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Palmer Luckey's startup will build a 'virtual' border wall
It's no secret that Palmer Luckey's Anduril Industries has been developing a "virtual wall" to heighten national security -- he's been at it for the better part of three years. According to a new report from the Washington Post, the Trump administration awarded Anduril a lucrative five-year contract to erect hundreds of AI-powered surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border by 2022. “These towers give agents in the field a significant leg up against the criminal networks that facilitate illegal cross-border activity,” said Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott in a statement released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Palmer Luckey's company is making drone-ramming drones
Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey and his company Anduril Industries have drawn flak for their pursuit of controversial government and military contracts, and that uproar isn't about to subside any time soon. Anduril has unveiled the Interceptor, a "counter-drone" built solely to take down other robotic fliers by ramming them at high speed. It requires human operators' permission for takedowns, but can be cued through AI and automatically acquire targets using computer vision. The company is hoping this will protect military units and key infrastructure against hostile drones, whether they're improvised bombers or purpose-built recon vehicles.
Leave the glue at home: concept phone lets you bejewel by grid
Picture this doomsday scenario: you've gone and covered the screen of your phone with stylish hearts and esses, only to discover that the design just doesn't fit your mood anymore. With classic methods of bejeweling, that puts you in a bit of a pickle, seeing how your phone's now covered with a nice, thick layer of glue separating the sparkly stuff from the shell of the handset. It's all good, though -- with his new concept, designer Nils Siegel pictures a world where you can change your phone's gems as quickly as... well, popping out and plugging in a couple hundred tiny squares. A fun task? Not necessarily, but in the scheme of things, it's probably cheaper than buying a new phone for every mood change.
NEC's "Latticekey" concept keypad for mobiles
NEC was showing off some conceptual stuff at CeBIT this year and when we caught sight of what looked like a mobile phone, we hustled over to get a look. Upon closer inspection what they were actually demonstrating was an keypad interface for a mobile phone. Labelled the "Latticekey Interface," the idea is fairly straightforward: none of the keys on the handset have labels of any type, but once you place you fingers on them, the screen will help guide you to use them for whatever task is at hand. This is actually a pretty slick concept, but sadly it was only that – no hands-on here, folks. We included a pic of the text in the display, as NEC worded it in such a dreamy, Utopian voice. NEC at CeBIT
