Sandia National Laboratories has launched a $2.5 million crash program to create an advanced sensor to track terrorists. The smart, golf ball-sized sensors, dropped in a city or in enemy territory, could communicate with one another to identify and track terrorists’ activities and report back.

JJX Capital plans to bring a supercomputer that is “the most powerful ever built for commercial use” online in June that can predict “the future price movements of every stock, bond and commodity traded in the United States.”

The 2 teraflops machine will use AI software that incorporates fuzzy logic, neural networks and genetic algorithm optimization to help predict the performance of an investment.

Scientists at the software giant’s Microsoft Cambridge U.K. researchers are developing picture editing tools that can “automatically trace outlines, seamlessly cover marks or blemishes, and fill in backgrounds when pieces of an image are removed. The researchers are also working on similar tools that automate the editing of video clips.”

One tool called “jetstream” automatically draws contours around the most likely edges of an image. Another tool called “patchwork”… read more

“Californian company Evolution Robotics (ERI) plans to release an operating system that it claims will do for robotics what Microsoft did for the personal computer with DOS and Windows.
“The idea has two aims: to slash the time and cost involved in developing new robots, and to let people who buy robotic lawnmowers, beer gophers or vacuum cleaners reprogram them.”

Microsoft, I-Robot, and other competitors are pushing their own… read more

Technologies to foil hijackers being considered include “onboard flight-control systems that could be programmed to prevent planes from heading into restricted areas; remote control from the ground that could not be overridden from the cockpit; and a panic button, also impossible to override, that has the plane direct itself to land at the nearest suitable field.”
However, these require adding expensive “fly-by-wire ” systems and improved computer, GPS, and communications… read more

“A growing number of tech-savvy traders…[are creating] programs to make the computer a tool for making small-scale pricing decisions, the task traditionally performed by traders.”

“Created under a U.S. Department of Defense contract by an MIT spinoff company called iRobot, Morticia is a military machine with a mission. Instead of carrying bombs, she carries eyes and ears, transmitting what she sees back over a wireless link. She is also a pioneer, showing us how robots are likely to be integrated into our jobs and our lives in the coming years.”
Morticia is a prototype of… read more