Our hacked Kinect series has demonstrated amply how the Kinect is changing the worlds of business, art, medicine and robotics. But where does it go from here? That will be determined by the thousands of dedicated DIYers out there doing work like you've seen here over the last week.
It's remarkable that a gaming device (from Microsoft, no less) designed for geeky gamers has incited broad innovation in medicine and robotics. But that Kinect has captured the imagination of hackers-with-MBAs-in-mind is downright amazing.
TGIF. What better day to take a break from the week's dwindling grind? Below, a video demo plus instructions for indulging in a little tech-aided vanity during your next water cooler hiatus. An iPhone is necessary, so if you don't have one, find a co-worker stat. 1. Buy & Download.
Outstanding advancements in medicine and super creepy Androids aren't the only jaw-dropping inventions out there. Every once in a while, an incredibly random—and at first glance, seemingly useless—device comes along and strikes a chord of strangely deep satisfaction. Behold, the SWITL, a mysterious goo-scraper robot hand created by factory equipment manufacturer Furukawa Kikou: From what I can glean from a very rough Google translation, it sounds like the SWITL was developed for food producti...
How about a laser? One that is strong enough to nudge debris out of earth orbit. That's what NASA contractor James Mason wants to do, and his lab simulations suggest that the idea is possible. Mason wants to use a 5kW ground-based laser and a ground-based 1.5 meter telescope to spot potentially hazardous space waste and shove it off, by about 200 meters per day of lasering. It's kind-of like air traffic control for near earth orbit.
There are currently two camps on the internet. The first camp—those who are slurping up as much Charlie Sheen tiger blood as possible (hence Sheen's newly bagged Guinness Book of World Records status for most Twitter followers)— drastically prevails. The second camp—those who would rather not hear poor Charlie's ravings—is, however, much smaller. If you fall into the latter camp, Greg Leuch of F.A.T. has a solution for you. Leuch—who is also responsible for the Justin Bieber Mention Blocker—h...
EL Wire is a bit tricky if all you want to do is glow. But there's a lot to know about the technology, as well as helpful information to get you addicted to it. EL Wire is a thin copper wire that gives off a beautiful glow when an electric charge is applied. There are 10 colors of EL Wire, and each wire has it's own unique characteristics. Typically EL Wire is used for safety as well as costuming. It has such a low power point that it can run off as little as watch batteries to make it glow!
Once there was Spin the Bottle. Then there was the embarrassing adult version of Spin the Bottle—on Wii. And then there was artist Hye Yeon Nam, who decided to skip all pretenses and go straight for the spit-swapping, no foreplay necessary. Hye Yeon Nam devised a method for controlling a bowling video game by French kissing. It works like this: "One person has a magnet on his/her tongue and the other person wears the headset. While they kiss, the person who has the magnet on his/her tongue, c...
It may look like a modern take on Oliver Twist but, we assure you, this is for real. Before you get too alarmed, however, you should note that the headline reads "how to steal cars" and not simply "to steal cars." We are, after all, dealing with the fine people at Machine Project, a Los Angeles-based non-profit community space organized around the investigation of "art, technology, natural history, science, music, literature, and food."
Love this Rubik's Cube stamp with movable type Chinese characters by Shaun Chung. Chung laser-etched the characters from wood, and then adhered them to a regular Rubik's Cube to create verses from a traditional Chinese text.
Far away in Finland, where the ice is plentiful and the temperature is bitter cold, the Finnish Nokia team have created the world's first touchscreen display made entirely of ice. Constructed with massive slabs of river ice, the display was first shaped into neat square slabs with a chainsaw, and then smoothed into a watchable surface with a powerful heat gun.
Relax, it's not as messy as it sounds. Pee-on-a-stick, at home STD tests may be available in UK pharmacies soon, complete with an incredibly convenient app that would save you a trip to the clinic. It works like this: if you suspect you may have an STD, you would pee on a device which is then inserted into your mobile phone. The app then "diagnoses" your sample and returns results.
