If Air Force researchers have their way, the military’s next flying robots of doom will be tiny, and indistinguishable from the naked eye from small birds, bats or even insects. And they’ll take their first flight in a freaky “Micro-Aviary” in Ohio, where engineers make mini-machines modeled on those creatures of the sky.
Miniaturization is a major trend in drone tech. The Army’s new Switchblade drone is a semi-autonomous missile shot out of a mortar tube for kamikaze missions. Some robotic aircraft manufacturers, like the micro-machinists at AeroVironment, have even started experimenting with super-small drones that look like hummingbirds - and even dragonflies.
The Navy took the next step. Rather than merely modeling a drone chassis on a bird or insect, the Navy started studying the behavioral and migratory patterns of birds, fish and bats to develop a more realistic robot facsimile. The Air Force, however, is taking the step beyond that.
At the Micro-Aviary at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, researchers rig the walls with super-sensitive motion capture sensors that track a tiny plane or helicopter’s position “within about a tenth of an inch,” according to researcher Greg Parker. Information from those sensors helps engineers develop “flapping-wing flight” drones - “very, very small flapping-wing vehicles,” in Parker’s phrase.
And how. One of the vehicles on display in the video above, released by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Pat, is a robot dragonfly. It doesn’t appear to be much more than a circuit board, a super-tiny motor and two insect-like wings. And it fits, like a bug, on the tip of someone’s finger.
Fitting a camera on a drone that small is a the next hurdle that miniaturization tech will have to clear if the “Micro-Aviary’s” birds are to be practical. Another option: Engage in a little insect vivisection to create a swarm of spying cyborg bugs.
That extremely gross goal is the point of Darpa’s Hybrid Insect Micro Electromechanical Systems (HI-MEMS) program. To “provide control over insect locomotion” One researcher in 2008 inserted a mechanized system into a moth’s thorax during its larval stage. Insect tissueactually grew around the machine.
Still, that’s, er, gross. (Seriously, don’t click this link if you have a weak stomach.) The Air Force’s Micro-Aviary is a lot less creepy and arguably more practical. In a few years, the chirp you hear from the bird perched on the telephone line outside your apartment might be the whir of a robotic hummingbird as its camera adjusts its aperture.
Huffington Post UK | By Michael Rundle
Posted: 16/07/2012 09:43 Updated: 26/07/2012 16:00
Researchers have found a way to see through walls by turning normal surfaces into ‘mirrors’ with natural light.
The breakthrough could one day lead to cameras which can see the stars through heavy cloud, watch a chick grow inside an egg or see around corners.
Normally when light hits an opaque surface it scatters in all directions.
Because the light is scattered, it’s not possible to see through or around the surface.
But a research team from the Ultra Fast Optics Group at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel say they have found a way to turn that scattered light back into an image, in real time.
The technique uses natural light - a first for such attempts to see through walls, which in the past have relied on lasers and time-consuming computeristion.
The team found a way to take the diffuse scattered light, and reform it into an image using a spacial light modulator, and allowing a computer to fine-tune the image.
The result is that a plain white surface can effectively be turned into a mirror, with the image displayed on a normal LCD screen.
“In a preliminary demonstration we have been able to image a distant object just by recording the light reflected from a piece of regular white paper,” said lead researcher Yaron Silberberg to Cosmos magazine.
“This is analogous to seeing your own reflection from a piece of white sheet paper.”
Other successful attempts to see around corners have been made previously - but all relied on laser light or pulses.
Further research will be needed to take the technique and made it practical for real-world applications. But expect it to turn up in the back pages of comic books eventually, if it ever makes it out of the lab.
seT 1
Elves as I was are not strong enough to do the heavy labouring required
to get this gleaming monster on the road to the Earls Court Motor
Show before I vomit fish cakes on the bus home from the Boat Show.
JCBs are difficult to drive and get dirty quickly it doesn’t come off ever.
