Google is hoping a robotic car will prove to be a secret weapon in its ongoing battle with Microsoft to extend the frontiers of the Internet.
MediaNews has learned that Google has quietly licensed the sensing technology developed by a team of Stanford University students that enabled Stanley, a Volkswagon Touareg R5, to win the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. In that race, the Stanford robotic car successfully drove more than 131 miles through the Mojave Desert in less than seven hours.
The technology will enable Google to map out photo-realistic 3-D versions of cities around the world, and possibly regain ground it has lost to Microsoft's 3-D mapping application known as Virtual Earth.
Technologists believe an emerging 3-D Internet will eventually be commonplace as increasing numbers of people work, play and shop in virtual environments.
Microsoft's Virtual Earth, available through the 3-D link on maps.live.com, gives a hint of what that future will look like. Thanks to a unique approach to aerial photography, clever algorithms and the application of massive computational power, Microsoft has been able to create exact replicas of more than 50 cities, including San Francisco and San Jose.
Google Earth had 3-D cities, too. But until now, its buildings have been modeled by people, not computers, giving Microsoft's computer-generated cities a decided edge in completeness.
Katherine Ku, director of Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing, said the deal with Google was completed earlier this month. Ku said elements of the deal are exclusive so the same technology will not necessarily be available to competitors.
Google has previously licensed technology from Stanford, including the original search algorithm that was developed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page while they were pursuing graduate degrees in computer science at the school.
Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and leader of the Stanford Racing Team, will also work part-time at Google. Thrun declined to discuss the commercialization of Stanley's technology.
A Google spokeswoman indicated that the company was planning an announcement at the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose on May 29-30.
"I'm thrilled," said David Cheriton, head of Stanford University Distributed Systems Group, and an early mentor to Brin and Page who later provided financial backing to the Stanford Racing Team.
"I think that this technology is very impressive because it offers amazing realism in a surprisingly simple approach," he said.
Jonathan Stark, who competed in the 2005 race as leader of Team Underdawg, made up of Bay Area enthusiasts, said Stanley's technology will let Google scan building faces, allowing for a much richer online experience than the current combination of aerial photos and human-created architectural models.
Stark's current Team Orange will compete against the Stanford Racing Team later this year in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge.
Contact Elise Ackerman at eackerman@mercurynews.com or 408-271-3774.
iRobot Sponsors Robotics Contest Posted by Sheila Franklin Related: Corporate News, Design, Misc. Tech
iRobot CreateiRobot, keepers of the roomba, has announced that has teamed up with sites Instructables and Tom’s Hardware Guide to create a contest for all you wannabe inventors.
“Robots spark the creative juices of people with a wide variety of interests because we all have dull, dirty or dangerous tasks that we would rather delegate to a robot,” said Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairperson of the company.
If you would like to enter your own bot idea, submit images and description of your creation to iRobot and you might win $5,000. They are also offering a limited amount of scholarship packages if you have a design in mind but cannot afford the $129.00 Create Kit. Winners will be announced August 31. We’re thinking that maybe we can encourage the guy with the Beer-Launching Fridge to adapt his and make it a “brewba.”
Wizard the AC robot works magic on judges (published on 21/05/2007)
A robot created to patrol air conditioning systems and eliminate potential leaks has won an engineering award.
Known as 'Wizard' the remote operated DI (duct inspector) will police the highways and byways of ac systems to keep a watchful eye on them and where needed spray coat the insides of ducts and pipes to prevent leaks.
Wizard was awarded the Best Engineering Award in Britain in the Knowledge Transfer Partnership 2007 awards.
The robot is designed by Breval, the Glasgow-based specialist in the installation and maintenance of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.
Breval has spent the last three years developing a machine that will apply specialist coatings to the insides of ventilation ductwork.
The robot will also clean inside the ducts and comes equipped with eight wheels, lights and a camera.
"We are delighted that our Wizard concept has been recognised through this award, " said Patrick McBride, contracts director of Breval.
Breval's website states "Patents are pending in Europe and USA and we are working hard to refine our design whilst gaining valuable positive feedback from our clients.
"We feel sure that the investment we have made in this direction will in the near future offer many of our existing and new clients a probable solution to ventilation ductwork problems, be they bacterial contamination, refurbishment or poor efficiency, this could be the answer".
Wizard, which has completed its first phase of testing, was developed in partnership with the Bell College in Hamilton, as part of the Department for Trade and Industry's Knowledge Transfer Partnership.
Benefits of using Wizard include reduced system running costs, reduced maintenance costs and an extension in the lifetime of ducts.
Friday, May 25, 2007 By SHELBY G. SPIRES Times Aerospace Writer shelby.spires@htimes.com
Decision follows after Shelby balked at move to D.C.
