What if every light bulb in the world could also transmit data? At TEDGlobal, Harald Haas demonstrates, for the first time, a device that could do exactly that. By flickering the light from a single LED, a change too quick for the human eye to detect, he can transmit far more data than a cellular […]
[Source: Rackspace]
It’s a long-awaited promise the Future made back in the 1950s–someday, we’ll all have robots to cook, to clean, to perform the tasks we can’t be bothered or interested to do ourselves. And in some ways, this promise has held true: witness the Roomba, which vacuums away while we play WoW and take the kids […]
When it comes to customizing toys, this guy’s got the right idea: put as much awesomeness into one little vinyl character as possible. What does said awesomeness entail? Oh, an LCD monitor and working NES, and a Tesla plasma ball maybe. And steampunk, too, complete with soldered seams and weathered gold paint. There are several […]
Back in 1977, geek heroes Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan headed up the team that created the golden record — gold-plated copper disc that serves as a sort of time capsule for Earth, in the event that some alien species finds and explores the Voyager probe as it wanders out past Pluto’s orbit and into […]
Early in the 21st century, DARPA entered the UBYKA project with a singular goal: arm insects with programmable micro-mechanical systems and micro-weapons platforms, then send them out to covertly and effectively infiltrate the strongholds of warring nations. These UBYKA cyborg animals were superior in strength and agility, enhanced with the latest technologies, and as War Terminators, they were good. […]
Event cloaks are the sort of thing movies and far-future, ten-tome science fiction tales are made of. That is unless you’re Moti Fridman or part of his group of sharp-minded companions at Cornell, in which case you have designed and built a cloak that hides events in time. The concept of event cloaking works like this: […]
A newly published study has been interpreted by some as a sign that search engines are damaging people’s memory skills. In fact, it seems more of an indication that the brain makes a smart use of its resources. The study carried out by researchers at Columbia, Wisconsin and Harvard Universities, and published in Science, involved […]
The Beer-o-bot is a mini fridge that shoots beers from an air cannon and is controlled via a web based iPhone interface. Check it out: I don’t know about you guys, but even though this project is awesome in itself, this guy seems to have poor taste when it comes to drinking good beer. Features: […]
There are so many interesting bits of space stuff floating about the Innerwebz this week! Planets and moons and asteroids (with moons?!), oh my. Here’s brief rundown of each with links to in-depth articles if you’re of the space geek set. Our Eighth Planet is so Grown-Up! Tomorrow, June 12, we celebrate Neptune’s first birthday. […]