Radial engine, interesting huh !!!

The radial engine is a configuration of the internal combustion engine, in which the cylinders are arranged pointing out from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. This configuration was formerly very commonly used in aircraft engines before being superseded by turboshaft and turbojet engines. The Radial Engine is a type of reciprocating engine.

The cylinders are connected to the crankshaft with a master-and-articulating-rod assembly. One cylinder has a master rod with a direct attachment to the crankshaft. The remaining cylinders' connecting rods have pinned attachments to rings around the edge of the master rod (see animation). Four-stroke radials almost always have an odd number of cylinders, so that a consistent every-other-piston firing order can be maintained, providing smooth running.

I encourage everyone who's interested in this topic to read more about it here.

Motorola Selling Products via Vending Machines

Motorola has started to sell phones and accessories using vending machines in the United States. Called "Instantmoto", the machine will vend about 30 Motorola products, including the ever-popular RAZR and Motorola Q. For now, you'll be able to fine these machines in 20 airports and malls around the country, but you might start to see more depending on the success of the vending machines. Zoom Systems, a San Francisco-based company, will be managing the vending machines though a central location. Although many electronic vending machines are new to the United States, Japan has had them for years. Apple Computer has been taking advantage of this fact by placing vending machines offering iPods in airports worldwide. Even though it's a great concept to simply swipe your credit card and get a gadget in return, adoption here in the United States has been slow as people become accustomed to iPods and phones in machines that normally sell candy :-). How do you feel about vending machines for electronics?

Windows Vista again...

Windows Vista Launch Date Confirmed

Microsoft announced today(11/2/2006) that it will begin shipping Windows Vista to corporate customers starting November 30th. The commercial release is set for January 30th, 2007.

The big launch event will be held on November 30 at the NASDAQ Stock Market in midtown Manhattan and the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will reportedly be there, and it was unconfirmed whether he would be jumping up and down wildly, screaming and yelling

