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Even DARPA understands that its futuristic bubble shield can be penetrated given the right circumstances, and when it does, the soldier behind it is going to need some serious healing. In a hurry. In the entity’s newest budget, there’s $6.5 million tucked away “for the creation of a scaffold-free tissue engineering platform, which would allow the construction of large, complex tissues in vitro and in vivo.” As you well know, this type of mad science has been around for quite some time, and now it looks as if DARPA is ready for the next best thing: “non-contact forces.” Put simply, this alludes to replacing scaffolds with magnetic fields or dielectrophoresis, which could purportedly “control cell placement in a desired pattern for a sufficient period of time to allow the cells to synthesize their own scaffold.” It’s still too early to say how close we are to being able to instantaneously heal soldiers on the battlefield, but frankly, the public is apt to never know for sure.

DARPA longs for magnetic body healers, crazy respawn camps originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been well over six months since we first got wind of Siri, the DARPA-inspired smartphone app that pledged to take all the hassle out of… well… life. It’s a virtual assistant that can take care of menial tasks, things like finding restaurants, hearing reviews, and even booking tables — all with your voice. Siri asks simple questions and reacts to your answers, and while it sadly seems to have lost some of its military feel since its DARPA days (bummer), it’s a lovely companion to your happening lifestyle. Plus it’s free, and free is good! Check out a demonstration video after the break, and hit up the App Store to make with the download. Meanwhile, if you’re on some other smartphone platform you’ll have to wait. We fully expect Siri will break free of its current monotasking abode sometime in the future, but we don’t know when. We just don’t know when.

Continue reading DARPA-based Siri virtual assistant hits the App Store, smartphone sentience can’t be far behind (video)

DARPA-based Siri virtual assistant hits the App Store, smartphone sentience can’t be far behind (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DARPA job posting talks of developing an autonomous, grenade-wielding robot originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Robonaut2_allows_astronauts_to_feel_the_fear_of_obsolescence’; About a decade ago, two of our favorite government entities, NASA and DARPA, paired off to create the robotic astronaut of the future: Robonaut. He had a cool copper helmet and some faux-muscly arms, but ultimately never made it to space. Now, 10 years on, NASA’s back with Robonaut2, created along with General Motors, who hopes to enslave poor R2 in its assembly plants. The details of exactly what has changed in this iteration are slim, but R2 is said to be more dexterous than its predecessor and stronger too, able to lift a 20lb dumbbell without getting all red in the face. It also seems to have lasers in its knuckles for some reason we can’t quite figure out, but we’re digging the look nevertheless. R2 is said to be helping NASA into a “bold new era of space exploration,” and while we don’t know exactly when that bold new era begins (now?), we do have a particularly menacing video of the original Robonaut included below, as well as one two of the fit and trim new model.

[Thanks, Adam]

Continue reading NASA and GM’s Robonaut2 allows human astronauts to feel the fear of obsolescence (video)

NASA and GM’s Robonaut2 allows human astronauts to feel the fear of obsolescence (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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DARPA would have you believe that it’s the brilliance of modern day social networks that led an MIT-based team to win its red balloon challenge this weekend, and while there’s no doubt that the presence of the internet assisted in the locating of ten randomly placed floating objects, we’re crediting the bright minds at the university for their strategy of soliciting team mates. The challenge was constructed in order to “see whether social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter should be seen as credible sources of information,” not to mention investigate new ways to react to various threats that need instant attention. Less than nine hours after the contest began, MIT’s team had deflated the hopes of around 4,000 other teams by finding all ten, though it’s hard to say exactly how many members were out looking. You see — MIT established a website that promised hundreds, even thousands of dollars to individuals who sent in the correct coordinates of balloons, noting that the $40,000 in prize money would be graciously distributed should their efforts lead to a win. DARPA may call it a triumph of the information superhighway; we’re calling it victory in numbers.

Continue reading MIT-based team wins DARPA’s Red Balloon Challenge, demonstrates power of social networks (and cold hard cash)

MIT-based team wins DARPA’s Red Balloon Challenge, demonstrates power of social networks (and cold hard cash) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On December 5, 1969, the entire 4-node network for ARPANET was completed, building on the first host-to-host connection from some months earlier. The technical core for what would become the Internet was born.

Forty years later, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) kicked off a contest asking teams to locate the longitudes and latitudes of 10 red weather balloons positioned in stationary locations across the continental United States. Although the contest was officially open for seven days, it only took nine hours for the team from MIT to locate all 10 balloons, winning the competition and $40,000 in prize money.

The goal of the project wasn’t to see who could answer the question, but how. More specifically, “the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems.”

Now that MIT has won, DARPA plans to meet with teams to review various approaches and strategies used to build networks and collect information.

In the MIT team’s case, it looks like they had a pretty solid information infrastructure set up prior to the contest even starting. Potential team members could sign up to join the team from the group’s Web site and then invite friends using their own identifiable link. The tracking link makes it easy for the team to distribute the winning funds to not just the people that identified a balloon, but the person who invited them to join the team in the first place.

The site also had a form where team members could enter in balloon locations or even DARPA coordinates. MIT also encouraged team members to post their personalized invitation links to sites like Facebook and Twitter.

It will be interesting to get an actual breakdown of how many people were involved in directly or indirectly identifying all 10 balloons.

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Tags: DARPA, internet, mit, Network Challenge, research contest