Google's New Computer 'Vision' Tech is Very Cool and Somewhat Terrifying

As reported by Business Insider: Google on Tuesday announced a new tool on Wednesday for app developers that's absolutely amazing and also a little disturbing: it lets apps, robots and drones "see."

The tech is called the Google Cloud Vision API and it allows any app developer to tap into Google's smart "machine learning" service that can identify objects, including faces and emotions.

Cloud Vision solves a hard computer problem of "seeing." For instance, your computer can scan and reproduce an image of a mountain or an image of a baby, but to the computer, they look the same: a bunch of pixels. Your computer can't sift through your photos and find baby photos for you, unless you've tagged them "baby."

Google Photos, on the other hand, can find the baby photos.

And now Google is making that technology available to programmers to add to their apps. 

Cloud Vision can even detect various emotions on a face such as a happy smile or an angry frown, Google says.

To demonstrate the power of Cloud Vision, Google built a cute little robot with Cloud Vision, via a DYI robot kit known asGoPiGo. 

At 1:14 in the video below, the robot demonstrates how it can follow faces and detect emotions. At 2:08, the robot demonstrates how it can detect and identify other objects like glasses, a banana, money.

As for the terrifying part ...

While the demo robot is 'adorbs', it doesn't take much imagination to see less cuddly uses for computer vision.

For instance, at least one drone maker has been testing Google Vision out: Aerosense, owned by Sony Mobile Communications. 

"We have drones that take thousands of photos per flight. We find that Google Cloud Vision API as the best way to turn those huge number of photos, automatically produced, into meaningful insights,"Aerosense General Manager Tomoaki Kobayakawa says on Google's blog.

And given Amazon's recent news that its drone delivery project is progressing, we can't help thinking of that Audi commercial featuring people-seeking delivery drones run-amok.

SpaceX's Launch Escape System Looks Totally Badass

As reported by Gizmodo: In two years, SpaceX will begin ferrying astronauts into orbit. But before it can do so, the commercial spaceflight company must prove to NASA that its ride will be safe. A big part of that guarantee comes from the fire-breathing propulsion system pictured above.

Arranged in four pairs around the outside of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, SpaceX’s SuperDraco engines are a first-of-its-kind launch escape system. In the event of a booster failure on the way to orbit, the SuperDracos will all fire at once, collectively producing 120,000 pounds of thrust. That’s enough to accelerate a Crew Dragon from zero to 100 mph in a rip-roaring 1.2 seconds, boosting the astronauts well out of harm’s way. Eventually, SpaceX plans to use the system in place of a parachute during landings.

Each of the engines in the module pictured above has been test fired over 300 times. Just watching them ignite in the lab is getting me stoked for the future of commercial spaceflight.

China Again Tests Nuclear Hypersonic Missile

Sixth flight of DF-ZF glide vehicle indicates weapon a high priority for Beijing

As reported by Free Beacon: China carried out a sixth flight test of its new high-speed nuclear attack vehicle on Monday designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses or carry out global strikes.

The ultra-fast maneuvering strike weapon known as the DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle was launched atop a ballistic missile fired from the Wuzhai missile test center in central China’s Shanxi Province, according defense officials.

The vehicle separated from its launcher near the edge of the atmosphere and then glided to an impact range several thousand miles away in western China, said officials familiar with details of the test.

The DF-ZF flight was tracked by U.S. intelligence agencies and flew at speeds beyond Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban declined to comment. “We do not comment on specific PRC weapons tests, but we do monitor Chinese military modernization carefully,” Urban told theWashington Free Beacon.

It was the sixth time the hypersonic glider has been flight tested since last year.

The website China Spaceflight reported Sunday that the test would take place, based on the Chinese government announcement of airspace closures along what would ultimately become the zone used by the glide vehicle during the flight test. The website reported that the airspace restrictions were similar to closures announced prior to an August DF-ZF flight test.

