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Revolve Robotics introduces Kubi, a $200 telepresence robot for your desk, living room, or kitchen

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Everyone, it seems, wants to build a telepresence robot that moves. Revolve Robotics, however, wants to build a telepresence robot that doesn’t break the bank.

So Revolve built Kubi, a robot that swivels and tilts … but stays put wherever you place it.

“The whole moving avatar thing is pretty cool,” CEO Marcus Rosenthal admits. “But, not only is it a bit creepy — with … Read More → "Revolve Robotics introduces Kubi, a $200 telepresence robot for your desk, living room, or kitchen"

Curved LCD display can be embedded in contact lenses

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The first step toward fully pixilated contact lens displays, this achievement is claimed to have potential applications in the medical and cosmetic sectors.

According to a statement, imec’s display overcomes the limitations of LED-based contact lens displays, which are limited to a few small pixels, as the LCD-based technology allows the use of the entire display surface.
via Read More → "Curved LCD display can be embedded in contact lenses"

Self-contained robotic farms offer glimpse of lunar food factories

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As astronauts venture farther afield (possibly to Mars in the 2030s), the issue of food becomes an increasingly important variable. Currently the food eaten by astronauts is prepackaged and produced on Earth, but according to NASA’s Advanced Food Technology Project, the “duration of future missions may require a portion of the diet to be grown, processed and prepared in the space habitat.”
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Why BioShock Infinite‘s creator won’t settle for success

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In 2007, Irrational Games released BioShock, a videogame that took the first-person perspective and remorseless slaughter of blockbusters like Halo and Call of Duty and set fire to the medium’s narrative conventions and audience expectations. The result may have been gaming’s first work of art. As protagonist Jack, the player explored a … Read More → "Why BioShock Infinite‘s creator won’t settle for success"

NASA releases stunning photos of Earth at night

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NASA has released an incredible new set of photos that show Earth at night with greater detail than ever before, the agency said today.

The new photos are possible thanks to a new sensor aboard the NASA-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite that was launched last year. Thanks to the new sensor, Earth’s scientists can see the surface during nighttime hours. The … Read More → "NASA releases stunning photos of Earth at night"

NASA’s latest engineering challenge: how to change a light bulb

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NASA is changing all of the light bulbs on board the International Space Station to help famously insomniac astronauts sleep better.

Astronaut insomnia is somewhat legendary at NASA, with astronauts popping sleep pills with regularity and averaging only six hours of sleep a night, far less than the eight and a half hours they’re technically allotted. This can cause serious problems as fatigue sets in. To help matters, NASA is embarking on a … Read More → "NASA’s latest engineering challenge: how to change a light bulb"

New radio telescope to provide advance warnings of potentially damaging solar flares

After a long eight-year wait, the building of Australia’s Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope has finally reached completion. The radio telescope’s first major task will be to investigate the Sun to provide earlier warnings of solar storms that, if left unchecked, could fry satellites and power grids across the globe. The telescope will also be sued to scout the sky for the earliest, most distant galaxies ever detected in an attempt to resolve unanswered questions on the origins of the Universe.

Every once in a while, a massive flow of electrons and other accelerated … Read More → "New radio telescope to provide advance warnings of potentially damaging solar flares"

How James Dyson makes the ordinary extraordinary

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James Dyson leaps out of his chair like a restless child and picks up a big yellow-and-gray vacuum—one of several Dyson contraptions congregated around the podium at the Wired Business Conference last May. The audience laughs uneasily. Will he break into song? Start vacuuming the stage? “Do you want to know how to empty it?” he asks, ejecting the transparent chamber where hypothetical dust bunnies collect. “You take the bin … Read More → "How James Dyson makes the ordinary extraordinary"

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