Month: January 2016

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FAA says drone signup list has hit 181,000

Image: Parrot Disco
The Parrot Disco is one of the new drones introduced at CES 2016. (Parrot photo)

The Federal Aviation Administration’s chief says he’s happy to see about 181,000 Internet users register recreational drones in less than three weeks’ time – and to help new drone owners, the agency has unveiled a smartphone app that shows no-fly zones.

Even if there’s a chance you might own a drone someday, you could save $5 by taking the FAA up on its introductory offer of free registration through Jan. 20. (That’s what I did.) The FAA requires all recreational drones heavier than a half-pound to be registered by Feb. 19, but the registration website actually registers people and their contact information rather than the hardware. No drones required.

FAA officials hurried up to establish a registration system because they were concerned about a series of high-profile drone crashes last year – including an intrusion on White House grounds. They tallied hundreds of occasions when drones interfered with air traffic. The Computer Technology Association estimates that about 400,000 drones were sold during the holiday season, and the FAA wants to get a better handle on all those flying robots.

During today’s drone panel at the International CES show in Las Vegas, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said he was “very encouraged by the numbers” that have been racked up since the registration website went live on Dec. 21.

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Satellite antennas are getting more shipshape

 

Image: Maritime antenna
Kymeta’s antenna can provide a communication link for maritime vessels. (Credit: Kymeta)

Redmond-based Kymeta Corp. and Panasonic Avionics Corp. are setting sail on a new partnership to put Kymeta’s lightweight, flat-panel antennas on ships.

Today the companies said Panasonic will order a “significant volume” of the antennas, and also use Kymeta’s mTenna technology in maritime terminals that can be used on vessels around the world. The satellite communication system is due to go through testing this year and become commercially available in 2017.

Kymeta’s notable not only for its innovative metamaterials technology, but also for its lead investor: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Over the past few years, the company has built up collaborations with the usual satellite suspects (Inmarsat and Intelsat) plus some not-so-usual suspects (Airbus and Toyota).

For Kymeta, the key technology is an LCD-laden panel that’s the size and shape of a stop sign, but has as much capacity for broadband communications as the big dome-shaped antennas typically seen on cruise ships.

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Social-friendly Ying joins the drone parade

Image: Qualcomm drone
Qualcomm has developed a Snapdragon Flight computing platform for drones. (Qualcomm photo)

China’s largest Internet service portal, Tencent, is teaming up with chipmaker Qualcomm and drone-maker Zerotech to field the Ying drone, a flying robot that’s optimized for online sharing.

“This drone allows you to fly around, capture video and then share it directly with social media sites,” Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf said today during a sneak peek at the International CES show in Las Vegas.

Ying is built around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight control platform, which can capture and correct video in 1080p or 720p resolution, depending on the perspective. The video can be uploaded or streamed directly to Tencent’s social media platforms, Wexin (a.k.a. WeChat) and QQ, the three companies said in a news release.

Snapdragon Flight is an array of circuitry that’s designed specifically for recreational drones and robotic applications. Qualcomm says the package offers GPS and 4K video as well as robust capabilities for autonomous or smartphone-controlled flight.

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Hillary Clinton goes after the ‘X-Files’ vote

Image: Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton addressed the UFO issue during a meeting with editors. (Credit: @HillaryClinton)

If the truth about UFOs is out there, Hillary Clinton says she’ll be on it as president.

When the Democratic presidential front-runner vowed to “get to the bottom” of the alien-visitation issue, she just might have locked up the “X-Files” vote – while giving her critics one more thing to taunt her with.

Clinton’s comment came at the end of a recent chat with the editorial board of the Conway Daily Sun in New Hampshire, which holds its first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Feb. 9. Reporter Daymond Steer reminded her about a conversation they had about UFOs in 2007, and that perked up the candidate.

“Yes, I’m going to get to the bottom of it,” Clinton reportedly replied.

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Gene-editing startup Editas files for IPO

Image: Feng Zhang with student
Broad Institute researcher Feng Zhang, one of the founders of Editas Medicine, works in his lab with graduate student Patrick Hsu. (Credit: Justin Knight / NSF)

Editas Medicine filed the paperwork for an initial public offering today, marking a first for the growing number of private ventures that aim to take advantage of a powerful gene-editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9.

Among Editas’ private investors are Bng0, an investment company with funds from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; Google Ventures, the venture capital fund associated with Alphabet; and Khosla Ventures, the fund fronted by startup whiz Vinod Khosla. The company is collaborating with Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics on cancer treatments that take advantage of immunotherapy.

