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Archive for the ‘food’ category: Page 308

Mar 26, 2016

For first time, drone delivers package to residential area

Posted by in categories: drones, food, robotics/AI

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada firm says one of its drones has successfully completed the first fully autonomous package delivery in a residential area in the U.S.

Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeney says the six-rotor drone flew about a half-mile along a pre-programmed delivery route on March 10. It lowered the package outside a vacant residence in an uninhabited area of Hawthorne, southeast of Reno. The route was established using GPS. A pilot and visual observers were on standby during the flight but weren’t needed.

The package included bottled water, food and a first-aid kit.

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Mar 26, 2016

The Soft Robotic Gripper

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, food, robotics/AI

This new gripper can be revolutionary for everything from food manufacturing to prosthetic hands.

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Mar 25, 2016

New Biotechnology Improves Crop Tolerance To Stress And Absorption Of Nutrients

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, sustainability

Researchers at the ASU School of Life Sciences may have found a way to improve crop performance and yield with the help of some new biotechnology. They’ve discovered a method to enhance a plant’s tolerance to stress, which could help them survive inclement conditions and still produce food.

The world’s population is currently exploding. There is already well over 7 billion people on Earth, and that number is expected to grow even larger in the next few years. This means that feeding the human race will become more of a challenge in the coming decades.

As the human population grows, climate change is taking its toll. Weather conditions are shifting in areas that are usually used to grow crops, which means that plants in those areas may not produce as much as they normally would. Drought, abnormal heat and other conditions could cause farms to lose production.

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Mar 25, 2016

Brain stimulation may help people with anorexia

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, food, neuroscience

FRIDAY, March 25, 2016 — Brain stimulation may ease major symptoms of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, a typically hard-to-treat condition, a new study suggests.

British researchers evaluated anorexia patients before and after they underwent repetitive transcranial stimulation (rTMS), a treatment approved for depression.

“With rTMS we targeted … an area of the brain thought to be involved in some of the self-regulation difficulties associated with anorexia,” study first author Jessica McClelland, a postdoctoral researcher at King’s College London, said in a school news release.

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Mar 24, 2016

A Brain Parasite Might Be Causing Road Rage

Posted by in categories: food, health, neuroscience

“We don’t yet understand the mechanisms involved — it could be an increased inflammatory response, direct brain modulation by the parasite, or even reverse causation where aggressive individuals tend to have more cats or eat more undercooked meat”.

The study looked at 358 adults, and found that chronic latent infection with T. gondii is associated with intermittent explosive disorder and increased aggression. Antibodies were collected between 1991 and 2008.

University of Chicago researchers say a parasite commonly spread from cats to humans may play a role in impulsive aggression. Approximately 16 percent of those in a “other psychiatric conditions” organisation had a infection, though reported identical exam scores in charge to a healthy group.

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Mar 22, 2016

A company made a robot kitchen that will cook you dinner and clean up afterwards

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

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Mar 18, 2016

Syrian Refugees Are Using Iris Scan To Receive Food Aid in Jordan

Posted by in categories: electronics, food

Iris scanners are helping Syrian refugees get food faster and more easily.

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Mar 18, 2016

Carl’s Jr CEO wants to replace all human workers with robots

Posted by in categories: food, health, robotics/AI

Minimum wage for a robot? $0/hour. Maximum wage? $0/hour.

(From Fox)

Eatsa, the mostly automated healthy, fast food bowl shop based in San Francisco, has inspired the CEO of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s to rethink the traditional workforce—by replacing all humans with robots.

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Mar 18, 2016

Domino’s unveil ‘world’s first’ pizza delivery robot

Posted by in categories: food, military, robotics/AI

The fast-food retailer built the droid with Australian startup Marathon Robotics using a robot sourced from the military and its own technology, including Domino’s GPS tracking data.

DRU, which could spell the beginning of the end of the pizza delivery boy, has a sensory system that uses lasers to move around obstacles in its path to travel unassisted to a customer’s address.

The four-wheeled robotic unit travels up to speeds of 20km/h and is designed to cruise on footpaths, trails and bike paths.

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Mar 17, 2016

We should be more afraid of computers than we are – video

Posted by in categories: computing, food, information science, robotics/AI

Specifically, artificially intelligent computers…


As sophisticated algorithms can complete tasks we once thought impossible, computers are seeming to become a real threat to humanity. Whether they decide to pulp us into human meat paste, or simply make our work completely unnecessary, argues technology reporter Alex Hern, we should be afraid of computers.

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