Clipmarks | Darpa Clips

ARGUS-IS DARPA's Gigapixel Camera

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:49:51 GMT

clipped by: rj3sp

DARPA's New High Resolution Camera

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a camera with unprecedented resolution, of 2.3-gigapixel. The new camera should be able to create super-wide aerial photos, and is built primarily for surveillance purposes, as part of the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance - Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) program.

Clip Source: www.darpa.mil

IPTO | Programs | Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance - Imaging System (ARGUS-IS)

Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance - Imaging System (ARGUS-IS)

Mission:

The mission of the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance - Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) program is to provide military users a flexible and responsive capability to find, track and monitor events and activities of interest on a continuous basis in areas of interest.

Clip Source: spie.org

The ARGUS-IS consists of three major subsystems: gigapixel sensor, airborne sensor processing, and ground processing.

Tags: darpa, camera, surveillance

...2.3 gigapixel(s)... in real time!

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:53:17 GMT

clipped by: HansWobbe
clipper's remarks: Everyone knows that technology changes quickly. And most people have an adequate understanding of velocity and acceleration. So I'm always surprised when people ask about the next "new technology". After all, it's relatively easy to derive the "rate of change" in a technology's "position", over time and then compute its velocity and ecceleration.

The attached article provides more than enough data that can be compared to the specifications of older equipment like the cameras used on the SR-71 "Blackbird" ("U2"). These two sets of data points can be used for a quick an dirty "linear" model. What is more interesting, however, is to acquire a few more intermediate data points and to then refine the "straight line" model's "rates of change".

Anyone that wants an effective "shortcut" can simply use Moore's Law (capability doubles every 18 months) with the banker's "rule of 72" (72 divided by the annual rate = time to double).

An even better approach is to go to any sales conv

Clip Source: nextbigfuture.com

Army and DARPA working to 2.3 Gigapixel Real Time Monitoring

DARPA is working on Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance - Imaging System (ARGUS-IS) program. ARGUS-IS is to provide military users a flexible and responsive capability to find, track and monitor events and activities of interest on a continuous basis in areas of interest.

Tags: %t

Free-flying cyborg insects steered from a distance

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:37:16 GMT

clipped by: The Infowarrior
clipper's remarks: Must be part of the pentagons

"Full spectrum Dominants"

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

It's tempting to call them lords of the flies. For the first time, researchers have controlled the movements of free-flying insects from afar, as if they were tiny remote-controlled aircraft.

By connecting electrodes and radio antennas to the nervous systems of beetles, the researchers were able to make them take off, dive and turn on command. The cyborg insects were created at the University of California, Berkeley, by engineers led by Hirotaka Sato and Michel Maharbiz as part of a programme funded by the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The project's goal is to create fully remote-controlled insects able to perform tasks such as looking for survivors after a disaster, or acting as the ultimate spy.

Video: Beetles can be made to respond to radio remote control

Tags: full spectrum dominance, cyborg, beetle, news, technology, science, politics, nervous system, control, spy

LittleDog -- Boston Dynamics' Legged Locomotion Learning Robot (videos)

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:58:14 GMT

clipped by: rj3sp

Clip Source: www.bostondynamics.com

LittleDog - The Legged Locomotion Learning Robot

LittleDog is a quadruped robot designed for research on learning locomotion. Scientists at leading institutions use LittleDog to probe the fundamental relationships among motor learning, dynamic control, perception of the environment, and rough-terrain locomotion.

Clip Source: www.bostondynamics.com

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

February 26, 2007

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Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Boston Dynamics

Boston Dynamics is a small engineering and robotics design company best known for the development of BigDog, a quadruped robot designed for the U.S. military with funding from DARPA,^[1] and DI-Guy, COTS software for realistic human simulation. Early in the company's history, it worked with the American Systems Corporation under a contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD) to replace naval training videos for aircraft launch operations with interactive 3D computer simulations featuring DI-Guy characters.^[2]

Tags: boston dynamics, littledog, robot, technology

borgles

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:30:47 GMT

clipped by: friendsbyday
clipper's remarks: Under Michel Maharbiz at U of California, funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Cyborg beetles: Remote flight and directional control

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

The beetle's payload consists of an off-the-shelf microprocessor, a radio receiver, and a battery attached to a custom-printed circuit board, along with six electrodes implanted into the animals' optic lobes and flight muscles. Flight commands are wirelessly sent to the beetle via a radio-frequency transmitter that's controlled by a nearby laptop. Oscillating electrical pulses delivered to the beetle's optic lobes trigger takeoff, while a single short pulse ceases flight. Signals sent to the left or right basilar flight muscles make the animal turn right or left, respectively.

Most previous research in controlling insect flight has focused on moths. But beetles have certain advantages. The giant flower beetle's size--it ranges in weight from four to ten grams and is four to eight centimeters long--means that it can carry relatively heavy payloads. To be used for search-and-rescue missions, for example, the insect would need to carry a small camera and heat sensor.

