Researchers from MIT and Princeton have developed a smartphone application called “SignalGuru” that uses the camera from a dashboard-mounted smartphone to capture images of traffic lights. Once the images are captured, they’re analyzed to detect whether the lights are green, yellow or red and then that data is passed along to other …
MIT
Solar Power You Can See Through
Yesterday we mentioned recent predictions that solar power will be as cheap as coal by 2013; today, though, the word is that it will also be a helluva lot easier to generate too.
MIT scientists Vladimir Bulović and Richard Lunt have published a paper outlining a system of transparent photovoltaic cells which could be coated on to …
MIT Demos Real-Time Princess Leia Holography Via Kinect Hack
A research group from MIT’s Media Lab has leveraged commercially available technology to transmit holographic video over the internet.
And like any hologram demo worth its salt, one of the group’s members donned full Princess Leia garb to re-enact the fabled “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope,” scene from Star …
MIT’s Mouseless Project is an Invisible Computer Mouse
Mouseless is a self-described “invisible computer mouse that provides the familiarity of interaction of a physical mouse without actually needing a real hardware mouse.”
An offspring of MIT’s Media Lab, the project consists of two infrared cameras capable of identifying the details and positioning of a human hand. The user moves his …
This Wallet Gets Harder to Open As Your Bank Account Depletes
The MIT-developed Proverbial Wallet appears similar to an ordinary wallet except for the slightly odd looking apparatus in the middle. That’s where all the action happens, though.
Aside from holding your money and plastic, three variations of the Proverbial Wallet each do three main things: One vibrates when you make a purchase using …
Programmable Matter Shows Early Signs of Transformer Apocalypse
The end is near, my friends. A handful of geniuses at Harvard and MIT have developed programmable matter based on origami principles.
According to the press release:
“Called programmable matter by folding, the team demonstrated how a single thin sheet composed of interconnected triangular sections could transform itself into a boat-
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Checking in on the Next Generation of Inventors
The Lemelson-MIT Program was established in 1994 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The program “recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real-world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention.” Several grants are given out every year, …
Boy Scouts Announce ‘Inventing’ Merit Badge
The Boy Scouts of America took the wraps of their newest merit badge at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s EurekaFest invention fair today. I live near MIT, so I’m here at EurekaFest just like a real-life reporter.
The Boy Scouts have been working to revamp the merit badge process, streamlining the amount of time it takes to …
OLPC Foundation to Launch $100 Student Tablet
Aiming to hit the magic $100 price point that’s been the goal of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation since the inception of its earliest student-friendly “XO” portable computers, Nicholas Negroponte is planning to take things into the tablet realm over the coming months.
Originally announced last year for a scheduled launch in …