Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - FT3010

SOD - FT3010

(Flexible Tower - 30m height; 10kg load)

• Rapid rise payload (< 1min)
• 10kg load
• 30m height
• Vehicle mounted
• Long flight endurance
• Augment telescope viewing

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Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - SA30

SOD - SA30

(Sky Antenna - 30m height)

• Rapid rise radio antenna (< 1m)
• Small payload antenna
• Increase Tx and Rx range
• Rise beyond tree level
• Man-portable
• Long flight endurance

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Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - ERM10

SOD - ERM10

(Energy Routing Module - 10kw)

• Generator + UPS energy routing
• Attachment module concept
• Total 10kw routing
• DC electrical backbone
• Networked Routing controller

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Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - MSB100

SOD - MSB100

(Multiple Small Balloon - 100 pieces)

• Multiple small balloon
• Overall big balloon is grow-able in size
• Can "refill" big balloon as and when necessary with small ones
• Direction stabilized tail (design)

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Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - WJ100

SOD - WJ100

(Water Jet attachment module - 100kg)

• Vector thrust
• Quad add-on pack (similar to quadrotor)
• Rapid thrust
• Add-on pack can "RH" after use (upon jettison)

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Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - AMP100

SOD - AMP100
(Automatic Mobile Platform - 100m radius)

• Mission plan / Purpose plan 
• Self way-point planning 
• Swarm intelligence 
• Self position 
• Group spacing 
• Ops area constraint needed only (e.g. which area / boundary, what work to do) 
• Can adapt TES/MILES for training / shooting 
• Engagement use 
• Can adapt surveillance to "catch" opp. people 
• Can adapt "shooter" to return fire 
• More realist "opp. people" simulation 
• [ automatic control, obstacle avoidance, mission planning, way point planning, swarm technique, surveillance payload, engagement payload ]

 
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http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/google-patent-application-keeps-track-of-your-moves-to-automate/

Google patent application keeps track of your moves to automate mobile actions

By Joseph Volpe posted Apr 20, 2012 12:53PM

A shimmy and a shake could be all it takes to launch apps in the future, that's if this latest patent application ever pans out. Filed back in October of 2011, the folks over at Google are looking to make accelerometers useful for more than just screen orientation. According to the claims, after a training phase wherein this hypothetical program would associate specific application launches with geographic location data, your Pavlovian smartphone could then automate workflows and effectively anticipate your needs. Essentially, you'd have a mobile device that would know what to run wherever you were, hinging upon how you hold it. At least, that's the schematic covered in this USPTO document. Will it ever see the light of day? Hard to tell. Mountain View's just a-brimming with those 20 percent time projects.

Source: USPTO

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/20/ibm-battery-500/

IBM's building an air-breathing EV battery that goes 500 miles on a single charge

By Daniel Cooper posted Apr 20, 2012 12:01PM

IBM's planning an end to range anxiety with an EV power pack that runs on air and travels 500 miles on a single charge. "Lithium Air" batteries draw oxygen into a nano-structured carbon cathode, where it is stored and reacts with lithium ions and electrons to generate electricity. When you plug the vehicle in, the unmolested oxygen is released back into the air as if it was breathing. The technology's significantly lighter than what's found inside a Chevy Volt and IBM has enlisted the help of chemical giants Asahi Kaseiand Central Glass to turn it from successful experiment to fully-fledged product by 2030. If you'd like to learn more, we've got a gallery of candid pics from inside the testing lab, explanatory video and, yes, even a press release full of information for you to steep your brains in.

