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Wii U balance boards help paraplegics better use their exosuits
Able-bodied people maintain their balance in part by the sensory feedback receive through our feet. People with severed spinal columns don't receive those sensations which, even though they are being supported by a mechanical exoskeleton, makes standing difficult. That's why a team of researchers at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition have begun teaching neophyte exoskeleton wearers to regain their sense of balance by standing atop a Wii U balance board.
ICYMI: Robot tattoo artist and healing coral reefs
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists were able to program soft materials to shift their shape on digital command, which is only a precursor to our biggest tech news of this episode: That an industrial robot normally used to put together cars was repurposed to delicately give tattoos to human beings. Considering the robotic arm is large and heavy enough to lift car doors easily, we'd like to invite you all to give this tattoo artist a try first, please.
FDA approves using genetically-modified mosquitos to fight Zika
The Zika virus and related illness outbreak has been top-of-mind as of late -- in the US, that's particularly true in parts of Florida where the virus has spread. It looks like there may be a rather unusual way of fighting further spread of the virus, however. Today, the FDA just finished an environmental assessment of a technique cooked up by biotech firm Oxitec. The FDA has given approval for Oxitec conduct a field trial in which it releases genetically modified mosquitos that should "suppress" the population of infected mosquitos.
Four people in Florida likely contracted Zika from US mosquitoes
Florida health officials warn there's a high likelihood that four cases of Zika in the state were transmitted by local mosquitoes carrying the disease, a first in the continental United States. The Florida Department of Health believes that active transmission of Zika, meaning direct mosquito-to-human infection, is occurring in a small area in Miami-Dade county, north of the downtown area (as shown above). Other Zika cases in the US have been the result of people traveling to regions where the disease is prevalent and then re-entering the country already infected.
Police confirm DVD player found in Tesla Autopilot wreck
A day after we learned that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating a fatal crash involving Tesla's Autopilot feature, more details have emerged. The Florida Highway Patrol confirmed to Reuters that a portable DVD player was found in the wreckage. The driver of the truck that was crossing the highway when it was struck by the Model S told the Associated Press that the driver was playing a Harry Potter movie at the time. He said he could he could hear it playing after the car hit a telephone pole further down the road.
Florida man gets four years in prison for selling Vitamixes on eBay
41-year-old Kevin Wain, of Tampa, Florida, has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for running a credit card fraud operation that netted him more than $881,000 over the course of three years. Using counterfeit credit cards -- made with with a magnetic card reader/writer that he'd bought on eBay -- Wain bought hundreds of high-end home goods at Williams Sonoma and Bed, Bath & Beyond stores that he would turn around and sell for profit on eBay.
The After Math: Potpourri
It's been a mixed week for news with few clear winners and losers -- outside of Chewbacca Mom of course, who has been killing it. Let's see, Takata had to recall 12 million more airbags because they keep killing people. On the other hand, MIT managed to double the efficiency of solar cell technology. Foxconn announced that 60,000 people would get the sack in favor of automated assembly machines but Cornell doctors discovered a better way to predict your chances of coming out of a coma -- just like Steven Seagal. Best of all, Florida Man strikes again! Numbers, because everything is shit except for the half of it that isn't.
Florida man fined $48k for jamming cellphones while driving
The Florida man who stashed a high-powered phone jammer under the passenger seat of his Toyota Highlander has been fined a cool $48,000 for disrupting cellular service on his daily commute to Tampa. According to the FCC's order to pay up, driver Jason Humphreys "caused actual interference to cellular service along a significant portion of Interstate 4, and disrupted police and other emergency communications."
Submit your questions for the US Senate's first open debate
Normally, the press frames important US election debates by choosing the questions and controlling the video broadcast. For the first time, however, the public will decide the agenda in a clash over a contested US Senate seat. Republican David Jolly and Democrat Alan Grayson are vying for Marco Rubio's vacated Florida Senate post, and will lock horns on April 25th at 7PM eastern time in the Florida Open Debate. The public will be able to submit questions for the event, hosted by the Open Debate Coalition, starting today at 6AM until the cutoff at 12PM ET on April 25th.
Anonymous-linked hacker rescued at sea and then arrested
A purported member of online activist group Anonymous was arrested by the FBI in Miami after a Disney cruise ship rescued him and his wife from a sailboat near Cuba. As NBC reports, the FBI had been investigating Martin Gottesfeld since October 2014 for his possible involvement with Anonymous' cyberattacks against a Boston hospital.
Watch SpaceX's latest attempt at landing a reusable rocket
Tonight we could possibly see Elon Musk's dream of landing a reusable rocket on a hard surface come true. The test flight for the Falcon 9 is scheduled for 8:29 PM and the live-stream (embedded below, and also available on YouTube) is supposed to kick off at 8:05 PM from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Remember, last time SpaceX tested one of its rockets it failed pretty spectacularly, exploding right after it launched.
WSJ: Citigroup is testing iris-scanning ATMs from Diebold
The Wall Street Journal reports that Citigroup Inc is testing a pair of newfangled ATM formats from Diebold that will scan customers' eyeballs with smart phones rather than require PINs. The first concept, dubbed "Irving", scans their irises instead of having them type in their personal ID number. Diebold estimates that the cash withdrawal process could be shortened to just 10 seconds with this method. The second concept, known as "Janus", is a double-sided ATM that also does away with the card reader. Instead, it can email or text receipts to the user.