Flight path of the test / China Space Flight

The airspace was closed to commercial and military air traffic between 12:53 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. Beijing time on Nov. 23—the likely timeframe of the test.

China’s most recent DF-ZF test took place Aug. 19, also from Wuzhai, and like Monday’s flight test was judged a success.

U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed the DF-ZF to be a nuclear delivery vehicle for Chinese missiles, with maneuverability and high speeds that would allow it to defeat U.S. missile defenses, currently designed to counter non-maneuvering warheads with more easily-tracked ballistic trajectories.

China also could use the DF-ZF for conventional-armed rapid global strike capability, according to military specialists.

The vehicle is believed to reach speeds of between Mach 5 and Mach 10, or 3,836 miles per hour and 7,680 miles per hour.

The high rate of testing for the glide vehicle is an indication China has placed a high priority on the weapon program and that it is making rapid progress.

The Chinese conducted earlier flight tests on June 7, and on Jan. 9, 2014, Aug. 7, 2014, and Dec. 2, 2014. All the tests were first reported by the Free Beacon.

The commander of the U.S. Strategic Command told reporters last summer that hypersonic glide vehicles are new strategic warfare technology and an emerging threat.

“As I look at that [hypersonic] threat, clearly the mobility, the flight profile, those kinds of things are things we have to keep in mind and be able to address across that full kill chain,” Cecil Haney said in an interview in July, using the military term for the process used to target and attack enemy missiles.

Air Force Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, then-deputy commander of Strategic Command, said at the same time that hypersonic missiles offer a number of advantages as strategic weapons.

“It offers a number of different ways to overcome defenses, whether those are conventional, or if someone would decide to use a nuclear warhead, I think gives it an even more complicated dimension,” Kowalski said.

Currently, no nation has deployed hypersonic weapons but “it remains something that concerns us,” Kowalski added.

The annual report of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, made public Nov. 18, stated that China’s hypersonic weapons are in the developmental stages and are “progressing rapidly.” The glide vehicle could be deployed by 2020, and a separate high-technology ramjet-propelled cruise missile could be deployed by 2025, the report said.

The Mach 5 to Mach 10 speeds allow the arms to “strike any target on earth in under an hour,” it stated.

“The very high speeds of these weapons, combined with their maneuverability and ability to travel at lower, radar-evading altitudes, would make them far less vulnerable than existing missiles to current missile defenses,” the report said.

The report said China’s hypersonic weapons, as well as the use of multiple-warhead missiles, are part of China’s efforts to assure its missiles can penetrate U.S. missile defenses.

Nuclear-armed hypersonic vehicles would be part of China’s retaliatory strike capabilities, while conventionally-tipped hypersonics could indicate long-range conventional strikes.

“Alternatively, China may intend its hypersonic program for both nuclear and conventional purposes, or may simply be following the United States in pushing the technological frontier and is not yet certain which it will pursue,” the report said.

China is among three nations that are developing hypersonic arms, along with Russia and the United States.

Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said the sixth test indicates Beijing may be seeking a conventional rapid global attack capability similar to the developmental U.S. program called Prompt Global Strike.

Fisher said analysis of Chinese solid fueled space launchers indicates the new Kuaizhou-2 launcher could be used with China’s anti-satellite missiles and also could boost the DF-ZF to intercontinental ranges.

“It is possible that Kuaizhou-2 could become the basis for China’s first intercontinental non-nuclear armed Prompt Global Strike delivery vehicle,” he said, adding the booster “could likely carry multiple DF-ZF derived hypersonic maneuvering precision strike warheads.”

China also is building and deploying sophisticated surveillance satellites that could be used for the precision global strike weapons.

With some 138 satellites in space by 2030, “this means that an intercontinental [Prompt Global Strike] launched from China against U.S. targets could benefit from multiple target location updates,” he said.

Since China has refused to negotiate limits on its strategic weapons and remains highly secretive about all its arms programs, “the safe course for Washington would be to avoid any further delay in developing its own Prompt Global Strike capability to deploy if China does the same.”