Peer to Peer Technology

Peer to Peer Technology

The latter half of the twentieth century has seen a dramatic decline in the price of reproduction technologies much to the displeasure of the copyright industry. The technological progression has been virtually unstoppable: the photocopier to the cassette recorder, the video tape recorder to the newly developed recordable CD. The spread of the Internet over the past 10 years has resulted in the new development of the abrupt decline in the price of distribution technologies. The Internet has permitted worldwide distribution at a rather insignificant cost. As the beneficiaries of the statutory copyright monopoly, the copyright industries have a strong interest in neutralizing the biting effect of these technologies on their monopoly over reproduction and distribution. It would seem that there exists two conceptions of the copyright laws. The first being the actual written interpretation of our current copyright law as defined by the courts and which is understood by industries that depend on the copyright monopoly and who have had a important role in its drafting. Secondly, there is the interpretation of the copyright law as understood and defined by consumers. This interpretation seems to be the unwritten adaptation of the copyright law, which is applied in the non-commercial/not for sale or profit/fair use world of consumers when trading homemade tapes or Cds, photocopying books or interesting articles to pass along (in attending University, I have noticed that this practice of copying required text books has become widespread among students) or simply posting articles on bulletin boards or office doors. These two conceptions of the copyright law have collided in full force with the current Napster case, not to mention all the numerous clone sites that have sprung up which could at a moments notice, swiftly replace Napster. The digital information wants to be free. If in the name of technology, digital information is granted free reign, this in effect will render the copyright law as dead. Copyright law simply cannot keep pace with technological revolutions being brought about by the Internet. The Internet is inherently so beneficial to the indiscriminant reproduction and distribution of information, and so hostile to all attempts to control either, that all efforts to enforce or police copyrights on the Internet are almost doubtfully doomed for failure. How do these new technologies effect the efficient allocation of resources in our society? According to the Coase Theorem, "When one activity interferes with another, the law must decide whether one party has the right to interfere or whether the other party has the right to be free from interference. Efficiency requires allocating the right to the party who values it the most. When the parties follow the law non-cooperatively, legal allocation of rights matters to efficiency. When the parties bargain successfully, the legal allocation of rights does not matter the legal allocation of rights does not matter to efficiency. Given successful bargaining, the use of resources is efficient, regardless of the legal rule". (1) Allocating the right to technology which would seem is the side that values it the most judging by the overwhelming response from the public, would have some serious side effects (i.e. drop in sales, rendering copyright as a dead issue, record companies losing considerable control) but to what extent these side effects can be measured is yet to be seen. Although there have been research studies on both sides - one indicating that loss of sales has incurred and the other that sales have increased due to napsters presence - the absence of sound independent statistical research has yet to surface. People who claim that Napster creates net lost sales for artists are merely voicing a religious conviction about music copying and vice versa. I believe that this case has shown just one illustration of the growing control the record companies currently have in the industry. The airwaves, record labels and record stores, which are all a part of the system the record companies have pretty much succeeded in establishing. Collective pressure tactics, copyright misuse (enforcing their copyrights to achieve anti-competitive purposes) and higher prices when it can be offered at a lower price, are just a few of the examples that demonstrate that record companies may be evolving into a monopoly. Granting them the property rights outright would only be encouraging these tactics to continue. What in essence is preventing, as Coase would term it, "successful bargaining"? Quite simply, the transaction costs of many owners (record companies, technology innovators and consumers) and the enforcement costs it would entail in policing copyright activities over the Internet. Record companies see a portion of their foothold on the record industry slipping away and realize there is revenue to be made in the area of peer to peer network (every computer in a sense becomes a server and a client looking for data). If a decision granted by the courts is given to the record companies, they will eventually in due time capitalize on the innovations of Napster which in turn would be an infringement on Napsters rights. Copyright law has always been a bargain (Italics added to stress the word) between the public and the copyright industries, a bargain that has been in constant need of adjustment in the face of changing technologies. Copyright conveys a legally enforceable monopoly, created for the instrumental purposes to create incentives for authorship that might not otherwise occur. As with legal monopolies, copyright is a necessary evil that should be tolerated to the minimum (Italics added to stress the word)extent necessary to ensure that the public receives the desired benefit. According to Demsetz, copyrights are needed. "If a new idea is freely appropriated by all, if there exists communal rights to new ideas, incentives for developing new ideas will be lacking. The benefits derivable from these ideas will not be concentrated on their originators. If we extend some degree of private rights to the originators, these ideas will come at a more rapid pace". But does this idea extend to intellectual property as well such as music? (2) If digital information prevails in the Napster case, does this mean that eventually, musicians will no longer produce music because there is no gain to them because it can be distributed freely? Will not the economics of law and demand take over? If musicians stop producing, will not the demand, as can be seen by the current case, induce the musicians to produce? If the record companies prevail, will not black markets spring up? Do the record companies realize who is demanding Napster (their own consumers who purchase record companies CD's)? I would suggest looking at the VCR technology case, in wake of that decision, which at the time was described as catastrophic by the copyright industry, it has become quite clear that both the public and the copyright industries have reaped enormous benefits. As copyright industries seek to impose the strictness of their view of copyright law on technology innovators, the courts and legislatures would do well to keep the lessons of the VCR case in mind. Napster represents a turning point for copyright. As these new peer-to-peer technologies emerge (as I am sure we have only seen the beginning), the copyright industries will be asking that their view of copyright be imposed on those unused to its strict ions, like noncommercial users and technology. This represents change. And before imposing it on members of society, the copyright industry might want to check whether people are willing to embrace it. Demsetz also states, "Changes in knowledge result in changes in production functions, market values, and aspirations. New techniques, new ways of doing the same things, and doing new things - all invoke harmful and beneficial effects to which society has not been accustomed. Property rights develop to internalize externalities when the gains of internalization become larger than the cost of internalization. Increased internalization, in the main, results from changes in economic values, changes which stem from development of new technology and the opening of new markets, changes to which old property rights are poorly attuned". (2) Given this statement, it would seem that based on the current progress of technology, new property rights will eventually emerge. No matter what the courts may rule today, given time, the way in which information and technology is being used today (i.e. Napster providing free music), the record companies will either have to internalize the externality (consumers desires and wants - which will be satisfied by peer to peer technology in light of what the courts may rule) and eventually see gains from doing so or give over the demand to other ways of satisfying consumer desires. Napster has shown a new way of doing things, a new technique. Record companies that follow a strategy based on controlling content are doomed for failure. The record industry needs to begin creating services providing the content the way consumers want it and by utilizing the formats and models consumers desire. Considering the pace at which technology is evolving, a solution from the courts in order to put the copyright issue to rest (at least temporarily), would be to put the onus of proving copyrights on to the record companies through current digital technologies that supply digital envelopes, " Copyrighted music or movie or video files can be sealed at the bequest of the copyright holders. These digital envelopes travel with the underlying digital file, refusing access to the goodies within until the consumer antes up a fee to the copyright holder. Since they continue to wrap the copyrighted files even after payment has been made, they can limit the number of times the consumer can open the file, can limit from copying". (3) The Napster case is an increasing problem posing serious threats to the rule of law. It will change the way the copyright rule is viewed and followed. In dealing with this issue, drawing from articles I have read, I believe the possibility of the judges siding with the record companies is more likely. Not that this will be the most beneficial to society, but feel the judges seem to feel threatened by what Napster has been able to do. Judging from the first injunction granted to the record companies, I felt it was a judicial overreaction and not the best solution. If the court wants to render a more adequate decision and to preserve the rule of law, the courts must ensure adequate time to prevent the cases (which was not done in the first case) as well as effectively protecting the copyright law and at the same time, protecting the right of free expression.

