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Xprize challenge offers $20 million to curb fossil fuel emissions
Sadly, carbon dioxide emissions aren't going away just yet. However, the Xprize crew would like to at least see those emissions do something besides accelerate climate change. They're launching the NRG COSIA Carbon Xprize, a competition that will hand out a total of $20 million to teams that convert fossil fuels' CO2 output into genuinely useful products. The 4.5-year challenge will be separated into two tracks (one for coal emissions, the other for natural gas), both of which will offer a pool of $2.5 million for hitting initial lab milestones and a $7.5 million grand prize for whoever succeeds in the real world.
Can technology solve America's literacy problem?
Roughly 36 million adults in the United States read English at or below a third-grade level. For a predominantly English-speaking country, that's a massive problem. Without an elementary knowledge of the language, this huge portion of the adult population faces a struggle to get by. Finding a job and generally progressing in a career is an obvious issue, but everyday tasks are also difficult. Understanding taxes, helping a child with homework, filling out health care forms or following instructions on medication; these are skills that anyone reading this article takes for granted, but many others toil over daily. We know the situation, but what's the solution? XPRIZE, an organization best known for its efforts to send private rovers to the moon and create a real-life Tricorder, has created a competition to prove that technology is the answer.
Audi is helping to make a moon rover for Google's Lunar Xprize
In a possible bid to make the most stylish entry yet for Google's Lunar XPRIZE, Audi has announced that it's teaming up with Part-Time Scientists, a German team working to put its rover on the moon. The carmaker says it's providing the Quattro's four-wheel drive tech, as well as expertise in lightweight construction and piloted driving. It's also getting a handy chunk of advertising, as the rover will now be called the Audi lunar Quattro moon rover -- in case you forget who helped.
XPRIZE and Barbara Bush Foundation aim to improve adult literacy
The latest XPRIZE competition isn't as high-tech as getting a rover to the moon, but it's no less important. The organization has teamed up with the Barbara Bush Foundation for a $7 million adult literacy prize, which challenges participants to build mobile applications to promote reading and writing skills. With around 36 million adults in the U.S. without solid literacy skills, there's certainly plenty of room for better learning solutions out there. And since the competition is focused on mobile apps, the winner should be far more convenient for late-learners than typical language programs, which are often difficult to attend when balancing work and family life. The 18-month-long competition will eventually be narrowed down to five teams, whose apps will be tested with at least 1,000 low-literate adult students over the course of a year.
HeroX is the Kickstarter of X Prize-type competitions
X Prize aims to challenge inventors into creating technologies that could benefit mankind, but it can't design competitions for every problem out there. That's where its spin-off company called HeroX comes in. HeroX is a platform similar to Kickstarter, where anyone can post their own competition. Those who think they have the best solution can then submit their entries to win a cash prize. While projects with sponsors are welcome, the website can also serve as a crowdfunding platform for those that don't have benefactors. People can donate to the prize pot, which will be awarded to the winner(s), though note that the company takes a cut, as it's not a non-profit org like the X Prize Foundation itself.
Two Xprize rivals will share a trip to the Moon
Just because the Google Lunar Xprize is hotly contested doesn't mean that the competitors always have to be at each other's throats. Astrobotic and Hakuto have announced a partnership that will have Hakuto's rovers (Moonraker and Tetris) "piggyback" on Astrobotic's lander when it hopefully reaches the Moon in the second half of 2016. The two sides will still compete when they touch down, but they're setting it up as a race -- during a conference call, Astrobotic noted that it would wait for the other rovers to give them a fair shot and get some extra camera footage. The new allies aren't saying exactly how they'll split the prize if they win, but Hakuto can still get the lion's share.
Lunar Xprize competitors get $5.25 million for reaching key milestones
The Lunar Xprize challenge isn't just meant to reward the first team that lands a private rover on the Moon -- it's there to give some encouragement along the way, too. Accordingly, Google and Xprize have just handed out a total of $5.25 million to five competitors for hitting milestones in imaging, mobility and landing technology. Astrobotic Technology is the big winner, having scooped up $1.75 million across all three areas. Not that the others are exactly hurting. Hakuto, Moon Express, Part-Time Scientists and Team Indus all snagged between $500,000 to $1.25 million each.
Carnegie Mellon University scientists want to bring the moon closer with virtual reality
Google's Lunar Xprize is still up for grabs, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University think they have a chance of bagging the $30 million prize (which requires landing a robot on the Moon, moving it 500 meters and sending video back to Earth). The team's solution plans to beam footage back from the moon via a telepresence robot. Instead of simply broadcasting shots of the moon's surface, however, the scientists told the BBC they want to go a stage further and "bring the Moon back". How? By pairing the spacefaring robot with Oculus Rift headsets here on Earth; turn your head and the robot on the moon will supposedly turn in tandem via head-tracking. There were a few issues that had to be overcome, however. Namely, the Rift needs a pair of simultaneous video feeds to achieve a convincing virtual reality experience, and, by design it can't accept two streams.
