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A lonely Japanese drone got lost in Europe

UPDATE -11:50 am CET- the linked page is no longer available (See bottom of page) A sort of artificial tourist is wandering the skies A Osaka University autonomous drone, designed to explore urban environments and take photos of Google Maps landmarks, went missing during a test flight on March 18 while the developers were visiting the University of Hannover, in Germany. This machine is programmed to fly solo, without the need of human intervention. As reported on the webpage dedicated to this project, a malfunction occurred to the drone’s CNC (cellular network connection module) so that the robot couldn’t receive the “COME HOME” signal. As reported by the project manager Kazuo…

ONO, smart 3D printing with your phone

What is ONO Some ideas are so elegant (clever yet simple) that you regret not being the guy who came up with them. The startup company ONO is launching a new 3D printing system for smartphones, with which you can obtain solid objects based on a design that you created or downloaded. The main piece of hardware of the ONO system is your phone: modern handheld devices sport excellent raw computing power, internet connection, versatility, and crucially a high resolution screen. The screen is at the core of this technology because it’s tasked to emit light patterns in a step-by-step process, mirroring the shape of the various sections of the object that is being printed. Those light…