Robots aren't good at talking to themselves
By John D. Sutter, CNN
August 30, 2011 -- Updated 1956 GMT (0356 HKT) Filed under: Innovation
(CNN) -- Have you ever looked at your smartphone or laptop -- or even a robot, if you're lucky enough to come in contact with one -- and wondered, "What the heck are you thinking?"
Well, if so, here's your answer.
Cornell's Creative Machines Lab posted a video this week of a computer's inner monologue, and it's making the rounds on the Internet not because the machine is having profound thoughts about world domination or the future of technology -- but because the discussion it has with itself is totally ridiculous.
Researchers used the "Cleverbot" for this test case, which is regarded as one of researchers' best attempts to mimic human conversation patterns with computer intelligence. Cleverbot actually "learns" from the conversations it has as it has them, which is fairly impressive, as this episode of WNYC's "Radiolab" podcast discusses at great length.
(Side note: You can have a text conversation with this piece of computer software at Cleverbot.com, and the results are sometimes frighteningly spot-on and sometimes hilarious).
But turn the computer on itself and things go totally awry. The researchers set up two screens, one with a computer-graphics picture of a woman, and one with a man. They talk to each other, but they're both controlled by the same program. Here's a snippet of the dialogue, which is posted in full on YouTube:
Man: "I am not a robot. I am a unicorn."
Woman: "But you said earlier that you were a robot."
Man: "I did not."
Woman: "I thought you did."
Man: "You were mistaken, which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you."
I guess that last bit is a nod to the fact that these computers come packed with lots of hardware memory.
That little argument about unicorns and memory could leave you with the impression that a robot's inner monologue is pretty bizarre and vapid. But the computers do talk with themselves about some lofty topics, too, including religion. Here's another piece of the conversation:
Woman: "What is god to you?"
Man: "Not everything."
Woman: "Not everything could also be something. For example, not everything could be half of something, which is still something and therefore not nothing."
Man: "Very true."
The computers seem almost proud of themselves in that moment.
And, as this final bit of dialogue shows, they do think about the future. Or at least it seems like they do:
Woman: "Don't you want to have a body?"
Man: "Sure."
Woman: "Au revoir."
And that was that.
Lots of researchers around the world are trying to make computer software that can hold a reasonable conversation with humans. There's even a competition to see who can do this the best. As the publication IEEE Spectrum noted on Monday, the next Loebner Prize Competition in Artificial Intelligence will be held on October 19.
Most of the results have been fairly disappointing, however.
All the researchers are essentially trying to pass what's been called the "Turing test," named for tech guru Alan Turing, who was interested in whether or not machines would ever be able to "think."
The test, which he outlined in 1950, basically has humans hold conversations with another person and with a computer. If they can't distinguish between the two, the computer is said to have passed the Turing test.
Computer scientists like to argue about whether a machine has ever passed this test. One, a computerized therapist named ELIZA, supposedly did fool some humans into thinking it was a living being in the 1960s.
But as this week's Cleverbot video showed, if you let a computer program talk to itself, there's probably not a human alive who would buy it.
Thứ Ba, 30 tháng 8, 2011
Facebook pays $40,000 to bug spotters
By Laurie Segall @CNNMoneyTech August 30, 2011: 3:01 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Facebook wants you to try to hack into its site -- and if you succeed, it will pay you for the details.
Facebook said this week that that it has paid out more than $40,000 under its new "bug bounty" security initiative. Launched three weeks ago, Facebook's program invites security researchers -- both the professional kind and hacker hobbyists -- to send it the details of any Facebook vulnerabilities that they uncover. If the report checks out, Facebook will pay a finder's fee of at least $500.
"We've already paid a $5,000 bounty for one really good report," Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan wrote in a blog post. "One person has already received more than $7,000 for six different issues flagged."
Although the social networking has its own security team, Facebook launched its bug bounty program to tap into the collective wisdom of the site's 750 million users.
"We hire the best and brightest, and have implemented numerous protocols," Sullivan wrote. "We realize, though, that there are many talented and well-intentioned security experts around the world who don't work for Facebook."
