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• Talk To The Hand

  In the days of yore (1989 to be exact), we saw the inception of Mattel's NES controller The Power Glove, the two-decades-old predecessor to the Wii remote, and the choice accoutrement of the antagonist from classic game-nerd film The Wizard ("I love the Power Glove. It's so bad!"). And a good measure of scientific progress is holding it up to its modern comparison: Today, Georgia Tech researchers are developing the next next generation of remote control technology—a tongue-controlled touch-pad. It's been called "grotesque," but obviously harnesses vast potential for paralytics—users could conceivably manipulate their surroundings entirely by moving their tongue. [Superfluous sexual innuendo omitted.] But there's much work yet to be done, one of the biggest challenges being to trim down the accompanying headgear, which, apparently, "looks like a prop from a 1980s movie." Image: From hand to mouth in 20 short years. Thanks Timmy
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  • Date: Aug 27 2008
  • Posted by alexandra_m

• Photosynth Is Live, Sort Of

  Do you recall Blaise Aguera y Arcas's demo of Photosynth at last year's TED Conference? It was basically the coolest thing we'd ever seen on the internet.
  
  As of yesterday, Photosynth is live. The catch: It looks like you need Windows to play with it. Does anyone have a PC we can borrow?
  
  Via TED.
  
  Oh, and, "The Photosynth site is a little overwhelmed."
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  • Date: Aug 21 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• Neuron Power

  Add to our report on recent scientific progress in making science "fiction" into science reality, a robot with actual real, living brain tissue. Gordon is being referred to in the science and robotics communities as Frankenrobot.
  
  His robot cranium contains a blob of grey brain matter stitched together from 50,000 to 100,000 living, cultured rat neurons that were extracted from rat fetuses and separated in an enzyme bath before being laid across a weave of electrodes that communicates with Gordon's body via Bluetooth. Oooh.
  
  One of the many potential pursuits of brain knowledge possible with Frankenrobots like Gordon is to discern how memories are actually stored in the real human brain. Another pursuit is to further break down the barrier between natural and artificial intelligence to the point of intense creepiness.
  
  Photo: Gordon and his brain
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  • Date: Aug 14 2008
  • Posted by alexandra_m

• Apple Will Recycle Your Old Computer

  When you purchase a new Mac or Mac monitor, Apple will help you recycle your old computer for free. (The old one doesn't have to be a Mac.) This is kind of amazing because, as we once told you, the amount of E-waste we create is disastrously massive. Granted, it's not an all-encompassing solution to the problems of technological trash, but recycling old computers is infinitely better than not recycling them.
  
  Thanks, Zach.
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  • Date: Aug 06 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• Intermission

  By cultivating this completely ridiculous skill, this guy has made the world a more interesting place. There are plenty of people who can play actual pianos already.
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  • Date: Aug 05 2008
  • Posted by Andrew Price

• Bird House

  Two years ago in London, some really smart folks took a bunch of waste feathers, some soy-based epoxy, and other agricultural byproducts, and built a whole, functional circuit board. With this whole we're-running-out-of-oil situation everyone's talking about lately, a few big thinkers are setting out to put to good use the things we have too much of. In this case: chicken feathers. Feathers are a, until now, worthless byproduct of chicken farms. They take up space in landfills, generate greenhouse gases when incinerated, and could potentially spread [cue ominous music] Avian Flu. But the latest feather-based innovation meant to make this waste into worth is a new construction material devised by a Filipilo scientist Menandro—a compressed-cement-and-chicken-feather composite intended for residential architecture. Replacing wood chip-based board, Acda's material is resistant to termites, doesn't call for cutting down trees, and addresses the region's national dilemma of feather disposal. In the meantime, at the University of Nebraska, fashion-minded scientists are working to turn chicken feathers and other farm excess, like rice straw, into fabrics. Note: In three paragraphs, chicken feathers just went from something you never think about, to a huge problem of excess, to something you wear, live in, and check your email with. Yes, the world's an incredible place.
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  • Date: Aug 05 2008
  • Posted by alexandra_m

• Robot Love

  Heart Robot, a creepy Gollum-esque metal-and-circuit infant, is part of a new field of development in robotic science... the emotibot: robots with the ability to respond to human emotion. Other robotic babies have already been birthed by scientists, like this toddler recently in Japan, invented for child behavior research. But Heart Robot and its emotibot siblings are different. They exist to be loved. (For more on this, you should probably pick up a copy of David Levy's book Love + Sex with Robots. Just don't let anyone see you reading it.) Some go so far as to theorize that in half a century, they'll have the ability to love each other (i.e. robot weddings). But we're not there yet and it's already getting uncomfortably bizarre. In the meantime, there is one emotibot we are completely OK with: Heart Robot's developers bring us a real live (well, sort of) Wall-E.
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  • Date: Jul 30 2008
  • Posted by alexandra_m

• Underwater Blogging?

  This has already been making its rounds, but it's so amazing and absurd we just have to include it here. It could be the key to our life-long ambition of modern living under the sea.
  
  
  Golden Shellback Waterproof Coating from gCaptain.com on Vimeo.
  
  Via Core77.
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  • Date: Jul 29 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• Computer Compilation

  New research shows that today's kids are surpassing previous generations in laziness. This is probably due in part to the advent of laptop idling—the new way to veg out. We're all part of today's computeriat, though, and we might as well know how we evolved. Here's an edifying list-history of the computers that reprogrammed the world (and our lives).
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  • Date: Jul 17 2008
  • Posted by Jason Jude Chan

• Burning Calories, Not Fossil Fuels

  What if—crazy idea, we know—all the massive amount of energy expended by people working out at the gym was—going out on a limb here—put to some sort of practical use. Duh. A few different projects have recently worked to harness this straightforward human power generator that is Crunch! or Planet Fitness, and geared that energy byproduct toward making things work. Hong Kong's human-powered gym directs energy generated by your work-out routine to power the facility's light fixtures. In the same vein, a Dutch-designed dance club has converted the club's floor into a giant generator, using the vibrations caused by people getting down to turn the speakers up. New York's floating bumper-boat-esque concept, River Gym, would combine the charming commute option of water taxi with a luxury exercise experience boasting great views of the skyline. Running in loops along commuter routes, these floating fitness capsules are powered by the people inside them, so you can work out on a stationary bike, and still get somewhere. And, worried about your carbon footprint? Don't sweat it. Via Inhabitat
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  • Date: Jul 15 2008
  • Posted by alexandra_m