Don't Try to Feed These Birds

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:13:49 GMT

clipped by: dmoonme1
clipper's remarks: I don't thinl they'll come to your feeder, but they may peek into your windows. lol
I wouldn't count on though, the stupid things only have a 20 sec. fly time. Oh yes, but our generous goverment is giving the creators a couple of mil to develop it just the same.

Clip Source: www.designboom.com

robot hummingbird designed for spying

esearchers have created a small robotic drone that flies and looks a humming bird. the new robot was
developed by aerovironment, backed by DARPA, a division of the US pentagon. the robot is to be used for
spying, using the bird-like design as a way to conceal its purpose. although the bird has only been able to
fly for 20 seconds, DARPA has just giving its creators 2.1 million USD to build the next iteration. DARPA
is hoping to have a tiny drone that is capable of speeds of 10m/s, operable inside buildings and controllable

from up to 1 km away. next time you see a cute little hummingbird, be careful what you say.

[Video]

Tags: spys, robotics, radio controlled devices. flight contro

Military wants petite, low powered unmanned aircraft to fit in tight spaces

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:37:01 GMT

clipped by: lakotahope
clipper's remarks: DARPA can make anything we want...We'll just never know if they did make what we want....

Clip Source: www.networkworld.com

DARPA wants to fund development of an unmanned aircraft that weighs less than 10 grams.

Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) today said they wanted to fund the development of an unmanned aircraft that weighs less than 10 grams, uses less than 1 watt of power and can hover in place.

The agency today said it was looking to develop a nano-scale aircraft dubbed the Tele-operated and Hover In Place (TeleHIP) that can be operated remotely in places where GPS is unavailable.

DARPA said such a teeny-weeny aircraft would be used in buildings or other closed or small locations. The idea is that the plane could easily gather intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance in places that are very difficult to get at.

The US Air Force recently said it will make extensive use of nano-unmanned aircraft capable of conducting a variety of indoor and outdoor reconnaissance sensing missions in its Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047" report.

Tags: darpa

DARPA working to 2.3 Gigapixel Real Time Monitoring

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:36:03 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: nextbigfuture.com

Wired provides some details The Army launches a quest for a 2.3 gigapixel camera that could be packaged aboard a drone or a manned aircraft. The new device would be smaller and lighter than previous systems – and it would work in the infrared range too.

Tags: camera, darpa, surveillance

"First flapping, two-winged aircraft takes flight"

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:44:58 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly
clipper's remarks: more: "It's extremely complicated and technically challenging to come up with ways to control an aircraft with two flapping wings,"said Matt Keennon of AeroVironment, "but this is the closest anyone has come to a rudderless, flapping aircraft."

AeroVironment wouldn't explain how the two wings accomplish flight, citing its contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

artist's rendering

The world's first successful flight of a self-powered, rudderless, flapping aircraft has been achieved by engineers from AeroVironment.

The NAV, or nano air vehicle, operates by using two flapping wings, which also function as the rudder, elevators, ailerons and engine. With its two wings, the NAV is able to hover, move forward and backwards, and change its elevation. In flight, the NAV almost appears to replicate the movements of a hummingbird.

Simplified, most airplanes and helicopters today fly using the same principle: Air rushing over a shaped and immovable wing (or helicopter blade) produces an area of high pressure below the wing and an area of low pressure. The difference pushes the wing up in the direction of low pressure, creating lift.

An airplane is steered using adjustable flaps on the ends of the wings and at the tail, which also help steady the aircraft.

Pentagon Developing Shape-Shifting 'Transformers' for Battlefield

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:44:45 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: Way Cool stuff. The medical applications for this type of thing could be incredible. Granted that this is more material science than Tissue ReEngineering, but similar principles. Imagine the potential for transportation, where vehicles could expand or contract based on the need of the driver (small size for 1 person) or it's soccer night and a SUV size is needed, presto - all from the same block of "stuff". Sooo much postive stuff. So long as they don't turn into The Replicators as on Stargate SG-1

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Pentagon Developing Shape-Shifting 'Transformers' for Battlefield

Real-life "Transformers" could soon be used by American soldiers on the battlefield.

The Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is well into the second phase of a project to develop "programmable matter" that could reshape itself to fit any situation, reports SIGNAL magazine.

Program manager Dr. Mitchell R. Zakin give the example of a soldier needing a tool. He commands a bucket of programmable matter to form a wrench, and it does. Then he needs a hammer, and the wrench dissolves and reforms into a hammer.

Other applications of the technology would be robots that reshape themselves to adapt to specific jobs or conditions, aircraft wings that morph for more efficient airflow, uniforms that change density and coloring according to environment, and even "Terminator 2"-style liquid-metal robots that flow through cracks and small openings.

