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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

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    Website claims to help drivers avoid speed traps

    NEW YORK
    Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:46pm EDT
    A digital speed camera is seen in Britain in a file photo. REUTERS/Ian Hodgson

    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drivers in most of the United States and some of the UK can find out where the police speed traps and so-called red-light cameras are on the Internet -- for free.

    Technology

    But, U.S. drivers can also download that information to their car's GPS system for a fee.

    "We're hoping to expand the download service to London and the rest of Europe as soon as we can," said Shannon Atkinson, the 33-year-old founder of Njection.com.

    "No one likes to get a ticket. No one likes to get hit by a red-light camera," he said, referring to the devices that snap pictures of cars running red lights.

    Atkinson, whose full time job is as a systems engineer, set up the website (njection.com) last summer. Most of the information on the speed traps is user generated, and gathered anonymously, he said.

    Asked if he's had any complaints from law enforcement, Atkinson said the response has been to the contrary. "I've gotten lots of positive feed back from police officers. It's the idea of getting people to slow down in those areas and if this helps, they're happy."

    But some municipalities may not be so thrilled. Atkinson said one side-effect may be a lack of revenue from speeding tickets not issued.

    (Editing by Toni Reinhold)



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