It’s coming WHEN?
It’s rather obvious that the coming robot revolution is not going to be pretty. Oh sure, it’ll be functional, but for the most part the robots in our future are probably going to start out looking like ugly buckets of bolts, Asimo excepted of course. Maybe it’s something to do with all that electro-mechanical servo stuff…a sort of modern day steampunk?
There’s no question that self-driving cars are somewhere close on our horizon. There’s too much noise about the Google research tests to ignore, no smoke without fire as they say. But it also looks like we’re going to see a bunch of different technologies coming to market, to offer all sorts of interesting innovation in this area.
One thing the digital world has given us is the ability to capture and store our lives in a level of detail that was unthinkable a few years ago. Most people today have an archive of thousands of digital photos, and countless video clips from special events, most of which we don’t even have the time to enjoy. But it’s obvious that this is just the beginning, and a new generation of technology is going to provide even more tools…
Researchers at NTT DoCoMo in Japan are well known for their attempts to propel the mobile phone into more and more areas of our everyday lives, and the latest iteration of this vision involves our health. Following on from earlier handset prototypes which measure our body fat and other physical markers, the team has now come up with a handset that measures a fundamental aspect of our metabolism, our eating patterns.
Game giant Valve recently released its sophisticated new free animated movie making program called Source Filmmaker and judging by the first results coming from the tool, it could massively impact the entertainment space over the coming years. Machinima, the art of making short (or long) movies using animated game engines, has been around for a good few years, but this is the first system which offers everything a budding movie maker needs, including motion capture and sound editing tools, to…
If there’s one thing that unites the male species, it’s the horror of going bald. Or worse, going bald before your time. What is it about thinning hair that provokes such primal emotions, and can even drive men to buy fake hair pieces? It’s all about age and virility of course, and that ever present lust for respect. And what would a world with no bald men be like anyway? Would it be more peaceful, less insecure?
The movie Minority Report delivered a very interesting viewpoint as to our possible future world in several ways. Some technologies, like the use of virtual reality screens, are now slowly appearing on the market, while other ideas, like the exotic wall climbing cars, are probably destined to remain mythical Sci-Fi for the foreseeable future. One other feature which stood out in the film was the interactive advertising system which beamed personal adverts to people as they passed storefronts in the…
Riding a motorcycle or scooter can be quite dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Even when you know what you’re doing, if someone isn’t paying attention, you could end up in an early grave. Your entire body is exposed, and if the bike falls on its side, you can guarantee that your legs are going to be crushed.
If you are glued to your computer like most of us, you’ve likely purchased a mouse at some point. They go through general wear and tear just like anything else we use. When you’re searching for a new mouse, something you want to think about is comfort. The way your hand sits on the mouse, and the way it moves will greatly affect your opinion of it.
Japanese industrial giant Honda has just announced the latest in its range of battery powered ‘personal mobility’ devices, the Honda UNI-CUB. Behind the cute name lies a long history of technological hard work, the fruits of which we first saw back in 2009 with the Honda U3–X. This new incarnation of the scoot-about is similar, but offers a number of refinements which have obviously come about through extensive user testing.
It seems that almost every day I’m amazed by what smartphones can do. Sure, making calls, sending emails and checking the weather are cool, but some companies are really making the most of these devices. Take, for instance, this iPhone ECG that is currently being developed. This ECG is a case that will attach to your iPhone, and provide you with an accurate ECG reading, with nothing more than a phone. It can be used either in your hands, or…
It’s generally understood that driving while under the influence of many substances can greatly increase the chance of getting in an accident. As such, it’s common for police officers to use a breathalyzer to check someone’s blood alcohol content, to ensure that they aren’t impaired. Unfortunately, alcohol is one of the only substances that they can check for, and receive immediate results. But that looks to be changing soon. A company called Intelligent Fingerprinting has just unveiled a prototype hand-held…
The slow rise of NFC (near field communication) has given rise to the idea that you can pay for purchases by doing little more than getting out your phone and tapping it at checkout. While the technology is growing, a surprising number of phones lack this feature. Thankfully there are companies out there who see this issue, and are working to correct it by offering accessories that will add NFC to your smartphone. The first is called SDpass. This product…
Usually when you think about a helicopter, you imagine a craft with a couple of large, spinning blades keeping you aloft. Of course, those machines are rather large, and extremely expensive. But what if you decided to rig a bunch of smaller blades together, and mount them on a smaller craft? As you can see in the video below, you would be able to fly. A group of three Germans has been hard at work developing what they call an…
There are a lot of reasons that scientists are working to create robots that look and act more like humans. I’m not talking about the sort of helpful companion robots as seen in I, Robot. Rather, this PETMAN, which has been in development for the last two and a half years, is meant to test out clothing. Now a clothing-testing robot may sound like a huge waste of money, but there’s a little more to it. The clothes being tested…
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