As we steadily march toward our own obsolescence by designing machines that are better than us at everything from surgery to driving Uber taxis, humans have had to take solace in the fact that, while the robo-apocalypse may be immanent, at least our robotic overlords would never be able to beat us at foosball.
Continue reading… “Foosball Robot Will Kick Your Ass”
New research demonstrates that triggering an out-of-body experience (OBE) could be as simple as getting a person to watch a video of themselves with their heartbeat projected onto it. According to the study, it’s easy to trick the mind into thinking it belongs to an external body and manipulate a person’s self-consciousness by externalizing the body’s internal rhythms. The findings could lead to new treatments for people with perceptual disorders such as anorexia and could also help dieters too.
Continue reading… “Out-of-Body Experiences Triggered by Synchronized Virtual Reality Heartbeat”
With the Internet of Things slated to have tens of billions of connected devices by 2020, one of the most crucial design considerations for internet-connected products is figuring out how to seamlessly integrate these devices into everyday life. In this respect, teaching machines how to identify the individuals they are interacting with is paramount—it will allow for the total personalization of everything that is promised by the IoT. Rather than just having internet-connected light bulbs and refrigerators that are sitting around waiting to get hacked, these devices will be able to recognize you and interface with you according to your preferences (something that devices like the Xbox One are already doing via facial recognition).
Continue reading… “WiFi Signals Can ID You by Your Body Shape”
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 16, 2016 – Ford today announces its intent to have a high-volume, fully autonomous SAE level 4-capable vehicle in commercial operation in 2021 in a ride-hailing or ride-sharing service.
To get there, the company is investing in or collaborating with four startups to enhance its autonomous vehicle development, doubling its Silicon Valley team and more than doubling its Palo Alto campus.
Continue reading… “Ford Projects A Fully Autonomous Vehicle for Ride Sharing in 2021”
As robots get more advanced, they will likely take over many jobs in the future — including those of sushi chefs.
For a sneak peak at this impending automation, look no further than a new creation from robotics manufacturer Kawasaki. The robot can make sushi in under a minute.
First spotted by Gizmodo, the video shows a miraculous bot that assembles nigiri, the traditional type of sushi in which a piece of raw fish sits on a little ball of rice.
Continue reading… “This robot makes sushi in seconds”
Facebook’s gaming aspirations didn’t stop with Farmville and its $2 billion Oculus VR acquisition. Nope, the social network is also launching a dedicated PC gaming platform today. Said platform will lean heavily on developers using the ubiquitous Unity game engine, according to a release from the company. The partnership’s first project is admittedly developer-centric, but it has a direct impact on the folks playing games on Facebook. Zuckerberg and Co. describe it as a new export feature baked into Unity that allows a studio to publish directly to Facebook and the aforementioned Facebook PC gaming platform “with very little effort and few code changes.”
Continue reading… “Facebook launching PC gaming platform”
Near the end of 2014, Uber co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick flew to Pittsburgh on a mission: to hire dozens of the world’s experts in autonomous vehicles. The city is home to Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics department, which has produced many of the biggest names in the newly hot field. Sebastian Thrun, the creator of Google’s self-driving car project, spent seven years researching autonomous robots at CMU, and the project’s former director, Chris Urmson, was a CMU grad student.
Continue reading… “Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet in Pittsburgh This Month”
Casper is the latest startup to chase the pet market.
You may have heard of Casper, the flashy startup that’s been credited with “waking up” the sleepy mattress industry by selling direct-to-consumer. Casper, as you probably guessed, makes mattresses for humans.
Continue reading… “There’s a Dog Version of Airbnb, Uber and Almost Every Other Service You Use”
Water is our most precious resource. We may take this for granted, in developed regions but some 2.8 billion people around the world are affected by the scarcity of clean drinking water.
A tiny new device may help change that. Developed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator at Stanford University, the device is about half the size of a postage stamp and uses solar energy to disinfect water with bacterial contamination. The researchers reported their experiments in a paper this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Continue reading… “This tiny solar-powered device kills 99.999 percent of bacteria”
Researchers from Polytechnique Montréal, Université de Montréal and McGill University have just achieved a spectacular breakthrough in cancer research. They have developed new nanorobotic agents capable of navigating through the bloodstream to administer a drug with precision by specifically targeting the active cancerous cells of tumours. This way of injecting medication ensures the optimal targeting of a tumour and avoids jeopardizing the integrity of organs and surrounding healthy tissues. As a result, the drug dosage that is highly toxic for the human organism could be significantly reduced.
Continue reading… “Nanorobots target cancerous tumors with precision”
With its powerful motor and unique 3-wheeled design, Doohan EV3 iTank electric scooter is able to deal with both city streets and gravel roads, and charming appearance makes you become the focus on the road.
Continue reading… “Introducing the Doohan EV3 iTank 3-Wheeled Electric Scooter”
Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for virtual reality headsets the size of “normal-looking glasses” may well be realized 10 years ahead of schedule after a Chinese firm announced plans to release lightweight goggles later this year.
VR startup Dlodlo said its V1 headset would “redefine” virtual reality glasses when it is released in October, leaving behind the bulky aesthetic of current headsets such as Samsung’s Gear VR, the HTC Vive or Facebook’s Oculus Rift.
Continue reading… “Virtual Reality ‘Sunglasses’ Launching This Year”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.