Ten years ago, SpaceShipOne proved commercial spaceflight could be a reality
Back in 2004, companies weren't fighting over NASA contracts and nobody was selling tickets for suborbital space flights just yet. The commercial space industry was still in its early stages, and it wasn't until October 4th that year when one of its earliest and biggest victories took place. On this day, a decade ago, SpaceShipOne reached space for the third time, winning the $10 million Ansari X Prize and proving that there's future for privately-funded extraterrestrial endeavors in the process. The first Ansari X Prize challenged teams worldwide to build a reusable spacecraft that can carry up to three people to the boundary of space, or 62 miles above sea level. SpaceShipOne, the 28-foot-long vehicle created by Mojave Aerospace Ventures (backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen), flew half a mile higher than the minimum in June that year and repeated the feat two more times.
Engadget Daily: Blackberry's $2,000 smartphone, Microsoft's new streaming adapter and more!
Does your love for exotic sports cars bleed over into every aspect of your life? If so, you might like Blackberry's new $2,000 Porsche-designed smartphone. That's not all we have on deck, though. Read on for the rest of our news highlights from the last 24 hour.
Xprize's next big challenge: software that lets kids teach themselves
The Xprize organization has inspired people to take on some pretty lofty goals, ranging from sequencing genomes to literal moonshots. Today, though, it's focusing on a very practical objective: improving education for hundreds of millions of kids. Its new Global Learning Xprize will offer a total of $15 million to teams that build open source, easily scaled software that lets young ones in developing countries teach themselves math, reading and writing. Anyone hoping to join in will have 18 months to craft their tools, which will be tested in at least 100 villages. The top five entrants will get $1 million each, while the winning entry will get a hefty $10 million. It may not be the flashiest competition, but it could go a long, long way toward tackling the chronic shortages of schools and teachers that ultimately hurt kids' futures. [Image credit: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images]
Xprize wants to fund a TED Talk given by artificial intelligence, and you can help
Xprize is known for its ambition. The outfit, with the help of some big name (and deep pocketed) partners, has launched initiatives to spur Star Trek-like tricorder development and even get private industry to land a rover on the moon. But now, it's teaming up with TED, that forum for big ideas, to do something a little different. The two companies have just announced an Xprize for Artificial Intelligence and here's the hook: they want the AI to conduct its own TED Talk with no human assist. Mind. Blown. None of this is actually set in stone though and, in fact, the partners are looking to you -- yes, you -- for help in deciding how this all goes down. Xprize is hosting a dedicated subsite so that readers (excuse us, big thinkers!) like you can pitch in with ideas on what the AI TED Talk format should be, how long it should run, what topic will be chosen and so on and so forth. You'll even get to help determine what type of AI makes the grade: will it be a walking robot, a rollie or a disembodied voice? It's up to you to pitch in and figure it out. Because, hey, if you can't actually help build the AI, setting it up for stage fright is the next best thing.
The Daily Roundup for 05.31.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Distro Issue 93: The minds behind XPRIZE
During the course of a long weekend, a handful of the world's greatest thinkers assembled in California with the single goal of creating the next XPRIZE winner. In a brand new issue of our weekly, Tim Stevens takes a look inside the making of the next visionary challenge and offers a glimpse at how the the outfit decides which revolutionary ideas have earned its support. Weekly Stat tallies up the numbers on the Xbox One, Rec Reading peeks inside Google's secret lab and TechShop's Mark Hatch stops by for the Q&A. Some relaxing end-of-the-week gadget reading is here, thanks to a speedy download via the links that follow. Distro Issue 93 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro in the Windows Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Scanadu finalizes Scout tricorder design, wants user feedback to help it get FDA approval
We first saw a prototype of Scout, the tricorder and companion app built by Scanadu for the Tricorder X-prize competition late last year. Today, the company is unveiling Scout's final version and launching an Indiegogo campaign to let folks order Scout and sign up to participate in a usability study -- which will provide Scanadu the user feedback needed to help its tricorder get certified by the FDA. In the six months since Scout was first revealed, the design has changed somewhat, and we checked in with company CEO Walter De Brouwer to get the lowdown on the new version. Like the prototype, the new model tracks your temperature, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure and stress level. Scout now pulls your vitals in ten seconds using just optical sensors, which enables it to read the vital signs of others -- as opposed to the prototype which utilized an EEG sensor and could only record the info of the person holding it. Plus, thanks to some newly developed algorithms, it can now take both systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings with 95 percent accuracy. Running the algorithms to translate the optical sensor info takes a good bit of computing power, however. So, Scout got upgraded from an 8-bit processor to a 32-bit unit based on Micrium, the operation system being used by NASA's Curiosity Rover for sample analysis on Mars. If you're into supporting real world space technology being used to make science fiction a reality, the crowdfunding project of your dreams has arrived.
