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Japan developing remote control for humans By Yuri Kageyama Associated Press Tuesday, October 25, 2005; Posted: 3:58 p.m. EDT (19:58 GMT) ATSUGI, Japan (AP) -- We wield remote controls to turn things on and off, make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots. But manipulating humans? Prepare to be remotely controlled. Just imagine being rendered the rough equivalent of a radio-controlled toy car. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. A special headset was...

ATSUGI, Japan - We wield remote controls to turn things on and off, make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots. But manipulating humans? Prepare to be remotely controlled. I was. Just imagine being rendered the rough equivalent of a radio-controlled toy car. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind. I can envision it being added to militaries' arsenals of so-called "non-lethal" weapons. A special headset...

Remote control: built-in or bolt-on? by Jerry RussellAdvocates of the theory that remote control might have been used to guide the 9/11 aircraft to their targets, have been troubled by a debate over whether the necessary remote controls were actually built-in to the aircraft, or whether they were bolted-on as a retrofit for the specific tasks of 9/11.  Both theories have been viewed as having difficulties: building the system as standard equipment would require too many people to know about the system (causing security difficulties), while a retrofit of the system would also be too complex and expensive with excessive...

NEW YORK (AP) - Bringing a microphone and camera crew to the gates of an Aruba landfill this past week, Greta Van Susteren returned to the island that her nightly Fox News Channel program has figuratively called home recently. Van Susteren's "On the Record" has relentlessly followed the mysterious disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway of Alabama while on a graduation trip to Aruba in May. Critics find it an obsession bordering on the bizarre, twisting traditional notions of news judgment and becoming Exhibit A in the media's fascination with missing people - as long as they happen to be young,...

/begin my translation S. Korea: Robot Sentry Developed For DMZ Duty After a recent shooting accident inside guard post at DMZ, (S. Korean) military is looking into the possibility of installing unmanned intelligent robot sentry. On July 7th, at Dodam System inside Daeduk Research Park, Taejon City, a research team is testing a cutting-edge intelligent sentry and combat robot 'Aegis.' Armed with thermal imaging and infrared sensors, Aegis can remotely target and shoot enemies up up 1 km away. It would help relieve the burden from soldiers at guard post, and help reduce the number of soldiers stationed at guard post. [Lee Ok-hyun in Taejon, Yonhap News, 2005.7.7]   /begin my translation

I spy with my cyber eye ... Computer company ICA Inc. unveils its new robot-shaped PC cover "White Box Robotics" at an embedded systems technology expo in Tokyo June 29, 2005. The computer cover moves on wheels, guided by remote control and is equipped with a camera that can wirelessly transfer surveillance images to mobile devices. The technology will be utilized in the future for home security or home care, the company President Shuji Kondo said.

Fret About PC Zombie Threat? Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service Fri May 27,12:00 PM ET LONDON-- Worried about zombies? Internet users concerned about the number of virus-infected PCs ready to launch an attack over the Web can at least keep track of how afraid they should be--and satisfy their curiosity--by visiting CipherTrust Inc.'s new ZombieMeter resource. The security company added the ZombieMeter to its Web site this week, offering visitors hourly information on the global activity of new zombies by tracking data it receives through its IronMail e-mail security appliances. Zombiesare Internet-connected computers that have been infected by malicious code...

Mouse Click Brings Home Thrill of the Hunt Critics Move to Stop Tex. Online Business By Sylvia MorenoWashington Post Staff WriterSunday, May 8, 2005; Page A01 John Lockwood's Web site allows users to stalk and kill quarry from computers in remote locations. He says the site's main audience is people who are disabled or overseas. (By J. Michael Short For The Washington Post)   BULVERDE, Tex. -- On a tranquil Central Texas landscape, three fallow deer wandered through live oak and cedar as a rifle barrel poked out of a small shack nearby. With a metallic click, the Remington, clutched...

(TERRE HAUTE, Ind.) -- A man who claimed doctors "locked" his brain in a federal computer has been locked in the Vigo County Jail on a charge of threatening a physician. Kriss L. Rehmel, 38, of Coalmont, was accused of sending letters to several people, including President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, asking them to unlock his brain, which he believes has been controlled by a computer since Sept. 11, 2001, said Vigo County Sheriff Jon Marvel. The letters claimed Dr. Michael Rader of Terre Haute was to blame. The writer said that he would...

The Predator, with a 49-foot wingspan, is among the remotely piloted aircraft sending data from Iraq and Afghanistan back to crews in Nevada. U.S. Drones Crowding the Skies to Fight Insurgents in Iraq By ERIC SCHMITT NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev., March 30 - In the skies over Iraq, the number of remotely piloted aircraft - increasingly crucial tools in tracking insurgents, foiling roadside bombings, protecting convoys and launching missile attacks - has shot up to more than 700 now from just a handful four years ago, military officials say. As the American military continues to shift its emphasis...