Researchers from more than 16 countries have successfully submitted bounty bugs, Facebook said. Its public "thank you" list names dozens of contributors.
Facebook also took pains to assure bug-hunters that it won't take any legal action against those who submit bugs, even if they were uncovered through less-than-legal routes into Facebook's systems.
That's often how hackers find vulnerabilities, but even those without any ill intent -- so-called "white-hat hackers" -- can land in hot water with companies if they tell them about their intrusion.
"We worked with several third-party groups to ensure that the language in our policy protects researchers and makes clear our intent to work with, not punish, those who report information," Sullivan wrote.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that often weighs in on Internet-related legal issues, is a fan of that approach.
"We hope to see others follow Facebook's lead and go even further," the EFF wrote last year about Facebook's security policy. "The more transparent companies are about their approaches to vulnerability disclosure -- and the more they encourage users to come forward -- the more often they will learn about problems that need to be fixed."
By Laurie Segall @CNNMoneyTech August 30, 2011: 3:01 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Facebook wants you to try to hack into its site -- and if you succeed, it will pay you for the details.
Facebook said this week that that it has paid out more than $40,000 under its new "bug bounty" security initiative. Launched three weeks ago, Facebook's program invites security researchers -- both the professional kind and hacker hobbyists -- to send it the details of any Facebook vulnerabilities that they uncover. If the report checks out, Facebook will pay a finder's fee of at least $500.
"We've already paid a $5,000 bounty for one really good report," Facebook Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan wrote in a blog post. "One person has already received more than $7,000 for six different issues flagged."
Although the social networking has its own security team, Facebook launched its bug bounty program to tap into the collective wisdom of the site's 750 million users.
"We hire the best and brightest, and have implemented numerous protocols," Sullivan wrote. "We realize, though, that there are many talented and well-intentioned security experts around the world who don't work for Facebook."
Researchers from more than 16 countries have successfully submitted bounty bugs, Facebook said. Its public "thank you" list names dozens of contributors.
Facebook also took pains to assure bug-hunters that it won't take any legal action against those who submit bugs, even if they were uncovered through less-than-legal routes into Facebook's systems.
That's often how hackers find vulnerabilities, but even those without any ill intent -- so-called "white-hat hackers" -- can land in hot water with companies if they tell them about their intrusion.
"We worked with several third-party groups to ensure that the language in our policy protects researchers and makes clear our intent to work with, not punish, those who report information," Sullivan wrote.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that often weighs in on Internet-related legal issues, is a fan of that approach.
"We hope to see others follow Facebook's lead and go even further," the EFF wrote last year about Facebook's security policy. "The more transparent companies are about their approaches to vulnerability disclosure -- and the more they encourage users to come forward -- the more often they will learn about problems that need to be fixed."
Google explores re-ranking search results using +1 button data
By Ryan Singel, WIRED
August 30, 2011 -- Updated 1317 GMT (2117 HKT) Filed under: Web
(WIRED) -- Google is making plans to turn its +1 button into a crowdsourcing tool that helps it re-order search results and fight web spam.
While not surprising, the move would bring Google's search engine into the social networking era, while simultaneously creating a new avenue for blackhats to manipulate search results and potentially incurring the wrath of trust-busting authorities.
Google confirmed its plans in an e-mail to Wired.com.
"Google will study the clicks on +1 buttons as a signal that influences the ranking and appearance of websites in search results," a spokesman wrote. "The purpose of any ranking signal is to improve overall search quality. For +1's and other social ranking signals, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals are related to quality."
But these plans are a touchy subject for the search giant, especially given the scrutiny that Google is under from regulators in Washington and Europe over complaints that the company's results favor its own products over those of other companies.
As if to underscore that point, Google prefaced its admission of the +1 search integration project to Wired.com with a statement downplaying its potential significance: "There are more than 200 signals that we use to determine the rank of a website, and last year we made more than 500 improvements to the algorithm."