Tags: darpa, energy, material science, robots, shape shifting

The shape(s) of things to come

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:36:17 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly
clipper's remarks: more: An MIT group is building “self-folding origami” machines that “use specialized sheets of material with built-in actuators and data. These machines use cutting-edge mathematical theorems to fold themselves into virtually any three-dimensional object.”

The Programmable Matter project is five months into its second phase, which is supposed to wind up early next Spring. When they’re done, the researchers ought to “assemble four or five three-dimensional solids of a specific size and shape from a set of building blocks.”

Clip Source: www.wired.com

By Noah Shachtman

Even by the standards of the Pentagon fringe science arm, this project sounds far-out: “programmable matter” that can be ordered to “self-assemble or alter their shape, perform a function and then disassemble themselves.” But researchers backed by Darpa are actually making progress on this incredible goal, Henry Kenyon at Signal magazine reports.

One day, that could lead to “morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves to be comfortable in any climate, and ’soft’ robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.” A soldier could even reach into a can of unformed goop, and order up a custom-made tool or a “universal spare part.”

One team from Harvard is working on a kind of “generalized Rubik’s Cube” that can fold into all kinds of shapes. Another is trying to order large strands of synthetic DNA to bind together in a “molecular Velcro.”

US shells out $10M for unmanned aircraft that can perch like a bird

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:15:22 GMT

clipped by: TechnutNews

Clip Source: technutnews.com

US shells out $10M for unmanned aircraft that can perch like a bird

Unmanned aircraft maker AeroVironment got an additional $5.4 million to further develop the diminutive aircraft that can fly into tight spaces undetected, perch and send live surveillance information to its handlers.

Last Fall, AeroVironment, got $4.6 million initial funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the Stealthy, Persistent, Perch and Stare Air Vehicle System (SP2S), which is being built on the company’s one-pound, 29-inch wingspan battery-powered Wasp unmanned system.

Tags: aircraft, ai

Hypersonic Engine Continues to Advance

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:32:45 GMT

clipped by: lakotahope
clipper's remarks: I wonder who is developing the airframe and how they will deal with the intense heat associated with High Mach Numbers.

Clip Source: www.defenseindustrydaily.com

DARPA’s Hypersonic Vulcan Engine Meld

It might not be a Vulcan mind-meld, but it’s pretty close. The Department of Defense’s technology brain trust, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has given 4 contractors the go-ahead to develop the advanced Vulcan combination engine system for hypersonic flight. The 8-month first phase features awards to: Alliant TechSystems, General Electric, Rolls Royce, and United Technologies.

The Vulcan engine will integrate a traditional jet turbine engine that performs well at low speeds, with a constant volume combustion (CVC) engine that performs well at higher speeds. The combination will help the vehicles go from standing starts to Mach 4 or so, where hypersonic engines can take over. DARPA’s ultimate goal is to design, build, and fly Mach 6+ re-usable, air-breathing, turbine-based hypersonic vehicles.

DARPA’s ultimate hope is to integrate the Vulcan engine into the HTV-3X FALCON/Blackwing vehicle (a.k.a. “SR-72”)

Tags: hypersonic, darpa, vulcan engine

Cold Fusion is Hot Again

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:42:12 GMT

clipped by: Fast T friend
clipper's remarks: A '60 Minutes' broadcast.

For video see here.

Clip Source: www.newswiretoday.com

On April 19, 2009, CBS '60 Minutes' broadcast a story entitled, ‘Cold Fusion is Hot Again’.

In the broadcast, reporter Scott Pelley profiled three laboratories, each conducting research in the field of low energy nuclear reaction (LENR), historically referred to as cold fusion:

• Energetics Technologies a New Jersey based company with research facilities in Omer, Israel,
• SRI International of Menlo Park, California,

ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies.

'60 Minutes' obtained an internal document from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, known as DARPA, which according to the broadcast, concludes that there is ‘no doubt that anomalous excess heat is produced in these experiments’.

Tags: coldfusion

How IBM Plans to Win Jeopardy!

Sun, 31 May 2009 10:40:34 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

How IBM Plans to Win Jeopardy!

IBM's Watson will showcase the latest tricks in natural-language processing.

Watson, a computer system that will play Jeopardy!, the popular TV trivia game show, against human contestants.

Demonstrations of the system are expected this year, with a final televised matchup--complete with hosting by the show's Alex Trebek--sometime next year. Questions will be spoken aloud by Trebek but fed into the machine in text format during the show.

the system breaks a question into pieces, searches its own databases for "related knowledge," and then finally makes connections to assemble a result

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

Meanwhile, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will soon announce the participants chosen to take part in a five-year research effort aimed at advancing the state of natural-language processing

Whether or not IBM's Watson beats humans on Jeopardy! next year, the DARPA project will surely push the field ahead

Tags: ai, computing, language, ibm