Google has declined funding from DARPA, the research and development arm of the US Department of Defense. This comes as two of the robotics companies it recently bought compete in a contest overseen by DARPA. Click through to find out more about Google's go-it-alone robotics venture, as well as some of its other eclectic acquisitions.
In a recent buying spree, the tech giant snapped up several robotics companies, including SCHAFT.
SCHAFT developed a vaguely humanoid robot that won accolades at the most recent DARPA robot trials. The event also saw teams from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University and Virginia Tech compete. Google bought the Japanese startup for an undisclosed amount in December 2013.
The big G also bought another, higher profile robotics company in that month: the US-based Boston Dynamics, who built the famous Big Dog and Atlas robots.
The company does provide some monetary links between the Pentagon and Google, with the DOD having spent $11 million on Atlas robots. But Boston Dynamics will not be accepting DARPA funding for its development efforts in future.
Google's robots of the future won't just be able to lift and carry. They'll be able to see as well. In their buying frenzy of 2013, Google got its hands on a company called Industrial Perception. Its unusal corporate motto is, "Providing robots with the skills they'll need to succeed in the economy of tomorrow", which sounds equally surreal and terrifying. In practice, it teaches industrial robots to see, which is just straight-out terrifying.
Oh, and the future robots won't just be able to see what they're looking at. They'll record it as well, if the purchase of Bot & Dolly is anything to go by. These folks, who provided robotic moving cameras to the Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity, build intelligent robot cameras that can be intergrated with the CG elements of what they're filming.
When most people think of AI, it's either impossibly human-like robots, or simple machines programmed in code. But one of the companies taken over by Google concerns itself with teaching machines complex, abstract thought. DNN Research Inc is in the business of trying to induce deep learning in artificial intelligences. Rather than simply programming robots, the company could in future develop machines that continually learn. They would use past lessons and new information to come to conclusions through abstract reasoning.
Deepmind is another AI technology company that Google snapped up, spending more than $500 million on it in the opening days of 2014. It's concerned with helping Artificial Intelligence learn about new concepts and systems, so you could find yourself having a game of five-hundred or bocci with a robot any day now.
You'd hope that your robot is friendly, and able to recognise you. Google dropped $45,000,000 on Ukrainian facial recognition outfit Viewdle, and we imagine it's because their software is fantastic, and not just because the two companies' names sort of rhymed.
Not content with creating a race of robot overlords, the company is also putting your house on the internet, one piece at a time. Analysts viewed its acquisition of Nest, a company that produces internet-enabled thermostats, electrical fittings and smoke detectors, as part of a venture into the "internet of things". This is a term thrown around by techies and futurists referring to a near future in which everyday objects are connected to the net.
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In a recent buying spree, the tech giant snapped up several robotics companies, including SCHAFT.
SCHAFT developed a vaguely humanoid robot that won accolades at the most recent DARPA robot trials. The event also saw teams from MIT, Carnegie Mellon University and Virginia Tech compete. Google bought the Japanese startup for an undisclosed amount in December 2013.
You must be registered for see images
The big G also bought another, higher profile robotics company in that month: the US-based Boston Dynamics, who built the famous Big Dog and Atlas robots.
The company does provide some monetary links between the Pentagon and Google, with the DOD having spent $11 million on Atlas robots. But Boston Dynamics will not be accepting DARPA funding for its development efforts in future.
You must be registered for see images
Google's robots of the future won't just be able to lift and carry. They'll be able to see as well. In their buying frenzy of 2013, Google got its hands on a company called Industrial Perception. Its unusal corporate motto is, "Providing robots with the skills they'll need to succeed in the economy of tomorrow", which sounds equally surreal and terrifying. In practice, it teaches industrial robots to see, which is just straight-out terrifying.
You must be registered for see images
Oh, and the future robots won't just be able to see what they're looking at. They'll record it as well, if the purchase of Bot & Dolly is anything to go by. These folks, who provided robotic moving cameras to the Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity, build intelligent robot cameras that can be intergrated with the CG elements of what they're filming.
You must be registered for see images
When most people think of AI, it's either impossibly human-like robots, or simple machines programmed in code. But one of the companies taken over by Google concerns itself with teaching machines complex, abstract thought. DNN Research Inc is in the business of trying to induce deep learning in artificial intelligences. Rather than simply programming robots, the company could in future develop machines that continually learn. They would use past lessons and new information to come to conclusions through abstract reasoning.
You must be registered for see images
Deepmind is another AI technology company that Google snapped up, spending more than $500 million on it in the opening days of 2014. It's concerned with helping Artificial Intelligence learn about new concepts and systems, so you could find yourself having a game of five-hundred or bocci with a robot any day now.
You must be registered for see images
You'd hope that your robot is friendly, and able to recognise you. Google dropped $45,000,000 on Ukrainian facial recognition outfit Viewdle, and we imagine it's because their software is fantastic, and not just because the two companies' names sort of rhymed.
You must be registered for see images
Not content with creating a race of robot overlords, the company is also putting your house on the internet, one piece at a time. Analysts viewed its acquisition of Nest, a company that produces internet-enabled thermostats, electrical fittings and smoke detectors, as part of a venture into the "internet of things". This is a term thrown around by techies and futurists referring to a near future in which everyday objects are connected to the net.
It's happening. All hail our new overlords, Google!