Introduced in March, the +1 sharing button debuted with little incentive for web surfers to click on it. If you +1-ed a story on a website that embedded the button, your profile picture would display next to the URL when a friend of yours ran a search with results that included that URL.
WIRED: Google+ button lets you share, finally
But last week, the button entered adolescence, and can now be used to post stories to friends and followers on Google+, much as the Like button functions for Facebook.
So the next step of using what people are liking, sharing and buzzing about online to rearrange search results is obvious enough.
Google dipped its toe into these waters with Twitter by licensing its stream of Tweets, but that agreement ended before Google got so far as to figure out how to do more with the fire hose of real-time information than just decorate pre-computed search results with Tweeters' profile pictures.
And as for Facebook? Google would love to get at its data -- the way that Bing is already -- but the two companies go together like toothpaste and orange juice. Facebook will likely never let Google anywhere near its data stream, which meant that Google had to build in its own social network.
But therein lies the rub. If Google's search results become heavily dependent on social signals from Google+, then there's going to be heavy pressure on the net's websites to embed the Google+ button.
And depending on where you work -- say, Facebook or the Justice Department -- that could look like Google is unfairly using its search engine might to boost its Facebook alternative.
That might explain why Forbes killed a story by Kashmir Hill entitled "Stick Google Plus Buttons On Your Pages, Or Your Search Traffic Suffers" which was seemingly based on information from a meeting with Google ad representatives. On August 18, Hill wrote, "the message in this meeting was clear: "Put a Plus One button on your pages or your search traffic will suffer."
Hill followed up with Google's press team. which gave Hill the same carefully couched answer it gave Wired.
But the story quickly disappeared from Forbes' website and from the Google cache, though it was noticed and saved by the Raven Tools SEO blog.
One guesses the tone of the post -- and its headline -- rankled someone somewhere.
Forbes, Hill and Google all declined to talk on the record about the post that disappeared into the memory hole.
WIRED: How Facebook could beat Google and win the net
That silence says as much as you need to know about the touchiness involved in integrating a Google +1 button with Google's search box.
But Google's biggest weakness is the possibility that someone will figure out how to build a better search engine -- and there's many who bet the way to do that is to make search involve more of a human touch and less of a machine's.
indeed, Google's interest in incorporating +1s into its search ranking algorithm might also explain Google's hard line position in the so-called Nym wars. Google is being adamant that users of its new social networking tool use their real names. In its zeal to root out fakers and people using pseudonyms, Google has deleted legitimate profiles and raised the ire of those who defend the need for pseudonyms on the internet's identity platforms.
But if Google's going to start using those +1 votes, the company is virtually inviting the world's spammers and blackhat SEO magicians to flood its social networking system with fake profiles and fake votes -- potentially ruining it and possibly making the problem of search spam even worse.
By Ryan Singel, WIRED
August 30, 2011 -- Updated 1317 GMT (2117 HKT) Filed under: Web
(WIRED) -- Google is making plans to turn its +1 button into a crowdsourcing tool that helps it re-order search results and fight web spam.
While not surprising, the move would bring Google's search engine into the social networking era, while simultaneously creating a new avenue for blackhats to manipulate search results and potentially incurring the wrath of trust-busting authorities.
Google confirmed its plans in an e-mail to Wired.com.
"Google will study the clicks on +1 buttons as a signal that influences the ranking and appearance of websites in search results," a spokesman wrote. "The purpose of any ranking signal is to improve overall search quality. For +1's and other social ranking signals, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals are related to quality."
But these plans are a touchy subject for the search giant, especially given the scrutiny that Google is under from regulators in Washington and Europe over complaints that the company's results favor its own products over those of other companies.
As if to underscore that point, Google prefaced its admission of the +1 search integration project to Wired.com with a statement downplaying its potential significance: "There are more than 200 signals that we use to determine the rank of a website, and last year we made more than 500 improvements to the algorithm."
Introduced in March, the +1 sharing button debuted with little incentive for web surfers to click on it. If you +1-ed a story on a website that embedded the button, your profile picture would display next to the URL when a friend of yours ran a search with results that included that URL.
