See How NASA's Printed Food Idea Might Work

NASA announced earlier this week that they are paying $125,000 to study the use of 3-D printing technology to create food in space.

We already know that, apparently, guns can be 3-D printed and fired. But printing edible—let alone palatable—food? This I've got to see.

The idea behind the project is to use generic mixes of starch, protein and fat as “food-type elements” (gross), and then add flavorings with an inkjet device. Sure, it sounds far-fetched, but if NASA can nail this, missions to Mars and beyond will be all but solved.

Check out the video to see an initial experiment, in which the researcher produced a chocolate-covered cookie using a 3-D printer. Next up? A 3-D printed pizza!

The researchers are looking beyond space travel and hope that their findings can be used in military environments or to help solve food shortage challenges around the world.

NASA announced earlier this week that they are paying $125,000 to study the use of 3-D printing technology to create food in space.

We already know that, apparently, guns can be 3-D printed and fired. But printing edible—let alone palatable—food? This I've got to see.

The idea behind the project is to use generic mixes of starch, protein and fat as “food-type elements” (gross), and then add flavorings with an inkjet device. Sure, it sounds far-fetched, but if NASA can nail this, missions to Mars and beyond will be all but solved.

Check out the video to see an initial experiment, in which the researcher produced a chocolate-covered cookie using a 3-D printer. Next up? A 3-D printed pizza!

The researchers are looking beyond space travel and hope that their findings can be used in military environments or to help solve food shortage challenges around the world.

Beyond Computer Vision: Robot Uses Arms, Location and More to Discover Objects

We're one step closer to full-functioning (and learning!) robots that help with everyday human tasks.

A robot can struggle to discover objects in its surroundings when it relies on computer vision alone. But by taking advantage of all of the information available to it—an object's location, size, shape and even whether it can be lifted—a robot can continually discover and refine its understanding of objects, say researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute.

The Lifelong Robotic Object Discovery (LROD) process developed by the research team enabled a two-armed, mobile robot to use color video, a Kinect depth camera and non-visual information to discover more than 100 objects in a home-like laboratory, including items such as computer monitors, plants and food items.

Normally, the CMU researchers build digital models and images of objects and load them into the memory of the adorably-named HERB—the Home-Exploring Robot Butler—so the robot can recognize objects that it needs to manipulate. Virtually all roboticists do something similar to help their robots recognize objects. With the team's implementation of LROD, the robot now can discover these objects on its own.

With more time and experience, the robot gradually refines its models of the objects and begins to focus its attention on those that are most relevant to its goal—helping people accomplish tasks of daily living.

The robot's ability to discover objects on its own sometimes takes even the researchers by surprise,” said Siddhartha Srinivasa, associate professor of robotics and head of the Personal Robotics Lab, where HERB is being developed. In one case, some students left the remains of lunch—a pineapple and a bag of bagels—in the lab when they went home for the evening. The next morning, they returned to find that HERB had built digital models of both the pineapple and the bag and had figured out how it could pick up each one.

"We didn't even know that these objects existed, but HERB did," said Srinivasa, who jointly supervised the research with Martial Hebert, professor of robotics. "That was pretty fascinating."

Discovering and understanding objects in places filled with hundreds or thousands of things will be a crucial capability once robots begin working in the home and expanding their role in the workplace. Manually loading digital models of every object of possible relevance simply isn't feasible, Srinivasa said. "You can't expect Grandma to do all this," he added.

Check out Science Daily's full press release for more information.

Congress Confronts Google with 'Glass' Privacy Concerns

This week, Google received a concerned letter from eight members of Congress who form a bipartisan “privacy caucus” and are worried about the privacy implications of Google Glass, the company's wearable augmented reality glasses.

So, what were they concerned about? Mainly, how the technology might infringe on the privacy of average people. Considering the fact that the current version enables users to secretly film or photograph people (yes, much like a smartphone), I can understand their concern. (In fact, one Glass developer is already claiming that he's created an app that lets Glass wearers snap pictures just by blinking their eye. Crazy!) And Glass' capabilities might grow to include facial recognition technology, which brings up a whole host of other questions.

In the meantime, Google has until June 14 to answer the following:

[W]e would like to know how Google plans to prevent Google Glass from unintentionally collecting data about the user/non-user without consent?

Would Google place limits on the technology and what type of information it can reveal about another person?

What proactive steps is Google taking to protect the privacy of non-users when Google Glass is in use?

When using Google Glass, is it true that this product would be able to use Facial Recognition Technology to unveil personal information about whomever and even some inanimate objects that the user is viewing?

Given Google Glass's sensory and processing capabilities, has Google considered making any additions or refinements to its privacy policy?

Check out the full letter here.

The Robot Will See You Now

The MOnarCH Project, which stands for Multi-Robot Cognitive Systems Operating in Hospitals, is currently in the Portuguese Oncological Institute of Lisbon, studying the interaction between robots and pediatric oncology patients. The goal is determine if these therapeutic robots, which collaborate with medical personnel, can interact naturally and engage in edutainment activities with the pediatric patients.

Leveraging technologies such as a network of fixed cameras, RFID tags, teleoperation devices, voice generation, both isolated and combined as augmented reality interfaces, the robots will apply concepts in social skills, group behaviors, and human-robot interaction, using learning methodologies and decision-theoretic principles to interact with the children. 

If this experiement is successful, it can pave the way for robots to assist in kindergarten classes and to serve as personal assistants to the elderly at home.

Other robots, such as Paro and Kasper, have already proved to be successful in interacting with the elderly and autistic children, respectively. 

Where Will 3-D Printing Go Now?

Get your 3-D printed gun blueprints!

As you've probably read, blueprints for the world's first 3-D printed gun, “The Liberator,” are now available online and, not surprisingly, causing quite a stir.

"The Liberator" blueprints are available at DefCad.com. For now, you need an industrial-level 3-D printer, and proper training, to create a 3-D gun. But the company that designed the printable gun wants to modify the design for use in a less-expensive hobbyist 3-D printer.

As of today, the blueprints have been downloaded more than 70,000 times, probably, as MSNBC points out, by a lot of curious people and only a few actual 3-D printer folks. But this development is already begging a lot of interesting questions: Are 3-D printed guns actually legal? (Legislation is in the works to ban all-plastic 3-D printed guns.) Are they safe? And, beyond guns, what else might be 3-D printed in the future?

Legislators are concerned that 3-D plastic guns will be too difficult to spot with metal detectors, enabling the owners to sneak them into otherwise restricted areas, like schools and airports. You might argue that the damage is already done, since the blueprints have been strewn across the Internet for all to download. But what if the future holds blueprints of bombs and even more deadly guns?

What are your thoughts on these “Wiki Weapons”?