Africa
Amy Johnson is brought 'back to life' by 3D technology 75 years after her death
The first female pilot to fly solo from Britain to Australia has been'brought back to life' with ground-breaking 3D technology. Amy Johnson completed the journey from London to Darwin in 1930 - one of many record-breaking flights during her career. To mark 75 years since her death, experts have created a fully interactive digital 3D version of Ms Johnson, which can even walk and talk about her achievements. The first female pilot to fly solo from Britain to Australia has been'brought back to life' with ground-breaking 3D technology. 'Virtual Amy' will go display in the children's library within Hull Central Library as part of the Amy Johnson Festival.
Next Big Future: Artificial intelligence can help track, monitor and predict global poverty from space images
Satellites are best known for helping smartphones map driving routes or televisions deliver programs. But now, data from some of the thousands of satellites orbiting Earth are helping track things like crop conditions on rural farms, illegal deforestation, and increasingly, poverty in the hard-to-reach places around the globe. As much as that data has the potential to provide invaluable information to humanitarian organizations, watchdog groups, and policymakers, there is too much of it to sift through in order to draw insights that could influence important decisions. A team of researchers from Stanford University, however, says it has developed an efficient way. By creating a deep-learning algorithm that can recognize signs of poverty in satellite images โ such as condition of roads โ the team sorted through a million images to accurately identify economic conditions in five African countries, reported the scientists in the journal Science on Thursday.
Subconscious Musings
Asking about the benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning reminds me a little of the transition to suitcases with wheels. Do you remember lugging around those old suitcases? If not, good for you - this original advertisement from US Luggage will take you back! Thank Bernard Sadow for persistence with his idea to add wheels, because when he pitched his idea people thought he was crazy. Surely no one would want to pull their own suitcase?
Meet Alrobot, the remote-controlled robotic tank being used by the Iraqi army to fight ISIS
The Iraqi army is testing its latest weapon in the fight against ISIS, a remote-controlled battle robot. The unmanned vehicle has a heavy machine gun turret for taking out targets picked out by the controller. Called Alrobot, the bullet-proof vehicle is being tested in the Iraqi desert as part of the army's efforts to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS. Iraq is preparing a remote controlled attack vehicle being which experts say could be used in the fight to retake the city of Mosul from Isis. Reports indicate the remote controlled vehicle, called'Alrobot', was designed by two brothers in Baghdad.
Life in the kill box: 'Eye in the Sky' targets the ethics of drone strikes
You might think of drones as friendly things, like the DJI Phantom you fly yourself or those Amazon drones that could soon be delivering your groceries. Think again when it comes to military drones. An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle with a 66-foot wingspan can loiter 50,000 feet above the Earth for a day at a time, poised to hit a target with a devastating 3,800 pounds of Hellfire missile payload. But as with all weapons, the awesome firepower of a drone needs to be aimed accurately. "It's less about technology than about strategy, about the way it's deployed," said Gavin Hood, director of drone drama "Eye in the Sky," out now on DVD and Blu-ray.