Just when I read about the Los Angles police department getting all reved up to deploy it’s latest new toy, the ‘SkySeer‘, they get shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration. What’s all the rhubarb about you ask? Well its over a 2.3 Kg bundle of high tech joy. The SkySeer is a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can loiter for over an hour and send back live video feeds to a laptop. It can also be programmed to fly a set course, navigating on an internal GPS. The ‘eye in the sky’ is being tested to see if it can be used in every day policing of the streets.
You know, to test an airplane you have to fly it. And when you fly an aircraft you have to obey the rules set forth by the FAA so you play nice with the other kids and don’t end up getting ingested by a commercial jet liner or smack into a traffic plane. Especially if on your big demo for the press your UAV crashes into the ground a few hundred yards from a group of reporters. I guess that didn’t impress the feds as they grounded the program citing air safety concerns and lack of authorization. Oops! Bad cops, no donuts!
MacMINI in an SE/30
How can you case mod an Apple Mac mini? Car mount, Millennium Falcon, kitchen-ized, G5-ized,even turned into a toilet paper dispenser (!). This mini mod brings back on of the classics of Apple history. The SE/30 was quite the computer for it’s time. With it’s 16 MHz 68030, 9 inch screen, and a max of 128MB or RAM it was able to be a server as well as a desktop machine. Remember when those were specs you would drool about? Yeah, those were the bad old days… Well, this SE/30 is back on the A list with the transplant of a shiny new Mac Mini. The mini was wired into the case along with a new grey scale monitor to make a truly cool computer.
Driv-e-moticon – LED Message Screen For Your Car
Nice one there, for about $20USD you can have an LED sign in your car that will display the handy messages "thanks" and "back off". It will also display a happy face and a sad face. Just the thing to let other drivers know how your feeling. It would be cool if it used a big LED matrix that you could program but the chances of someone pissing off people with language that was, shall we say less than clean, is a sure thing.
Helps you improve communication with other drivers & express yourself. Fix display module to rear windscreen & use remote control in the front of the car. Battery operated – No Wires – Single and Multiple message options.
[via MAKE]
Microsoft Robotics Studio
Looks like software giant Microsoft has unveiled a preview of their robotics studio.
Today at RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition 2006, Microsoft Corp. showcased the community technology preview (CTP) of a new Windows®-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotic applications for a wide variety of computing platforms. In addition, early adopter companies, universities and research institutes offered demos and provided support for the new Microsoft® Robotics Studio development platform. The community technology preview of the Microsoft Robotics Studio is available for download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics.
Some bullet points of the package:
- End-to-end robotics development platform.
- Lightweight services-oriented runtime.
- Scalable, extensible platform.
The coolest part of this development package is that it will work with the new LEGO Mindstorm NXT CPU.
[via MAKE]
STS-121 Crew To Fly July 1
Amid heated discussions about the safety of the foam insulation on the main fuel tank, the orbital vehicle Discovery will take to the sky on July 1.
The STS-121 mission will visit the International Space Station and continue evaluating new shuttle safety improvements. At least two spacewalks are planned during the 12-day mission, which also includes repair work to the station.
[via SPACE.com]
SkyKitten Lighter Than Air Aircraft
I love the idea of using lighter than airships to move cargo and who knows, even provide passenger service.
[via neatorama]