If you’ve ever dreamed of having a slender, cat-shaped robot that could spy on your friends from the comfort of your own home, believe it or not South Korean roboticists are happy to oblige.
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Art Bell Passes Away At 72
Where I’m from, Coast to Coast AM begins at the stroke of Midnight. It was a long time ago, up late on a school night, when I first heard it. I don’t even remember why. I guess I was just bored and, despite never usually listening to the radio, much less AM, I thought I’d …
Image: Agnn Foon/Flickr via CC by 2.0
“Ghost Plane” Over Derbyshire Returns, RAF Says Not To Worry
Multiple residents of Derbyshire, England are once again reporting encounters with a mysteriously silent “ghost plane” flying overhead. Last month, the Derby Telegraph published an article about the plane, sharing witness reports describing it as a dark, low-flying World War II-style aircraft. Not long after, they were inundated with dozens of new reports from other …
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Image: Epic Games/Tencent/Vicon
Meet Siren, The Digital Human Of Your (Uncanny) Dreams
During last week’s Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco, Epic Games revealed one of their latest projects: Siren, a “digital human.” It’s actually some fairly realistic CGI, streamed directly into Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. They worked alongside Tencent, Cubic Motion, and 3Lateral to bring Siren to life, as well as Vicon, who provided her “lifelike …
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Video: MIT’s Fish Robot Goes for a Swim
If there’s one thing I really think the world could use more of right now, it’s robot fish. Thankfully, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has delivered. According to IEEE Spectrum, their roboticists have developed an intriguing new “soft robotic spy fish,” which scientists are now using to explore the ocean without disrupting its …
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Would You Preserve Your Brain For A Chance At Immortality?
It’s a hard bargain: You might live forever if you go through with Nectome’s brain preservation process, but you’ll have to die first. Mad scientist startup Nectome has already raised $1 million to explore a method of preserving brains called vitrifixation. As MIT Review explains, it’s a “high-tech embalming process,” a technique also referred to …
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Digital Immortality Phase One – Resurrecting the Dead With Chat Bots?
A Swedish funeral agency called Fenix intends to experiment with creating “digital copies” of the deceased, and they’re looking for volunteers. Don’t get too excited. Yet. The agency’s first order of business is to focus strictly on text, which would mimic the personality of the deceased and answer simple questions, maybe talk about the weather, …
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