WIRED: Google+ button lets you share, finally
But last week, the button entered adolescence, and can now be used to post stories to friends and followers on Google+, much as the Like button functions for Facebook.
So the next step of using what people are liking, sharing and buzzing about online to rearrange search results is obvious enough.
Google dipped its toe into these waters with Twitter by licensing its stream of Tweets, but that agreement ended before Google got so far as to figure out how to do more with the fire hose of real-time information than just decorate pre-computed search results with Tweeters' profile pictures.
And as for Facebook? Google would love to get at its data -- the way that Bing is already -- but the two companies go together like toothpaste and orange juice. Facebook will likely never let Google anywhere near its data stream, which meant that Google had to build in its own social network.
But therein lies the rub. If Google's search results become heavily dependent on social signals from Google+, then there's going to be heavy pressure on the net's websites to embed the Google+ button.
And depending on where you work -- say, Facebook or the Justice Department -- that could look like Google is unfairly using its search engine might to boost its Facebook alternative.
That might explain why Forbes killed a story by Kashmir Hill entitled "Stick Google Plus Buttons On Your Pages, Or Your Search Traffic Suffers" which was seemingly based on information from a meeting with Google ad representatives. On August 18, Hill wrote, "the message in this meeting was clear: "Put a Plus One button on your pages or your search traffic will suffer."
Hill followed up with Google's press team. which gave Hill the same carefully couched answer it gave Wired.
But the story quickly disappeared from Forbes' website and from the Google cache, though it was noticed and saved by the Raven Tools SEO blog.
One guesses the tone of the post -- and its headline -- rankled someone somewhere.
Forbes, Hill and Google all declined to talk on the record about the post that disappeared into the memory hole.
WIRED: How Facebook could beat Google and win the net
That silence says as much as you need to know about the touchiness involved in integrating a Google +1 button with Google's search box.
But Google's biggest weakness is the possibility that someone will figure out how to build a better search engine -- and there's many who bet the way to do that is to make search involve more of a human touch and less of a machine's.
indeed, Google's interest in incorporating +1s into its search ranking algorithm might also explain Google's hard line position in the so-called Nym wars. Google is being adamant that users of its new social networking tool use their real names. In its zeal to root out fakers and people using pseudonyms, Google has deleted legitimate profiles and raised the ire of those who defend the need for pseudonyms on the internet's identity platforms.
But if Google's going to start using those +1 votes, the company is virtually inviting the world's spammers and blackhat SEO magicians to flood its social networking system with fake profiles and fake votes -- potentially ruining it and possibly making the problem of search spam even worse.
'Dead' HP tablet comes back to life with help of hackers, deal-seekers
By Doug Gross, CNN
August 29, 2011 -- Updated 2038 GMT (0438 HKT) Filed under: Mobile
(CNN) -- For a "dead" gadget, the HP TouchPad keeps showing remarkable signs of life.
Nearly two weeks after Hewlett-Packard announced that it was discontinuing mobile devices and dramatically slashed the price of the TouchPad, customers are hunting them with renewed zeal.
The tablet has sold out, according to the company. Meanwhile, HP is considering making more of the devices -- and continuing to support them, despite the fact that independent developers are working to hack the tablets to run on Google's Android operating system, instead of the now-killed webOS.
"We have been surprised by the enthusiastic response to the TouchPad price drop, and we understand that many customers were disappointed that HP and our retail partners ran out of supply so fast," HP spokesman Mark Budgell wrote in a blog post Monday.
Like virtually every other device in its class, the HP TouchPad failed to make much of a dent in the iPad-dominated tablet market when it was released early last month.
But after HP announced August 18 that it was discontinuing mobile devices, remaining TouchPad inventory was slashed to fire-sale prices: $99 for a 16-gigabyte model and $149 for a model with 32 gigabytes of storage.
The device, which had originally sold for about $400 more, all of a sudden became one of the most sought-after item in the gadget world.
Via Twitter, Budgell let potential customers know Monday that there's no official word when, or if, HP will be making more TouchPads.
"Don't rush...no availability today," Budgell wrote.
