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Carnegie Mellon Spatially-Varying Autofocus Camera

Carnegie Mellon’s New Spatially-Varying Autofocus Camera Sees the World in Perfect Focus, Everywhere

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Carnegie Mellon Spatially-Varying Autofocus Camera
Photo credit: Carnegie Mellon University
You find yourself in a garden at the perfect time, when the golden hour paints everything in a warm gentle light. A bee hovers annoyingly close to your lens, a tiny speck of pollen clinging to its leg. In the background, a rose blooms in the distance – and then beyond that, a stunning mountain range stretches out to meet the horizon. No matter how good your camera is, even a fancy $10,000 mirrorless beast, you’re always going to have to make some compromises – choose the bee and the mountains will turn into a blur of creamy bokeh. Some have even tried light-field cameras that inevitably sacrifice resolution for a bit of extra versatility. Every one of them is some kind of compromise.

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Viwoods AiPaper Reader

First Look at Viwoods AiPaper Reader, a Pocket-Sized E Ink Companion That Runs Full Android

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Viwoods AiPaper Reader
Viwoods is making a splash in the crowded world of compact e-readers with the AiPaper Reader – a tiny device that squeezes the standard e-book experience into a phone-sized package while still delivering plenty of power. Measuring 159.4 by 80.3 by 6.7 millimeters and tipping the scales at just 138 grams, this reader slips easily into a jeans pocket alongside your phone. Hold it in your hand during your daily commute and the matte finish and rounded edges make it a joy to hold, with no unsightly indentations to deal with.

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3D-Printed Robot Head Aristotle Speaking

3D-Printed Robot Head Speaks Like Aristotle

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3D-Printed Robot Head Aristotle Speaking
Maker Nikodem Bartnik has built a robot head that answers questions in a way that’ll make you think a ancient Greek philosopher like Aristotle has just rolled back into the room. A metal mask with 3D-printed moving eyes peeks out from the hood, some sparkly LEDs pulsate behind the mouth and every time he responds, he uses an artificial brain that runs on his own computer in the next room. It all looks so alive and makes for a seriously interesting conversation that could keep going for hours, or so we’d like to think.

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Anduril Fury Unmanned Jet First Flight

Anduril’s Fury Unmanned Jet Flies Solo for the First Time

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Anduril Fury Unmanned Jet First Flight
Late October is typically a quiet time in aviation, but that was not the case at a California test site. A sleek matte gray jet with a mostly empty interior took off from Victorville’s runway, rose slowly, and was able to negotiate its own path through the sky without even a remote pilot at the controls. It was a historic event; no one was inside, and the entire route had essentially been left in the hands of the YFQ-44A, also known as Anduril’s Fury.

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Circus CA-1 Restaurant Robot Cook

Circus CA-1 May Become the Robot That Cooks Your Lunch and Sends the Staff Home

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Circus CA-1 Restaurant Robot Cook
Circus SE out of Munich built a robot called the CA-1 that sits inside a glass box no bigger than a small bathroom. Two arms swing round at the command of a touchscreen, plucking ingredients from refrigerated bins, spooning them into a pot, cooking the whole thing on a induction burner and sliding out the finished plate to a take-out window. No human has to flip the food, wipe down the counters, or yell for the next order. This whole kitchen just runs by itself.

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China’s CR450 Bullet Train Rewrites the Rules of High-Speed Rail Travel by Hitting 281MPH During Testing

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China CR450 Bullet Train Fastest High-Speed
Last month, on the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu high-speed railway line, something amazing happened…a silver bullet train zoomed by at 281 mph. That single run on October 21 means that the CR450 is now the fastest conventional wheeled train ever tested. Engineers measured one prototype at 453 km/h, as well as two trains passing each other at 896 km/h.

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DUAWLFIN Drone Robot

Innovative DUAWLFIN Drone Lands on Wheels—and Never Looks Back

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DUAWLFIN Drone Robot
Photo credit: HiPeR Lab
Jerry Tang walked into UC Berkeley’s HiPeR Lab with a small shoebox-sized container in his hands. Inside was a compact quadcopter drone called DUAWLFIN, which was super light – lighter than a bag of oranges – and could move at a pretty good clip – faster than someone who’s taking a brisk walk. Four propellers, four motors, and four wheels – basically just the essentials. Tang flipped a switch on his laptop and DUAWLFIN took off, hovering for a second before dropping straight down in a bit of a free fall. The propellers just kept spinning though, and the wheels suddenly kicked in, taking over.

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Metallization Metal Thermal Spray

One Blacksmith Walks into a Factory and Leaves Covered in Sparks After Making Metal Rain

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Metallization Metal Thermal Spray
Blacksmith Alec Steele struts out of a narrow Birmingham back-alley and into a century old workshop that reeks of hot pennies and jet fuel. A big metal sign just outside reads Metallisation Ltd. Inside the workshop he’s greeted by workers who hand him a three pound pistol and cost more than his first ute. Give it a squeeze, and out comes a jet of liquid steel blasting out the front at a whack – 600 miles an hour. That’s just the beginning of a day that shows no signs of slowing down.

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