Decisions decisions who’s turn is it to rain today who’s going to scat sing
the phonemes and what shall we put in the hangman’s lunchbox no we
gave him that yesterday? My psychic judge pops up again he must have a
love-hate relationship with every accused wretch popping up before him
but this time he’s telling some wretched company what they can and
can’t put in our water to make us wistful. The Contemplation Exhibition
visits this very town you can witness with your very own eyes how the
twins Imagination and Luck are not just not identical but don’t even
have the same father.official though not famous
Talking about writing about football with off the mainland referee.
At Argyle I countered Norman’s constant referring to past particular
games against so and so on such and such a day when the weather was
this or that and the score was one-all or whatever with my own cloudy
recollections where all the matches just congeal into one memory mass.
Everything is frightening, even language that arranges itself into silence.
If a last phrase is removed to make the preceding phrase the last and the
process continues until only the first phrase is left making it both the first
and last phrase what claustrophobic line has the agoraphobic poet put
his autistic arse on?
Eavesdropped dirt doesn’t disappear it just gets dropped somewhere else
but in my book that’s disappearing for if as I believe it does the Eternal
Return means that life as a whole is meaningless but life not as a whole
has meaning and I give you the book of my life to back this up the results
will all be there including any soft-hearted sophistic draws with whoever
disagrees. If you think the opposite is the case where is your book of
life to prove it and if you haven’t got one then you had better start one
pronto Tonto.
A brook sneezes out of the hillside like the type of person they call a
small time criminal.
I do not subscribe to the idea that the eye breathes
The eye breathes
I subscribe to the idea that the eye breathes
The breathless eye
Do not subscribe to the idea that the eye breathes
An eye breathes
Subscribe to the idea that any eye breathes
Breathless eye
The idea that the eye breathes
Eye breaths
A jury’s say-so scribbled out doodle and paper aeroplaned an erased wig
metal hands are weak pastoral produce
pleasure of insects rich them insects
night falls at the feet of the emperor
beneath my warped jacket i the prize
pleasure of insects rich them insects
modified his humble other staged stag
beneath my warped jacket i the prize
a little singing naturally violent and abrupt
modified his humble other staged stag
the man horse oz was so tender so he was
a little singing naturally violent and abrupt
towards that sponge beard men - advance
the man-horse oz was so tender so he was
sick girl compressed inside her shoulders
towards the sponge beard men - advance
grape counts on exiting delightful basket
sick girl compressed inside her shoulders
like a bear on a racecourse the talent scout
grape counts on exiting delightful basket
sensitive window fitted with more senses
like a bear on a racecourse the talent scout
remember to stand up and be embarrassed
sensitive window fitted with more senses
all eyes were on the young chief
remember to stand up and be embarrassed
melancholic creep wrote outrageous letter
all eyes were on the young chef
i remembered to stand up and be embarrassed
melancholic creep wrote outrageous letter
imagine away for years in the British Library
doctor protector and heckler
fairground mannerisms of broad toad
imagine away for years in the British Library
dizzle dazzle prostrate
fairground mannerisms of broad toad
pretty penetration cramp dizzle dazzle prostrate
the plants contemplate the corpse
pretty penetration cramp
the couch turned to face us
the plants contemplate the corpse
the public know the rules
the couch turned to face us
gala club go gaga institute bulk gala
the public know the rules
the sleepers head to the place behind their pills
gala club go gaga institute bulk gala
memory is a scent a complete performance
the energy pill was placed inside a sleeper’s hind head
script imitated my travelling compendium
memory is a scent a complete performance
jumping ahead my travelling companion jumped on my head
script imitated my travelling compendium
the electric supply was illusory
jumping ahead my travelling companion jumped on my head
electric supply was illusory
the electric supply was illusory
there was a fantastic hole
electric supply was illusory
duration and identification
there was a fantastic hole
hot-house flower gave me a Chinese burn
duration and identification
got so engrossed writing the tea got as cold as the cup
gave the hot-house flower a Chinese burn back
eye battery
got so engrossed writing the tea got as cold as the cup
just before she deserted him she turned silver all over
eye battery
gloomily rod the middled distance similar runner