He said there would be more information "in the next few days" on whether more of the tablets will become available.
But in an e-mail Monday, a spokeswoman described TouchPads as "temporarily out of stock."
For gadget lovers, the discounted TouchPad is a tradeoff. The assumption has been that the discontinued device won't get software updates, there will be no new apps created for it, and webOS, the operating system created by Palm and purchased by HP, will essentially become a dead platform.
But for many, a device that got largely positive reviews and was selling for $400 less than the iPad was a powerful temptation to jump into the still-emerging world of tablet computing.
"The bottom line is that the TouchPad, right now, is worth $99. Even if it never sees another ounce of code added to it, a gadget whose software soul is forever frozen in August 2011," wrote Matt Buchanan, a gadget reviewer at tech site Gizmodo. "The TouchPad is the second best tablet you can buy, at any pricepoint. It nailed all the big ideas about what a tablet should feel like".
And things could get even better.
In an e-mail Monday, an HP spokeswoman seemed to keep the door open to supporting the machine in response to the massive interest.
"We expect that HP TouchPad owners can look forward to an over-the-air update that will enhance the platform and add functionality and a growing applications catalog," the spokeswoman said. "We plan to continue to investigate the best ways to leverage webOS software and grow the applications."
HP never released sales figures for the TouchPad and declined to do so in the e-mail. But quick discounts in July suggested poor sales, and at least one report from AllThingsD said retailer Best Buy sold only 25,000 of the 275,000 TouchPads it ordered.
Meanwhile, outside developers are trying to keep the TouchPad vital in their own way. The website Hack N Mod is offering a reward for anyone who can prove they've modified the tablet to let it efficiently run Google's Android operating system.
That would mean the "discontinued" tablet would all of a sudden be able to run updated software and continue to have new apps available even if webOS dies out.
By Monday, an Android "mod group" had released a video purporting to have succeeded. Wired reported that the team, CyanogenMod, said that the hack was relatively easy and that the hard part has been actually getting their hands on a TouchPad.
Which is the main trouble that potential customers still face.
On the blog post, Budgell addressed a concern many have expressed since the fire sale began: that people are scooping up dozens of the tablet at a time to turn around and sell them at a profit.
Some early customers have reported having orders confirmed by third-party retailers at or near the $99 or $149 price point, only to have that order canceled.
On Monday, the least-expensive new 16GB TouchPad on Amazon was selling for $239.99, and 32GB models were going for $265.
"If more inventory is available in the future, there will be an order limit," Budgell wrote.
By Doug Gross, CNN
August 29, 2011 -- Updated 2038 GMT (0438 HKT) Filed under: Mobile
(CNN) -- For a "dead" gadget, the HP TouchPad keeps showing remarkable signs of life.
Nearly two weeks after Hewlett-Packard announced that it was discontinuing mobile devices and dramatically slashed the price of the TouchPad, customers are hunting them with renewed zeal.
The tablet has sold out, according to the company. Meanwhile, HP is considering making more of the devices -- and continuing to support them, despite the fact that independent developers are working to hack the tablets to run on Google's Android operating system, instead of the now-killed webOS.
"We have been surprised by the enthusiastic response to the TouchPad price drop, and we understand that many customers were disappointed that HP and our retail partners ran out of supply so fast," HP spokesman Mark Budgell wrote in a blog post Monday.
Like virtually every other device in its class, the HP TouchPad failed to make much of a dent in the iPad-dominated tablet market when it was released early last month.
But after HP announced August 18 that it was discontinuing mobile devices, remaining TouchPad inventory was slashed to fire-sale prices: $99 for a 16-gigabyte model and $149 for a model with 32 gigabytes of storage.
The device, which had originally sold for about $400 more, all of a sudden became one of the most sought-after item in the gadget world.
Via Twitter, Budgell let potential customers know Monday that there's no official word when, or if, HP will be making more TouchPads.
"Don't rush...no availability today," Budgell wrote.
He said there would be more information "in the next few days" on whether more of the tablets will become available.
