The founder of audio firm Bose, Dr Amar Bose, has died aged 83. He wasn’t simply the boss of a high-priced equipment manufacturer, but a major player in acoustical engineering. Born in Philadelphia in 1929, the son of a refugee from India, Bose taught himself to repair broken toy electric trains because his family couldn’t […]
Run while you still can my friends. Soon, running will be futile. ATLAS was developed for DARPA by Boston Dynamics. Software-focused teams from Tracks B and C of the DARPA Robotics Challenge will use the robot to compete in the first physical competition of the Challenge in December 2013 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The DARPA […]
Price at a *ahem* measly $123,000 USD, the Power Jacket MK3 exoskeleton will mimic your every move while you’re wearing it. The suit uses “a master-slave system where your arms and legs are strapped to motorized joints that, when moved, drive the motion of the suit’s corresponding limbs.” [PoweredJacket | Via TechEblog]
Asimo, arguably the world’s cutest android, has started work as a tour guide in a Tokyo museum. And sadly it was a pretty bad first day. Asimo (Advanced Step in Innovative MObility) is a humanoid robot designed by Honda to help people with mobility issues, though to date it’s mainly been used for demonstrations and […]
The man who invented the computer mouse has died aged 88. Douglas Engelbart also played a key role in the development of many modern computing concepts. An electrical engineering graduate and wartime radar technician, Engelbart worked at a forerunner to NASA before joining the Stanford Research Institute. He later formed the Augmentation Research Center. Much […]
A petition calling for an end to state laws that prevent Tesla selling electric cars direct to the public has attracted more than 100,000 signatures on the White House website. That’s enough to trigger a mandatory response from the government, though doesn’t guarantee any specific action. The petition relates to laws in several states. Most […]
A British baron driving at a ridiculously high speed sounds like a tale from the 1920s. But in fact Lord Drayson’s run out at 204.2 miles per hour happened this week and destroyed the record for an electric vehicle. The previous record of 175 miles per hour had stood since 1974. The rules of the […]
Google is testing a way of using balloons to carry Internet signals to areas where a wired or cellphone connection isn’t financially viable. It’s part of a grand project with the stated aim of making the net available to every person in the world by the end of the decade. The company appears relaxed with […]
Now that things have settled down, and the fallout between Microsoft and Sony’s press conferences are sifting to a murky haze – let’s take a look at some other announcements from two of the industries leading developers. Ubisoft and Electronic Arts hosted their events on Monday and treated fans to an array of new titles, […]
http://youtu.be/6LWz4qa2XQA In a jaw-dropping feat of engineering, electronics turn a person’s thoughts into commands for a robot. Using a brain-computer interface technology pioneered by University of Minnesota biomedical engineering professor Bin He, several young people have learned to use their thoughts to steer a flying robot around a gym, making it turn, rise, dip, and […]