Launch Photo Gallery

Show full PR text

IBM Research Boosts Battery 500 Project with New Materials Partners

Asahi Kasei and Central Glass to enhance electric vehicle lithium-air battery innovationSAN JOSE, Calif. - April 20, 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that two industry leaders -- Asahi Kasei and Central Glass -- will join its Battery 500 Project team and collaborate on far-reaching research with the potential to accelerate the switch from gasoline to electricity as the primary power source for vehicles.In 2009, IBM Research pioneered a sustainable mobility project to develop lithium-air battery technology capable of powering a family-sized electric car for approximately 500 miles (800 km) on a single charge.As partners in the Battery 500 Project, Asahi Kasei and Central Glass bring decades of materials innovation for the automotive industry to the team. They will expand the project's scope and, although the scientific and engineering challenges to its practical implementation are extremely high, exploring several chemistries simultaneously increases the chance of success.Asahi Kasei, one of Japan's leading chemical manufactures and a leading global supplier of separator membrane for lithium-ion batteries, will use its experience in innovative membrane technology to create a critical component for lithium-air batteries.Central Glass, a leading global electrolyte manufacturer for lithium-ion batteries, will use its chemical expertise in this field to create a new class of electrolytes and high-performance additives specifically designed to improve lithium-air batteries."These new partners share our vision of electric cars being critical components of building a cleaner, better world, which is far less dependent on oil," said Dr. Winfried Wilcke, IBM's Principle Investigator who initiated the Battery 500 Project. "Their compatible experience, knowledge and commitment to bold innovation in electric vehicle battery technology can help us transfer this research from the lab onto the road."Most electric vehicles can only travel about 100 miles before needing to recharge using today's lithium-ion batteries. This is a significant barrier to electric car adoption unless a new battery technology can be developed that is affordable, lightweight, compact and has the capacity to power a typical family car several hundred miles or more on a single charge.For a car running on today's lithium-ion batteries to match the range provided by a tank of gasoline, car manufacturers would need a very large battery which would weigh down the car and take up too much space. Lithium-air batteries have higher energy density than lithium-ion batteries, due to their lighter cathodes and the fact that their primary "fuel" is the oxygen readily available in the atmosphere. To popularize electric cars, an energy density ten times greater than that of conventional lithium-ion batteries is needed, and these new partners to the project can help drive lithium-air technology towards that goal.New materials development is vitally important to ensuring the viability of lithium-air battery technology," said Tatsuya Mori, Director, Executive Managing Officer, Central Glass. "As a long-standing partner of IBM and leader in developing high-performance electrolytes for batteries, we're excited to share each other's chemical and scientific expertise in a field as exciting as electric vehicles.""We are very focused on addressing environmental challenges and limitations with diverse technology to build a brighter future. This alliance allows us to explore a new path to developing an improved rechargeable battery performance that can not be met with conventional technologies," said Tetsuro Ohta, Head of Advanced Battery Materials Development Center, Asahi Kasei.This research will take place at IBM Research - Almaden in California.About The Battery 500 ProjectThe switch from gasoline to electricity as the primary power source for vehicles stands to be one of the most important technology shifts of the first half of the 21st century. Recognizing this need, scientists at IBM Research-Almaden started the Battery 500 Project in 2009 to develop a Lithium-Air battery that could travel 500 miles on a single charge. Leveraging IBM's leadership across science and technology in chemistry, physics, nanotechnology and supercomputing modeling in both its Almaden and Zurich laboratories, this research is also done in conjunction with the other Battery 500 Project collaborators, including national laboratories.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/22/helium-filled-floating-wind-turbine-renewable-energy-with-style/

Helium-filled floating wind turbine, renewable energy with style

By James Trew posted Apr 23, 2012 1:02AM

There's no doubting that the cause of renewable energy is a noble one. But, ethics aside, it also gives birth to the occasional technical marvel. Altaeros Energies, a company from Massachusetts (with MIT and Harvard blood in its veins) has created one such curiosity. The prototype is a wind-turbine that doesn't just languish on a hill-top, cutting a line in the horizon. No, this one has a helium-filled outer-section which allows it to deploy itself to 1,000 feet, where it can benefit from stronger, more consistent winds and gives nearly twice the power yields of its land bound brethren. That's all very nice, but we just thought it looked dang cool in action.

Via: YahooSource: Altaeros Energies

WORDS OF WISDOM FOR THE DAY : Controlling Losers Is A Must; Let Your Winners Run Out Of Control Instead....!

 

1) The moment a stock disappoints you or makes you wish you hadn't bought it, sell it. Immediately and regardless of price. Life is too short to hope a bad decision reverses itself.  

