challenge

Humanoid-robot soldiers may be getting closer to reality with DARPA's next Grand Challenge, which apparently will involve getting a robot to pull off some pretty impressive handyman skills.

According to robotics Web site Hizook, DARPA's Gill Pratt recently outlined the challenge, which calls for humanoids to be used in industrial disasters and rough terrain.

The ultimate object is to build a robot that can work in a human environment and use human tools. The industrial setting is no surprise in the aftermath of Japan's Fukushima nuclear crisis, in which various robots from the U.S. have lent a helping hand (or manipulator). … Read more

Of course, it shouldn't have come to this. But it apparently has.

Microsoft's fine and entertaining "Smoked by Windows Phone Challenge" has caused one man to retain legal representation.

Vivek Viswanathan, a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga., claims he won the challenge not merely once, but twice. Yet still, he says, the folks at the Microsoft store wouldn't give him the prize of a "Hunger Games" Special Edition PC, worth $1,000.

Indeed, he says the manager of the Microsoft store came out and asked him to … Read more

Did famed filmmaker James Cameron just do for the oceans what scientific experts have struggled to do for decades?

When "Avatar" and "Titanic" director Cameron piloted his custom submersible, the Deepsea Challenger, to the bottom of the Mariana Trench yesterday and became the first person ever to make a solo dive to the world's deepest spot, he shined a crucial spotlight on the field of ocean exploration.

In recent years, scientists have been shouting from rooftops around the world that unless humanity puts more energy into studying our oceans, we are at real risk of … Read more

Apple products are mostly used by younger generations, but the company should still recognize the dangers of "high-tech modern architecture." Such is the plea of 83-year-old Evelyn Paswall, a New Yorker taking Apple to court for $1 million after walking face first into the glass door entrance to the Long Island Apple store.

Does her case hold water, and should Apple continue to use ugly white tape to let people know glass is a real thing? We'll talk about this story and more on today's episode of The 404.… Read more

Of course Windows Phones are faster than other smartphones. It's just that in this case, the definition of the word "faster" may be in the mind of the listener.

This seems to be the verdict after what sounds like a pulsating weekend in Microsoft's retail stores, as the company's hard-working employees battled against normal human beings for smartphone supremacy.

Should this all sound a touch gibberesque to you, please bear with me. I'm talking about the "Smoked by Windows Phone Challenge," now at a Microsoft theater near you.

The idea is that … Read more

Give James Cameron this much: He's unafraid to follow his passions where they lead him. Even if that place is seven miles below the surface of the ocean.

Yesterday Cameron became the first person to make a solo dive to the ocean's deepest point -- a portion of the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench known as "Challenge Deep." Cameron piloted a "vertical torpedo" of a submersible he dubbed "Deepsea Challenger" to the bottom of the trench, 35,756 feet down, then spent three hours filming and taking samples before safely returning to … Read more

If you had to track down fugitives hidden in five cities around the world, would one day and a $5,000 reward be enough to succeed? And if so, how?

That's what the people behind the TAG Challenge want to know--and what the whole world will soon find out.

On March 31, mug shots of five "suspects" will be published, and it'll be game on in a global hunt for "jewel thieves" in Bratislava, Slovakia; Stockholm; London; Washington, D.C.; and New York City, each of whom will spend 12 hours that day in … Read more

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Leap day: what better time to launch a new iPhone app, especially if the app's name happens to be Leap? Leap uses challenges to motivate users to accomplish various tasks. Following the "pics or it didn't happen" mantra, users are only awarded points for pictures they upload of a completed task. The challenges can be serious in nature, or something to create some laughs.

Once you have uploaded a photo to a challenge, you will earn a point and your competitors (friends) will be notified of your latest post. If they feel you have … Read more

Looking to hire smart college kids? Here's a new tool that will help you find them: MindSumo.

It lets you create challenges, or contests, to help you solve problems you have at your company. You have to put up prize money, but in return, you get (hopefully) solutions to your problems, and (more hopefully) youth you can hire to work for you full time.

The prizes are not winner-takes-all; the challenge posters select the top solutions and the prize money is distributed among the best of them.

CEO Trent Hazy says that even for the entrants who don't … Read more