Editas was founded by several of the pioneers in the use of CRISPR-Cas9, a method that lets researchers snip and edit a wide variety of genomes to correct glitches or insert new code.

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Get a 360-degree view of monster dune on Mars

Image: Mars panorama
A portion of a 360-degree panorama captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows a portion of a 16-foot-high sand dune on Mars, with the summit of Mount Sharp in the far background. The bottom of the image is distorted due to the 360-degree effect. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS)

The 16-foot-high sand dune that NASA’s Curiosity rover has been skirting around on Mars looks even more imposing in a 360-degree panoramic view you can explore on the Internet.

NASA passed along the spherical panorama, as well as a red-blue version suitable for 3-D viewing, in an image advisory posted today. But panorama prestidigitator Andrew Bodrov got an early crack at the imagery. Even before Christmas, Bodrov posted the picture as a 360-degree panorama you can spin around on your screen. See it full screen for the best results – and if you’re a virtual-reality developer, put it on your list for the full headset treatment.

The dominant feature is Namib Dune, a huge pile of grayish-reddish sand that has been built up by the action of Martian winds. It’s part of the Bagnold Dunes, a series of sandy slopes that line the northwest flank of 3-mile-high Mount Sharp.

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SpaceShipTwo No. 2 is due for its debut Feb. 19

Image: Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking addresses Virgin Galactic customers (Credit: Richard Branson via YouTube)

More than a year after the first SpaceShipTwo rocket plane was destroyed in a fatal test flight, Virgin Galactic says the second SpaceShipTwo is ready for its California rollout on Feb. 19 – and famed British physicist Stephen Hawking is invited.

Scores of other VIPs, officials and journalists are invited as well: The date for the rollout was disseminated in advisories that went out this afternoon.

Next month’s event, like the debut of the first SpaceShipTwo in 2009, will unfold at Mojave Air and Space Port in California. It should mark a significant step in Virgin Galactic’s harder-than-expected effort to carry tourists as well as researchers and their payloads on suborbital trips to the edge of outer space.

Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, says he has asked Hawking to be on hand if the 73-year-old British physicist is well enough to travel. That’s not a sure thing: Hawking is coping with a neurogenerative disease that has left him almost completely paralyzed, and he occasionally suffers from pneumonia.

In an interview with The Independent, a British newspaper, Branson said Hawking would “name the new spaceship.”

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Intel goes deeper into drones with AscTec deal

Image: AscTec Firefly
Ascending Technologies’ Firefly drone is a showcase for Intel’s RealSense technology. (Intel photo)

Intel says it’s acquiring Ascending Technologies, its German partner in the drone business, in a deal that demonstrates how quickly robotic aerial vehicles are becoming an important computing platform.

In a blog post announcing the acquisition, Intel’s Josh Walden said the move is part of his company’s effort to “integrate the computing, communications, sensor and cloud technology required to make drones smarter and more connected.”

Ascending Technologies’ drones have long been a showcase for Intel’s RealSense control technology, earning them kudos at last year’s International CES show. Walden said the Ascending Technologies team would continue supporting their current customers while collaborating with Intel engineers to develop drones that can fly “with more awareness of their environments.”

The terms of the deal were not announced. Ascending Technologies is based in Krailling, near Munich, and has about 75 employees who will now be asked to join Intel. To celebrate the acquisition, AscTec programmed an LED-equipped droneto write the message “Happy to Join” … followed by the Intel logo.

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Four new elements added to periodic table

Image: Element 117
A computer graphic shows how the collision of calcium ions and berkelium atoms produces atoms of Element 117. (Credit: University of California Television)

The scientific body in charge of chemistry’s periodic table has verified the discoveries of four elements – completing the seventh row of the century-old chart.

For now, the elements are known as ununtrium (Element 113), ununpentium (Element 115), ununseptium (Element 117) and ununoctium (Element 118). It’ll be up to the newly recognized discoverers to propose the officlal names. The numbers denote how many protons are in the element’s nucleus.

At least one of the elements was synthesized more than a decade ago, but it took years for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, or IUPAC, to confirm the evidence.

“A particular difficulty in establishing these new elements is that they decay into hitherto unknown isotopes of slightly lighter elements that also need to be unequivocally identified,” Paul Karol, a Carnegie Mellon University chemist who chairs the panel in charge of sorting out the discovery claims, said in IUPAC’s Dec. 30 announcement.

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