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Flies' eyes could enhance robot vision

May 09, 2008 | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 25 vote(s) | No comments yet

Robots with flies' eyes could take advantage of the insect’s vision system to better locate the edges and boundaries of objects. This ability could help robots perform a variety of tasks more quickly and accurately ...


Goodbye, Bunny Ears: Future Antennas May be Flat

April 24, 2008 | User rating: 4.2 / 5 after 75 vote(s) | User comments: 11

The long, wiry antennas that protrude from airplanes, cars, cell phones – and even the bunny ears on some TVs – may one day become novelty items. Researchers are developing a smart-skin antenna that is simply ...


Chain letters reveal surprising circulation patterns

April 10, 2008 | User rating: 3.9 / 5 after 46 vote(s) | User comments: 4

A chain letter hoax that fooled thousands of people may help computer scientists understand how information spreads on a global scale.


Hypercubes Could Be Building Blocks of Nanocomputers

April 01, 2008 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 80 vote(s) | User comments: 4

Multi-dimensional structures called hypercubes may act as the building blocks for tomorrow’s nanocomputers – machines made of such tiny elements that they are dominated not by forces that we’re familiar with ...


Avatar Mimics You in Real Time

March 25, 2008 | User rating: 4 / 5 after 33 vote(s) | User comments: 2

It’s a little bit like looking in the mirror at your cartoon double, except that the “reflection” is an avatar on your computer screen. Wave your hand, nod your head, speak a sentence, and your avatar does ...


Laser remote makes watching TV even lazier

March 06, 2008 | User rating: 3.4 / 5 after 32 vote(s) | User comments: 8

Modern-day remote controls can be complicated. But, thankfully, researchers are making TV the relaxing, mindless pastime that it was always intended to be with a new easy-to-use remote control. The controller ...


Rain Power: Harvesting Energy from the Sky

January 22, 2008 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 121 vote(s) | User comments: 27

Researchers who study energy harvesting see energy all around us – we just need to find a way to capture that energy. One of the latest energy harvesting techniques is converting the mechanical energy from ...


Vehicles That Talk to Each Other Know What Lanes They're In

December 18, 2007 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 38 vote(s) | User comments: 3

A standard GPS receiver has an average 2D-positioning accuracy of about 13 meters. While this precision is high enough to direct you to your hotel, it’s quite a bit lower than the accuracy required to determine ...


New Technology Combines GPS Benefits with Privacy Protection

December 11, 2007 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 33 vote(s) | User comments: 1

As GPS and other wireless location-based technologies are becoming prevalent on cell phones and other everyday devices, two researchers are thinking about the social reaction to constant surveillance. As George ...


Robot Suit May Help You Achieve a Perfect Golf Swing

October 31, 2007 | User rating: 4.4 / 5 after 29 vote(s) | User comments: 1

Researchers have developed a vibrotactile feedback suit to help individuals learn new motor skills more quickly and accurately than by mimicking human teachers alone. Besides golf, dance and sports training, ...


Artists 'draw on air' to create 3D illustrations

September 19, 2007 | User rating: 4.2 / 5 after 123 vote(s) | No comments yet

By putting on a virtual reality mask, holding a stylus in one hand and a tracking device in the other, an artist can draw 3D objects in the air with unprecedented precision. This new system is called “Drawing ...


Backpack straps harvest energy to power electronics

September 13, 2007 | User rating: 4.5 / 5 after 68 vote(s) | No comments yet

All that rubbing of your backpack straps on your shoulders may be put to good use, now that researchers have designed a novel type of energy harvesting backpack. The pack has straps made of a piezoelectric ...


Machines might talk with humans by putting themselves in our shoes

September 10, 2007 | User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 29 vote(s) | No comments yet

While robots can do some remarkable things, they don't yet possess the gift of gab. Since the 1970s, researchers have been trying to develop a speech-based human-machine interface, but improvements are gradual, ...


Tongue movements allow quadriplegics to control computers

August 02, 2007 | User rating: 4.9 / 5 after 14 vote(s) | No comments yet

Using the pressure waves in the ear caused by tongue movements, researchers have designed a technique for interfacing with computers. For the millions of people living with spinal cord injuries, this hands-free, ...


Elastic circuit connectors designed for rubber-band-like circuits

July 10, 2007 | User rating: 4.7 / 5 after 59 vote(s) | No comments yet

Researchers from Belgium have devised a plan for making headway into the area of flexible, washable electronics. These integrated electronics, which could be incorporated into clothing and biomedical applications, ...


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