Bibliography:

(1) R. Coase, "The Problem of Social Cost ", The Journal of Law and Economics, Vol.3 (October 1960)

(2) H. Demsetz, "Toward a Theory of Property Rights", American Economic Review, Vol. 57 (May 1967)

(3) R. Parloff, "Despite the Napster sideshow - and in part because of it - intellectual property rights may soon be absolute" hhtp://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx./applogic

The 50 Best Robots Ever

The 50 Best Robots Ever
They're exploring the deep sea and distant planets. They're saving lives in the operating room and on the battlefield. They're transforming factory floors and filmmaking. They're - oh c'mon, they're just plain cool! From Qrio to the Terminator, here are our absolute favorites (at least for now).

50. ROBONAUT
Not all NASA robots drive around poking at rocks. This android will one day work alongside people on space stations. Robonaut is the same size and shape as a person in a space suit, so it can handle tasks typically performed by humans - its hands are even better articulated than an astronaut's gloved digits. The fact that it looks like Boba Fett? Lucky coincidence.
49. LEONARDO
Awww, isn't it cuddly? Or maybe just creepy. MIT's Cynthia Breazeal is famous for building robots that humans have an emotional reaction to. Her newest creation, Leonardo, was bolted together in 2002 with the help of the movie monster gurus at Stan Winston Studio (their animatronics include the Terminator, the aliens in Aliens, and the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park). Leonardo can grab objects, make facial expressions and complex gestures, and even learn simple tasks (like turning lights on and off) through trial and error.

48. KITT
The smooth-talking, self-driving muscle car from the early '80s TV drama Knight Rider was so cool, it even upstaged David Hasselhoff. The success of this Trans-Am helped to usher in a new genre of show with supervehicles as heroes, from Airwolf to Stealth.

47. HAL 9000
Some tasks are too important to be left to humans. Just ask Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The 1968 film gave the world the ultimate all seeing, all knowing - and apparently all ego - AI villain. It set the standard for machines that can think (and kill) like us but are too powerful to control.

46. ROOMBA DISCOVERY
This wasn't the first robosucker, just the first that didn't blow. In 2005, iRobot's second-generation robotic vacuum showed that domestic bots can actually work. To clean the floors, simply turn the thing on - just try not to stand around watching slack-jawed.

45. NINTENDO R.O.B.
In the mid-'80s, the PC was killing the market for videogame consoles. The game industry's only hope? A robot. Nintendo packaged the Robotic Operating Buddy with the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System. The R.O.B. didn't do much, but the gimmick helped Nintendo sneak systems onto shelves. Lo, the console market was saved.

44. SLUGBOT
Meet a real-life hunter bot. Built in 2001 at the University of West England, SlugBot uses a vision sensor and an extending arm to find slugs, grab them, and drop them into an onboard trap. The idea is that one day it will deposit the slugs in its dock and use the gas from the decomposing bodies to charge its fuel cells.

43. ATTACK BOTS FROM RUNAWAY
Tom Selleck got top billing, but the real stars of Michael Crichton's overlooked 1984 thriller were the spider attack drones. OK, their weapons were low tech (they sprayed acid at people), but the bug bots presaged Genghis (see #14) and similar critters in The Matrix and Steven Spielberg's Minority Report.

42. LILLIPUT TOY ROBOT
Before there were real robots, there were toy robots. Among the first was Lilliput, a windup walker from the 1930s. It couldn't do much - the legs would walk, causing the arms to swing. But by the late '40s, the tin tykes had spread from Japan to the US, earning a spot in toy history alongside teddy bears and fire trucks.

41. MOBOTS
What would you get if Robby the Robot got busy with a Mars rover? Probably something like the Mobots. In 1960 Hughes Aircraft unleashed these industrial machines for use in hazardous material sites - teleoperators controlled the snaking appendages. Alas, like the Spruce Goose, they weren't financially viable.

40. ELEKTRO AND SPARKO
Westinghouse engineer Joseph Barnett made a splash at the 1939 World's Fair with a 7-foot, cable-controlled metal man that could walk, speak 77 words, and even smoke cigarettes (so debonair). The next year Barnett gave the hulking android a best friend: a robotic dog that seemed to bark and sit in response to Elektro's commands.