 

2) Don't get In or Out of the market, but modulate your exposure up and down as a function of what you think is happening. Your guess based on all the available news and indicators is as good as anyone else's – and it is more important than anyone else's for sure because it is your money on the line;

 

3) You should be willing to take a 20% drawdown on every dollar you have in the stock market. Obviously being down 20% is not the goal, but it's the reality – it can happen at any time. It's not a permanent loss but you need to invest as though it could be;

 

4) Don't buy stocks trading over 30 times earnings or under 7 times earnings – something is wrong in both cases. Stay away from anything that is trading near to zero value like those super penny stocks awaits for the Singapore Exchange imposition of pending delisting due to persistent poor corporate results and in terrible state. Avoid the 52-week low list – a loser is a loser;

 

5) Sell any stock with a controversial development or red flag no matter what. Let someone else be the hero that swoops in on a mispriced, misunderstood security. You can cheer them on from the safety of the sidelines. Earnings restatements, auditor resignations, massive unexpected earnings misses, filing delays, fraud allegations etc are all automatic sells. Let's not act like there aren't other stocks to choose from in the stock markets;

 

6) Remind yourself about the difference between investors and traders: Investors make trades when necessary, traders make trades in the course of doing business – that is what they do for a living and your goals are different than theirs. You don't get paid out on closed positions or a daily profit & loss statement. Don't try to be a trader unless that's going to be your full-time gig. Trading as a hobby is not the same as being a trader – and it's less fun than you might think. If you've decided to become a trader, find a method and stick with it until you can do it regularly.

 

7) Look, the stock market always goes up given enough time. It is very hard to find a decade during which returns were negative. Stocks go up three out of four years and declines of twenty percent peak-to-trough are extremely rare (declines of 50% are even rarer still and are always a buying opportunity). Patiently awaits for the both extreme of OVERSOLD & OVERBOUGHT region to conduct your equities investing. So for new or smaller investors, the name of the game is to stay in, do smart things while you're in and avoid blowing up your investing capital;

 

8) When you finally do become wealthy, hire other people to do this for you and watch them. Go about enjoying the short time we all have left on earth away from the screen. Kiss your kids and play tennis and read books and get drunk during the day and go for long holidays for a month and buy that car you drove in high school – fix it up and take your sweetheart for a ride. Don't spend that time reading about inverse correlations between oil prices and the stock prices or the German bund yields and the gold ratio....etc.

 

A jumping robot on wheels

A jumping robot on wheels

Biomimetic Robot Mobility Takes a Huge Leap

The problem of how to get a robot from point A to point B has many solutions, and by far the most interesting (and creepy) ones are animal-based. You probably remember Boston Dynamics' doglike robot that scared the crap out of me and Carnegie Mellon's snakebot, which also gave me nightmares. (Ed. note: Likewise, the gallop of the former company's most recent critter is still echoing in my head). But a new robot produced in collaboration between aforementioned Boston Dynamics and the US Army's Rapid Equipping Force—a robot based on the sand flea—has a rather amazing means of obstacle navigation:
Sand Flea is an 11-lb robot with one trick up its sleeve: Normally it drives like an RC car, but when it needs to it can jump 30 feet into the air. An onboard stabilization system keeps it oriented during flight to improve the view from the video uplink and to control landings.
I've said this before of a wall-climbing robot from Disney Research, and I'm only half-joking: I want to see these things adapted to urban food and package delivery. It'd be worth the occasional destroyed burrito to see these little guys hop into your window every day at lunchtime. 

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Signs of seller desperation.....

Signs of seller desperation.....

 
Like any buyer and seller market....if u see the seller starts to tangle the following....wait for the chance to buy.
+ Gives discount arbitrary.
+ Freebies e.g. gift vouchers
+ increase advertisement and marketing activities
+ Subsidies
+ Reimbursement
+ Longer repayment period

It is a sign that the seller is trying to clear his "stock" and recover his cost asap.
Remember spotting a bargain makes the difference between the rich and poor....the best time to buy is WHEN you DO NOT need to buy i.e. you can always walk away from a deal without any regret.

Stop Blabbing About Innovation And Start Actually Doing It

Stop Blabbing About Innovation And Start Actually Doing It



These days, every established company is at risk of having its industry--and its own business--disrupted by a startup. Cognizant of this, companies devote a lot of time to talking about how important it is to innovate. But here's the truth: most companies can't innovate because everyone is paid to maintain the status quo.

This is the single biggest reason companies fail to do anything new or exciting. You and everyone else are maxed out making sure your company is doing what it's supposed to do; innovation is what the weekends are for.

