.... variety of tasks." The key wor ds in their definition are "reprogrammable" and "multifunctional." By "reprogrammable" they mean that if a robot gets a new assignment, it will need new instructions, but its basic structure will not change (except maybe a new mechanical hand). By "multifunctional" they mean a robot is the mechanical counter part of a computer that can handle various problems without any major hardware modifications. The only thing that changes when a robot is reassigned is its program of instructions. In modern robots, programmab .....

.... the overthrow of matter. In technology, economics, and the politics of nations, wealth -- in the form of physical resources -- has been losing value and significance. The powers of mind are everywhere ascendant over the brute force of things. In a First Wave economy, land and farm labor are the main "factors of production." In a Second Wave economy, the land remains valuable while the "labor" becomes massified around machines and larger industries. In a Third Wave economy, the central resource -- a single word broadly encompassing data, information, images, sy .....

.... of the car. If the airbag goes off, the seat will be pushed forward and the child may get squeezed between the back of the seat and the airbag. Children are less likely to be killed in a crash if they are in the back seat. If someone must put a child in the front seat, they may want to have an on/off switch for the airbag installed on the passenger side. On/off switches are used to prevent the airbag from going off in an accident, but they aren’t recommended for most people. You only need an airbag switch on the driver’s side if your legs are too short .....

.... spring in proportion to the severity of the crash. Other systems use an accelerometer instead of crash sensors, frequently located within the steering column or in the airbag assembly itself. An accelerometer is more sophisticated than the ball-in-tube crash sensor, and will likely see more widespread use in future models. Nearly all airbag designs are engineered to inflate when the sensors register a crash equivalent to hitting a solid barrier at 10-12 miles per hour. When a car is involved in an accident, and it loses velocity, and the impact is hard and fast .....

.... on a continuous, worldwide basis with no direct charge." (Tycho) The SPS is provided on the L1 frequency, which then will code a navigational message. The SPS accuracy is 100-meter horizontal, 156-meter vertical, and 340 nanoseconds time, and in total the SPS is ninety-five percent accurate. (Utexas) The Department of Defense also degrades this service so those consumers can use this service. Secondly, the Precise Positioning Service or PPS " is a highly accurate military positioning, velocity and timing service which is available on a continuous, worldw .....

.... aid’s task is to acoustically or electronically compensate for both the neurological shortcomings of the hearing impaired person and the wide band increase inherent in any basic amplifier. Acoustic compensation can be carried out in a hearing aid microphone. Most hearing aids today utilize omnidirectional microphones, which pick up sound equally from all directions. This may be beneficial and practical in some cases, as in the completely in the canal (CIC) aid. The CIC aid uses the natural funneling of the auricle in order to focus sound directly into .....

.... lifter is cylinder shaped and pushes up on a push rod when the lobes are rotating. A push rod, which is connected to a rocker arm, then "rocks" down on a spring that in turn pushes open a valve. This all happens due to the rotation of the camshaft which is geared to the crankshaft (which is connected to the pistons) which is all part of the four stroke cycle. The four-stroke cycle starts with the intake stroke. On the intake stroke, the piston moves down from its top dead center or the farthest "up" position creating a partial vacuum which draws in the fresh a .....

.... the complex simulations of virtual reality. This souped-up television will itself be a powerful computer. This, many believe, will be the world's biggest media group, letting consumers tune into anything, anywhere, anytime. The most extraordinary thing about the boom, is that so many moguls are spending such vast sums to develop digital technologies, for the delivering of programs and services which are still largely hypothetical. So what is behind such grand prophecies? Primarily, two technological advances known as digitization (including digital compression), .....