39. S-BOTS
An ongoing project of the EU's Future and Emerging Technologies program, these minibuggies show strength in numbers. Each s-Bot is fully independent, but get a bunch in a room together and they'll form a chain to carry heavy payloads or bridge obstacles. Kinda like ants on roller skates … in a conga line.

38. SONY AIBO
Think this is a hunk of plastic that won't fetch a tennis ball? Think again. It's actually an advanced piece of robotics that won't fetch a tennis ball. Introduced in 1999, AIBO is one of the most sophisticated toys on the market. It can find its docking station, recognize its owner's face, and respond to voice commands.

37. RB5X
It hit store shelves in 1985, and this first-ever mass-produced home robot kit is still sold today. RB5X can be programmed to speak, navigate a room, and perform such simple tasks as retrieving small objects. Of course, its real claim to fame was as a sweet prize on the '80s videogame quiz show Starcade.

36. PACKBOTS
From the creators of the Roomba comes a kick-ass droid for the US military. Carried on a soldier's back, it can be tossed into a building or under a car, where it will assess the situation (or maybe just be blown up). First deployed in Afghanistan in 2002, it's now on active cannon-fodder duty in Iraq.

35. THE IRON GIANT
This 100-foot-tall combat machine from the 1999 movie wields an energy cannon and snacks on cars. But he really gets in gear playing hide-and-seek with a schoolboy. The giant eventually achieves robot enlightenment, realizing that he controls his own destiny (even if that means head-butting a suborbital nuclear weapon). It's a classic example of how robots - like all technologies - are neither good nor evil, just tools of circumstance.

34. OPTIMUS PRIME
Robots are cool. Robots that turn into giant trucks - way cool. Robots that turn into giant trucks and command a fleet of autobots - now that could change pop culture history. Such was the impact of the Transformer when the toy line was introduced in 1984, spawning decades of TV shows, movies, and comic books.
33. THE TURK
Step right up and marvel at the mechanical device that can beat you in chess. Not impressed? You would be if it were 1769. The contraption was a hoax (inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen stashed a human chess master inside), but it sparked early debates over what it means for a machine to think.
32. ABE
Mars may belong to the rovers, but the oceans belong to the Autonomous Benthic Explorer. Completed in 1995 by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the first fully independent underwater scout can dive down to 15,000 feet, map thermo layers and collect water samples, then swim home on its own.

31. GM UNIMATE
After bonding over their mutual love of sci-fi, engineers George Devol and Joseph Engelberger invented the industrial robot. They must have been reading very utilitarian fiction - their 1961 creation was a 4,000-pound arm that stacked sheets of hot metal. But it transformed the assembly line; a variant is still in use today.

30. THE TIN WOODMAN
While technically a cyborg, the heartless lumberjack of Oz did wrestle with a common existential dilemma faced by robots: the desire to feel. (Well, that and the desire to combat rust.) Not bad for 1939. And hey, how many other robots sing and dance with Judy Garland?

29. VAUCANSON'S DUCK
Back in 1739, Jacques de Vaucanson wanted to create artificial life. He settled for a mechanical duck that pooped. The machine used a weight system to quack, flap its wings, drink water, and eat grain, which it would digest mechanically and expel through an opening in its backside.

28. THE TERMINATOR
Apparently robots of the future like to hit the gym. Out of a long line of assassin bots, the Terminator is the perfect blend of indestructibility and determination. With him, James Cameron personified what we really fear about robots: They'd do better without us.

27. MQ-1 PREDATOR
Forget fantasy robots that kill people - here's a real robot that kills people. The US military's famed unmanned aerial vehicle became a household name in 2002 after taking flight in Afghanistan. Now armed with hellfire missiles, it no longer just monitors enemies - it blows them up, too.

26. FALSE MARIA
The classic sexbot from Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis was one of the first mechanized humans on film. She danced topless, incited riots, and sparked duels, but what really got her off was overthrowing the ruling class. No wonder she inspired every vision of an android for the next 80 years.

25. PARTNER BALLROOM DANCING ROBOTS
Some robots build cars, some explore space, some do the cha-cha-cha. In 2005, Tohoku University's Kazuhiro Kosuge debuted a series of ballroom dancing androids, complete with fancy dresses. They can predict the movements of a partner, enabling them to follow another dancer's lead. And they're klutz-proof: There are no toes to step on.

24. ELSIE AND ELMER
Neuroscientist W. Grey Walter's mechanical tortoises from the 1940s were the first fully autonomous electric robots. Programmed to seek out light and to turn if they ran into an object, they could find their illuminated charging stations, even if something was in the way.

23. GORT
In the 1951 flick The Day the Earth Stood Still, spaceman Klaatu and his robot Gort come to Earth to promote peace. When that doesn't work out, Gort teaches us what happens to those who eschew harmony - they die. Oh the irony that a machine must remind us of our humanity.