SpaceX Will Try to Land its Next Falcon 9 Rocket on Solid Ground, NASA Says

As reported by The Verge: When SpaceX launches its Falcon 9 rocket again, the company will attempt to land the vehicle back on solid ground, Florida Today reported. So far, the company has only attempted landing their rockets on ships out at sea, but SpaceX's ultimate goal is to eventually touch down its rockets on land-based spaceports. If the company's landing is successful, it will be the first step toward making the Falcon 9 a reusable rocket.

The "very exciting news" came from a NASA representative, who made the announcement today to members of the press at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "Their plan is to try to land [the next booster] out here on the Cape-side," said Carol Scott of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, referring to Cape Canaveral, where SpaceX typically launches from. Scott said she had recently talked about the landing plan with a SpaceX executive. SpaceX declined to confirm the news.

SPACEX'S ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO TOUCH DOWN ITS ROCKETS ON LAND-BASED SPACEPORTS

This past year, SpaceX has tried to land the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage — the long 14-story rocket body that contains the main engines and most of the fuel — after launching the vehicle into space. Typically, rocket bodies are lost or destroyed post-launch. It makes the cost of commercial space travel particularly expensive, since a new rocket must be built for each subsequent mission. Landing a big portion of the rocket would allow SpaceX to then reuse the vehicle, saving the company from building an entirely new spacecraft.

The two times SpaceX has tried to land the Falcon 9, the rocket's target was an autonomous drone spaceport floating out in the ocean. Unfortunately, the company wasn't able to stick those landings — though the rockets did get pretty close. Landing attempts — and launches, for that matter — were then halted in June, after a Falcon 9 rocket exploded en route to the International Space Station. SpaceX said it plans to return to flight sometime this month, by launching small satellites for a communications company called Orbcomm, but no exact date has been confirmed yet.

It's during this tentatively scheduled Orbcomm mission that SpaceX will attempt a ground landing, Scott said. A solid touch down would pave the way for SpaceX's big-picture plan of landing rockets mostly on land going forward. In February 2015, SpaceX leased an old launch pad at Cape Canaveral from the Air Force, known as Launch Complex 13. Since renamed Landing Complex 1, the site will be where SpaceX hopes to touch down its rockets post-launch.

A Falcon 9 landing on land would be a huge technological first, though it won't be the first time a rocket has landing vertically after going to space. Last week, Blue Origin made big waves when it announced it had landed its New Shepard booster after sending it to sub-orbital space. While, Blue Origin's achievement was a historical moment, what SpaceX is trying to do is a bit more complex than the New Shepard landing, as the Falcon 9 is going much faster and is at a much higher altitude when it begins its return trip to Earth.

Amazon Reveals New Delivery Drone Design with Range of 15 Miles (Video)

As reported by GeekWire: Amazon today released new photos and a video showing off a redesigned version of its delivery drone.

It’s been almost exactly two years since Amazon first announced the “Amazon Prime Air” project and the company today showed off a new prototype drone that will deliver packages through the air directly to customers’ doorsteps in as little as 30 minutes.

Here’s the new drone:

Here’s the original design:

The new design is a bit larger, has an updated propeller system, and features sense-and-avoid technology to detect nearby obstacles both on the ground and in the air.

This new video featuring Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, who recently inked a lucrative contract with Amazon to create a new car show, shows how the drone scans a landing area at a customer’s home and is able to spot what looks like an Amazon logo where the package is dropped.

This particular drone can fly for 15 miles. Clarkson calls it “amazing innovation.”

“It looks like science fiction, but it’s real,” Amazon notes in a FAQ page. “One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road.”

Amazon said its drones fly under 400 feet and weigh less than 55 pounds.

“Prime Air vehicles will take advantage of sophisticated ‘sense and avoid’ technology, as well as a high degree of automation, to safely operate beyond the line of sight to distances of 10 miles or more,” Amazon noted in the FAQ.

