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Vincent Padois, head tutor at the Pierre and Marie Curie University who teaches robotics and is babysitting the Paris ICub, makes a demonstration with ICub robot, a ?hybrid embodied cognitive system for a humanoid robot" about 1 metre (3.2 feet) high, at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris September 4, 2009. Six versions of ICub exist in laboratories across Europe, where scientists are painstakingly tweaking its electronic brain to make it capable of learning, just like a human child and hoping it will learn how to adapt its behaviour to changing circumstances, offering new insights into the development of human consciousness. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer

Pictures of the year: Technology

A look at the year's best science and technology photos.   Slideshow 

    U.S. offers $968 million for disaster technology

    WASHINGTON
    Wed Jul 18, 2007 2:26pm EDT
    A combination of satellite images shows an overview of New Orleans before (L) and after Hurricane Katrina. The image at left was taken on March 9, 2004 and the image at right on August 31, 2005 after Katrina struck the city. The government is offering $968 million in grants to help state and local public safety agencies buy sophisticated radios and technology for communications during disasters, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Digital Globe CP

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government is offering $968 million in grants to help state and local public safety agencies buy sophisticated radios and technology for communications during disasters, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

    The program aims to equip police and fire departments and other emergency agencies in all 50 states with more dependable and interoperable communications.

    Funding for the grants will come from expected proceeds of the Federal Communications Commission's 700 megahertz spectrum auction scheduled for later this year.

    Technology eligible for grants includes voice or radio Internet protocols, broadband video applications, mobile public safety networks, multi-band software designed radios and satellite communication systems, the Commerce Department said.

    The grants can also be used for software and services, said John Kneuer, assistant secretary of Commerce.

    "We didn't want to mandate a single solution for all jurisdictions," he said, noting that some public safety agencies might choose to buy a software system that can tie together existing radio systems instead of replacing them.


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