22. ROSSUMS' UNIVERSAL ROBOTS
Czech author Karel Capek coined the term robot in his 1920 play about automaton factory workers. One problem: The characters that gave a title to all robotics weren't actually, you know, robots. They were biological creatures - more Jango Fett clones than C-3PO.

21. PERSONAL SATELLITE ASSISTANT
Legs, wheels, and treads - those are for bots that can't get off the ground. NASA's Personal Satellite Assistant possesses none of these things; instead it uses small fans to propel itself through zero gravity. Perhaps as soon as 2007, these assistants will hover over an astronaut's shoulder, serving as an all-in-one PDA, videophone, and air monitor.

20. MINDSTORMS
Since 1998, Mindstorms have been turning 8-year-olds into fledgling roboticists. The Lego kits come with programmable blocks that animate all manner of dinosaurs, vending machines, unmanned planes - whatever kids, or more likely their parents, can dream up.

19. R2-D2
R2-D2 and C-3PO - the Abbott and Costello of space - may be the most popular robots in history, but it's the littler one that really steals the show. Sure, C-3PO could walk and speak 6 million languages, but R2-D2 proved that robots can be emotive without being humanoid and don't need to speak English to communicate.

18. HONDA'S P2
Asimo? A pipsqueak. Before Honda's much-hyped biped was touring the world, there was P2, a 6-foot, 462-pound prototype. Unveiled in 1996, P2 possessed most of Asimo's walking skills - including the ability to climb stairs - making it, as Honda puts it "the first self-regulating, two-legged humanoid walking robot."

17. ALBERT HUBO
Here's an idea: Stick an elastomer foam Einstein head on a robot spaceman. This 2005 collaboration between roboticist David Hanson and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is more likely to give you nightmares than a unified field theory. But it's the best combo to date of bipedal movement and realistic facial expression.

16. ROBART III
Not only does Robart III have a gun, it has a team of spider "slave" bots. Under development by the Navy since 1992, this security robot uses microwave motion detectors to search, say, a hostile building for enemies, sending out its insectoid companions to look in dark corners. Alas, its barrels hold only rubber bullets and darts.

15. WABOT AND WABOT 2
In the '70s, some roboticists were building machines to make Chevettes, but researchers at Tokyo's Waseda University were building bots in man's image. In 1973, they introduced Wabot, the first full-scale programmable android. It had eyes, flailing limbs, and the ability to speak Japanese. The next rev, Wabot 2, played piano.

14. GENGHIS
Creeped out by bug bots? How about bug bots that can learn? In 1988, Rodney Brooks' lab at MIT created this six-legged walker, which taught itself how to scramble over boards and other obstacles. The secret: Allow each leg to react to the environment independently and you won't need to program every complex step.

13. EDINBURGH MODULAR ARM SYSTEM
Part man, part machine, all Scottish: Campbell Aird received the first complete bionic arm in 1998. Pressure sensors in the shoulder attachment detect minute fluctuations in Aird's muscles, activating motors that control the arm's movement. Eat your heart out, Lee Majors.

12. T-52 ENRYU
What's better than an 11-foot-tall robot? An 11-foot-tall robot that can rip cars in half and lift 1,100-pound slabs of concrete. Japanese manufacturer Tmsuk unleashed Enryu in 2004 to help in rescue operations (think earthquakes). The best part: It's piloted from a cockpit in its belly, manga style.

11. SPEEDY
Before Sonny (shown) made Asmiov's three laws of robotics known to the masses, there was Speedy, the robot in the 1942 short story Runaround that inaugurated the directives. Speedy knows not to harm humans, to obey their commands, and to protect itself, just not which rules matter most. Turns out a bot's needs come last.

10. THE STANFORD CART
Grand Challenge finishers, UAVs, and even KITT from Knight Rider all owe a debt of gratitude to James Adams and Hans Moravec's Stanford Cart. In 1979, the wagon traversed a chair-filled room on its own, a landmark achievement for self-navigating vehicles. Travel time: roughly five hours.

09. DANTE II
After eight volcano researchers were killed in two 1993 eruptions, robots were brought in to take the heat. The next year, Carnegie Mellon's Dante II was lowered into Alaska's steaming Mount Spurr to collect data. It fell in, but not before uploading its readings, making it the first "successful" terrestrial explorer robot.

08. DA VINCI SURGICAL SYSTEM
In the future, you'll beg to be operated on by a machine. Credit Intuitive Surgical's 2000 robot, a fusion of arms, cameras, and instruments that allows doctors to slice into patients remotely. Procedures done with the da Vinci are more precise than when humans wield the scalpel - research shows there's less blood loss and quicker recovery.