just before she deserted him she turned silver all over
just before he deserted her his face turned gold
similarly rod the middle distanced gloomy runner
thick fountain
just before he deserted her his face turned gold
dripping cylinders full of cinders in the garden thick fountain
a curiously empty Eden in freefall
dripping cylinders full of cinders in the garden
shrewdly play The House of Love’s Shine On
a curiously empty Eden in freefall
the curio’s empty existence feint
shrewdly listen to little Jesus’s goggles
respiration
the curio’s empty existence feint
the doorway to France is just a phrase
respiration
lucky necessary information is just a phase
the doorway to France is just a phrase
felt in her waistband for the whistle
lucky necessary information is just a phase
dumb overcome begloved
felt in her waistband for the epistle
mob come over to your house to moan
dumb overcome begloved
the amplification was savage
mob come over to your bombed house
mouth border blubbered with lippy
the amplification was savage
flash angel chemist shuttle in Buenos Aires
referee lumbered with daughter’s lippy
on the side of the zebras
flash angel chemist shuttle in Buenos Aires
flounder at the proper time o horror in borrowed disguise
on the dice of the zebras
a well-known dance can still shock
flounder at the proper time o horror in borrowed disguise
quietly counting the money away from the noise and bustle
a well-known shock can still shimmy
grace on the common
quietly counting the money away from the noise and bustle
provoke a scene in the lab scene
grace on the common
an intelligent and attractive child is almost a new world
provoked by a split screen
tremble when painting the narrow strip an intelligent and attractive child is almost a new world
between the rapids
tremble when painting the narrow strip
henceforth all shall call me Jim the Anemone
between the rapids
belief is an interior over-stimulation
henceforth all shall call me Jim the Anemone
no nurse
belief is an interior over-stimulation
now its a nurse apparition
no nurse
poised
now its a nurse apparition
evaporated
poised
vessel
evaporated lamp
flaxen container whips indefinitely
alembic lava sinks
subtle play isn’t always successful but when it is it is bound to be private
vixen container whips indefinitely
the fire on board had an eerie silence
subtle play isn’t always successful but when it is it is bound to be private
one horse overhung two exhausted mules
the fire on board had an eerie silence
the sun is screaming at the anabranch
one horse too overhung to be luminary
that sundial should be reigned in now
the sun is screaming at the slug
now the solitary ordinary
that sundial should be reigned in now
uncover motion and discover naked representation
now the solitary ordinary
large and gentle like the sky
uncover motion and discover naked representation
his hands were large and gentle like the sky
large and gentle like the sky
spilled all the obstacles onto a canvas where they congealed like me
his hands were large and gentle like the sky
the sky is sometimes small and violent spilled all the obstacles onto a canvas where they congealed like me
the sky can be tiny and rough
the sky is sometimes small and violent
robot with a blood clot
the sky can be tiny and rough
wolves playing tennis are detached from their wolfishness
what robot with what blood clot?
the spirit of a remote region
wolves playing tennis are detached from their wolfishness
thumb in a shaft of light
the spirit of a remote region
birthmark shield mockery relic magnification and adopted adapted scissors
shaft in a thumb of light
second relic
birthmark shield mockery relic magnification and adopted adapted scissors
magnified apocryphal jaw in the inkwell
second relic
some days its hard to be jealous yet other days it comes easy
magnified apocryphal jaw in the inkwell
the scientist remained placid while he discovered something dangerous and
exciting
some days its hard to be jealous yet other days it comes easy
it seems to be resinous said the union’s specialist
the scientist remained placid while he discovered something dangerous and exciting
truncated ocean
it seems to be resinous said the union’s specialist
a wild woman on the shore turned square around and ranted about Euclid
truncated ocean
the disciples had many questions
a wild woman on the shore turned square around and ranted on thin paper
the wild woman on the shore that turned circles ranting about contraception
the disciples had many questions
aim for those strange and beautiful buttons
the wild woman on the shore that turned squares around renting contraptions
fat welsh fox
aim for those strange and beautiful buttons
apply dull velvet to the wound opened up by the missionary
false wax foe
inflamed gestures under contracting lenses
apply dull velvet to the wound opened up by the missionary
plug into my guardian’s sumptuous sex technique
