Algorithm processes accelerometer data to position automated vehicles in satellite coverage gaps
Mohamed Atia commutes to work and runs errands in a Toyota Yaris, but when he duct tapes a set of sensors to the vehicle, attaches an antenna to the roof and connects the equipment to a small custom-built computer on the front passenger seat, the nondescript silver hatchback is transformed into a window to the future of transportation — minus the duct tape, of course.
A professor of systems engineering at Carleton University, Atia drives around the city looking for places where Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals are blocked by buildings, tunnels and other infrastructure... Click here for full text |
Simple automotive safety alerts can be more effective than visually complicated onesAt dusk on a quiet rural road, a large animal is emerging from the forest. As the daylight fades, the moose blends in with the trees, but if a driver notices it in time, they can stop or swerve to avoid a collision. Too often, they don’t.
Each year, there are over 10,000 collisions between vehicles and wildlife in Ontario. Most are not fatal for those in the vehicle, but the costs are significant. In Canada, it is estimated that this type of collision costs about $800 million each year. Automotive safety systems have the potential to use sensors to warn drivers of potential collisions with wildlife, vehicles and other road hazards... Click here for full text |
Advances in robotics will revolutionize health care, transportation, and manufacturingWith micrometre-level precision, today’s factory robots can assemble thousands of components into a powerful electronic device such as the phone in your pocket. They can perform these intricate and repetitive tasks with great dexterity – in highly controlled settings such as manufacturing plants.
But the world is bigger – and more unpredictable – than a factory floor. Tomorrow’s robots will need to be able to adapt on the fly to changing real-world situations. Consider an autonomous vehicle trying to drive safely through a sudden snowstorm, or search-and-rescue robots seeking earthquake survivors in difficult and shifting terrain. Advances in AI... Click here for full text |
Continuum robotics enables novel surgical techniquesThe shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but that doesn’t mean the most direct route will yield the best results.
As a concept, that isn’t exactly brain surgery, but it does apply to it. During a craniotomy – a type of surgery that can target brain tumours, aneurysms and other neurological conditions -- surgeons sometimes have to displace bone and tissue to reach their surgical target. All things being equal, making an incision nearer to that target means less tissue will be displaced -- but innovative new tools are opening the possibility of less invasive surgeries that don’t displace tissue at all. Click here for full text |
Cybersecurity for an insecure world
|
Bendable tech will change the way we interact with our devices
If your phone could conform to your wrist, that Apple Watch would be obsolete. Electronics that can be bent, shaped and worn are coming – and they open up entirely new ways to use existing technology.
“It could make a computer game more engaging to play, allow you to squeeze your phone for notifications, or enable new ways to unlock it,” says Audrey Girouard. “Instead of a numeric password, you could bend each corner of the phone. More tactile ways of interacting with devices can be useful for people with disabilities." Click here for full text |
Building better transportation systemsAs a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos cruised toward a rural Saskatchewan intersection on a clear April afternoon, its driver couldn’t tell that a large truck approaching from the south wouldn’t yield. The truck sped through a stop sign at 100 km/h, broad-siding the hockey team’s bus.
16 were killed, 13 wounded. Broadside collisions are among the deadliest types of accidents. Connected and automated vehicle technologies can help prevent them. Vehicle communications technologies transmit a basic safety message (BSM) to infrastructure and other vehicles. That message includes a vehicle’s speed, location, acceleration and braking information. Click here for full text |
Networks that transfer AI could enable more advanced applications“We are in the business of information exchange – and we have been for 20 or 30 years now. You can get stock market information from New York within one second, and know what’s happening in Hong Kong in just a few seconds,” says Dr. Richard Yu.
“Before information, we had big progress in exchanging energy. I can plug in my laptop, and get energy. You don’t need to generate your own power. That made our lives much easier. Before that, it was transportation – cars, trains and airplanes – transferring matter from one location to another. From my point of view, these three grids are the three major innovations in the human history: transportation, energy and information.” The next innovation could be even more transformative – a grid that enables the sharing of intelligence. Click here for full text |
Using network slicing to protect from DDoS attacksThe attack took down AirBnB, Amazon, Spotify, and Twitter. It even tripped up NHL.com.
In October 2016, a large-scale cyberattack used a network of internet-connected devices infected with malware to target some of the world’s most popular websites. Using common household electronics like printers, web cams and baby monitors, hackers bombarded these well-known websites with tens of millions of queries. Known as a distributed denial-of-service attack, it crashed the websites of some of the internet’s best-known brands, rendering them useless for most of the day. But if the hackers had access to an even larger number of connected devices, the results could have been worse. With the total number of connected devices growing each day, the need to ensure they are secure has never been greater. Click here for full text |