The company said it has developed more than a dozen prototypes in the past few years at R&D centers in the U.S., United Kingdom, and Israel, and that the “look and characteristics of the vehicles will evolve over time.”

Amazon adds that it “will not launch Prime Air until we are able to demonstrate safe operations.”

“Prime Air has great potential to enhance the services we already provide to millions of customers by providing rapid parcel delivery that will also increase the overall safety and efficiency of the transportation system,” the company wrote. “Putting Prime Air into service will take some time, but we will deploy when we have the regulatory support needed to realize our vision.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is currently developing regulations for both recreational drones and commercial delivery drones, which companies like Amazon,Walmart, and Google are all working on. It recently convened a task force charged with drawing up recommendations for registering recreational drones that includes representatives from Amazon, Google, Walmart, and other companies.

Amazon today also posted two new documents related to airspace proposals: Revising the Airspace Model for the Safe Integration of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Determining Safe Access with a Best-Equipped, Best-Served Model for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

Here’s the original Prime Air video Amazon released two years ago:

Roborace Championship Will Pit Driverless Electric Cars Against Each Other

As reported by GizMag: A new racing championship will do away with drivers. Roborace will pit driverless electric cars against each other in a round-the-world series. It will provide a competitive platform for the autonomous driving technology that is being developed by automotive and tech firms, as well as universities.

Roborace has been developed in a partnership between the electric racing series Formula E, which is currently in its second season, and investment firm Kinetik. It will form part of the support package for the Formula E Championship, with races taking place at the same circuits prior to each Formula E race.

Ten teams will compete in the Roborace championship, each with two driverless cars. The running of one team will be crowdsourced by a community of software and technology enthusiasts, and experts from around the world. All the teams will use the same car , but will be able to alter its software to gain a competitive advantage over the course of one-hour races.

Formula E says the aim of Roborace is to demonstrate the capabilities of autonomous driving technology, even in extreme conditions, while Kinetik's Denis Sverdlov says it will help to show that we can co-exist with such technologies. CEO of Formula E Alejandro Agag describes the new series as "an open challenge to the most innovative scientific and technology-focused companies in the world."

The Roborace series is scheduled to debut in the 2016-17 season, with further details about its teams and technologies to be announced early next year.

This App Helps You to Visualize the Cell Towers, Wifi Signals, and Satellites Around You

As reported by Gizmodo: You’re aware that your cell service comes from cell towers. And that your mapping app is made possible by GPS satellites. And that wifi signals deliver your fail videos. But the sight of that invisible world is breathtaking.

This summer, a Dutch artist named Richard Vijgen released a video of a project he was working on called the Architecture of Radio. It was an augmented reality app that revealed the waves and signals in a given room, pulling information from publicly available databases on cell tower locations and satellites. It revealed an unearthly, web-like network of invisible infrastructure that powers our world—and unsurprisingly, a lot of people wanted to try it for themselves.

Sadly, the app itself wasn’t ready for public consumption... until today. You can now download the $3 iOS app for iPhone or iPad. When you fire it up, you see a cobalt-blue screen where the app takes your GPS location and loads a series of datasets drawn from a global database that includes the cell towers around you and the satellites overhead (like this one). All in all, the database includes “7 million cell towers, 19 million Wi-Fi routers and hundreds of satellites.”

As you pan around your house, the app identifies signals and waves as you move: There’s a cell tower 589 meters to my left. If it was night, I could look out for a Russian satellite from 1964 passing to the south. It’s a bit like having x-ray glasses on.

The app warns that it is “not a measurement tool.” For example, the atmospheric waves and dots that texture the screen are an interpretation of waves, not a scientific reality. But the actual datapoints are real, based on your GPS coordinates and scraped from a database, which is pretty cool. Or terrifying, if you’re more of a tin-foil hat person.

“Most people seem to be amazed by the density of signals, some think it’s a bit scary, others just think it’s beautiful,” Vijgen told Gizmodo over email. In the end, it’s a lovely reminder of the vast network all around us, hidden in plain sight. You can get it here.