enough to get too many whiffs. The water itself is three times as acidic as battery acid. And every once in awhile, a rumbling below shoots a jet of hot, acidic water into the sky. It’s not the kind of place where you want to paddle a boat.

So Guy van Rentergem decided to build a drone boat. Van Rentergem visited Laguna Caliente in 2015 with friends and volcanologists, but he is not a volcanologist himself. However he is a chemist, a constant tinkerer, and a long-time caver who’s worked with geologists in the past. Next year, he told his colleagues, he’s coming back with an autonomous boat so they can map the bottom of the lake.

Continue reading “The Tough Little Drone Ship That Explores Acid Lakes” »

Watch the world’s first drone skydive!

Credit: Explorist

You can fly this drone with hand gestures.

The Iris concept would use modified metros and drones to deliver packages for online retailers.

Despite its Big Brother-ish nature, the rule was ostensibly enacted to improve safety as more and more drones take to the air. In his decision, Judge Kavanaugh noted that although the rule is unlawful, “aviation safety is obviously an important goal, and the Registration Rule may well help further that goal to some degree.”

The FAA said on Friday that it is reviewing the court decision, but did not immediately announce whether it would appeal.

“The FAA put registration and operational regulations in place to ensure that drones are operated in a way that is safe and does not pose security and privacy threats,” the agency said in a statement. “We are in the process of considering our options and response to the decision.”

Continue reading “Court Strikes Down FAA’s Drone Registration Rule” »

Toyota has its sights set on a Blade Runner future as the Japanese automaker backs a move to launch a flying car in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The company is giving about 42.5 million yen ($375,000) to the Cartivator project, which is developing the three-wheeled sci-fi car that relies on drone technology to take flight.

The manned vehicle, dubbed SkyDrive, will have four sets of propellors and — at 2.9 metres (9.5 foot) long and 1.3 metres wide — is aiming to be the world’s smallest flying car, according to the project.

Continue reading “Riding high: Toyota eyes ‘flying car’ future” »

Neurala today announced a major advance in deep learning with software that can learn with or without the cloud and eliminates the risk of forgetting its previous knowledge…

Lifelong-DNN™ (Lifelong-Deep Neural Networks), Neurala’s Patent-Pending Software, Overcomes Catastrophic Forgetting—the #1 Problem Limiting the Growth of Deep Learning Neural Networks for Real-Time Use

SAN JOSE, CA —May 8, 2017— Neurala today announced a major advance in deep learning with software that can learn with or without the cloud and eliminates the risk of forgetting its previous knowledge. The new patent-pending approach means that for the first time a self-driving car can be personalized by each owner or dealer to a specific neighborhood; a parent can teach a toy to recognize a child, without infringing on privacy; and industrial machines can be updated in the field for specific tasks.

Continue reading “2 Comments on ‘Neurala Announces Lifelong-DNN for Self-Driving Cars, Drones, Toys and Other Machines: Deep Learning That Can Learn on the Device Without Using the Cloud’” »