Teresa addresses rumored trouble in her relationship as she and husband Luis Ruelas approach their first wedding anniversary.
Teresa addresses rumored trouble in her relationship as she and husband Luis Ruelas approach their first wedding anniversary.
Peta Murgatroyd and Maks Chmerkovskiy welcomed their second child together on Father’s Day after suffering three miscarriages.
Peta Murgatroyd and Maks Chmerkovskiy welcomed their second child together on Father’s Day after suffering three miscarriages.
Tamra urged Jennifer to ‘tell the truth’ when the ladies started interrogating her about her marriage during the June 21 episode of ‘RHOC’.
Tamra urged Jennifer to ‘tell the truth’ when the ladies started interrogating her about her marriage during the June 21 episode of ‘RHOC’.
One day after slaying together at the Louis Vuitton show, A$AP Rocky called Rihanna his ‘wife’ amid his performance at the Cannes Lions Festival on Jun. 21.
One day after slaying together at the Louis Vuitton show, A$AP Rocky called Rihanna his ‘wife’ amid his performance at the Cannes Lions Festival on Jun. 21.
The human hand is a marvel of evolutionary development, offering 27 degrees of freedom and unrivaled touch sensitivity. But it’s the same aspects that make our hands so, well, handy, that also make them an absolute nightmare to recreate robotically. That’s why one team of researchers has abandoned human-derived gripper design in favor of woodlice.
Look, at least they’re not the desiccated and re-inflated tarantula corpses that a team of Rice University researchers created in 2022. Those manipulators were a novel proof of concept in that they exploited the natural mechanisms spiders use for locomotion — specifically that their limbs move through a combination of fluid pressure and flexor muscles, rather than the antagonistic pairs that mammals have — though the system was really only good for as long as the corpses held together.
The new system designed by Dr. Josephine Galipon and her team at Japan’s Tohoku University builds on the earlier work with “necrobotic” spiders but relies on bugs that are still alive. “To our knowledge, there is no prior example of whole living organisms being used as end effectors for robotic arms, which we propose here,” Galipon points out in Biological Organisms as End Effectors. The team relies on both captured woodlice (aka rolly-pollies) and captive chitons (small marine mollusks) to temporarily serve as a robot’s hands.
They first 3D printed tiny seats for the animals to sit on at the end of the robot’s manipulator arm, then set the woodlice and chitons to task, picking up tufts of cotton and submerged cork, respectively. The results were about as promising as one could really hope for: the woodlice futzed around with the cotton for about two minutes before losing interest, while the chiton’s grabbed hold of their prizes and had to be actively separated from them. Still, the fact that the chiton got a grip at all was promising, given existing difficulties in using suction cups and similar mechanical methods underwater. Granted, much more work needs to be completed before these early concepts can even potentially be adapted into functional and efficient robotics systems.
The team’s work also raises ethical questions about the test animals’ welfare, such as whether they are being forced to perform against their will and how such motivations are delivered. “Especially for sentient animals, we would like to establish a kind of mutual interaction with a cooperative relationship,” Galipon told New Scintist. “It’s a little bit different from domestication, but just a cooperation, where the animal can then go about its day.” To be fair, it’s certainly less invasive than your average cyborg cockroach research.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/researchers-give-robots-roly-polies-for-hands-231510900.html?src=rss
One day after Kevin Costner’s estranged wife, Christine Baumgartner, was spotted in Santa Barbara solo, she reportedly claimed that he told their kids about their divorce via a Zoom call.
One day after Kevin Costner’s estranged wife, Christine Baumgartner, was spotted in Santa Barbara solo, she reportedly claimed that he told their kids about their divorce via a Zoom call.
Twitter has resumed paying its Google Cloud contract, according to Bloomberg. If you missed the initial news of the impending showdown, Platformer reported on June 10th that Twitter had been refusing to pay Google for its cloud services ahead of their contract’s June 30th renewal date. The possibility of losing access to Google’s infrastructure led to a frantic rush at Twitter to migrate as many of its services off of Google’s servers. However, that effort was reportedly “running behind schedule,” opening the door for some of the company’s in-house tools to go offline come the end of the month.
Now it appears Twitter has found a way to avoid that scenario. Bloomberg reports Linda Yaccarino, the company’s newly appointed CEO, “helped get the relationship back on track.” In fact, the two companies are reportedly negotiating a broader partnership that could include advertising and Google’s use of Twitter’s paid API. Twitter does not operate a public relations department Engadget could contact for comment.
