The mad geniuses at DARPA have their next project lined up: a camera that can guide itself and report back from the field. That kind of visual intelligence has been an exclusively human trait, until now. More

The mad geniuses at DARPA have their next project lined up: a camera that can guide itself and report back from the field. That kind of visual intelligence has been an exclusively human trait, until now. More

DARPA wants to let you all know that its plans for the robot apocalypse are still going strong. The agency’s got IBM working on the brains , has an RFI out on the skin , and is handling propulsion and motor control in-house. Next up? Eyeballs.

Sure, in the past we’ve got a hearty chuckle out of initiatives that involved Redfly terminals and Clippy variants , but the question remains: how can we get cutting-edge tech into the hands of soldiers faster? We’ve recently come across some RFIs for DARPA projects aimed at developing apps and an App Store for Android and the iPhone OS, with two in particular — Mobile Apps for the Military (DARPA-SN-10-27), and Transformative Apps (DARPA-BAA-10-41) — catching our eye. The agency is calling for apps for battlefield, humanitarian, and disaster recovery missions, including command and control, mission planning, surveillance, reconnaissance, and language translation. Of course, if you start taking commercial smartphones out to the field there’s the small matter of network coverage — if you thought that getting a reliable connection in midtown Manhattan was an issue, what about downtown Kabul? Looks like DARPA also has plans for a military that brings its own towers with them, light-weight mobile base stations that could create a “secure mobile tactical network … compatible with commercial smartphones.” What do you think?

Darpa, the Pentagon’s crazypants research arm, is taking shit to a whole new level: they’re pumping money into developing synthetic organisms immune to death. Oh, except for the built-in genetic kill switch. Yikes. Danger Room reports that Darpa is investing $6 million into the project, called “BioDesign.” As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.” Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work - so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch

It’s been well over six months since we first got wind of Siri , the DARPA-inspired smartphone app that pledged to take all the hassle out of… well… life. It’s a virtual assistant that can take care of menial tasks, things like finding restaurants, hearing reviews, and even booking tables — all with your voice.

I still freak out every single time I see the BigDog quadruped robot doing its thing. That’s probably the same reaction that enemy soldiers will have when they see its final version coming towards them, carrying 400-pound of gear. Darpa has finally approved the contract for Boston Dynamics’ LS3—which stands for Legged Squad Support System —for the US Marines. Like BigDog, it will travel autonomously for 20 miles without refueling, carrying 400 pounds of equipment for the soldiers in its squad. Mark Raibert, the president of the company and the principal investigator for the program, is excited: If LS3 can offload 50 lbs from the back of each solider in a squad, it will reduce warfighter injuries and fatigue and increase the combat effectiveness of our troops. The LS3 program shows just how serious DARPA and the Marine Corps are about building practical, legged robots to offload our dismounted troops.

In today’s Remainders, a buncha dreamers: too many people read too much into a fake Apple tablet ad; DARPA, having loved Avatar, casts about for 3D surveillance; a new B&O TV that will cost more than $10,000, and more. Ad Busters A few very serious people have been taking this very fake Apple tablet ad very seriously. Why? Who knows. It comes from the very heart of tablet render fakery, nowhereelse.fr. It has USB ports in the back that would necessitate a device twice as thick as the one shown.

Huh. Last Thursday, DARPA announced a workshop for Transformer. That is, their flying car program. “The objective of the Transformer (TX) program is to demonstrate a one- to four-person transportation vehicle that can drive and fly, thus enabling the warfighter to avoid water, difficult terrain, and road obstructions as well as IED and ambush threats” Sounds like something as small as a Jeep, but as easy to shoot out of the sky as a Helicopter. The Sphere goes on to recount the not-so-brief history of failed and embarrassing flying cars.

Someone at DARPA’s crying over the brilliant “Find these ten red weather balloons and we’ll give you 40K” challenge he concocted ending mere nine hours in. It’s what happens when you forget about MIT geeks and their little bribes, too. The winning MIT went about the task in a brilliant way: They offered shares of the prize money to anyone who reported the weather balloons’ locations. And what do you know? Tips about the locations came flooding in as people saw green: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. This challenge and the way it was won goes to remind us that a combination of the old and the new, viral campaigns and simple cold hard cash, can be unbeatable.