VIDEOS: (Windows Media Format) - First Test taxi - VIDEO1(3.4MB) - First Video of Takeoff - VIDEO2 (2.1MB) - Long video of flying - VIDEO3 (29.2MB) - Video of the Crash - VIDEO4 (4.6MB) B-52 Specs: Builder: Gordon Nichols Contributing Team Members: Lance Bell (Co-constuctor, plans) Neil Dare (Undercarriage systems design and build) Dave Biddington (Engine pod design and moulding) Bob Everitt (Tail cone and rear armament construction) Wingspan: 23' Length: 23' Speed: Range: Dry Weight: 297 lbs Fueled Weight: 330lbs (inside the CAA 150kg limit) Fuel Capacity: 22 litres Jet A1 Kit Manufacturer: N/A Kit Availability: N/A Servo/Usage List:...

Inventor Nikola Tesla is beginning to remind me of the Michigan Mushroom—that underground fungus, nearly as large as its native state. He keeps cropping up unexpectedly like a truth suppressed. In 2004 this once forgotten scientist peppered films as motley as the smoky Coffee and Cigarettes, the silicone-sleek Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and the shoestring Primer. Tesla, beside inventing the radio (check with the Supreme Court, Marconi fans), the radar, remote control, and alternating current (AC electricity), also tinkered with a series of dreamy though equally ingenious ideas: plans to light the oceans, photograph thoughts, use insects...

A trio of new and unpatched vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows were made public on security mailing lists over the weekend, nudging some security vendors to alert users that their systems may be open to attack and hijacking. The vulnerabilities, first reported by a Chinese group and then posted to the Bugtraq mailing list, are in Windows' LoadImage API function, its animated cursor files, and in the way it handles help files. All of the bugs are as yet unpatched. All currently-supported versions of Windows -- Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Windows Server 2003 -- are affected by the three flaws,...

A robotic plane deliberately dropped a bomb near a truck at Edwards Air Force Base on Sunday, marking another step forward for technology the U.S. military hopes will one day replace human pilots on dangerous combat missions. Under human supervision but without human piloting, a prototype of Boeing's X-45 took off from the desert base, opened its bomb bay doors, dropped a 250-pound Small Smart Bomb and then landed. The inert bomb struck within inches of the truck it was supposed to hit, Boeing said, adding that had the bomb contained explosives, the target would have been destroyed. "It's absolutely...

<p>REDMOND, Wash. -- First Microsoft set out to put a computer in every home. Now the software giant hopes to put one in every vehicle, too.</p> <p>"We'd like to have one of our operating systems in every car on Earth," said Dick Brass, vice-president of Microsoft's automotive business unit. "It's a lofty goal."</p>

Germanys BND Intelligence Agency warned that Al Qaeda may be planning to use radio-controlled model planes or small rockets to attack passanger aircraft wolrdwide.A German seurity source said that the warning was based on information from the United States.

A federal magistrate has ordered digital video recorder maker Sonicblue to spy on customers. It's just the latest move in a lawsuit filed last October by entertainment companies upset about Sonicblue's ReplayTV devices, which let users skip commercials and share recorded programs over the Internet. The company has been told to monitor what TV programming its customers record, duplicate, or send to others. "We have been told to invade the privacy of our customers and hand over the data," Sonicblue CEO Ken Potashner told CNET Radio's Tracy Romine on Friday. (Click here for links to the full interview.) THE COMPANY...

You may have seen this news item posted on FreeRepublic. A rat maneuvers along a railroad track using a remote-controlled micro stimulator in San Antonio, in this November 2000 video image made available Wednesday, May 1, 2002. By implanting electrodes in rats' brains, scientists have created remote-controlled rodents they could command to turn, climb, jump or navigate piles of rubble, an advance they say could someday assist in search and rescue efforts. (AP Photo/SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Sanjiv Talwar) Folks, the truth is finally out about this insidious, wicked, abuse of one of God's littlest creatures.For what you saw reported...

Transmitting wireless signals directly into the brain, a group of scientists has produced the ultimate lab rat - an animal that can be guided by remote control over fences, up trees, through pipes and across rubble at distances of up to a third of a mile. In effect, they have transformed a living animal into a robot. The researchers, from the State University of New York and Drexel University, say their work with brain implants ultimately could produce controlled rats that could be used for rescue missions, video surveillance or detecting explosives such as land mines. The researchers implanted electrical...