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Pix4D turns your 2D aerial photographs into 3D maps on the fly (video)
Assuming you own a Sensefly Swinglet CAM or some other high-res camera-equipped UAV, you could be just minutes away from turning your plain old 2D aerial photos into comprehensive 3D maps. Pix4D, a new software program coming out of EPFL -- the same institute that brought us this race of altruistic robots -- takes images shot using an aerial drone to render 3D maps in the cloud in just 30 minutes. Users upload images taken with their flying machines, at which point Pix4D kicks into action, defining high contrast points in the phots and pasting them together based on those points. It then renders a 3D model, overlays the graphics, and spits out a Google Earth-style map. So what's with this 4D business? Well, its developers claim that users can easily see the progression of any model by deploying their Sensefly drone whenever they see fit, throwing the added layer of time into the mix. You can see the fruits of Pix4D's labor in the video after the break.
Robots learn to share, try to repair bad rep (video)
We've been told time and time again to fear our mechanical friends, so imagine our relief when we heard that some Swiss scientists had a batch of bots that displayed altruism. What's more, these little two-wheeled foragers weren't programmed to share, they evolved the trait. Researchers at EPFL infused Alice microbots with digital "genes" that mutated over time as well as color sensors that allow them to navigate their environment. The robots were tasked with collecting "food" and given the option to keep it for themselves or split it amongst their silicon-brained relatives. The more they decided to give to others with similar genetic makeup the more those virtual genes were passed on to future generations -- including the one for altruism. The experiment is an example of Hamilton's Rule, an evolutionary model for how the seemingly counter-intuitive trait of selflessness could arise through natural selection. Don't let your guard down just yet, though -- the robots are only sharing with each other for now.
EPFL's fly-inspired 3D camera takes omnipresence to the third dimension (video)
Just in case you were concerned that the 3D revolution hadn't yet taken over the scientific research field, EPFL is here to convince you that all is well. Researchers from a pair of EPFL laboratories have recently invented a fly-inspired dome camera that's not only loaded down with cameras to snag views from (nearly) all angles, but also equipped with an output algorithm that constructs a bona fide 3D image. The trickeration lies within the hardware platform, which calculates depth on each camera image and then reconstructs a 3D visual based on how far away things truly are. That's a far more sophisticated approach than the stereoscopic one used on existing 3D televisions, as the depth would (theoretically) change as your angle of view changed. There's an outstanding patent application on the approach, and if the world at large latches on, we could see this thing used for "video surveillance, movie making, and creating backgrounds for video games." Among other things, of course. A demonstrative vid awaits you just after the break.
'Steeper' project aims to boost electronics' power efficiency by 10x, eliminate vampire power
A research project with the lofty goal of reducing electronics' power consumption by ten times and virtually eliminating so-called vampire power may not ordinarily stand the best chance of being taken seriously, but this new initiative dubbed "Steeper" isn't exactly your ordinary research project. Led by IBM and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (or EPFL), the EU-funded project will use nanotechnology in an attempt to reduce power consumption at the level of transistors and nanowires, with the ultimate goal being to reduce the operating voltage to less than 0.5 volts, thereby reducing overall power consumption by one order of magnitude. As you can see from the helpful chart above, simply cutting back on vampire power alone could put a big dent in power consumption, and the researchers also note that the project would obviously not only benefit consumer electronics, but super computers and other big sources of power consumption as well. Head on past the break for the complete press release.
EPFL develops Linux-based swarming micro air vehicles
The kids at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (or EPFL) have been cooking up quite a bit lately, as this video demonstrates. Not only have they put together a scalable system that will let any flying robot perch in a tree or similar structure, but now they've gone and developed a platform for swarming air vehicles (with Linux, nonetheless). Said to be the largest network of its kind, the ten SMAVNET swarm members control their own altitude, airspeed, and turn rate based on input from the onboard gyroscope and pressure sensors. The goal is to develop low cost devices that can be deployed in disaster areas to creat ad hoc communications networks, although we can't help but think this would make the best Christmas present ever. See for yourself after the break.
Swiss labs build credit card-sized projector for cellphones, operating rooms, and more
We're used to seeing far-out technology from Swiss firm EPFL, from glider / robots to thought-controlled wheel chairs, and now it looks like a spin-off company of the labs, Lemoptix, has greatly upped the pico projector stakes with one such device that rocks a projector head a mere cubic centimeter, with the whole thing squeezing into an area smaller than a credit card. According to research director Maher Kayal, the device uses "tiny mirrors of less than a millimeter's thickness. Positioned on a silicon (wafer) disc, they reflect red, blue and green laser beams," to project VGA (640 x 480) images onto a surface equivalent to a 15-inch screen. Possible uses range from consumer electronics such as cellphones and PMPs, HUDs for automobiles, and even operating rooms, where medical info can be projected onto the surgeon's work area, reducing the time he spends looking at a screen. There's no telling what the cost will be, but you can look forward to seeing it hit the shelves "early next year."
Swiss researchers show off brain-controlled, AI-augmented wheelchair
They're far from the first to try their hand at a brain-controlled wheelchair, but some researchers at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (or EPFL) in Switzerland seem to have pulled off a few new tricks with their latest project. Like some similar systems, this one relies on EEG readings to detect specific brain patterns, but it backs that up with some artificial intelligence that the researchers say allows for "shared control" of the wheelchair. That latter component is aided by a pair of cameras and some image processing software that allows the wheelchair to avoid obstacles, but it doesn't stop there -- the software is also able to distinguish between different types of objects. According to the researchers, that could let it go around a cabinet but pull up underneath a desk, for instance, or potentially even recognize the person's own desk and avoid others. Head on past the break to check it out in action.
Swiss lab builds lightweight, tree-perching glider robot, swarms to follow
Last we heard from Mirko Kovac of the Switzerland-based EPFL Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, he was setting a robot high-jump record with his grasshopper-inspired bot. Now he's back with what might be an even more impressive robot -- a 4.6 gram glider that can fly headfirst into any surface, perch itself, and then detach on command. The idea there being that the gliders could be outfitted with sensors and deployed en masse in difficult to reach areas -- Kovac gives the example of a swarm equipped with heat-sensors that could attach themselves to trees and monitor for forest fires. What's more, he says that the same perching mechanism could also be applied to other robots -- possibly even a hybrid of the glider and his grasshopper bot that could hop and fly around before finding a spot to perch itself. Head on past the break to see Kovac explain it himself on video.
