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In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday evening, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled Amazon Prime Air, a service that delivers packages via autonomous drones. With the service, Bezos said he hopes that the company will be able to deliver packages into customers hands within 30 minutes of the time they place an order. This seems like something from the Jetsons, the concept of an octocopter equipped with eight blades, built-in GPS, and a shoebox-size bin landing product right on your doorstep in less than half an hour with a push of a button! Well, the future is coming sooner than you think, as Amazon Prime Air could well be a reality by late 2015. Move over Santa, Amazon Prime Air will have us covered for the next holiday season. Tell us what you think of Amazon Prime Air? What would you order?

A year ago, Boston Dynamics uploaded a video of their quadruped robot, Cheetah, hitting speeds of 29 mph on a treadmill. Cheetah couldn’t live up to its name, but certainly faster than a human. Back then, it was plugged in and supported by a boom. Not anymore. Cheetah’s off the treadmill and out on the streets. Equipped with a roll cage, an on board engine, and a new name—meet Cheetah’s robotic cousin, WildCat! WildCat is an early model for field testing. It sports a noisy combustion on board engine, not unlike early field tests on pack robot, AlphaDog. And though its roll cage looks robust and capable of taking a fall (as it does in the video), WildCat’s handlers are keeping a leash on it. The robot’s top speed, so far, is 16 mph. But it certainly doesn’t look slow. Enabled by an articulated spine and bio-mimetic stride, its two gaits—galloping and bounding—are smooth, as is its ability to turn is quite impressive. Eventually, WildCat’s speed and maneuverability will be put to use in “emergency response, humanitarian missions, or other useful military applications.” What other kinds of applications do you see WildCat being used for? For more information about WildCat visit their website at www.BostonDynamics.com or see more awesome robot videos here.

Are you curious on how to connect a TAU 2 with a VPC module for the first time? FLIR Tau 2 uncooled infrared thermal imaging camera cores are designed for OEM integration and it’s easy to do with this step by step video. All you need is the following: FLIR Tau 2 thermal imaging camera VPC Module Kit Video Monitor or TV with an external video input USB power source You can learn more about FLIR Tau 2 cameras here.

When crops are the source of your income, you want to be prepared for anything. And a great way to protect your resources is to survey your property with a thermal imaging UAV. This video shows the Draganflyer X4, equipped with the FLIR TAU Camera, in action. It can be used to inspect and provide information on crops. In this example the Draganflyer X4 is used to inspect a vineyard. The resulting video shows where there are possible irrigation leaks and dead foilage. A UAV drone equipped with a FLIR Tau camera can provide valuable information without the need to survey the field by foot. Video by Draganfly Innovations Inc. View more videos from Draganfly Innovations Inc here. or visit their website. Check out our line of FLIR Tau 2 Thermal Cameras here.

Wow! What’s more impressive than one very agile drone? How about a multitude of drones flying in different formations together! This video shows experiments performed with a team of nano quadrotors at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. Vehicles developed by KMel Robotics. See more awesome nano quadrotor videos here

This multi-viewpoint robotic camera system, under development by NHK, links the motion of eight sub-cameras to that of an individual camera, so that all cameras film the same moving object. This allows for multiple viewing points of a recorded scene, and can be edited for viewing different angles in slow motion. This would be beneficial for recording sporting events or filming action sequences for movies. Clip by DigiInfoNews – See more of their latest tech videos here.

Color Camera Models – View All Model Resolution Frame Rate DFK 23UP031 2592×1944 15fps DFK 23U274 1600×1200 20fps DFK 23UM021 1280×960 60fps DFK 23U445 1280×960 30fps DFK 23UV024 752×480 100fps Monochrome Camera Models – View All Model Resolution Frame Rate DMK 23UP031 2592×1944 15fps DMK 23U274 1600×1200 20fps DMK 23U445 1280×960 60fps DMK 23UM021 1280×960 30fps DMK 23UV024 752×480 100fps

USB 3.0 is the second major revision of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard for computer connectivity. USB 3.0 has transmission speeds of up to 5 Gbit/s, which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/s) before taking into account that USB 3.0 is full duplex whereas USB 2.0 is half duplex, giving USB 3.0 the potential total bandwidth if utilized both ways to 20 times that of USB 2.0. Transfer speed – Added a new transfer type called Super Speed or SS – 5 Gbit/s (electrically it is more similar to PCIe Gen2 and SATA than USB 2.0)<3> Increased bandwidth – Instead of one-way communication, USB 3.0 uses two unidirectional data paths: one to receive data and the other to transmit Power management – U0 through U3 link power management states are defined Improved bus utilization – a new feature is added (using packets NRDY and ERDY) to let a device asynchronously notify the host of its readiness (no need of polling) Support to rotating media – Bulk protocol is updated with a new feature called Stream Protocol that allows a large number of logical streams within an Endpoint Comparing USB Types See our line of OEM USB 3.0 Cameras http://www.oemcameras.com/enclosed-cameras/enclosed-digital-usb-3-cameras For more in-depth information on USB 3.0 see our sources below: http://blog.macsales.com/14399-usb-3-0-brings-a-newish-plug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0

Can robots convey compassion? Connect with humans on an emotional level like other living creatures? Well, disguising a robot as a baby seal pup is one step towards blurring those lines. Engineers in Japan have created PARO, a therapeutic robot modeled after a baby Harp seal, that displays emotional responses triggered through its heat and visual sensors for a positive psychological, physical, and social affect on its user. Like animal therapy, PARO is a great tool for recovering and mentally disabled patients to cope with trauma without the side effects of drugs or prolonged therapy. Robots mimicking human responses and emotions is the next step in treating and coping with mental illnesses while also shedding light on what makes us human.

These camera models have been replaced by the RHPC-2500. 20B14XUSB (NTSC) or 21B14XUSB (PAL) USB 2.0 bus provides power 640 x 480 Resolution 30 fps (NTSC) 25 fps (PAL) 22mm x 26mm Complete SDK available 20B14XDIG (NTSC) or 21B14XDIG (PAL) 8-Bit Digital YUV & composite video output 640 x 480 resolution 30 fps (NTSC) 25 fps (PAL) 22mm x 26mm Optional USB