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Norrathian Notebook: I tasted Landmark's combat and I like it!
Better late than never, right? At long last, after months of only mining and voxel magic (and then an overnight delay), I have finally partaken of the Landmark combat fruit. And oh, how sweet it is! Of course the system was just barely implemented and is in only its first iteration, but that doesn't stop me from sharing the experience I had upon first logging in to check things out. So in I jumped just as soon as servers went live... and there I lost the rest of my day. Even with the inevitable bugs, I was not disappointed by my first few hours of this update. There are flingers and teleporters, weapons and proximity mines -- plenty of things to keep a slightly wacky mind occupied. And who can leave out the new joys of fall damage? Here are my unadulterated first impressions of that much-anticipated system.
Smartphone-powered mine detectors readied for field-testing in Cambodia (video)
Red Lotus Technologies is now refining and pitching its PETALS technology for real-world use around the world. Short for Pattern Enhancement Tool for Assisting Landmine Sensing, the system connects acoustic sensors to smartphones, outputting a silhouette of what lies below onto the phone's screen. The company has expanded from an initial research project that paired mine-detecting sensors with the processing clout (and availability of) smartphones. It's now developed some tablet-based training equipment for de-miners and, working alongside the Landmine Relief Fund, aims to field-test the devices in Cambodia before launching them next year.
Using an iPhone app to test for landmines
One of the big problems with using metal detectors to find unexploded landmines is that they detect all pieces of metal in the ground, often forcing operators to inspect every suspect item they find. This can be very dangerous, so researchers at Harvard have figured out how to use smartphones to find landmines. Trained and experienced operators can tell by the beeps coming from their detectors the size and shape of objects found. Harvard researchers take these beeps and map them onto a smartphone screen, such as an iPhone, to better visualise what's been found. The PETALS (Pattern Enhancement Tool for Assisting Landmine Sensing) researchers have shown that inexperienced users are up to 80 percent more efficient using their technique, which could save a lot of lives. Using existing devices like iPhones makes the system potentially very cheap to deploy. Researchers hope that users already familiar with their smartphone interface should find it simple to use.
Metal detectors and smartphones make beautiful, mine-sniffing music together
Harvard researchers have married a smartphone to a metal detector to create PETALS, a low cost way to improve mine detection in third-world countries. Traditionally, locating land mines has required a carefully trained ear to distinguish deadly explosives from, say, a can. This new system removes some of the guesswork by mapping the beeps on a cell phone screen, creating a silhouette of whatever is beneath the surface. Similar results have been accomplished using acoustic sensors, but so far they've been relegated to research projects and would likely be too expensive for use where they're needed most. Not only should the simplicity of PETALS (which stands for Pattern Enhancement Tool for Assisting Land mine Sensing) make it cheap and easy to deploy but, in tests novice de-miners were able to improve their performance by 80 percent -- that's a least a few less brave humanitarians going "boom" in the field.
British group campaigns against autonomous death-bots
It looks like professor Noel Sharkey isn't the only one stirred up about autonomous killing machines. An anti-landmine group in London called Landmine Action is now calling for the ban of robots capable of killing people all on their lonsome. The group believes these bots fall under the same category as landmines -- which are outlawed in 150 countries -- and is pressing governments to keep control in the hands of a human operator. The group is also campaigning to put a stop to autonomous cluster bombs (which self-detonate), and feels these bots fall under the same category. Says spokesman Richard Moyes, "Our concern is that humans, not sensors, should make targeting decisions. So similarly, we don't want to move towards robots that make decisions about combatants and noncombatants." Of course, if the bots can pass a Turing test, how will we know the difference? Needless to say, Skynet could not be reached for comment.