07. THE MECHANICAL KNIGHT
Way back in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci designed what was probably the first robot - an automated suit of armor with a windup crank. It could sit up, wave its hands, and maybe even talk. Five hundred years later, engineer Mark Rosheim used the master's schematics to build a working miniaturized version.

06. QRIO
Bipedal robots that can walk up stairs seem flatfooted compared with the running, jumping, and traditional-Japanese-fan-dancing Qrio. Officially, Sony uses its state-of-the-art androids, debuted in 2003, as corporate ambassadors. But the company may one day sell them for entertainment. Works for Beck: The singer recently used all six Qrios in his video for "Hell Yes."

05. SHAKEY
Developed by Stanford Research Institute International, Shakey had jerky, often nonsensical movements. But that didn't stop the 1972 robot from entering the history books as the first machine to autonomously locate objects, steer around them - and then explain its logic for doing so.

04. ROBBY THE ROBOT
Few robots can trace their origins to Shakespeare. Robby, from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, was inspired by Ariel in The Tempest. But that didn't keep Robby from leaving a legacy all his own. For decades, the very idea of a robot was synonymous with Robby's bulbous figure.

03. SPIRIT AND OPPORTUNITY
Some robots sit in labs for researchers to tinker with. These two bots are on frickin' Mars. Expected to last only three months when they touched down on the Red Planet in January 2004, the rovers are still going strong two years later - each sends back 100 megabits of data a day.

02. ASTROBOY
While American kids were daydreaming of Superman, Japanese tykes were worshipping at the altar of Tetsuwan Atom, aka Astroboy. First drawn in 1951, Astroboy has rocket boots, lasers that shoot from his fingertips, and, uh, an ass cannon. The lovable crime-fighting robot was an inspiration to a generation of kids -some of whom went on to become robotics researchers. He's a big reason why Japan is at the forefront of android development today. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.

And the #1 Robot of All Time Is...

01. STANLEY
The Stanford Racing Team's autonomous vehicle is a modified Volkswagen Touareg that can scan any terrain and pick out a drivable course to a preset destination. Cup holders optional.

COPYRIGHT NOTE : this article is an exact copy from wired.com (LINK)

Machinima group animates life 'in-world'
Technique harnesses 3-D game engines

Student researchers working with Beth Coleman, assistant professor in comparative media studies and in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, are exploring machinima, one branch of the rapidly evolving world of computer animation. As members of the Machinima Work Group, they are experimenting in the medium to find new modes of cinematic expression.

Machinima (pronounced "machine-ima," the word is coined from "machine" and "cinema") is animation that is made by harnessing 3-D game engines, such as those used in Xbox or PlayStation games, and adding original content--dialogue, dramatic situations, and new or modified characters. Relative to traditional computer-generated imagery (CGI), in which animators must create the characters, scenes (levels) and action from scratch, machinima is fast and cheap--though still enormously time-consuming. The most well-known work of machinima to date is "Red vs. Blue," a comic sci-fi series based on the popular Xbox games Halo and Marathon. But many, including Coleman's group, are working to expand the medium above and beyond the genre of parody and to gauge its potential for artistic and cinematic expression.

Read the complete article here

Kayaks adapted to test marine robotics
MIT researchers are working toward the day when a team of robots could be put into action like a team of Navy SEALs -- doing such dangerous work as searching for survivors after devastating hurricanes or sweeping harbors for mines.

Working in labs that resemble machine shops, these engineers are taking small steps toward the holy grail of robotics -- cooperative autonomy -- making machines work together seamlessly to complete tasks with a minimum of human direction.

The tool they're using is the simple kayak.

Read the complete artical here

MIT's intelligent aircraft fly, cooperate autonomously

The U.S. military depends on small, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to perform such tasks as serving as "eyes in the sky" for battalion commanders planning maneuvers. While some of these UAVs can be easily carried in a backpack and launched by hand, they typically require a team of trained operators on the ground, and they perform only short-term tasks individually rather than sustained missions in coordinated groups.

MIT researchers, in collaboration with Boeing's advanced research and development arm, Phantom Works, are working to change that.

They have developed a multiple-UAV test platform that could lay the groundwork for an intelligent airborne fleet that requires little human supervision, covers a wide area, and automatically maintains the "health" of its vehicles (for example, vehicles anticipate when they need refueling, and new vehicles launch to replace lost, damaged, or grounded ones).

Aeronautics and Astronautics Professor Jonathan How, who heads the research team, believes it is the first platform to publicly demonstrate sustained, coordinated, autonomous flight with multiple UAVs.

