US Scientists unveils Hummingbird Robot

Pentagon researchers have taken robots for a science fiction spin, building a robotic hummingbird that's ideal for covert surveillance.

A year and a half ago, we saw our first look at the hummingbird drone from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a teeny robotic spyplane inspired by the mid-air dexterity of the hummingbird. But now we've got a video of the drone in action, much more capable and with the ability to do its acrobatics for much longer.

The drone, built by AeroVironment with funding from DARPA, is able to fly forwards, backwards, and sideways, as well as rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. Not only does the 'bot resemble its avian inspiration in size (it's only slightly larger than a hummingbird, with a 6.5-inch wingspan and a weight of 19 grams), it also looks impressively like a hummingbird in flight.

Read full    Go to Home

US Scientists Invent World's First 'Anti-Laser'

Instead of having chips with transistors and silicon, these new computers will use both light and electrical energy

The laser - a 50-year-old invention now used in everything from CDs to laser pointers - has met its match in the "antilaser," the first device capable of trapping and canceling out laser beams.

While such a device would seem most fitting in a science fiction movie, its real-world application will likely be in next-generation, optical computers, which will be powered by light in addition to electrons, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

"It's a device which basically works like running a laser backwards," A. Douglas Stone of Yale University, who published his findings in the journal Science, said in a telephone interview.

While a laser takes in electrical energy and emits light in a very narrow frequency range, Stone said, his antilaser takes in laser light and transforms it into heat energy.

But it could be easily converted into electrical energy, he said.

Conventional lasers, which were invented in 1960, use a so-called "gain medium," such as a semiconductor material, to produce a focused beam of light waves.

Stone's device uses silicon as an absorbent "loss-medium" that traps light waves, which bounce around until they are converted into heat.

And while the technology seems cool, his antilaser would never be used as a potential laser shield.

"This is something that absorbs lasers. If a ray gun was intended to kill you, it's going to kill you," Stone said.

Read full     Home

Technology : US wants Wikileaks evidence from Twitter

The US government has subpoenaed the social networking site Twitter for personal details of people connected to Wikileaks, court documents show. A subpoena presses Wikileaks, Assange thinks that Google, Facebook are facing similar requests about his site.

U.S. investigators have gone to court to demand the details of WikiLeaks' Twitter account, according to documents obtained Saturday, part of the criminal case which Washington is trying to build against the secret-spilling website.

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange said he believed other American Internet companies such as Facebook and Google may also have been ordered to divulge information on himself and colleagues.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a subpoena ordering Twitter Inc. to hand over private messages, billing information, telephone numbers and connection records of accounts run by Assange and others.

The subpoena also targeted Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of supplying the site with classified information; Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic parliamentarian and one-time WikiLeaks collaborator; and Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and U.S. programmer Jacob Appelbaum, both of whom have worked with WikiLeaks in the past.

The subpoena, dated Dec. 14, asked for information dating back to November 1, 2009. Assange blasted the U.S. move, saying it amounted to harassment, and vowed to fight it.

"If the Iranian government was to attempt to coercively obtain this information from journalists and activists of foreign nations, human rights groups around the world would speak out," he said in a statement.

A copy of the subpoena, sent to The Associated Press by Jonsdottir, said that the information sought was "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation" and ordered Twitter not to disclose its existence to Assange or any of the others targeted.

But a second document, dated Jan. 5, unsealed the court order. Although the reason wasn't made explicit in the document, WikiLeaks said it had been unsealed "thanks to legal action by Twitter."

The micro-blogging site Twitterr declined to comment on the topic, saying only that its policy is to notify its users, where possible, of government requests for information.
via salon

CES 2011: Dell, T-Mobile Unveil Streak 7 Tablet

At the on-going Consumer Electronics Show 2011 convention, Dell has unveiled the Streak 7 tablet with T-Mobile branding for US citizens. Streak 7 is the first 4G tablet product for both Dell as well as T-Mobile. Dell also showed its 10-inch Streak tablet on the stage for a couple of seconds before taking it away. Probably it wasn't ready enough to be demoed. So far there's no word on its pricing and the tablet would be available in the coming weeks from T-Mobile and Dell.

It Runs on dual-core 1Ghz Nvidia Tegra T20 processor with Android 2.2 Froyo and supports 4G read more at techtree