ICYMI: Driving fails, global warming bacteria fix and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-252707{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-252707, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-252707{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-252707").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: AAA and the University of Utah teamed up to collect data on how well driver's fare while using voice commands. The results are pretty terrible: Apparently it takes a full 27 seconds for a driver to fully concentrate after attempting to call someone while behind the wheel. Meanwhile Florida may be good for something beyond just the best Twitter account this side of the Atlantic. Researchers there found a strain of deep-sea bacteria that might be able to help fight global warming by attacking greenhouse gases. And a Spaniard got the first implanted 3D printed ribs in the world after a cancer fight. Good on him!
Magic Leap is moving into Motorola's old campus
We don't specifically know what Magic Leap is doing, but we do know where all of this unknown stuff is going to happen. The augmented reality / VR startup is renovating a 260,000 square foot building on Florida's West Sunrise Boulevard. It's not the first time that the location will serve as the home to a tech firm with ties to Google -- since it was Motorola's campus until earlier this year. Magic Leap, which has raised around half a billion dollars for its HoloLens/Minority Report/Neal Stephenson-style endeavors, is seen as the next big thing in merging the real and virtual worlds. According to the Miami Herald, the firm will begin moving in towards the end of the year, so be prepared for plenty of stories about how enterprising journalists tried, and failed, to gain access to its secrets.
Jeb Bush wants to expand the NSA's reach to fight 'evildoers'
Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush says that the government should be granted broad surveillance powers over both the American people and and private technology firms so that intelligence agencies can better fight "evildoers", according to the Associated Press. No, seriously, he specifically used the term "evildoers." Dick Dastardly, Skeletor, Gargamel had all better watch their backs if Jeb lands the Oval Office.
Woman uses Pizza Hut's mobile app to escape a hostage crisis
It's sometimes too dangerous to call 911, but one Florida woman just found a potentially life-saving alternative: a food delivery app. When Cheryl Treadway's boyfriend threatened to hurt her and her family if they left home, she used Pizza Hut's mobile app to send a request for help under the pretext of ordering food. Thankfully, staff caught the message and sent police to Treadway's home, getting the hostages out safely. This kind of stealthy, app-based plea won't be as necessary once text-to-911 rolls out in earnest, but it's good to know that it's an option in dire circumstances. [Image credit: AP Photo/Alan Diaz]
Florida governor bans officials from using phrase 'climate change'
Believing that climate change isn't real is a bit like believing that you don't need a parachute to skydive; charming, but ultimately lethal. Let's just hope that Rick Scott is afraid of heights after reports have emerged that Florida's governor banned state officials from talking about the environment. According to the Miami Herald, the republican issued an unwritten ban on phrases like "climate change and "global warming" since he took office in 2011. Apparently his reasoning was that he didn't want employees to discuss anything that was "not a true fact," forgetting about those special truths that only empirical science can discover.
Jeb Bush's email transparency experiment goes horribly wrong (update)
Today Jeb Bush posted archives containing thousands of emails from his time as governor of Florida for public viewing. That's great as a push for transparency from a potential presidential candidate, however as The Daily Dot and The Verge have found, the release leaked private info from thousands of people who never knew their messages would be released in this manner. The information contained includes email address, home address, phone numbers, social security numbers, job information, medical info and more. At least some of the governor's responses mention that messages are a part of the public record and may be released, but it's still troubling to have the information out there.
Safety zealot hid a phone jammer in his SUV to stop other drivers taking calls
If you happen to notice a second-hand Toyota Highlander being offered for a quick sale in Seffner, Florida, you'll know exactly who it belongs to. A local man, Jason Humphreys, has been given 30 days to pay a $48,000 fine after being caught radio-handed with a high-powered phone jammer hidden under his SUV's front passenger seat. When he was pulled over by a squad of FCC agents and police officers, who had spent days tracking the source of the wideband interference emanating from his vehicle, he reportedly told them that he was "fed up with watching cell phone usage while people were driving." Unfortunately for Humphreys, the state of Florida deems it legal for motorists to engage in phone conversations while they're on the move, whereas it severely frowns on the use of unlicensed jamming equipment that can disrupt vital communications between emergency services. The only glimmer of hope for this grumpy vigilante is if he can write to the FCC and somehow stall the fine, but even then he'll likely still face a separate case raised by an even grumpier Sheriff's office. [Image credit: ABC Action News]
Microsoft's Innovation Center to school citizens on technology, help startups in Miami
Miami is going to get a whole lot geekier if Microsoft has its way. The software giant has recently announced plans to open its first US-based Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC) in the sexy city later this spring, with more stateside locations to follow. The Miami MIC will focus on four different audiences: academia, the local Latin American community, government and start-ups, and it's said that each group will benefit in its own way. Students, for example, will have a place to net specialized training and pick up valuable tech-related job skills. Will Smith's favorite burg will also serve as a part of Microsoft's CityNext program, which uses locals to create "healthier, safer and more sustainable" places to live. Only time will tell if the siren song of South Beach will have an adverse effect on any of the above, though. [Image credit: Shutterstock]