Read the full article here

MIT survey shows a climate change in perception of global warming
According to a recent MIT survey, Americans now rank climate change as the country's most pressing environmental problem--a dramatic shift from three years ago, when they ranked climate change sixth out of 10 environmental concerns.

Almost three-quarters of the respondents felt the government should do more to deal with global warming, and individuals were willing to spend their own money to help.

"While terrorism and the war in Iraq are the main issues of national concern, there's been a remarkable increase in the American public's recognition of global warming and their willingness to do something about it," said Stephen Ansolabehere, MIT's Elting R. Morison Professor of Political Science.

Read the full article here

Computer Science Terms:

hey folks, these are some technical computer terms, hope you find something useful.

Chapter 1:

Composite structure: the size of a typical software system implies that it must be broken down into manageable pieces of this

Composition: the process of building a system using simpler parts or components

Abstraction: the process of ignoring details irrelevant to the problem at hand and emphasizing essential ones. To abstract is to disregard certain differentiating details

Data: the info the program deals with

Functionality: what the program does with the data, the responsibility of the object to do

Object: the most abstract description of a basic component of an object oriented system

Values: a fundamental piece of info that can be manipulated by the program

Types: a set of related values along with the operations that can be preformed with them

Object: fundamental abstractions from which systems are built

Classes: a set of objects having the same features and properties

State of an object: the set of data maintained by an object at any given time

Reference values: a value that denotes an object

Data descriptions: properties of the object (name, date, etc)

Associated value: a property an object has at any given time

Variable: a portion of memory reserved to hold a single value

Instance variables: a variable that is a permanent part of an object: memory space for the variable is allocated when the object is created

Immutable: an object that’s state cannot be changed

Mutable: and object that’s state can be changed

*An object is characterized by the features it offers*
1. Query: a request for data
2. Command: a request to change state

Float & Double: sets of real rational numbers (i.e. 170000 or 1.4e12)

Char: set of values representing Unicode characters

Boolean: true or false values

Int value: contains a single integer

String: and immutable object that contains a sequence of characters

Identifier: a sequence of characters that can be used as a name in a Java program

Literal: a sequence of characters that denotes a particular value in a Java program

Comments: explanatory remarks that are included in a program for the benefit of a human reader and are ignored by the compiler

Chapter 2:

Features of an object: queries and commands

*A client queries and commands a server*

Specification (interface): definition of an object’s features, as seen by its clients

Implementation: provides the internals that actually make up the features

Packages: groups of classes

Public class: indicates that the objects of that class will be accessible throughout the system

Public void: a command is a query that changes the state of the object but do not provide the client with a value

Method: a language construct that defines and implements a query or command

Constructor: a language construct used to create and initialize an object

Static diagrams: diagrams showing classes

Stub: dummy method or constructor

New: used to invoke a constructor and create an object

Interaction diagram: means of illustrating the order in which objects interact

Statement: provides the action that the processor is to carry out
Expression: a language construct that describes how to compute a particular value. Evaluation of this produces a value

Reset: invoked command to change the count to zero

incrementCount: to increment the count by 1

Assignment: (variableName = expression – a statement that instructs the processor to computer a value and store it in a variable

Parameters: elements of information that must be provided

Method variable: a variable that is created when a method is invoked and de-allocated when the processor finished executing the method

Numeric promotion: the conversion of and int to a double

Operator precedence: * / % + -

Left associative: two expressions with equal precedence are evaluated from L to R

Compilation unit: a file containing the definition of one or more classes of a package

Import statement: placed at the beginning of a compilation unit (file), after a package statement, and apply to all classes defined in the compilation unit

Assignment expression: consists of a variable (left hand side), assignment operator (=) and expression (right hand side)

Increment expressions: il++ ++il

Decrement expressions: il- - - -il

Bitwise operators: allow the bit patterns of integral values to be manipulated

Chapter 3:

To design a class, determine an object’s responsibilities and classify them as knowing responsibilities or doing responsibilities.

Knowing responsibilities: knowing the properties of the entity the object is modeling, knowing about other objects with which it needs to cooperate

Doing responsibilities: computing particular values, performing actions that modify its state, creating and initializing other objects, and controlling and coordinating the activities of other objects

Local variable: a method variable created as part of a method execution, used to hold intermediate results needed during the computation.

