(Credit:
Thales UK)
Thales UK released photos of the new Watchkeeper UAV maiden flight in Northern Israel after permission to publish the pictures had been blocked for three weeks because of political considerations, according to industry press reports.
The Watchkeeper, a "fully autonomous" (including automatic takeoff and landing) unmanned aerial vehicle, is expected to assume reconnaissance and target acquisition duties for the British military by 2010, according to Thales.
The robo-platform comes equipped with day/night electro-optic sensors, laser-target designators, and advanced synthetic aperture radar. Information and images collected are transmitted to a network of mobile ground control stations and remote viewing terminals where operators can control missions. It's unarmed but does include a "de-icing capabilit."
Permission to publish the pictures had been blocked by the U.K. Defence Equipment & Support organization since the April 16 maiden flight, according to Flightglobal.com, "due to sensitivities linked to local elections held across the U.K. on 1 May."
The 450-kilogram Watchkeeper, based on the Elbit Hermes 450, will be built jointly by the Israeli company Elbit Systems and the French-owned Thales UK. Starting price was 15 million pounds (more than $29 million) but has reportedly risen to 17 million pounds a pop (more than $33 million), and despite 2,100 lucrative jobs, a good portion of that money will be flying away offshore. There's one reason to be sensitive.
Swarm Systems will enter autonomous quadrotor micro air vehicles weighing less than 2 pounds.
(Credit: Swarm Systems)
A village in England will host a robot hide-and-seek exercise next month, when 11 teams drawn from private companies and universities compete to sniff out snipers, roadside bombs, and other hidden dangers while relaying real-time images to a command post.
The MOD Grand Challenge, as it's called, is billed as the U.K. Ministry of Defense's counterpart to the U.S. DARPA Challenges, except it's military robots that compete against one another instead of robotic cars.
The purpose is to boost development of small robot teams capable of scouting out and alerting troops to potentially dangerous surprises on the urban battlefield. The robots must autonomously negotiate complex, unfamiliar terrain and urban clutter to locate the threats. Points are earned based on the number of threats uncovered in one hour. Points are lost if a team resorts to remote control to maneuver its bots at any stage.
... Read moreIn a recent blog on CNET News.com it was learned that modders in 16 states were brought down for allegedly selling and distributing "circumvention devices."
While federal agents, including U.S. Customs officials, are heralding the capture of these "criminals" as a mark of significant progress in the fight against modding, I'm not so quick to agree.
At its very core, what is so wrong with modding, or modifying, one's gadgets? While I admittedly don't know as much about the techniques involved, because I don't own any modded devices, I still have trouble understanding why companies (and officials) have such a hard time with people making products better.
Now, I'm not saying that individuals should be allowed to sell and distribute a modded Xbox 360 to the highest bidder, but I am saying they should be able to mod the system for their own benefit. Yes, I can hear DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) proponents crying out in disgust already, but to be honest, I think those folks need to get a strong lesson in logic.
Banning modding is nothing more than a business ploy. And although organizations like the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the U.S. government claims that it raises our prices and maintains an unhealthy business environment, I'm not sure where John Doe, modding his PlayStation in the comfort of his home so he can play overseas games, is contributing to the "facilitation of multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering."
Isn't John Doe buying that software from an American importer? And isn't that American importer paying taxes on the profit it makes at the end of the year, which, in case you were wondering, comes from guys like John Doe?
I am strongly against the sale and distribution of modded video game consoles, but I can't help but be a proponent of modding video game consoles for your own pleasure, as long as you use it for the benefit of those who hold the software copyright. In other words: buy the legal software, not the pirated stuff.
But what makes modding so awful? Is it because you agreed to an implied contract upon breaking the shrink wrap that you wouldn't own the rights to the system, no matter how much you paid for it? If so, that's a bunch of garbage. If I paid my hard-earned money for a game system, then I should have the legal right to open it up and make it do whatever I want. And if that means that my American Xbox 360 will be able to play a Japanese Xbox 360 game, then so be it.
The never-ending copyright protection that can be found on just about every kind of media today is simply outrageous. Does it serve the purpose of protecting the copyright holder's material? Obviously not. If it did, we wouldn't have pirating that, according to the Entertainment Software Association, costs the video game industry billions of dollars each year.
In fact, you might be surprised to know that pirated material typically sells better than something that isn't pirated. You know why? Nobody wants the stuff that isn't pirated. Besides that, I believe that most people are honest and want to have both copies.
Maybe it's just me, but I believe that the DMCA and government officials at home and abroad underestimate our ability to be pillars of society. If you read the DMCA, you will find a law that protects businesses and abandons all trust in the average citizen--it's sad, to say the least.
Sorry ESA, Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony; I trust people. Maybe you should too--it might help your bottom line.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Copehill Down in Wiltshire, England
(Credit: Crown Copyright/MOD 2007)The U.K. Ministry of Defense announced Monday that 14 of the 23 teams who applied have made it to the finals of its Grand Challenge.
The MOD Grand Challenge is a competition of robots similar to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Grand Challenge. The finalist teams range from universities to military contractors.
Coincidentally, both the U.S. DARPA Grand Challenge this November 3 and the U.K. MOD Grand Challenge this August 2008 will focus on the urban setting.
However, while the DARPA-sponsored challenge focuses on the autonomous vehicle, the MOD-sponsored challenge concentrates on the robot soldier.
The challenge put forth to would-be competitors for 2008 is to create an autonomous or semi-autonomous robot that can assist in military action in an urban setting.
Specifically, the robot must be inconspicuous and robust in addition to being able to "detect, identify, monitor and report the position of a wide range of threats within a complex military urban environment, including within individual buildings," according to the MOD Grand Challenge site.
The four types of challenges the robots will have to face will be: snipers, armed vehicles, armed foot soldiers and improvised explosive devices.
The challenge will take place at Copehill Down, a MOD training facility in Wiltshire, England, simulating the architecture and facilities of an actual town.
Microsoft is cracking down on Xbox owners who modify their consoles.
The company is blocking modified Xbox 360 systems from connecting to its online multiplayer video game service, Xbox Live.
According to a blog posting from Microsoft's Games Global Marketing team, when owners of a modified console try to log onto the service, they will be blocked, although they will not have their accounts banned.
"We will continue to enforce this rule to ensure the integrity of our service, the protection of our partners and the benefits of our users," the blog states.
Blog community response:
"Granted, we can't really fault Xbox for trying to keep cheating between gamers on the level, but anything that so actively deincentivizes people from toying around with their own hardware is a serious bummer."
--Engadget
"It's a good thing my Xbox 360 isn't connected to the interwebs or else I'd be getting the above message. I'm not lying when I say I'd cry...a lot. It was only a matter of time before Microsoft put their foot down and punished all the hackers/modders, but it sucks all the same."
--CrunchGear
"If I were in the market for a used Xbox 360, I'd be very wary of buying one over the next few weeks."
--Kotaku
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