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British Airways is testing autonomous electric wheelchairs at JFK
The next time you fly out of JFK, you may notice a self-driving wheelchair race past you as you make your way to your departure gate. British Airways shared today that it has been testing "autonomous mobility devices" at the country's sixth-busiest airport to see how they can help passengers with accessibility needs.
JFK worker who helped steal 3600 iPad minis nabbed by FBI
Justice has prevailed! The FBI has arrested a worker at New York's JFK airport who acted as a lookout for a pair of accomplices who stole 3,600 iPad minis last week. Renel Rene Richardson (not to be confused with René Ritchie of iMore.com) was arrested after co-workers told Port Authority detectives that he had made inquiries about when the iPad minis were supposed to arrive, as well as where he might get a forklift. The New York Post stated that after being arrested, Richardson accompanied Port Authority detectives on a search for the getaway truck on Long Island. It's not known whether the stolen iPads have been recovered, or if they're in the process of being fenced. Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt noted that Apple probably has the serial numbers of the heisted minis on file, but won't be able to trace their location until they are activated. Elmer-DeWitt also pointed out that dozens of new iPad minis were being listed Sunday morning on Craigslist (see listing at the top of this post). While this might not be associated with the JFK iPad heist, the advertiser is certainly trying to move the merchandise...
Thieves steal 3,600 iPad minis from JFK airport
Those new iPad minis are popular -- everybody wants them. In fact, two thieves wanted them so badly that they stole 3,600 of the little tablets in a well-organized heist at New York's JFK airport. The pair showed up at a cargo building at the airport around midnight on Monday, November 12 and used a forklift from the facility to load two pallets loaded with US$1.5 million worth of iPad minis into a white tractor trailer truck marked with CEVA on the side. According to an exclusive report in the NY Post, the crooks would have probably made off with three more pallets, but were "challenged by an airport worker returning from dinner." Investigators believe that the theft of the minis was an inside job, and have been questioning airport workers. Three of the workers have been given polygraph tests. Someone apparently let the thieves into the secured area, then let them out after the iPad minis were loaded onto the truck. The cargo facility is the same one where almost $5 million in cash and $900,000 worth of jewelry were stolen in 1978 in a heist that was the inspiration for portions of the gangster flick Goodfellas.
Liquidware team crafts laser tripwire that tweets intruder alerts, keeps fake sharks at bay (video)
Laser tripwire security systems can be expensive propositions that don't always work as planned -- just ask Raytheon, which saw its $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System for JFK International Airport undermined by one wayward jet skier. Taking that as a form of dare, Justin Huynh and teammates at Liquidware have devised a much cheaper (if also much smaller) tripwire of their own. Any interruption of a laser pointer's beam is caught by an Arduino light sensor that promptly sends the alert to an Android-running BeagleBoard xM; if a toy like Bruce the shark dares cross the line, the BeagleBoard sends a Twitter message to let the authorities, or at least Huynh, clamp down on the trespasser. The invention won't replace Raytheon's handiwork anytime soon, although Huynh notes that additional or more powerful sensors could theoretically catch real, muscle-bound sharks and not just their plastic counterparts. The supply checklist and source code are waiting on the company's project page below, so those who'd like to ward off miniature invasions can get started today.
Customer service avatars coming to JFK, La Guardia, Newark airports (video)
When you're running late, you're weighed-down with DIY in-flight entertainment and your gate number gets switched at the last minute, the last thing you need is a real-life human trying to be helpful. The Port Authority knows that, which is why it's promising to install "computerized, hologram-like avatars" in La Guardia, Newark and JFK terminal buildings by early July. The virtual assistants aren't actually holographic -- judging from the video after the break (courtesy of Transportation Nation), they appear to consist of either projected or LCD video displayed on a vaguely human-shaped static board, although given their reported $250,000 price tag we might (hopefully) be missing something. Oh, and they aren't even interactive, unless you try to push them over. [Photo Credit: Jim O'Grady/WNYC]
