A new town located near Hobbs, N.M., will be outfitted with nearly $1 billion worth of cutting-edge technology, from advanced wireless networks to self-flushing toilets. Too bad nobody will be living there to enjoy …
Innovation
Move Over, Roomba: Multilingual Cocorobo Can Vacuum and Talk
Roomba is great, I guess. I mean, it can vacuum your floor while you sit on the couch watching Perfect Strangers. But can it talk to you?
Cocorobo can. It’s the new robot from Sharp that will finally allow you to become …
Google’s Driverless Cars Now Officially Licensed in Nevada
Nevada‘s putting a new spin on the idea of “hands-free” driving this week: The state just issued Google its first license for a car that drives itself. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Nevadans can expect to see the ballyhooed …
Smartphone-Friendly Grocery Store Adorns Walls of Chicago ‘L’ Station
For a while now, commuters in Seoul, South Korea have been able to do their grocery shopping virtually as they wait for the subway. Now Chicago’s “L” commuters are getting in on the action.
Rolled out as a pilot program in the …
When I Think About My Computer, I Touch Myself
No, eww, I don’t mean in the Divinyls sense — I’m talking about touching real-world objects like chairs or doorknobs, or even parts of your own body, say your ears, to signal your computer or other computing devices. A team at …
Videoconference like a Sith Lord with 3D Hologram Telepods
Skype? That’s so 21st Century. In the future, we’ll all communicate like Darth Sidious, ordering our minions around in the form of three-dimensional holograms.
The technology is called TeleHuman and it’s being developed by the …
Sharks with Laser Beams Attached to Their Heads: Dr. Evil’s Dream Comes True
Dr. Evil had one simple request to properly arm his lair – he wanted “sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads.” While his right-hand man Number Two couldn’t deliver on this rather simple setup (instead, …
Meet HERB, the Robot Butler That Knows How to Use a Microwave
People, we’ve been microwaving our own Hot Pockets for too long. It’s about time we delegated that responsibility to machines, so that we might spend our time doing more important things like watching re-runs of Wings and …
The Collapse of Moore’s Law: Physicist Says It’s Already Happening
Moore’s Law is finally breaking down, according to theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. He’s talking about the so-called law that says the number of transistors that can be fit on a computer chip will double every two years, …
HomeOS: Microsoft Works on Bringing Smart Homes to the Masses
Pop quiz: What’s the easiest way to wire up your entire home for smartphone and tablet controls? Unless you’re quite tech-savvy, chances are you haven’t the slightest idea.
It’s a problem that Microsoft Research wants to solve …
Is Apple CEO Tim Cook Right? Are Laptop-Tablet Hybrids Dead in the Water?
Apple CEO Tim Cook says the idea of a laptop-tablet hybrid is tantamount to shoving a toaster into a refrigerator. It’s a clever, sound-bite-y analogy. It’s also wrongheaded. But before we go there, let’s give Cook’s comments the …