The research we’re talking about here is from a paper titled, “Robot Learning Manipulation Action Plans by ‘Watching’ Unconstrained Videos
from the World Wide Web.” The paper is really about visual processing: watching a human interacting with objects in a video, and then figuring out what that human is doing and how they’re doing it, with a final step of replicating those actions using the manipulation … Read More → "Robots learning to cook by watching YouTube videos"

It takes a special vessel to get liquid from an open container into an astronaut’s mouth. It also takes a helluva lot of science, as seen by the cup designed by Portland State University researchers. For the past year, scientists there have been developing a mug designed specifically to allow astronauts to sip on espresso (or other warm and frothy drinks) in low-gravity environments.

The cup’ … Read More → "A coffee cup designed to let astronauts sip espresso in space"

Witness this farmer creating an smiley using his cattle—because that’s what you do when you have cows, a truck, food, and a drone.
via Gizmodo

… Read More → "Farmer makes living drawings using cows, a drone and a truck"

If you want to bike around Manhattan these days, it’s easy to find an online or physical map that can lead you to the bike lanes and keep you riding safely. But it won’t tell you much more, like which route would be the most relaxing, and which the most demanding of your attention.

That’s exactly the information … Read More → "Measuring brainwaves to make a new kind of bike map for NYC"

Minutes after Apple released its record-breaking quarterly earnings this week, the Associated Press published (by way of CNBC, Yahoo, and others) “Apple tops Street 1Q forecasts.” It’s a story without a byline, or rather, without a human byline — a financial story written and published by an automated system well-versed in the AP Style Guide. The AP implemented the system six months ago and now publishes 3,000 such stories every quarter — and that number is poised to grow…

You wouldn’t necessarily … Read More → "AP’s ‘robot journalists’ are writing their own stories now"

This will actually be the first Super Bowl to be entirely lit by LED bulbs.

The University of Phoenix Stadium, where the big game is being played, recently upgraded over 780 metal halide fixtures with 44,928 Cree XLamp MK-R LEDs, courtesy of Cree and Ephesus Lighting. And while it sounds like the new setup would … Read More → "The first Super Bowl played under LEDs will use 75 percent less power"

The photochromic lenses in transitional glasses contain silver halide molecules that temporarily change shape when exposed to ultraviolet light. This causes the lens to darken, and some of that light to be blocked.

One of the problems with them, however, is that the transition from clear to tinted can often take up to a few minutes. When you’re performing activities such as driving or even flying a plane, that’s simply not … Read More → "Eye glasses that can be manually switched to “sunglass mode” may be on their way"

Believe it or not, scientists aren’t yet finished discovering new ways to 3D print body parts. A team at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research has developed a 3D printing technique that lets them produce cartilage for repairing damaged tracheas, better known to you and I as windpipes. They use an off-the-shelf 3D printer (in this case, a MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental) to create a scaffold for the cartilage out of … Read More → "Scientists 3D print cartilage to repair damaged windpipes"

Punch cards may seem very different from traditional Eastern European embroidery, but both processes rely on compatible programing formats, as Hungarian design student Zsanett Szirmay and Hungarian cimbalom player Bálint Tárkány-Kovács demonstrated by turning traditional Eastern European embroidery patterns into punch cards that play musical compositions when they’re fed through a music box.
via Read More → "Listen to music composed by a pillow"

SkyMall is dead, and that’s a bummer, at least for those prone to nostalgia, enamored of garden gnomes, or inept at charging devices before boarding a flight. But the company’s bankruptcy could improve airlines’ bottom lines, because they’ll no longer carry the catalog in every seat-back pocket.

That may not make any sense until you understand … Read More → "SkyMall’s demise could save airlines $350K a year on fuel"