Despite the real risk involved, this actually makes sense. Companies are set up to do one thing very well. That's the business they're in. All of the roles in the company are defined and structured to create the best environment for doing that one thing as efficiently as possible. The number of people employed by the company fluctuates with the workload. More work, more people. Too many people and too little work means layoffs or mismanagement. Success is doing the same thing you've always done, just a little bit better, achieving just a few more sales or shaving a hair off of costs. Change is discouraged by time constraints and the stifling number of approvals needed. Failure is punishable by pink slip. Every day is the same.

Yet, today, your entire industry can change in the space of a headline. If your business can't innovate, it won't survive when the startup in the garage across town that doesn't have to answer to your shareholders does all the things legal has been telling you that you can't do, all the things that you don't have time for. It's never been more urgent to stop talking about innovation and actually start doing things differently. And, with digital, the opportunities have never been greater. Instead of innovating on your weekends, overcome the structural impediments and time constraints to real change by approaching innovation from two directions: outside-in and inside-out.

"Outside-in," when not based on acquisition, often comes in the form of a skunkworks project. It's colloquially defined as a startup funded by the parent company, but kept separate from the dysfunction and sluggishness of the whole, in order to incubate great technological advancements. I've referenced this tactic before, as the first step big businesses should take to evolve their organizational structures. Google, JetBlue, NBCUniversal, and News Corp. have all used the strategy.


Here's the recipe:

Set the right goals. A skunkworks project should be tasked with developing a new, specific tech product or service.

Give the team freedom to create. Bureaucracy, office politics, and the aforementioned requirement to keep the ship sailing straight ahead all slow down and inhibit big advancements. To succeed, the skunkworks team must be kept free from these deterrents.

Appoint separate senior management. Management by committee is not an option. The quickest route to failure is slow decision making. The skunkworks team should report directly to a senior-level executive who is authorized to green-light initiatives that are separate from the company's main purpose and to implement these new solutions.

Choose a separate location. The team should not be housed in the corporate headquarters. Ideally, it should live nearby, but in some cases, it needs to be in a completely different location to be able to access the right talent. When Johnson & Johnson decided to build a unit oriented to design, creativity, and technology, the division planted a flag in an old industrial building in a trendy neighborhood in New York. Its corporate headquarters are in suburban New Jersey.

Mix up the staff. The staff should be a healthy hybrid of high-performing internal employees and newbies, so that some participants are familiar with the company's core business while others have an open mind and fresh ideas.

Give it time. Really well-developed products often take a year from the time people start working on them until launch. You can get things done in six to nine months, but it's unusual, especially if the team refines it with iterative improvements.

Bring it back into the fold. Once the project is complete, skunkworks team members should move back in with the parent company. They either become a distinct department or are dispersed throughout the company, in order to effectively run and manage the particular product.


On the other hand, "inside-out" innovation is all about incentivizing existing staff members to be revolutionary within their own jobs. The most important ingredients are largely cultural:

Freedom to fail. Traditionally, companies are averse to risk, so if you fail at something, it hurts your career. But to innovate, you need to be able to try new things without risking your livelihood. As Thomas Edison said, "I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work."

Free time. Performance evaluations for managers should include assessment of the volume and quality of new ideas they brought to the table. If the company's priority is solely productivity, no one will have time to think about creating something new, let alone bring it to life.

Training. An office that encourages and facilitates education openly admits there's room to grow and inspires people take that leap.
The risk involved in these changes is less than the risk of not making them. Innovation is outside the comfort zones of most businesses--but so is Chapter 11.


Aaron Shapiro is CEO of Huge, a global digital agency based in Brooklyn, and author of Users Not Customers.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/03/conductive-fabrics-may-power-future-infantry-gear/

Conductive fabrics may power future infantry gear, uniforms set to enter field trials

By Zachary Lutz posted Apr 3, 2012 8:23PM

If you thought your Sunbeam electric blanket or those Hello Kitty foot warmers were advanced pieces of kit, then you'd best divert your eyes from this story out of the UK. In an effort to eliminate the mess of power cables and extraneous batteries from a soldier's tech gear, one British company is currently experimenting with conductive fabrics as the basis for future military uniforms. The material is able to deliver power to any number of devices -- all from a single battery -- and also features a redundancy aspect, with the ability to reroute power should the fabric become torn or damaged. The company, known as Intelligent Textiles, recently received a £234,000 grant from the Ministry of Defense and hopes to begin field trials of its equipment next month. While these high tech uniforms may see a limited military issue by year's end, it's thought unlikely that the gear will become widespread until 2014 or beyond.