But in an e-mail Monday, a spokeswoman described TouchPads as "temporarily out of stock."
For gadget lovers, the discounted TouchPad is a tradeoff. The assumption has been that the discontinued device won't get software updates, there will be no new apps created for it, and webOS, the operating system created by Palm and purchased by HP, will essentially become a dead platform.
But for many, a device that got largely positive reviews and was selling for $400 less than the iPad was a powerful temptation to jump into the still-emerging world of tablet computing.
"The bottom line is that the TouchPad, right now, is worth $99. Even if it never sees another ounce of code added to it, a gadget whose software soul is forever frozen in August 2011," wrote Matt Buchanan, a gadget reviewer at tech site Gizmodo. "The TouchPad is the second best tablet you can buy, at any pricepoint. It nailed all the big ideas about what a tablet should feel like".
And things could get even better.
In an e-mail Monday, an HP spokeswoman seemed to keep the door open to supporting the machine in response to the massive interest.
"We expect that HP TouchPad owners can look forward to an over-the-air update that will enhance the platform and add functionality and a growing applications catalog," the spokeswoman said. "We plan to continue to investigate the best ways to leverage webOS software and grow the applications."
HP never released sales figures for the TouchPad and declined to do so in the e-mail. But quick discounts in July suggested poor sales, and at least one report from AllThingsD said retailer Best Buy sold only 25,000 of the 275,000 TouchPads it ordered.
Meanwhile, outside developers are trying to keep the TouchPad vital in their own way. The website Hack N Mod is offering a reward for anyone who can prove they've modified the tablet to let it efficiently run Google's Android operating system.
That would mean the "discontinued" tablet would all of a sudden be able to run updated software and continue to have new apps available even if webOS dies out.
By Monday, an Android "mod group" had released a video purporting to have succeeded. Wired reported that the team, CyanogenMod, said that the hack was relatively easy and that the hard part has been actually getting their hands on a TouchPad.
Which is the main trouble that potential customers still face.
On the blog post, Budgell addressed a concern many have expressed since the fire sale began: that people are scooping up dozens of the tablet at a time to turn around and sell them at a profit.
Some early customers have reported having orders confirmed by third-party retailers at or near the $99 or $149 price point, only to have that order canceled.
On Monday, the least-expensive new 16GB TouchPad on Amazon was selling for $239.99, and 32GB models were going for $265.
"If more inventory is available in the future, there will be an order limit," Budgell wrote.
From pit-stop to take-off: How F1 is changing the future of air travel
August 27, 2011 -- Updated 1230 GMT (2030 HKT) Filed under: Innovation
(CNN) -- The world of Formula One may seem an unlikely source of inspiration for a major carbon-cutting initiative, but technology used for coordinating pit-stops is primed to slash emissions from airports across the globe.
According to Britain's National Air Traffic Services (NATS), more than half the planes landing at London's Heathrow airport are stuck in circles overhead -- often for 20 minutes at a time -- as they wait for its congested runways to clear.
NATS says the carbon cost of this pile-up in the sky is an estimated 600 tons a day.
And this is where McLaren, the hugely successful Formula One team behind former world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, have come in with an unexpected solution.
Over the years the company has developed modeling software to analyze live racing data and visualize a range of potential scenarios -- allowing pit crews to make strategic decisions in the blink of an eye -- all in an effort to get their cars back out onto the racetrack milliseconds ahead of their competitors.
It's this ground-level tracking technology that could hold the key to unlocking congestion, reducing CO2 emissions by streamlining the way aircraft make their own pit-stops once they've landed -- dropping off passengers, refueling and departing again with F1 efficiency.
This similarity between a motor race and an airport runway was first observed by Peter Tomlinson, head of aviation data solutions at NATS, while attending a workshop on cross-industry collaboration at McLaren's UK technology center three years ago.
"It became clear that the pit-stop in a race track, with cars coming in, changing tyres and refueling and going out again actually is pretty similar to an aircraft arriving at the airport, parking at the gate, passengers getting off, refueling and going out," said the air traffic veteran, who has over 30 years experience in the industry.
