Lifeboat Foundation

Aston University researchers and their international team have set a new data transmission record of 402 terabits per second using standard optical fiber, potentially stabilizing broadband costs as demand surges.

Researchers at Aston University, collaborating with a team, have achieved a new record by transmitting data at a rate of 402 terabits per second through commercially available optical fiber. This accomplishment surpasses their prior record set in March 2024, where they managed to send data at 301 terabits per second, equivalent to 301,000,000 megabits per second, using a single standard optical fiber.

According to the researchers, “If compared to the internet connection speed recommendations of Netflix, of 3 Mbit/s or higher, for watching an HD movie, this speed is over 100 million times faster.”

AI will enable drone wingmen to make autonomous decisions without centralized command.

According to Airbus, FCAS will be centered around a core Next Generation Weapon System (NGWS). In this “system of systems,” piloted New Generation Fighters will work together with Unmanned Remote Carriers – all connected to other systems in space, in the air, on the ground, at sea and in cyberspace via a data cloud called the “Combat Cloud.”

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Comes with improved math skills.

The proposed innovative design leads to unprecedented power conversion efficiency and improved versatility. A recently developed wirelessly powered 5G relay could accelerate the development of smart factories, report scientists from Tokyo Tech. By adopting a lower operating frequency for wireless power transfer, the proposed relay design solves many of the current limitations, including range and efficiency. In turn, this allows for a more versatile and widespread arrangement of sensors and transceivers in industrial settings.

One of the hallmarks of the Information Age is the transformation of industries towards a greater flow of information. This can be readily seen in high-tech factories and warehouses, where wireless sensors and transceivers are installed in robots, production machinery, and automatic vehicles. In many cases, 5G networks are used to orchestrate operations and communications between these devices.

To avoid relying on cumbersome wired power sources, sensors and transceivers can be energized remotely via wireless power transfer (WPT). However, one problem with conventional WPT designs is that they operate at 24 GHz. At such high frequencies, transmission beams must be extremely narrow to avoid energy losses. Moreover, power can only be transmitted if there is a clear line of sight between the WPT system and the target device. Since 5G relays are often used to extend the range of 5G base stations, WPT needs to reach even further, which is yet another challenge for 24 GHz systems.

Join the late, renowned philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel C Dennett on a captivating journey of intellectual exploration through his own life.

Sign up as a member to watch the Q\&A here: • Q\&A: A life of the mind — Daniel Dennett.
Buy Daniel’s book here: https://geni.us/K3Ja.

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Apple is developing technology that would allow any number of willing people in close proximity to start an audio chat, using only an iPhone and a headset like AirPods, with no WiFi or cell service needed.

Instantaneous communication like the Walkie-Talkie feature on the Apple Watch would be possible but with groups of people instead of individuals.

Unlike the Walkie-Talkie feature, this new technology would eliminate the roundtrip to Apple’s cloud servers, a step that makes Walkie-Talkie unreliable at times. Also, unlike Walkie-Talkie, this would allow groups of willing people to talk to each other simultaneously.

The performance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including large computational models for natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision algorithms, has been rapidly improving over the past decades. One reason for this is that datasets to train these algorithms have exponentially grown, collecting hundreds of thousands of images and texts often collected from the internet.

Training data for robot control and planning algorithms, on the other hand, remains far less abundant, in part because acquiring it is not as straightforward. Some computer scientists have thus been trying to create larger datasets and platforms that could be used to train computational models for a wide range of robotics applications.

In a recent paper, pre-published on the server arXiv and set to be presented at the Robotics: Science and Systems 2024 conference, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and NVIDIA Research introduced one of these platforms, called RoboCasa.

You can now get a Starlink Mini in the US, wherever you are and even if you’re not paying for a residential subscription. SpaceX started offering select users the new Starlink dish model that’s small enough to fit in a backpack in late June. Despite its small size that makes it easy to transport and carry around, the Mini used to require an existing $150 standard service plan — you could only tack on the Mini Roam service for an additional fee of $30 a month. Now, you can get it on its own with a roaming service.

The mobile regional plan costs $150 a month and will give you access to unlimited data. It’s probably the better option if you live in an RV or travel to remote locations for extended periods of time. Meanwhile, the Mini Roam plan costs $50 a month and will give you access to 50GB of data, which is likely enough if you don’t live on the road full time. Take note that you can use Mini Roam in motion anytime, as long as you’re on land. The mobile regional plan has limited in-motion use and only works when you’re going slower than 10mph, though you can choose to add data meant for in-motion use on a per-GB basis.

Like Starlink’s other terminals, you’ll have to pay for the Mini up front. It will cost you $599 for the kit, which includes a kickstand, a pipe adapter, a power supply and a cord with a USB-C connector on one end and a barrel jack on the other. (As The Verge notes, you can plug it into a 100W USB-PD power bank if you don’t have access to other power sources.) There’s no Wi-Fi router with the kit, because it’s already integrated into the dish, giving you one less component to carry.

Spider spidroin revives the silken splendor.

In their quest to make silk powerful again, not by status but rather by thread strength, scientists turned to an arachnoid. Dragline silk, the thread by which the spider hangs itself from the web, is one of the strongest fibers; its tensile strength—a measure of how much a polymer deforms when strained—is almost thrice that of silkworm silk.²

Beyond durable fashion garments, tough silk fibers are coveted in parachutes, military protective gear, and automobile safety belts, among other applications, so scientists are keen to pull on these threads. While traditional silk production relies on sericulture, arachnophobes can relax: spider farms are not a thing.