The Weekly Roundup for 05.06.2013
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The Minds Behind XPRIZE: The making of the next visionary challenge
There have been many critical moments in the history of space exploration -- Sputnik in 1957, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, Neil Armstrong in 1969 -- but if you look back over the history of manned happenings outside of the atmosphere, almost all of these moments were driven by government funds. You have to fast-forward all the way to October 4th, 2004, the moment that pilot Brian Binnie crested at an altitude of 112km in SpaceShipOne, to find a similarly important moment in the history of private space flight. That moment wouldn't have come when it did, and may never have come at all, if there hadn't been some incentive. In 2004, XPRIZE (formerly the X Prize Foundation) paid $10 million to the Scaled Composites team headed up by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen for being first to make two trips to the edge of space in the span of two weeks. That single prize (which didn't come close to covering the team's expenses) ushered in a new era of private space travel and, for XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis, demonstrated the power of competition. XPRIZE didn't stop there, and each year it asks for help from some of the world's greatest thinkers, tasking them to decide which of the world's many and myriad problems are ready for solutions. Join us as we take you on the inside.
Engadget Expand speakers, Round Seven: Moon, music, media and more!
It's time for another round of additions to the speaker lineup for our big Expand event coming up in just a few weeks. You'll want to be sure to pick up your tickets so you don't miss out on these folks up on stage: Alexandra Hall: Senior Director, Google Lunar X PRIZE DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid: Artist Victor Agreda, Jr.: Editor-in-Chief, The Unofficial Apple Weblog Raghu Tarra: SVP & General Manger, Sling Media, Inc. In addition to joining us on stage, DJ Spooky will be playing a set at Expand on Sunday -- so you'll want to stick around with us all weekend at Fort Mason Center. If you can't be with us for 100% of the fun though, don't forget we also offer day passes for either Saturday or Sunday. Your Saturday pass also gets you into our Day 1 after-party, where we'll have upright cabinets and modern game consoles for retro and current-generation gamers alike to have a little friendly competition. Please join us! And don't forget... Insert Coin finalist voting is still open! Cast your vote by this Wednesday, February 27, at 3:30pm EST. If you're a company that would like to work with us on an exhibition or sponsorship level, please drop us a line at sponsors at engadget dot com (DIYers and small startups, please ask us about our new Indie Corner option!) If you're interested in speaking at the event, please contact expand at engadget dot com to inquire. If you're a member of the media interested in covering Expand, please contact engadget at shiftcomm.com for more information.
Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize registration begins tomorrow
Who hasn't dreamed of having a Tricorder from the show Star Trek? Qualcomm announced the Tricorder X Prize last year, who's aim is to create a Star Trek-like device. Those who are interested in fame and fortune, as well as the $10 million prize, can finally register starting tomorrow and then they have to actually make it happen. There have already been over 250 teams pre-registered for the competition, and those interested can head to the official site for the full guidelines and actually register for the site. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Scanadu's Scout tricorder and companion app detect what ails you, arrive in 2013 for $150
The quest to create a tricorder began many years ago, when such a device was but a figment of Gene Roddenberry's vivid imagination. However, his vision has crept ever closer to reality in recent years, with many researchers crafting devices capable of gathering human health data and the creation of an X Prize competition to spur further tricorder development. Scanadu is a company that's answered the X Prize bell and is aiming to bring just such a device to market by late next year for a mere $150. Called Scout, the tricorder is roughly two inches square and a half an inch thick and packs a rechargeable battery, IR , EEG and EKG scanners, plus an accelerometer, Bluetooth radio and a micro-USB port. That hardware, when combined with Scout's companion smartphone app can track a person's heart rate, breathing rate, body temperature, pulse transit (essentially systolic blood pressure) and blood oxygenation. To gather that data, users first must download the free Scout app and pair the tricorder hardware with their Android, iOS or BB7 handset via Bluetooth. Then it's simply a matter of pinching the device between their thumb and finger and holding it against their temple for ten seconds while the app takes the necessary readings. From there, the app can track your data over the long haul and provide an accurate picture of your health. We had a chance to see functional and production Scout prototypes and to speak with Scanadu CEO Walter De Brouwer and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alan Greene about Scout's development, so join us after the break for more.