Twitter’s Google Cloud contract dates back to 2018. According to Bloomberg, the contract has cost the company between $200 million and $300 million annually and was one of the early targets of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting. Google reportedly “struggled” to get in touch with the billionaire to talk about Twitter’s unpaid bills, and at one point attempted to reach him through SpaceX, which also does business with the tech giant.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-has-supposedly-started-paying-its-google-cloud-bill-again-213824844.html?src=rss
Over two years after getting engaged, ‘RHONY’ alum Bethenny Frankel took to Instagram to share a new up-close video of her massive engagement ring on Jun. 20.
Over two years after getting engaged, ‘RHONY’ alum Bethenny Frankel took to Instagram to share a new up-close video of her massive engagement ring on Jun. 20.
EVE Online has finally embraced its destiny. The game, often jokingly called a “spreadsheet simulator” due to the competitive advantages its most dedicated players can gain by tracking in-game data, now has a Microsoft Excel add-in. “Gain a competitive edge by harnessing the power of data, as access to and the understanding of data can spell the difference between victory and defeat,” developer CCP Games wrote Tuesday in a blog post. The free extension, first announced last year at EVE Fanfest, is available now.
Besides serving as crossover marketing for CCP Games and Microsoft, the add-in could help level the playing field and make it easier for new players to enjoy the long-running MMO. “You can now quickly and efficiently arm yourself with the information and knowledge to reach your goals and aspirations,” the development team said. “Easy access to in-game data facilitates decision making and brings added fairness and accessibility to everyone, without requiring coding knowledge or dependence on player-developed third-party tools.” CCP Games collaborated with Microsoft’s Excel team to create the add-in.
Available data includes “your assets with location and item value, market orders, item market prices, wallet transactions, skills, as well as an overview of corporation finances (if you have required roles) to make informed decisions.” After importing your in-game information, you can generate custom reports or visualization tools like graphs and charts. The developer describes it as the “first and only” video game to offer official Excel-based data integration.
“CCP Games has extensive experience in the MMO space, so it’s only natural that we collaborate with them to launch the first-ever native Microsoft Excel add-in for a video game,” said Catherine Pidgeon, Microsoft’s Head of Product, Excel. “With the add-in, the EVE Online player base can seamlessly export and manage data without third-party tools. Through this collaboration, we’re excited to see how players of EVE Online of all skill levels can use Excel to streamline data management and take their in-game experience to new heights.”
To try out the tool, select the “Insert” tab in Excel (desktop or web) and then the “Get Add-ins” button, and look for EVE Online. Alternatively, you can find the add-in in the Microsoft Store. Finally, CCP Games launched a sample workbook to help you get started.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/eve-onlines-spreadsheets-in-space-now-integrate-seamlessly-with-microsoft-excel-194719853.html?src=rss
Earlier this year, AST SpaceMobile, with the help of AT&T, managed to connect an off-the-shelf Samsung Galaxy S22 to a satellite in low-Earth orbit to complete a two-way voice call. The announcement marked a major milestone for satellite-based cellular communication. Now the company says it’s one step closer to bringing the technology to consumers.
On Wednesday, AST shared it recently completed multiple tests in Hawaii where its engineers saw download speeds of 10Mbps from the company’s BlueWalker 3 satellite to unmodified phones on the ground. “Successfully reaching double-digit download speeds during satellite-to-smartphone testing takes us one step closer to ensuring people across the United States will be able to stay connected no matter their location,” said Chris Sambar, AT&T network head.
As a next step, AST hopes to connect a phone to BW3 over a 5G signal. A SpaceX Falcon 9 carried the prototype satellite to low-Earth orbit in September. At 693 square feet in size, BW3 features the largest antenna of any commercial satellite to date and is easily one of the brightest objects in the night sky, making it difficult for astronomers to carry out their research.
AT&T is one of a few US carriers looking to use satellites to service underserved rural communities. In 2021, Verizon partnered with Amazon to use the company’s Project Kuiper satellite network for wireless access. More recently, T-Mobile said it would work with SpaceX to test Starlink-capable devices. Like AT&T, the carrier has said existing phones should work with its satellite offering.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cellular-satellite-test-successfully-beams-4g-data-from-space-to-a-regular-phone-200318927.html?src=rss
