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Amazon patents ‘aquatic fulfillment centers’

Inflatable underwater bags
An underwater warehousing system could use inflatable bags to retrieve packages. In this picture, divers with the Israeli Defense Forces’ Underwater Missions Unit use a lifting bag to transfer equipment. Photo by Israel Defense Forces via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Amazon has patented some crazy ideas, including flying fulfillment centers that drop packages from the air. But its patent for “aquatic fulfillment centers” could be the craziest one yet.

The concept calls for warehousing packages underwater in specialized tanks – or even in a designated area of, say, Seattle’s Lake Union. Packages could be dropped from the air, parachute down to the water, and then sink to a specific water level based on its density.

When it’s time to select a package for delivery, a coded series of acoustic tones could be beamed through the water, activating a device on the desired package to inflate a balloon from an attached cartridge of compressed air. The package would then float up to the surface for retrieval and shipping.

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Amazon plays role in space video milestone

Peggy Whitson on ISS
The International Space Station’s commander, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, will chat with AWS Elemental’s CEO during the first space-to-Earth live stream to make use of ultra-high-definition video. (NASA Photo)

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson stars in the highest-resolution video ever broadcast live from the International Space Station, bur Amazon Web Services plays a supporting role.

The 4K ultra-high-definition live stream, set to start at 10:30 a.m. PT (1:30 p.m. ET) April 26, makes use of a UHD-capable video encoder from AWS Elemental that was sent up to the space station just last December aboard a Japanese cargo craft.

The video link also takes advantage of a UHD-ready RED Epic Dragon digital camera aboard the station. NASA has sent down 4K UHD footage before, but not as a live stream.

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Another look at Jeff Bezos’ gee-whiz frontier

New Shepard and drone
An Amazon delivery drone hovers with Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship in the background. (Amazon via Ben Fox Rubin / YouTube)

We already knew that Amazon provided a rare public demonstration of its delivery drone dropping off some sunscreen at this week’s MARS 2017 conference in Palm Springs, Calif. We also knew that Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket ship, which went to space and back five times, was on display at the invitation-only event, organized by Amazon to show off frontier technologies in Machine learning, home Automation, Robotics and Space exploration. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see a fresh video showing the drone at work with the spaceship in the background.

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Amazon and DHL reportedly team up

Amazon and DHL jets
Reports suggest Amazon and DHL are teaming up in Kentucky and Germany. (GeekWire / Fly Away)

Amazon is reportedly partnering with the German-based DHL delivery service for its Prime Air transport operation in Kentucky as well as for Amazon Fresh food deliveries in Germany.

The Lane Report says Amazon will begin processing shipments at DHL’s facility at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport in May. The arrangement would give Amazon a head start on its $1.5 billion plan to use the airport as a major shipping hub for its Prime Air fleet.

DHL would use the facility at night for its own operations, as usual, but let Amazon use it during the day, sources told The Lane Report.

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Caution signals seen for Amazon Go store

Outside Amazon’s first “Amazon Go” retail store in the Denny Triangle neighborhood of Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Nat Levy)

Amazon Go, the online retailer’s “Just Walk Out” convenience store in downtown Seattle, is still in private beta mode three and a half months after its unveiling – and some reports suggest the concept is facing tougher sledding than anticipated.

The checkout-free store is just one of several brick-and-mortar experiments under way at Amazon. A different drive-up concept, AmazonFresh Pickup, seems nearly ready for its debut in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood and SoDo district.

Unlike AmazonFresh Pickup, Amazon Go envisions a system where customers can walk in off the street, pick up anything they want, and “just walk out.” Their purchases would be tracked using high-tech object recognition and inventory management systems, matched up with the customers’ mobile app and automatically charged to their Amazon account.

Since December, Amazon has been testing the system at an 1,800-square-foot store on Seventh Avenue. Only employees are allowed to enter the store, but when the store was unveiled, Amazon promised that it’d be open to the public in early 2017.

Amazon has issued no updates since December, and this week, Bloomberg News reported that Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” just isn’t ready for prime time yet.

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Drone show wows Amazon’s MARS attendees

Drone display
Intel’s swarm of light-equipped drones arrange themselves to create an American flag in the sky above Amazon’s MARS conference. (Caleb Harper via Twitter)

The synchronized drone display that accompanied Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show may have been recorded in advance, but a similar “droneworks” show wowed a crowd in real time at Amazon’s MARS 2017 conference in Palm Springs, Calif.

“If you thought the Super Bowl drone light show was cool, this tops it,” Sasha Hoffman wrote in a tweet.

Like the Super Bowl’s display, March 20’s evening show was presented by Intel. The company’s CEO, Brian Krzanich, reportedly played a personal part in “bringing out the drones.”

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Amazon delivery drone goes public in U.S.

Amazon delivery drone
An Amazon delivery drone flies around the MARS conference. (Jason Johnson via Periscope

Amazon’s Prime Air drone made its first package delivery in December, in England, but regular folks haven’t seen it in action out in the open here in the States. Until today.

The drone demonstrated its delivery technique during Amazon’s MARS 2017 conference at a resort in Palm Springs, Calif. The merchandise? A box containing sunscreen for the sunny California weather, of course.

Amazon has been providing glimpses of its prototype drones for well more than a year, and the testing continues in the U.S. and Britain as well as other countries. However, the previous peeks we’ve gotten have been professionally packaged videos, created by Amazon.

In contrast, today’s video was basically a smartphone clip shot by Jason Johnson, who’s the founder and CEO of August Home (and an attendee at MARS 2017).

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What’s big at Amazon’s hush-hush meet-up?

Cassie the robot
Oregon State University’s Mikhail Jones takes a walk with Cassie the robot. (OSU Photo)

Walking robots that could potentially delivery your Amazon Prime package … robotic bees and robo-farms … a cheetah robot controlled by Amazon’s Alexa AI assistant: These are just a few of the gee-whiz concepts being discussed at Amazon’s secret MARS conference in Southern California.

MARS 2017 is designed to preview technologies in Machine learning, home Automation, Robotics and Space exploration.for a select audience. The festivities got under way on March 19 with a giant-robot demonstration starring Amazon’s billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos.

Sessions are continuing this week, and although there’s no published agenda, the tweets from participants are dropping big hints about what’s going on.

Check out five of the highlights on GeekWire.

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Jeff Bezos pilots a giant robot at MARS 2017

Jeff Bezos in robot
Robotic arms stretch wide with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at the controls. (Jeff Bezos via Twitter)

If you’re one of Amazon’s competitors, be afraid. Be very afraid. Jeff Bezos, the Seattle-based online giant’s billionaire founder, has tweeted a picture of himself at the controls of a giant robot. And he’s smiling.

“Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver?” Bezos can be heard saying in a video clip from the demonstration, which took place at a hush-hush conference organized by Amazon in Southern California.

This robot isn’t meant to fight off scary xenomorphs like the one that menaced Weaver’s character in the movie “Aliens.” And it’s not designed to deliver packages, either. It’s the 14-foot-tall Method-2 robot, developed at Hankook Mirae Technology’s lab near Seoul in South Korea.

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Amazon patents drone legs and propellers

Drone landing legs
A diagram shows how an Amazon drone could land on a sloping surface while keeping its main frame level, thanks to telescoping landing legs. (Amazon Illustration via USPTO)

Amazon’s inventors are taking a page from Inspector Gadget’s playbook to design drones with adjustable landing legs and reconfigurable propellers.

Those two design tricks are the focus of patents issued today. It’s hard to say whether they’ll become features on Amazon’s delivery drones, still in development. But surely there’s a chance someone will make use of the innovations, right?

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