robotwars, saic, target cities, l-rad & vampire cams

automated killer robots 'threat to humanity'
from afp: Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP. "They pose a threat to humanity," said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain's Royal United Services Institute.

saic gets urban warfare research work
from washington technology: Science Applications International Corp. will assist the Army in developing technology that will allow troops to see inside buildings during urban military operations under a $5.2 million contract, the Defense Department announced Feb. 19. Under the contract, SAIC will help the Army develop and test technology for the concept known as VisiBuilding.

billboard depicts fire cloud over houston
from click2houston: A billboard went up along the Southwest Freeway depicting the Bayou City as a terrorist target. It is a bright orange fire cloud over Houston. It's a campaign billboard for Brian Klock, a Republican candidate for U.S. Rep. District 22... "I used to read the threat. I knew what was going on locally right here in Houston. I believe it is a real threat," he said. The billboard depicts Houston's economic heart under attack - the ship channel, refineries and the skyline all seen through the scope of a gun. "It's a depiction of a worse case scenario I want people to know it's out there," Klock said.

san jose police get 'less-lethal' sound weapon
from nbc11: San Jose police have a new crime fighting tool. You might want to hear about it, but you won't want to hear it being used. They'll be using a dish-shaped, sonic weapon called a Long Range Acoustic Device - or L-RAD. Police say it will be used mostly as a high-grade sound system to amplify a police officer's order at great distances. But it can also be used as another of the department's "less-lethal" weapons. The ear-splitting device is growing in popularity around the globe and has been used by soldiers to flush suspected terrorists out of caves in Afghanistan.

uk cameras detect blood to catch carpool lane cheats
from daily mail: Motorists will be targeted by a new generation of road cameras which work out how many people are in a car by measuring the amount of bodily fluid it contains... The cameras work by sending an infrared beam through the windscreen of vehicles which detects the unique make-up of blood and water content in human skin.