Akta

You think all your smart bluetooth gizmos are safe from hackers? check this article found at guerrilla-innovation. The gun was showcased at the 2004 DEFCON (a hacker/computer security convention) in Las Vegas.

The "sniper gun" creator's site: Flexilis a wireless think-tank based in Los Angeles.
To build your own gun go here,
Article at GIZMODO,
Serious flaws discovered in Bluetooth technology at WIRED

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First check this video.

iRobot Corp. today announced that its funding for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program has increased to $37.3 million. iRobot is charged with developing a next-generation Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) for the groundbreaking FCS program. The funding will allow iRobot to increase its SUGV team to 32 people within its Government & Industrial Robotics division and accelerate the development cycle. The increase will cover computer modeling and simulation as well as field studies.

The Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle is a portable, reconnaissance and tactical robot designed to assist in close quarters combat. It can enter and secure areas that are either inaccessible or too dangerous for humans, providing real-time intelligence while allowing the soldiers to stay out of harm's way. iRobot is under contract with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), which serves as the FCS Lead Systems Integrator with Boeing.

"The success of existing small robots already on the battlefield, such as iRobot's PackBot(R), has raised demand for these intelligent, unmanned vehicles and given us invaluable feedback on ways to continue improving them," said Vice Admiral Joseph Dyer (U.S. Navy, Ret.), executive vice president and general manager of iRobot's Government & Industrial Robotics division. "iRobot is honored to lend its robotics expertise to the U.S. Army's groundbreaking FCS program so that we can help protect lives while giving our soldiers decisive technological advantages."

iRobot and the other 22 "Best of Industry" partners in the FCS program are working to lead the development and demonstration phase of the Army program. FCS is a networked "system of systems" composed of 18 components, from troop carriers and self-propelled artillery to robots, unmanned ground vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles and sophisticated sensors. FCS uses advanced communications and other technologies to link soldiers with the components of the system, giving them access to data that can provide a much more accurate picture of the combat environment than ever before available. The new equipment developed under the FCS program will initially augment, and eventually is expected to replace, many of the heavy tanks and other combat vehicles that have been in the Army's inventory for decades.

About iRobot Corp.
iRobot has a long commitment to building robotic products that make living safer and easier for people in many walks of life. Over the past 15 years, iRobot has developed and built innovative products for the military, government security agencies, law enforcement and the consumer marketplace. In 2003, co-founders Helen Greiner and Colin Angle were named Ernst & Young regional Entrepreneurs of the Year for their innovative work in technology. For additional information about iRobot.

The Pentagon predicts that robots will become a major fighting force in the US military within a decade, a crucial part of the army's effort to rebuild itself as a 21st-century force, reports the New York Times.

"They don't get hungry. They're not afraid. They don't forget their orders. They don't care if the guy next to them has just been shot. Will they do a better job than humans? Yes," said Gordon Johnson of the Joint Forces Command at the Pentagon.

As part of a $127 billion project called Future Combat Systems, which is the biggest military contract in US history, the military is planning to invest in the automated armed forces - the new generation of soldiers - that will drive the defence budget up by almost 20 percent in 2010. The annual cost of buying new weapons is scheduled to rise 52 percent, from $78 billion to $118.6 billion in 2010. Military planners say robot soldiers will think, see and react increasingly like humans. In the beginning, they will be remote-controlled, looking and acting like lethal toy trucks. But as the technology develops, they may take many shapes. And as their intelligence grows, so will their autonomy.

By April, an armed version of the bomb-disposal robot will be in Baghdad, capable of firing 1,000 rounds a minute. Though controlled by a soldier with a laptop, the robot will be the first thinking machine of its kind to take up a front-line infantry position, ready to kill enemies. As envisioned by their builders, future robots in battle may look and move like humans or hummingbirds, tractors or tanks, cockroaches or crickets. Defense robotWith the development of nanotechnology - the science of very small structures - they may become swarms of "smart dust". The Pentagon intends for robots to haul munitions, gather intelligence and search buildings or blow them up. The robot soldier has been a dream at the Pentagon for 30 years.

Some involved in the work say it may take at least 30 more years to realise in full. But before that, they say, the military will have to answer tough questions if it intends to trust robots with the responsibility of distinguishing friend from foe, combatant from bystander. Even the strongest advocates of automaton say war will always be a human endeavour, with death and disaster. Says Robert Finkelstein, president of Robotic Technology in Potomac, who has been telling the Pentagon that it could take until 2035 to develop a robot that looks, thinks and fights like a soldier.

The Pentagon's "goal is there", he said. "But the path is not totally clear.

I think I might wake-up one day with a cute Pokemon robot guarding my door asking me to stay home and turn my Tv on to buy stuff from there, and enjoy the amazing new entertainement provided for me...

Robot world is coming...

Scary article by Jim Pinto at Roboticstrends

The world of HAL and Data, of sentient machines, is fast approaching. Indeed, in some ways it has already arrived as humanlike machines increasingly take on the work of humans. As processing power increases exponentially, and as MEMS technology brings smaller and smarter sensors and actuators, robots are the breeding ground for future-generation products with new, varied and exciting applications.

Industrial Robots
The vast majority of robots are used by the manufacturing industry, for repetitive tasks such as painting auto-bodies and simple assembly. Some 100,000 new robots were installed worldwide in 2000, nearly half of them in Japan, the biggest user. There were nearly 800,000 industrial robots in existence at the end of 2002 and this is likely to rise to almost 1 million by the end of 2004.

In the last decade the performance of robots has increased radically while at the same time prices have been plummeting. Today, manufacturing robots have a payback period as short as 1-2 years. In N. America, the price of robots relative to labor costs have fallen to 26, and as low as 12 if quality improvements are taken into consideration.

Sales of industrial robots have risen to record levels and there is huge, untapped potential for domestic chores like mowing lawns and vacuuming carpets.

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HMV security robot (from John Robb's Weblog)
Article first found via Marshall Brain's Robotic Nation Evidence.
Robots just 1 step from real life / Practical robotics for everyday life to be displayed at Aichi Expo.

By Keiko Chino (Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer)

Attempts by robot developers to make robots a part of everyday life have yet to bear fruit, even after the industrial booms of the 1960s and 1980s.

The 2005 World Exposition Aichi, opening March 25, offers another opportunity to demonstrate the practical application of robots. Companies, research institutions and universities eyeing commercialization of their products in the near future plan to exhibit a variety of robots at the event. "An exposition offers an opportunity to promote the sales of exhibitors' products," an Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry official, Yoshinori Komiya, said. "I'd like to see the Aichi Expo offer the opportunity to market robots in a broader sense."

Industrial robots have already been put into use at factories. METI is now looking to promote the next generation of robots, which can be used in day-to-day life.

The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a METI-affiliated institution, plans to demonstrate more than 100 such robots of 74 types at the Aichi Expo.

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My brother sent me this article last week.
WASHINGTON - The Center for Food Safety released today an extensive review of Monsanto's use and abuse of U.S. patent law to control the usage of staple crop seeds by U.S. farmers. The Center (CFS) launched its investigation to determine the extent to which American farmers have been impacted by litigation arising from the use of patented genetically engineered crops. Monsanto vs. U.S. Farmers details the results of this research, discusses the ramifications for the future of farming in the U.S. and outlines policy options for ending the persecution of America's farmers.

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image found here, (the gallery section is great, don't miss it).