A lunar robotics office that NASA Administrator Mike Griffin wanted to move to Washington, D.C., will remain at Marshall Space Flight Center with new work, NASA officials and U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby's office confirmed Thursday.
But the fate of a lunar lander probe is still under review.
The 32-employee Lunar Precursor Robotic Program office will be included in the NASA budget at $20 million a year for the next six years. Also, the office will continue to manage two planned NASA lunar probe missions and begin a new assignment: mapping the moon to find sites of scientific value, Shelby's office said.
Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, balked in April when Griffin proposed moving the office because of budget problems. Shelby worked with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to keep the office at Marshall.
NASA's plan to move the office "was a huge mistake," Shelby said. The lunar robotics office, he said, will provide "critical data" for manned flights to the moon and a long-term presence in space.
U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, said the robotics office could be a cornerstone in developing future Marshall propulsion work.
"The Lunar Precursor Robotics Program office is vital to the future of this country's space program," Cramer said in a statement. "I was glad to work with our state delegation, led by Sen. Shelby, to keep the LPRP office open while adding new roles.
"We have expertise in propulsion and a number of other areas that are critical to NASA's missions and I'm pleased that this fact was recognized."
The office has two probes - the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite - scheduled to launch to the moon in late 2008. But a third mission - the lunar lander probe - is still under study, said David Mould, a NASA spokesman in Washington.
"That project is a high priority, but the question is when the lander work needs to be done for lunar missions that are some years out," Mould said. "That timeline is under review."
Shelby said the lunar office is an important part of Marshall's work.
"I am glad that NASA recognized Marshall as much more than a rocket center," he said. "We must ensure that the talented staff at the space center continues to play a key role in America's expanding efforts in space."
Budget pressures
Shelby worked with Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., in April to write a letter directing NASA to restore $20 million for the robotics office. Mikulski and Mollohan chair subcommittees that oversee NASA's budget. Shelby is ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, which votes on NASA's budget.
Griffin's proposal to move the office to Washington would have effectively closed down the work. He wanted to slash its $20 million-a-year budget as a way to help make up a $577 million shortage NASA faces this budget year.
Griffin sent Shelby's office a letter Wednesday saying that the office would remain at Marshall and that several other programs, including a NASA education program and a future space telescope mission, would be included in the budget.
Reversing the decision could become a problem for Griffin and his successors, and "it opens up their decisions for further second-guessing," said Keith Cowing, who runs NASAWatch.com.
"It makes a joke of any leadership on Mike Griffin's part if he makes a decision and then he reverses it because Senator Shelby or (Rep. Bud) Cramer tell him to back off," Cowing said. "How can NASA administrators actually manage if they constantly have Congress reversing decisions they don't like?"
OPERATIONAL FOCUS Regardless of the financials, it is critical to ask if the company is actually doing what it operationally purports to be doing? Or is it more of a financial vehicle? What is the dependency of the business model on non-operating sources of income. When all is said and done is the business model viable? That is, did it turn a Net Profit?
hey folgers, what do you think about Rahodeb Mackey?
Whole Foods Is Hot, Wild Oats a Dud -- So Said 'Rahodeb' Then Again, Yahoo Poster Was a Whole Foods Staffer, The CEO to Be Precise
By DAVID KESMODEL and JOHN R. WILKE July 12, 2007; Page A1
In January 2005, someone using the name "Rahodeb" went online to a Yahoo stock-market forum and posted this opinion: No company would want to buy Wild Oats Markets Inc., a natural-foods grocer, at its price then of about $8 a share.
"Would Whole Foods buy OATS?" Rahodeb asked, using Wild Oats' stock symbol. "Almost surely not at current prices. What would they gain? OATS locations are too small." Rahodeb speculated that Wild Oats eventually would be sold after sliding into bankruptcy or when its stock fell below $5. A month later, Rahodeb wrote that Wild Oats management "clearly doesn't know what it is doing .... OATS has no value and no future."
The comments were typical of banter on Internet message boards for stocks, but the writer's identity was anything but. Rahodeb was an online pseudonym of John Mackey, co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market Inc.
OK, we've always considered Whole Foods CEO and co-founder John Mackey, a man who manages to be both an organic food-loving vegan and a hugely successful anti-union capitalist, to be something of a freak. But now we're wondering how the man ever finds time to sleep. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that for eight years, John Mackey, the CEO and founder of Whole Foods, posted "voluminously" in Yahoo stock market discussion forums under the pseudonym Rahodeb, an anagram of his wife's first name, Deborah.
The news came to light in a Federal Trade Commission filing made available online on Tuesday as part of the FTC's antitrust suit attempting to prevent Whole Foods' proposed purchase of competitor Wild Oats. But the filing only includes one of Mackey's many posts.
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