News of the week selected by Impactscool – May 21, 2018

The most important news on technology and the future, selected from all over the web for Impactscool’s readers

A helicopter on Mars

The first device that will fly in the skies of the “red planet” is called Mars Helicopter. NASA has announced that in the next rover that will leave for Mars, in 2020, there will also be the small aircraft, slightly bigger than a baseball and weighing about two kilograms. The device, completely autonomous, will be equipped with a double counter-rotating wing system, which will have the task of supporting it, at over 2,500 rpm, in the subtle Martian atmosphere. The space agency is not yet able to say with certainty whether Mars Helicopter will be able to fly, given the extreme conditions on Mars. If successful, however, the device could capture unpublished images of the Red Planet, thanks to the two cameras it is equipped with, and open new perspectives for the next missions.

Facial recognition to find the VIPs

On Saturday the wedding of the year was celebrated, between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and there were many nobles and celebrities present in the Chapel of St George in Windsor Castle. Is it possible to recognize everyone? Yes, thanks to technological support. The British broadcaster Sky News, in collaboration with some tech start-ups and Amazon Web Service, during the wedding offered the Who’s Who Live service, which allowed viewers and web users to identify the audience in real time thanks to the recognition facial. The names of the guests, when framed, automatically appeared as subtitles thanks to a system of artificial intelligence, which could soon be used by the media also during other major events such as, for example, the Oscar ceremony. This AI, however, was put to the test on the occasion of the “wedding of the year”: how did it recognize the celebrities despite the extravagant headgears?

Flying taxis: Uber continues experimentation

Uber has decided to invest in the future and continues research and experimentation on flying “cars”. The company, which had started working on the project in 2016, has made significant progress thanks to the technological advancement, so much so that already in 2020 we could have the first tests. The prototype designed by Uber, presented on 8 and 9 May at the second annual Elevate Summit, is called Vertical Takeoff and Landing, VTOL, and is a hybrid between a helicopter, an aeroplane and a drone. It is an electric propulsion vehicle that, after an initial phase in which it will be governed by a pilot, should become self-driving. Will Uber be able to revolutionize the world transport system? In the projects of the Californian company, VTOL will be one of the options to move already starting from 2023, even if the road still seems long.