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Much like Steve Jobs and Apple's original iPhone, cybersecurity specialist Dan Roelker and DARPA have a vision for executing cyberwarfare that "just works."

According to an in-depth feature over at Wired, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which originally helped to create the internet, is now looking at ways to manage the battlefield our networks have evolved into that is as intuitive as a game of Angry Birds.

Dubbed Plan X, the initiative to create a technology infrastructure to allow those with little or no hacking experience to engage in cyberwarfare has tapped some of the biggest names in tech, design, and gaming.

Some of the ideas for interfaces ranged from Google Glass-like wearables to a gesture-based system using a Kinect, but the Wired piece focuses on a prototype from Frog Design centered on a Samsung Touch Table.… Read more

Mimicking the human grasp is no easy feat. Robotic hands tend to be clunky and expensive.

But now, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is showing off a robotic hand that's dexterous enough to pick up keys and tough enough to survive being hit with a baseball bat.

The video below shows a prototype from DARPA's Autonomous Robotic Manipulation project. Instead of trying to reproduce the human hand in robot form, the prototype focuses on function. It has three fingers that are able to pick up small objects such as keys and credit cards, and it can even grasp objects with tweezers. … Read more

Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, who was hired three years ago to be a project manager at the U.S. Department of Defense's research and development division known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has announced via Twitter that he's returning to the private sector with Google.

In his new role at Google, The Security Ledger reports, Zatko will be working in an unspecified role with Motorola Mobility's Advanced Technology and Projects division, reporting to Regina Dugan. Dugan is also new to Google, hired last month away from her position as director of DARPA.

Given what … Read more

In the future, the U.S. Army could rely on low-cost ambidextrous autonomous robots, instead of bomb disposal technicians or remote control robots, to defuse improvised explosive devices. Better yet, activating and operating the smart robots may only require a nearby solider to say, "Go find and defuse the bomb."

As a precursor to that end goal, DARPA's Autonomous Robotic Manipulation program released a video that shows a robot changing a tire by itself. The robot, complete with a camera and an array of sensors, successfully uses two hands (one equipped with a drill) to remove a tire and put a new one in its place. A small screen shows the robot's virtual view of the tire, which reveals how software algorithms detect each the scene and its minute details in real time.… Read more

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Sorry, San Francisco. An annual Madden NFL Super Bowl simulation predicts the Ravens will trump the 49ers in the final seconds of Sunday's Big Game. Get on this, Vegas! And with "Star Wars" in the news, Crave asks if J.J. Abrams can pull off the impossible directing both "Star Wars Episode VII" and "Star Trek." Are you into it or not into it? Maybe a J.J. Abrams and "Star Wars"-themed musical will help you decide.

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It's a bummer running out of gas, especially when the nearest station is 22,000 miles away.

But a project to set up a gas station on the International Space Station made a big leap forward this week with the successful refueling of a mock satellite by a robot.

Dextre, a twin-armed robot from Canada, topped off the fuel tank in the mockup, showing how satellites' life can be extended, according to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Operating on the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) module, Dextre removed safety caps and cut through retaining wires before transferring liquid ethanol to the mockup, which is about the size of a washing machine.

The CSA-NASA achievement is the first of its kind, and may help reduce the growing pile of dead satellites and space junk orbiting overhead. … Read more

If you've never seen DARPA's version of Boston Dynamics' semi-autonomous LS3 (Legged Squad Support System) robot in action, now's a good time.

The government agency released a video yesterday that highlights one of LS3's most powerful skills: the ability to follow a leader by using computer-aided vision and GPS. In the four-minute clip, you can watch the dog-like robot following an instructor over some rough terrain -- with great ease -- in a wooded area near Fort Pickett, Va. … Read more

Defense researchers are looking to update the wireless platform currently used for military communications to deliver 100Gbps connections.

While fiber-optic cables provide the long-haul backbone for most data and voice communications networks without issue, radio signals often face electronic interference and degradation over long distances, resulting in reduced communications efficiency to soldiers in the field.

The current Common Data Link, the U.S. military's secure communications protocol created in 1991, operates at data rates of up to 274Mbps. To boost that speed, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is inviting input on creation of a new wireless communications platform … Read more

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On this episode of Crave, we check out the Burrito Bomber engineered by Darwin Aerospace that literally bombs burritos into geo-tagged locations. We also get some NASA reassurance that the world may not end this month, which means we may actually get the chance to wear Lacoste's awesome polo shirts of the future. Also, dogs that drive? Yep. … Read more