Via: StuffSource: BBC

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/04/self-sculpting-smart-sand/

Self-sculpting 'smart sand' can assume any shape, create instant prototypes (video)

By James Trew posted Apr 5, 2012 1:28AM

A new algorithm developed by the Distributed Robotics Laboratory at MIT's Computer Science could lead to an exciting fast prototyping tool, being dubbed "smart sand." Immerse an object in the sand, tiny cubes that send simple proximity messages to each other, which relay through the swarm and determine which blocks are adjacent to the object to be modeled, and those that aren't. Using this data, it's possible to create a map of the subject to be replicated. Initial tests were performed using 2D models, but has also been shown to work reliably with 3D shapes also. While true smart sand would need "grains" much smaller than currently possible, it's said that this isn't an "insurmountable obstacle." The paper will be presented at the IEEE conference in May, or keep going past the break for the explanatory video.

Source: MIT

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http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/05/apple-patent-app-active-media-packaging/

Apple patent app details 'active packaging,' a new level of window shopping

By Darren Murph posted Apr 6, 2012 12:35AM

Apple's generally not one to go overboard with packaging; a simple white box with a few unmistakable logos is just about all it takes to get the point across. But in a future world -- one where people have digitized skin and NFC readers in their fingernails -- we'll obviously need something with a bit more... flamboyance. A patent application originally filed on December 12th, 2011 (and just made public today) details an "active electronic media device packaging," which outlines a method for packaging gizmos in a box that "may include one or more electrical traces in-molded or printed onto the packaging."

It gets a little ambiguous from there, but it sounds as if "one or more wireless power techniques" may be tapped into in order to keep marketing material humming when folks walk by. Speaking of which, the app also explains that POM sensors could be used to "detect various movements events," potentially activating as prospective consumers stroll by. To reiterate, an application for a patent doesn't mean that any of this stuff will get close to coming to fruition, but if you'd like to make absolutely sure you don't live in a world where products call to you from the shelves, we heard Sir Richard Branson can assist.

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http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/06/google-project-glass-sergey-brin/

Google co-founder Sergey Brin spotted wearing Project Glass prototype IRL

By Richard Lawler posted Apr 6, 2012 1:02PM

Wondering what it might be like to sport Google's Project Glassaugmented reality HUD in your daily life? It would appear company co-founder Sergey Brin already knows, as he was spotted by tech pundits Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk rocking a prototype at a Dining in the Dark charity event for the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Scoble has already posted a couple of pictures with Brin on Google+, mentioning more photos would be forthcoming from Hawk after the event concluded and that he'd heard other people, including Google exec Vic Gundotra, have the devices already. For now he mentions the glasses appeared to be "self contained" and that he could see a blueish light flashing on Brin's eyes. Hit the source link for more pics and details, we'll let you know if we find out more later -- details on where to snag a set may remain confidential until we've had a chance to try them on first, of course.

Via: ElectronistaSource: Robert Scoble (Google+), @Scobleizer (Twitter), Flickr

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/06/darpas-next-grand-challenge-to-focus-on-humanoid-robots/

DARPA's next Grand Challenge to focus on humanoid robots

By Donald Melanson posted Apr 6, 2012 8:34PM

DARPA's Grand Challenges have already helped put plenty of self-driving cars on (closed) roads, but it looks like the agency has something a bit different in mind for its next one. As first reported by Hizook, DARPA has apparently set its sights on humanoid robots as its next target -- specifically, robots that are human-like enough to navigate rough terrain, drive a vehicle and manipulate regular tools (the idea being to simulate assisting in an industrial disaster zone). What's more, participants will have to develop robots that can do all of that "semi-autonomously," with only "supervisory teleoperation" permitted. No word on a timeline for the challenge just yet, but DARPA will apparently have more to say when it makes things completely official within the next few weeks.

[Thanks, Travis]

Source: Hizook, Wired Danger Room