Millennials have embraced multiple ways of getting around.
The automobile was an American icon throughout the 20th century. It was a symbol of freedom and mobility. It gave people choices they never had before — new places to travel, new people to visit, and the like.
Combustion engines are likely to persist for quite some time, despite the recent advent of usable, talented electric vehicles. The combustion engine will often persist as a component in plug-in hybrid and range-extended electric vehicles.
Continue reading… “Toyota is developing a combustion engine that generates electricity”
Play-i robot
Like no other tool, robots can capture a child’s imagination by creating a fun, physical learning process. With robots, kids learn programming via interactive play by moving a robot in various sequences and using intuitive, visual programming on a computer screen. The children also learn STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) by watching and interacting with robots that demonstrate the practical results of the day’s lesson.
Continue reading… “4 robots that teach children STEM in engaging ways”
Researchers have created a glass fabric-based thermoelectric generator wearable technology.
A team of South Korean researchers have developed technology that could one day power your smartphone using just body heat.
Continue reading… “Wearable technology that could one day power your smartphone using body heat”
3D printed interactive speaker
What if every object in your life could talk? A door handle warns you when someone has attempted to enter without a key. A desk ticks off your appointments when you sit down. A rubber duck quacks at a child in the tub, then his pillow sings him a lullaby to sleep. (Video)
Continue reading… “Disney ‘s new 3-D printing technique turns any object into a speaker”
Graphene and carbon nanotubes can generate intense surface plasmons for use in nanoelectronics and cancer therapy.
Engineers at Monash University Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (ECSE) have modeled the world’s first “spaser” (surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) to be made completely out of carbon.
Continue reading… “Smartphones in the future could be printed on your clothes”
The SCiO is a handheld molecular analyzer.
If you wanted to look up the calorie content of a specific food you are eating you could take it to a lab and run it through a spectrometer. But accurate spectrometers are huge, expensive machines that are often only owned by institutions and require training to use. A new startup, however, wants to make it easy as running an app and pairing a bluetooth dongle. (Video)
Continue reading… “$150 smartphone spectrometer can tell the number of calories in your food”
The FBI plans to start using facial recognition software.
Most technology watchers believe we shouldn’t be overly concerned just yet about the privacy implications of facial recognition technology because it isn’t yet sophisticated enough to identify people accurately,
Continue reading… “Massive FBI facial recognition database raises concerns about privacy”
“Everyone knows that mobile apps are hot.”
Mobile apps are on a path to reach $70 billion in annual revenue by 2017. And while games drive the majority of app revenue now, they won’t stay on top of the heap much longer.
Continue reading… “Mobile apps could reach $70B in annual revenue by 2017”
Conversnitch
Everyone eavesdrops but few people will admit to it. However, two artists decided to bring the popular pastime into the digital age, with a lamp that can listen in on conversations and post the juiciest details straight to Twitter. Kyle McDonald and Brian House created Conversnitch to raise the issue of privacy in a world where internet-connected mobile devices make it so easy to share other people’s secrets.
Advanced Tactics Black Knight Transformer
The Advanced Tactics Black Knight Transformer is a scaled up multicopter with a wheeled cargo compartment below. It took to the air for the first time recently. (Pics and video)
Continue reading… “The military will get a flying car before the rest of us”
How do you apportion blame between a human driver and a car’s automated systems?
Driverless car research is booming. Millions of dollars are being spent by Google, the major automakers, and government agencies both in the U.S. and abroad to support the development of vehicle-automation technology with the potential to make road travel far safer than it is today. But what will happen when automation is suspected of causing, as opposed to avoiding, an accident?
Continue reading… “Who is at fault in a driverless car crash?”