It’s a classic situation … a family is watching TV, but in order for the grandparents to be able to hear it, the volume is turned up too loud for everyone else’s liking. A PhD student from the University of Southampton, however, might have a solution. Marcos Simón has developed a speaker system that projects high-volume audio to just one spot in the room.

Simón’s system is … Read More → "TV sound system creates a loud spot in the room for people with hearing loss"

Kozniewski and his collaborators at the Warsaw-based art collective created Neclumi while experimenting with projection mapping and with wearable devices. They’re often tinkering with technology (last year panGenerator created another conceptual wearable, called Tactilo, that lets two wearers send each other haptic signals over Bluetooth signals) and decided to see what would happen if they fused projection mapping with wearables to create wearable projections. The result is Neclumi, an app that pairs with a picoprojector, … Read More → "Jewelry that’s made only of light beamed onto your skin"

IBM wants its supercomputer Watson to help you get healthy—by analyzing your genes. A startup called Pathway Genomics is teaming up with IBM to create a fitness and diet tracking app that uses DNA sequencing and Watson’s intelligence to give custom health recommendations.

Read More → "IBM’s app will sequence your DNA to give you personalized health advice"

Who hasn’t looked at a sporting event and thought that it would be better if it involved giant robots wailing on each other? That seems to be the thinking of the people behind the MegaBots Kickstarter campaign, who are raising money to build giant humanoid robots with human drivers to take on each other in paintball arena games.

A MegaBot is the sort of robot that stands out … Read More → "Megabots: Paintball with giant robots"

You know what’s stealthier than an ordinary drone? One that can disintegrate when it needs to, in order to destroy evidence of its spying activities. A team of researchers from various educational institutions and NASA Ames Research Center has developed a biodegradable drone made of mycelium (or the vegetative part of fungi), which recently completed its first flight. According to Lynn Rothschild of NASA Ames, once the drone, say, self-destroys by … Read More → "Drone made of fungi can disintegrate to keep its spying activities a secret"

For millennia, people have seen comets come and go from afar, watching the mysterious, bright objects suddenly appear in the sky with long, spectacular tails. Now the Rosetta mission has provided an unprecedented close-up perspective. The spacecraft’s images of comet 67P/Guryumov-Gerasimenko’s surface reveal a rugged environment, covered with jagged rock and sharp cliffs. Now its lander, Philae, has snapped … Read More → "Incredible new photos taken from the surface of a comet"

The average NFL match lasts three hours from start to finish, but contains only about a dozen minutes of action. TV broadcasters have become expert in filling the gaps between outbreaks of sport on the field with an intoxicating mix of anticipation, apprehension, and advertising. The drama and magic of football as a collective spectacle intermingles with branding messages urging me to buy more stuff. This past week I … Read More → "How much would it cost to buy everything advertised in an NFL game?"

There comes a time in every kid’s life when he wants to build his own little space in the living room -a fort! When Dad is an architect, he can’t help but observe how his kids discover the joy of creation, and he can’t help but analyze the situation and offer some building advice. Architect Ben Pell has some basic tips for constructing a pillow fort, which parents can pass … Read More → "Pillow fort building tips from an architect"

Folding and electric bikes have proven fertile ground for innovation recently, but what about bikes that are both electric and foldable? Three years in the making, the Impossible bike from a team of China-based engineers folds up to fit in a backpack and is capable of reaching 12 mph (20 km/h) on the road courtesy of a brushless electric motor.
via Read More → "Impossible electric bike folds up to fit in a backpack"

This is the PianoArc, an invention by Brockett Parsons. He’s a keyboardist for Lady Gaga, so he wants an instrument as outlandish as his boss. With 294 keys, it’s 3 conventional keyboards put together. The exterior diameter is about 6 feet. The height is adjustable and the PianoArc can be set at an angle.
via Neatorama

… Read More → "The circular piano"