Now you have an excuse to touch everything. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft Research have created OmniTouch, a wearable system that turns walls, arms, hands, table... Read more
Have you ever looked at a particulalry stunning photograph and wished you could really immerse yourself in it? A recent project attempts to do just that, with the help of a good camer... Read more
If we’re ever going to have robot butlers, then they’re going to have to learn how to figure things out for themselves. After all, if you have to reprogram the robot for every sl... Read more
Every once in a while you see an invention that seems a long time coming. The Tacit, a hand-mounted system that pings surroundings and transmits distance information to the user, is o... Read more
Among the various scientific/industrial robots in the marketplace, Willow Garage‘s PR2 is one that stands out. This is because both its hardware and software are open-source – us... Read more
A team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students has created a system that pairs an EEG headset with a 3-D theatrical flying harness, allowing users to “fly” by controlling th... Read more
While we’ve looked at a couple of efforts to upgrade the humble white cane’s capabilities, such as the ultrasonic Ultracane and the laser scanning cane, the decidedly low tech wh... Read more
Despite all the breakthroughs in the world of robotics, we still seem to be some way off the kind of advanced robots that can autonomously carry out a variety of tasks in unstructured and cl... Read more
Although surgeons need to frequently review medical images and records during surgery, they’re also in the difficult position of not being able to touch non-sterile objects such as keyboards... Read more
Despite a relatively tepid consumer take-up, the buzz surrounding 3D televisionis still quite intense. But even the viewing improvements offered by stereoscopic technology may pale by compar... Read more
The development of open source drivers for Microsoft’s Kinect motion-controller is already opening up new (if not entirely unpredictable) applications for the device. This example, dev... Read more
Image by camknows via Flickr With the money Microsoft has spent on failed efforts to design hardware, you could finance a trip to Mars. Its failures make up quite a flop parade: WebTV. Spot... Read more
Image by Axel Bührmann via Flickr TIM NICHOLS measures fun. A slim, 32-year-old psychologist, he spends his days behind a one-way mirror at Microsoft’s video games research center here, watc... Read more