Tag: technology

Quantum computer unveiled…

…and it works! It’s slow, and there’s some question how well this approach can be scaled up, but it definitely worked. Hey, it even solved a Sudoku puzzle!

The snow-eating robot

This seems to be my day for cute gadgets. Behold Yuki-taro, the Japanese snowplow robot. It eats the snow and turns it into compressed blocks perfect for building igloos or snow forts with. It would look great on, say, the Scarth Street Mall here in Regina. (Via Gizmodo.)

Now you can buy your own submarine

It’s amazing how stories like this leap out at me since I wrote a novel set on an ocean world: The world’s first personal submarines have been launched with a price tag of £65,000. Dutch designers claim the subs will make owners feel like they are “flying through the water”. The one-seater version is 9ft …

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First quantum computer running commercial applications

D-Wave Systems Inc. says it will demonstrate it on February 13. But get this: This is the core of a new quantum computer to be unveiled by D-Wave Systems, says Steve Jurvetson, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading venture-capital firm. “It is attached to a Leiden Cryogenics dilution fridge, ready to begin a …

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Rethinking the piano

A grand piano is a grand piano is a grand piano, at least in the looks department, right? Oh, sure, it might be white or red or black, but they all have roughly the same design. Not any more.The music of shape and the design of sound are created in the M. Liminal model, designed …

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A machine that knows what you intend to do…

…before you do it. These findings also raise hope for improvement of clinical and technical applications. Already today the first steps are being made in easing the lives of paralyzed patients with computer-assisted prosthetic devices and so-called brain computer interfaces. These devices focus on reading out the movement the patient intends to – but is …

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Who needs a helicopter…

…when you could have a boat like this? Another cool surface vessel I shoulda put in my new ocean-world SF story.

A camera that can track bullets…

…has been developed. An Air Force contractor has developed the first high-speed camera that can follow speeding bullets midflight. It may lead to “active armor” that intercepts speeding rounds out of the air, or personal-protection devices that deflect incoming bullets with rapidly inflating Kevlar air bags.Developed for the Air Force’s Munitions Directorate by Nova Sensors …

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Rise of the robots…

Next stop, the Terminator? Singapore is launching a contest to build “urban warrior robots.”

Electric sheep and the androids who dream of them:

“Biomimetic Technologies Project Will Create First Soft-Bodied Robots .”

"Bones" McCoy, call your office:

Your hand-held miniaturized rapid-acting virus detector is ready. And it doesn’t look a thing like a salt shaker.

Here’s something I wish I had put in the new book:

The Proteus “spider-like go-fast boat.”

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