Scientists have made tremendous advances toward building lifelike prosthetic limbs that move and function like the real thing.
But what’s missing is a sense of touch, so a patient knows how hard he or she is actually squeezing something, or exactly where the object is positioned relative to his or her hand.
“If you lose your somatosensory [body senses] system, it almost looks like your motor system is… read more
If you create and modify your own virtual reality avatars, could what happens to these alter egos influence how you perceive virtual environments?
Penn State researchers found this question relevant to designing more realistic and immersive virtual reality exercises and games. They assigned random avatars to one group of participants, but allowed another group to customize their own avatars.
When placed in a virtual environment with three hills… read more
Amazon.com Inc. is developing a high-end smartphone featuring a screen that allows for three-dimensional images without glasses, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles, and users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes, according to sources,
With smartphones, Amazon could collect new… read more
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have found a radioactive iron isotope in bacteria microfossils.that they trace back to a supernova in our cosmic neighborhood.
This is the first proven biological signature of a starburst on our earth. The age determination of the deep-drill core from the Pacific Ocean showed that the supernova explosion must have occurred about 2.2 million years ago, roughly around the… read more
The U.S. State Department has demanded designs by Defense Distributed for a 3D-printed gun be taken offline because publishing them online may breach arms-control regulations, Forbes reports.
The order to remove the blueprints for the plastic gun comes after they were downloaded more than 100,000 times.
However, the files were actually being served by Mega, the New Zealand-based storage service created by ex-hacker entrepreneur Kim… read more
People provided with a real-time readout of activity in specific regions of their brains can learn to control that activity and lessen their anxiety, say Yale researchers.
They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to display the activity of the orbitofrontal cortex (a brain region just above the eyes) to subjects while they lay in a brain scanner.
Through a process of trial and… read more
Mars One says it has received applications from more than 78,000 people in more than 120 countries for the Mars One astronaut selection program, in hopes of becoming a Mars settler in 2023.
Most applications come from the U.S. (17324), followed by China (10241), United Kingdom (3581), Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Argentina and India.
The most popular candidate (for site visitors) so far is Anders… read more
For safety reasons, robot makers have avoided contact between the robot’s arm and the world.
Now Georgia Tech and Meka Robotics researchers have developed a control method that enables a robot’s arm to make contact with objects, people, and the rest of the robot while keeping forces low.
The method works with compliant robotic joints and whole-arm tactile sensing, and keeps the robot’s arm flexible,… read more
In his role as Google’s chief internet evangelist, Cerf has spent much of his time thinking about the future of the computer networks that connect us all.
Working with NASA and JPL, Cerf has helped develop a new set of protocols that can stand up to the unique environment of space, where orbital mechanics and the speed of light make traditional networking extremely difficult. Though this space-based… read more
There’s a theory that human intelligence stems from a single algorithm.
The idea arises from experiments suggesting that the portion of your brain dedicated to processing sound from your ears could also handle sight for your eyes. This is possible only while your brain is in the earliest stages of development, but it implies that the brain is — at its core — a general-purpose machine that can be tuned… read more
Neuro Gadget has compiled a summary of the recent NeuroGaming 2013 Conference, featuring applications of brain-computer-interface devices, for example. such as making a toy helicopter fly, composing a brain-wave inspired piece of music, and training attention.
The event also included games and software for biofeedback training, physical and psychological rehabilitation (for example, a noninvasive device that enables the wearer to open and close their hand… read more
Harvard roboticists have created a robotic insect the size of a paper clip and successfully test-flown it.
Inspired by the biology of a fly, the intricate design is the culmination of 12 years of painstaking work by researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
The device represents… read more
HERB (Home-Exploring Robot Butler) is new class of robot developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University‘s Robotics Institute that can discover objects in its surroundings by using more than just computer vision.
The Lifelong Robotic Object Discovery (LROD) process developed by the research team enabled HERB, a two-armed, mobile robot, to use color video, a Kinect depth camera, and non-visual information to discover more than 100… read more
Patient-specific bone substitutes from skin cells for repair of large bone defects are now possible, thanks to research by a team of New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute scientists.
The study represents a major advance in personalized reconstructive treatments for patients with bone defects resulting from disease or trauma. It promises to lead to customizable, three-dimensional bone grafts on-demand, matched to fit the exact… read more
Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a technique to encapsulate a single water molecule inside a buckyball (C60) molecular structure.
Using computer modeling, they discovered that the resulting structure responds in a surprising way to an electric field: the whole structure can be driven in either direction through a narrow channel, with adjustable transport velocity
The researchers believe their discovery could have practical applications, such… read more