Lifeboat Foundation

Wi-Fi signals can do much more than deliver streaming movies and music around the home, it turns out: they can also be used to identify shapes through solid walls, as demonstrated in recent experiments.

The ability for Wi-Fi to spot movement through walls has been shown off before, but the technology struggles with seeing anything that isn’t in motion.

Continue reading “Wi-Fi Can Decode Hidden Words Concealed Behind Walls” »

Beguš is a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley. He got the chance, last summer, to observe sperm whales in their wild Caribbean habitat off the coast of the island nation of Dominica. With him were marine biologists and roboticists. There were also cryptographers and experts in other fields. All have been working together to listen to sperm whales and figure out what they might be saying.

They call this Project CETI. That’s short for Cetacean Translation Initiative (because sperm whales are a type of cetacean).

Continue reading “How artificial intelligence could help us talk to animals” »

HARNHAM, United Kingdom — The mysteries of Stonehenge may be the tip of the archaeological iceberg in this region of the United Kingdom. Researchers have made another remarkable discovery just miles from the world-famous site.

While preparing for a new housing development in Harnham, just eight miles south of Stonehenge, workers unearthed items that may date all the way back to 10,000 BC. The findings include ancient pottery, knives, and even red deer antler, which was often used for making tools and weapons in prehistoric times, according to archaeologists.

Continue reading “Amazing archaeological finds dating back to 10,000 BC unearthed just 8 miles from Stonehenge” »

The Sentinel system facilitates extended stays underwater, allowing scientists to reside at depths of up to 200 meters for as long as 28 days.

In a bold initiative, DEEP, a leading research organization, has announced plans to construct an underwater habitat open to the public by 2027. Named Sentinel, this modular subsea abode aims to revolutionize underwater living, research, and observation by providing scientists unprecedented access to the depths of the ocean.

The Sentinel system is designed to facilitate extended stays underwater, allowing scientists to reside at depths of up to 200 meters for as long as 28 days. This innovative habitat offers a unique opportunity for researchers to study… More.

Continue reading “Underwater abode for deep-sea living open to public by 2027” »

Rubio surpassed the U.S. space endurance record of 355 days on Monday at the International Space Station. He arrived at the outpost last September with two Russians for a routine six months. But their stay was doubled after their Soyuz capsule developed a coolant leak while parked at the space station.

The trio will return to Earth on Sept. 27 in a replacement capsule that was sent up empty for the ride home. By then, Rubio will have spent 371 days in space, more than two weeks longer than Mark Vande Hei, the previous U.S. record holder for a single spaceflight. Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov holds the world record of 437 days, set in the mid-1990s.

This talk is about how you can use wireless signals and fuse them with vision and other sensing modalities through AI algorithms to give humans and robots X-ray vision to see objects hidden inside boxes or behind other object.

Tara Boroushaki is a Ph.D student at MIT. Her research focuses on fusing radio frequency (RF) sensing with vision through artificial intelligence. She designs algorithms and builds systems that leverage such fusion to enable capabilities that were not feasible before in applications spanning augmented reality, virtual reality, robotics, smart homes, and smart manufacturing. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

The Floridian repeat offender told the authorities that he planned on wheeling himself to London, England.

It started on August 26 when the US Coast Guard was transiting in the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for an intense hurricane when they found a weird-looking vessel in the middle of the ocean, 70 miles (110 km) off the coast of Georgia. There was a man aboard the vessel. He told the authorities that he planned on wheeling himself to London, England.

A Florida man was arrested in the middle of the ocean after he was found floating in a homemade vessel resembling a hamster wheel. But how did he get there in the first place?

Continue reading “Man tried to cross Atlantic in human-powered hamster wheel” »

Lenovo’s next 27-inch 4K monitor is unlike any display it has released before. Featuring a lenticular lens and real-time eye-tracking, it’s a 3D monitor that doesn’t require any glasses. Other companies are already pushing stereoscopic products, but Lenovo’s ThinkVision 27 3D Monitor, announced at the IFA conference today, takes the glasses-free experience to a bigger screen.

The technology behind Lenovo’s 3D monitor and the accompanying software, 3D Explorer, are proprietary, a Lenovo spokesperson confirmed to Ars. 3D Explorer includes a 3D player and SDK for building 3D apps. Lenovo is targeting the monitor and app at content creators, like 3D graphic designers and developers.

Continue reading “Lenovo’s new 27-inch, 4K monitor offers glasses-free 3D” »

Bacteria that can align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic field have been found in a new habitat. Previously spotted on land and in shallow waters, these magnetotactic bacteria have now been confirmed to thrive in the depths of a hydrothermal vent. Despite the challenging conditions, the bacteria were able to adapt and survive in an environment that was not ideal for their typical needs.

Magnetotactic bacteria are of interest not only for the role they play in Earth’s ecosystem but also in the search for extraterrestrial life. Evidence of their existence can remain in rocks for billions of years. Their magnetic inclinations can also provide a record of how magnetic poles have shifted over time. This new discovery brings hope to researchers that the magnetic bacteria might be found in yet more unexpected locations, on Earth and perhaps even on Mars.

Mars is the second smallest planet in our solar system and the fourth planet from the sun. It is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. Iron oxide is prevalent in Mars’ surface resulting in its reddish color and its nickname “The Red Planet.” Mars’ name comes from the Roman god of war.