LOCAL VARIABLE:
· Defined inside a method
· Exists only while the method is being executed
· Must be initialized before being used; otherwise, a compiler error occurs
· Can be accessed only from the method
· Is only meaningful during execution of the method
· Contains some intermediate value needed only during execution of the method; its value is not part of the object’s state

INSTANCE VARIABLE:
· Defined outside any method
· Exists as long as the object exists
· Initialized in a constructor
· Can be accessed from any method in the class
· Has a meaningful value at any time during the life of the object, whether the object is actively doing something or not
· Represents a property of the object; its value is part of the object’s state

Main method: the top-level method that initiates execution of a system

Chapter 4:

Postcondition: a condition the implementer guarantees will hold when a method or constructor completes execution

Invariant: a condition that always holds true

Class invariant: an invariant regarding properties of class instances; that is, a condition that will always be true for all instances of a class

If (condition)
Statement

And the if-then-else has the form

If(condition)
Statement1
Else
Statement2

Chapter 5:

Programming by contract: s programming style in which the invocation of a method is viewed as a contract between client and server, with each having explicitly stated responsibilities

*When an object responds to a query, it does not change state.

*Commands result in a change of state.

Chapter 6:

*Black box testing = functional testing

Test design generally begins with an analysis of
· The functional specifications of the system
· The ways in which the system will be used

Test case is defined by:
· A statement of case objectives
· The data set for the case
· The expected results

Functional testing: testing to determine that the system as a whole meets the customer’s specifications. The system is treated as a “black box” whose behavior can be observed, but whose internal structure is unknown.

*white box testing= unit testing

Unit testing: incremental testing of classes as they are implemented in order to ensure that they function properly. Testing can be “white box testing” where the tests are developed based on the unit’s implementation, or “gray box testing” where tests are developed based solely on a method’s specification

ALAN TURING
Possibly an inadequate title, the Founder of Computer Science, is what Alan Mathison Turing is called by the technological community. Born in a nursing home in Paddington, London with the strong desire to learn, Turing would soon grow to be one of the most ingenious mathematical logicians ever to grace his field.

Turing was a man who accomplished his successes without outside motivation to do so. His family, being an upper-middle-class group with no scientific knowledge or interests, left Turing to develop his interests for mathematics and science on his own. This interest is believed to have been sparked by a book he read at around the age of fourteen entitled, “Natural Wonders Every Child Should Know”(Hodges 22). Through reading books of this type and in honor of a deceased intellectual companion named Christopher Morcom, Turing gained the drive to make strives in the world of technology.

Turing’s received his first public recognition in the field of mathematics directly after graduating from King’s College, when he won a Smith’s prize for his work on probability theory in 1936 (Kowalik 2). It was around this time when Turing became intrigued by the mathematical question of decidability, otherwise known as the Entscheidungsproblem. This problem asked the question, “could there exist, at least in principle, any definite method or process by which all mathematical questions could be decided?” With his amazing mathematical ingenuity, Turing was able to supply a precise method to solve this almost impossible problem.

The method that Turing constructed became the foundation of modern computation, and was later called the Turing Machine. It was a machine that Turing claimed could equal or exceed the logic of a person working on a set of logical instructions. The function of the machine was to accept algorithms, as we call them today, and solve problems dealing with computable numbers (Kowalik 2). He first released his findings in a paper entitled, “On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem.” Although this was probably Turing’s greatest accomplishment, he soon became interested in ciphers used during wartime, and would lend a helping hand to the British forces during WWII (Turing 2).

Early on in the war, Germany had developed something called an Enigma Machine, which generated undecipherable code that was transmitted between German forces. Upon the entrance of Britain into the war, Turing took up the job of trying to crack the codes of the Enigma Machine. By 1939 with the help of a Polish mathematician named Welchman, Turing built the Bombe, a machine that was able to translate the signals of the Enigma. Furthermore, Turing also placed a huge effort towards encoding signals that were sent between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

Following his work during the war, Turing took the job as Deputy Director of the computing laboratory at Manchester University. Here he drew up his Morphogenic theory of growth and form in biology (A. Turing 4). It was during this time that Turing was arrested for having a sexual relationship with a young Manchester man. Rather than go to prison, Turing opted to receive injections of oestrogen to neutralize his libido, for a period of one year. Despite this setback, he continued his work on the morphogenic theory, and set a goal to discover then reason for the appearance of Fibonacci numbers in leaf patterns of plants. Unfortunately Turing’s work did not extend much further that this.

After a life full of contributions the world of computability Turing’s time came to a sudden end. On June 8, 1954 Alan Turing was found dead by his cleaner. He had died of cyanide poisoning and was found with a half-eaten apple beside his body. The coroner’s report pointed to suicide, an unfitting end to such a valuable life.


Works Cited


“Alan Turing—A Short Biography”. Internet. 4/19/99. www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/

Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing: The Enigma. New York, Simon and Schuster. 1984.

John M. Kowalik. “Alan Turing”. Internet. 4/19/99. www.ei.cs.vt.edu/

“Turing”. Internet. 4/19/99. www.turing.sunyit.edu/