It’s that time of the year when everyone feels like taking a long vacation from the hustles of life and bend most of the rules. This is especially with regards to eating habits. Most people tend to forget the importance of eating a healthy diet. However, there are the few of us who still want to keep fit even while on vacation. These are the few fitness fanatics.
Remember Willy Wonka's magical gum? Wonka promised the flavors of tomato soup, roast beef, baked potato, blueberry pie and ice cream. As the avid gum lover Violet Beauregarde tested it out, she exclaimed: “It’s hot and creamy, I can actually feel? it running down my throat!” Um, yum... I think. Good news. Wonka's three course chewing gum is finally a reality-in-the-works. Scientists at the Institute of Food Research (IFR) have been developing recent advances in nanotechnology, which could pot...
The forefront of bike technology has delivered bikes without hubs, bikes as flexible as Gumby, and invisible steering. The latest to enter the field rethinks the bicycle chain. As in... who needs it?
Fashion designer Manel Torres has teamed up with scientists at Imperial College London and designers at the Royal College of Art to invent spray-on clothing, an instant, sprayable, non-woven fabric-in-a-can.
There are endless possibilities for eReaders, and lots of amazing things are already happening. But wow-worthy visual tricks aside, how can technology really change the way we consume books? In the video below design company IDEO presents three separate concepts for virtual consumption: Nelson, Coupland and Alice. IDEO groups their virtual experiences into three separate concepts: Nelson, Coupland and Alice. Core77 breaks down each concept:
What feature would we most like to see in the robots of tomorrow? Why, the ability to interact with human beings without crushing them to death, of course. Happily, thanks to a new pressure-sensitive synthetic skin technology, the dream is within reach:
Born in 1975, the world's first digital camera used a standard cassette tape to record images, rather than today's standard data cards.
Nope, this isn't a flash game version of SCRABBLE. There's already one of those (and a multitude of imitations) for the Apple iPhone, iPod, and Facebook. This is an electronic game, and it's not a "handheld" game like the SCRABBLE Pocket Pogo Touch Screen Game (pictured right). It's an entirely new way to play everybody's favorite word game, and it's called SCRABBLE Flash (BOGGLE Flash outside of the U.S. and Canada).
How would you like to live like Tarzan, except in a sustainable, organic treehouse? Check out TED Fellow and urban designer Mitchell Joachim and his plan for homes of the future. Read the full article here.
As sports fanatics, we know how central instant replay is in professional sports. The NFL proved it to any non-believer many years ago. Now the rest of the world is playing catch up. Yes, I am pointing my fingers at the FIFA idiots who run the World Cup. (UK was robbed against Germany). And baseball... Selig should apologize to Armando.
Upon first glance, one may think Mark Suppes is just another thirty-something-year-old dude living in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. However, the Gucci web designer by day has a significant (to say the least) project-in-progress by night. The amateur scientist bicycles to a non-descript building in Brooklyn to chip away at his homemade nuclear fusion reactor. BBC reports:
E3, the Superbowl event of video games, is next week. This is the event where all major companies reveal their plans for the next year, new technology, and surprise game announcements.
DARPA and Dallas's Southern Methodist University are collaborating on a super high tech camera, capable of scanning eyeballs in a moving crowd.
The 2010 World Cup is upon us and there isn't much that hasn't been said already. All the leagues around the world are finished and champions have been crowned. The media has covered every angle imaginable. Or have they? Or should they? Is this about the sport anymore? What will we remember about this World Cup? A great goal, a new venue, a great comeback, injured players who never made it, a bad call by a referee, a new star rising, overlooked players, 4-4-2, 3-4-1-2, 3-4-3, bad subs, FIFA 2...
