Boston Dynamics has finally retired its Atlas humanoid robot, nearly 11 years after it was unveiled. The DARPA-funded robot was intended for search-and-rescue missions, but it rose to fame thanks to videos showing off its dance moves and, frankly, rudimentary parkour skills.
Atlas runs off into the sunset a recent YouTube video, which thankfully includes a lot of bloopers that are the best parts. Boston Dynamics, of course, has more commercially successful robots in its lineup Stain. It’s likely not the end of the line for the company’s humanoid robots, either.
– Matt Smith
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It was part of the cargo pallet that the space station will drop in 2021.
In March, a piece of space debris hit the roof of a house in Naples, Florida, blowing off two stories and (thankfully) missing homeowner Alejandro Otero’s son. On Tuesday, NASA confirmed that it was a piece of equipment that was ejected from the International Space Station (ISS) three years ago. NASA expected the spent nickel-hydrogen batteries to be carried into Earth orbit for two to four years before “burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere.” Not so.
These are messy hands.
Netflix has been accused of using AI-driven footage in a true-crime documentary What did Jennifer do?. A few photos show common AI problems: bent hands and fingers, strange artifacts, curved edges that should be straight, etc. If accurate, the report raises serious questions about the use of such images in documentaries, especially as the person depicted is currently awaiting retrial. Netflix has yet to confirm the report.
And in every way it is better than the last model.
When the X3 landed, it was a 360-degree action camera that solved many common problems in the camera genre. With the X4, Insta360 just… improved everything. Technical improvements focus on video with the ability to record up to 5.7k frames at 8K 30fps or 60fps. Slow motion video has also been upscaled to 4K resolution. In short, it draws more than anything else. The X4 has a 2,290 mAh battery, which is 67 percent larger than the X3. According to the press release, it should be able to record up to 135 minutes of video. Currently, the camera is sold for $500.