Most of the time, most of us have absolutely no idea what robots are thinking. Someone who builds and programs a robot does have some idea how that robot is supposed to act based on certain inputs, but as sensors get more ubiquitous and the software that manages them and synthesizes their data to make decisions gets more complex, it becomes increasingly difficult to get a … Read More → "MIT’s augmented reality room shows what robots are thinking"

The Onyx, a new device from hardware startup OnBeep, might be the closest thing to what Captain Picard wore on his uniform in Star Trek: The Next Generation we’ve seen yet.

At a base level, the $99 Onyx is a personal communications device that operates within its own network. It pairs to a smartphone via Bluetooth and works whereever your smartphone has … Read More → "The Onyx is a ‘Star Trek’ communicator for the real world"

Following in the footsteps of New York’s Metropolitan Museum, London’s British Museum is about to revolutionize the gift shop experience by allowing visitors to download and 3D print replicas of its priceless antiques and artifacts.

Given the size of the museum’s collection … Read More → "The British Museum will now let you 3D print copies of its artifacts"

It may have a glass roof and be filled with plants, but the Advanced Crop Lab at the Durham, North Carolina, headquarters of agricultural biotech firm Syngenta does a lot more than a typical greenhouse. Scientists can program its dozens of rooms with individual climates in order to test new crops that might flourish in our sweltering, drought-filled future. Which means that Nebraska corn can grow at 87 degrees right … Read More → "This high-tech greenhouse tests what crops will survive climate change"

All Time 10s shares “ten of the most expensive video games ever made in their latest video, like Destiny,Deadpool, Grand Theft Auto V, and more.
via Laughing Squid 

… Read More → "Ten of the most expensive video games ever made"

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is testing a technology to project a vein map on the arms of blood donors during the phlebotomy.

“Vein visualisation technology uses near infrared technology to project an image of the vein onto the skin,” says Dr. Dan Waller, a senior researcher with the organization. “Veins have a lot of deoxygenated haemoglobin that absorbs near infrared light … Read More → "Visualization technology projects vein maps during blood donations"

A new study claims that comfort food does a lot of nothing to comfort people.

Research published in the Health Psychology journal suggests that no food, “neutral” food, and delicious warm nuggets of comfort food have the same effect on alleviating a bad mood. Participants in a study watched an 18-minute video that would evoke depression or anxiety (i.e., chocolate … Read More → "Study finds “comfort food” doesn’t actually comfort people"

Yvon Le Maho of the University of Strasbourg in France and his colleagues wanted to study the heart rates of emperor penguins. They equipped monitors on 34 penguins for that purpose. To collect data, they needed to enter the penguin colony daily. A human presence would cause the penguins to become anxious and would likely skew the data.

So Le Maho and his colleagues built this rover that looks like a penguin chick. They … Read More → "A baby penguin robot helps researchers study emperor penguins"

A highway overpass is the last place most of us would think to install a farm. But algae, that wonderful little ecological miracle, is different. Since it consumes sunlight and CO2 and spits out oxygen, places with high emissions are actually the perfect growing area. Which is why this overpass in France has its own algae … Read More → "Algae farm eats pollution from the highway below it"

Four Students from Oslo School of Archetecture and Design decided to enter a cool project into the Hackaday competition. Their project, called the Interacket, attempts to give the user an experience of how animals experience and view the world around them.

It would be hard to recreate a bats power of sight through sonar using technology, so this bunch has decided to mimic the way chameleons blend in with their environment. It is a simple and … Read More → "Chameleon jacket project mimics the way a chameleon blends in with its environment"