My father recently suffered a stroke. Now in Neuro Rehab at Cedars Sinai, he is enduring daily physical therapy, recreational therapy and occupational therapy sessions to help improve his balance, mobility and fine motor skills. I was initially worried about how I could incorporate his current PT regime in his daily life after he's discharged. That was until I saw the devices he used in the PT gym. Despite their "medical device" designations, the high tech stuff is remarkably similar to what ...
You may know British artist David Hockney, famous for his Splash paintings and photo collages (pictured below). But did you also know Hockney is a huge Apple enthusiast?
How do you top a movie like Avatar? James Cameron's recent release pioneered in 3D technology, and was the first film to gross more than $2 billion, as well as being the highest grossing 3D movie of all time. What do you do after wrapping up a project like that? Well, Cameron's current plans truly place him at the crossroads of science and art. Cameron has paired up with NASA to shoot Mars in 3D.
I think this is a fun new product from lite panels. There are clearly some important specs still being left off this announcement, such as FC readings at different distances, initial lumens, and a better sense of the nature of this light. Can it spot and flood like a fresnel or is this just another soft source in a round housing? Hopefully this will be a nice step forward for LEDs and the slow but steady death of tungsten lighting.
Very cool project by Benjamin Gaulon. Gaulon has created a graffiti writing paintball robot, entitled PrintBall. He uses technology from (previously posted) EyeWriter to tag with his eyes, plastering a wall with paintballs.
Chemical engineers at Cornell have created a small device that may one day turn troops into real life spider-men. The device would cradle in the palm of the hand, allowing troops to scale walls. It uses an adhesive inspired by the Floridian leaf beetle, an insect that "can adhere to leaves with power 100 times stronger than its own body weight".
No matter which way you cut it, coding remains one of the most lucrative tech skills you can learn in 2020, and, thanks to Learnable, mastering the essentials is even easier. This training platform is your ticket to learning many of today's top coding languages, as well as understanding key technologies, and lifetime subscriptions are on sale for just $39.99.
When Google first launched the Pixel 4, it was and still is the only phone in existence that uses a radar system for motion gestures. Yes, that radar — the same kind of motion-sensing technology used in the military for years — is available on our phones. The Pixel 4 did come with a gesture to let you change songs without touching the phone itself, but you can now pause your music just the same.
Augmented reality has an incredible way of integrating things into our world that we can typically only see in movies like ghosts in a haunted house or Sharknados. However, a new experiment made with Apple's ARKit has changed the game in realistic augmented reality characters.
Microsoft's HoloLens project is shaping up to be the forerunner of augmented reality. With jaw-dropping features that would allow you to bring entire football games into your living room and control software with your eyes, there's plenty to be excited about with the upcoming AR headset. Up until now, HoloLens has been seen as potential vaporware, considering that the technology it brings to the table is so futuristic that some folks have thought it wouldn't be possible any time soon. But a r...
New filings with the FCC released on Monday show that Samsung's forthcoming Galaxy S7 Edge will feature a 3,600 mAh battery. While this news might not satisfy everyone who is unhappy that Samsung did away with removable batteries, this should mean that the S7 Edge will be able to last longer between charge-ups.
It sounds like Samsung is impressed enough with Apple's 3D Touch feature on the iPhone 6S models that the company is planning on implementing a similar feature on its upcoming Galaxy S7 handsets. A source told The Wall Street Journal that the latest iteration of Samsung's flagship will feature a similar design to this year's Galaxy S6, and will again feature both standard and curved AMOLED models. It's also rumored that the standard design will once again support microSD cards, which should p...
Google announced that they are selling Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, seemingly marking the end of their partnership that began 19 months ago.
According to the electronics giant, Samsung and Google have signed a global patent license agreement that, according to Samsung's official blog, "covers the two companies’ existing patents as well as those filed over the next 10 years." The patent war in the smart device realm has been raging for years; whether it's Apple and Samsung at each other's throats or one half of the tech sector suing the other, litigation has been the main weapon in a conflict that used to be won with innovation.