The beauty of McLaren's system is that it reduces the complexity of a racetrack into a circle "so at the point of decision, presentation of the data is very simple, which allows the engineer in a very stressful environment to make the right strategic decision and also see the data in a very clear, crisp format," said Tomlinson.
For the last three years NATS has been working with McLaren's engineers to map Heathrow's taxiways and runways -- much as they do a Formula One track.
But now, says Tomlinson, in place of a race strategist the system is operated by Heathrow's air traffic control, and instead of a circle the airport's network of runways and taxi lanes are represented by a simple rectangle -- enabling planes to be guided around the airport with greater ease and accuracy once they've landed.
The collaboration has been "groundbreaking" according to Geoff McGrath, managing director of McLaren Applied Technologies -- the F1 team's tech division.
"To my knowledge this is a first -- NATS has invested in this because there is nothing like it available," he added.
The system is now in its "proof of concept" stage and hopes are high that it will be used by airports around the world within a year.
"Think in terms of the environmental benefits of that," enthused Tomlinson. "Large airports with about 1300 to 1400 flights a day - if you save just one minute of taxi time per flight on average, that equates to one day's worth of taxi time - and that's how much we could save using McLaren's technology."
August 27, 2011 -- Updated 1230 GMT (2030 HKT) Filed under: Innovation
(CNN) -- The world of Formula One may seem an unlikely source of inspiration for a major carbon-cutting initiative, but technology used for coordinating pit-stops is primed to slash emissions from airports across the globe.
According to Britain's National Air Traffic Services (NATS), more than half the planes landing at London's Heathrow airport are stuck in circles overhead -- often for 20 minutes at a time -- as they wait for its congested runways to clear.
NATS says the carbon cost of this pile-up in the sky is an estimated 600 tons a day.
And this is where McLaren, the hugely successful Formula One team behind former world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, have come in with an unexpected solution.
Over the years the company has developed modeling software to analyze live racing data and visualize a range of potential scenarios -- allowing pit crews to make strategic decisions in the blink of an eye -- all in an effort to get their cars back out onto the racetrack milliseconds ahead of their competitors.
It's this ground-level tracking technology that could hold the key to unlocking congestion, reducing CO2 emissions by streamlining the way aircraft make their own pit-stops once they've landed -- dropping off passengers, refueling and departing again with F1 efficiency.
This similarity between a motor race and an airport runway was first observed by Peter Tomlinson, head of aviation data solutions at NATS, while attending a workshop on cross-industry collaboration at McLaren's UK technology center three years ago.
"It became clear that the pit-stop in a race track, with cars coming in, changing tyres and refueling and going out again actually is pretty similar to an aircraft arriving at the airport, parking at the gate, passengers getting off, refueling and going out," said the air traffic veteran, who has over 30 years experience in the industry.
The beauty of McLaren's system is that it reduces the complexity of a racetrack into a circle "so at the point of decision, presentation of the data is very simple, which allows the engineer in a very stressful environment to make the right strategic decision and also see the data in a very clear, crisp format," said Tomlinson.
For the last three years NATS has been working with McLaren's engineers to map Heathrow's taxiways and runways -- much as they do a Formula One track.
But now, says Tomlinson, in place of a race strategist the system is operated by Heathrow's air traffic control, and instead of a circle the airport's network of runways and taxi lanes are represented by a simple rectangle -- enabling planes to be guided around the airport with greater ease and accuracy once they've landed.
The collaboration has been "groundbreaking" according to Geoff McGrath, managing director of McLaren Applied Technologies -- the F1 team's tech division.
"To my knowledge this is a first -- NATS has invested in this because there is nothing like it available," he added.
The system is now in its "proof of concept" stage and hopes are high that it will be used by airports around the world within a year.
"Think in terms of the environmental benefits of that," enthused Tomlinson. "Large airports with about 1300 to 1400 flights a day - if you save just one minute of taxi time per flight on average, that equates to one day's worth of taxi time - and that's how much we could save using McLaren's technology."
Thứ Ba, 23 tháng 8, 2011
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