By Jimmy Rogers Contributing Writer, [GAS] If you’ve been following the election recently and happen to be a geek, odds are you get a bit of your news coverage from social networks. Well on November 4th, two of those networks, Digg and Twitter, will be coming together on Current TV to bring you an election […]
Robotics engineers at the University of Bristol, UK, have developed a super-creepy robotic talking head that can mimic many “human” facial expressions as well as generate synched speech lip movements. Fortunately for humanity, the bored robot doesn’t have a body yet. This is a good thing because, as it says below, it wants to wipe […]
TMCO, a manufacturer of metal products from Lincoln, Nebraska, recently held an open house party where they used one of their factory robots to pour beer to guests. If you keep on watching till the end, you’ll even see that the robot encourages tipping! A hat tip to the guys at TMCO for finding such […]
A solar furnace is a device composed of a large curved mirror which harnesses solar rays to produce a high temperature beam of light. Possible applications includes melting steel, making hydrogen fuel, or even burning hot dog sausages to a crisp. The furnace you’ll see in the following video can reach 2,400 °C (4,352 °C), […]
by Casey Lynn Contributing Writer, [GAS] Given our recent posts about the future of surface computing, especially how it can get you drunk, this seems particularly relevant: The Interactive Mirror takes the idea of dielectric glass mirrors with LCD panels built in a step farther by adding a touchscreen component. Sure, it would be neat […]
It’s a well known fact, the perfect time for bar staff to offer a new drink to their customers is when their glass is almost empty. So to help bar owners who have a surface table inside their establishment, Microsoft is currently working on experimental “Surfaceware” that can detect how much liquid remains inside customers’ […]
By Sterling “Chip” Camden Contributing Writer, [GAS] At this week’s User Interface Software and Technology conference, Microsoft is presenting a new idea for touchscreen interface that doesn’t involve touching the screen. It’s called SideSight, and it uses infrared reflection to detect finger movement in the proximity of the device — up to 10 centimeters away. […]
by Casey Lynn Contributing Writer, [GAS] CNET News reports that this week’s ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology could reveal some interesting new developments in the area of computer interfaces. But is it time to abandon the mouse and keyboard for Star Trek levels of speech input technology? Maybe not just yet. According […]
by Casey Lynn Contributing Writer, [GAS] The USPTO recently awarded a new patent to Microsoft: automatic censorship of audio data for broadcast. Simply put, it’s a way to detect “undesired words or phrases” in a speech audio stream and automatically garble them. Just imagine! No longer must we live in a world in which our […]
Some electronic devices keep on drawing power, even when they’re “off.” While some of them have a function, like displaying the time or offering remote control functionalities, most don’t. Typical “vampire” appliances can consume up to 25 watts each, an amount that could make a significant difference in your electricity bill by the end of […]