Big Brother is Watching

The ARGUS-IS (Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System). is the next step in high imaging surveillance. It’s a 1.8 Gigapixel (which translates into 1.8 billion pixels), super camera created for complete surveillance in an area the size of a city. It’s the world’s most advanced high resolution camera.

The Argus is carried by a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and performs whats called “wide area persistent stare”. This surveillance is the equivalent to having 100 predator UAV’s survey an area the size of a mid-sized city at once. It’s so precise it can clearly show the details of a vehicle license plate or a person’s facial features from 17,500 feet.

What makes the Argus so incredible isn’t the high image resolution pictures...it's what they can do with the video footage. Watch the video below to learn more about the Argus and its surveillance capabilities…because big brother IS watching. 

Self Driving Cars

Google isn't just a search engine anymore. Since buying youtube they have expanded into music, merchandising, advertising and now automobiles. In 2010 Google began a project that would create autonomous automobiles. In other words cars that would steer and drive themselves. The idea sounds like vehicles seen in science fiction movies like I, Robot and Blade Runner, but they're real.

The plan behind the project was designed to give blind and disabled people a safe means of travel (aside from public transportation). They also believe autonomous vehicles would make our roads and highways safer for everyone. Since introducing this smart vehicle in 2010 Google has steadily improved the vehicles response time and performance. Now in 2012 they've completed more than 200 hours of real driving on the roads and the vehicle seems almost ready for mass production. Below are videos showing some of the test runs for these self-driving cars...like it or not the technology now exists where science fiction has become reality.

Future Cars

Modern car designs don’t stray far from the original design from the 19th century. The doors are fixed in place by two separate hinges attached to the body of the vehicle. Over the years some designers switched the locations of the hinges. Placing the hinges at the top of the car was the inception of the Lamborghini style wing doors. Placing them at the opposite side of the door frame, created the suicide doors. They were given the name because of their popularity amongst 1930’s criminals. They found suicide doors easier to open, when throwing victims from the moving vehicle.

Jatech offers a brand new design to automobiles. They offer luxury automobiles with a seamless drop down door system unlike any created before. The doors slide down and under the car out of view..literally disappearing. That may sound like a large claim but if you watch the video below it will prove it.

Dolphin Speed Boat

I read this awesome interview on Popular Science talking about future water transportation. Some ingenious engineers decided to use nature as inspiration and made a speed boat named the Seabreacher designed after a dolphin. Not only does the Seabreacher look like a dolphin it also moves like one through the water and can emulate the dolphins ability jump into the air up to 18 feet. If you read my other article Animal Technology you know that this isn’t the first time designers used nature as inspiration. 

What makes the Seabreacher unique is that the engineers didn’t just take a few ideas from watching dolphins and add them to a speed boat. They tried to make a mechanical one. Its animal technology on steroids…take a look at the video below.

Meet the Jetsons

If you’ve never heard of the Jetsons its okay cuz the show is older than dinosaurs. The Jetsons were a family who lived in the future and would go to work, school and shop using Jetpacks. This was a revolutionary concept at the time cuz it depicted humans flying as the next step in technology.

We’ve now reached that point...in steps the Martian Jetpack. The Martin Jetpack is the world’s first Jetpack made for commercial use. Unlike the Jetpacks you see in the movies which use strings and other devices to assist with flying, this actually works. It consists of a gasoline engine driving twin ducted fans which produce sufficient thrust to lift the aircraft and a pilot in vertical takeoff and landing, enabling sustained flight. I posted a clip below, take a look cuz this is your future too.

Here is another Jetpack. This one is cooler cuz it's faster and looks similar to the ones worn in Japanese Anime. This is a powerful Jetpack that reaches speeds up to 300kph and has wings like a jet plane. Its completely developed and functioning but do to its many applicable military uses will most likely not be available commercially for another decade. Check it out!