Monthly Archives: August, 2011

AI vs. AI – What Happens When You Make a Chatty Computer Talk To Itself? Cornell Finds Out

I can think of few things as annoying as being forced into a conversation with an idiot. But when that idiot you're talking to...

Canadian Cyborg Documents The Reality Behind Today’s Cyborg Tech

Will the future be full of humans who merge with machines to become cyborgs? Ha. It's already happened. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the...

Share Your Family History on Storytree

Oral history is finally catching up with the digital age. Storytree is a new website and free mobile app that allows you to easily...

Transforming Shipping Containers Into Local Farms – PodPonics Brings Produce to the City

Urban agriculture has a new hope, and its name is PodPonics. Based in Atlanta, the startup is pursuing a new kind of recycling: transform...

A Video Game That Teaches You To Make Video Games – Code Hero Rocks Maker Faire, Next The World

Most first person shooters ask kids to run around and kill enemy soldiers, demons, or prostitutes. Code Hero just wants you to kill your...

Pre-Cog Is Real – New Software Stops Crime Before It Happens

The police officers arrived at the parking garage in downtown Santa Cruz and spotted two women behaving suspiciously. No crime had been committed, but peering...

Games, Pop-Ups, 3D, and More – The iPad is Changing Books Forever

I grew up on a healthy regimen of Choose-Your-Own Adventure books, Nintendo, and role playing games, but even I am intimidated by the new...

MIT Unravels the Secrets Behind Collective Intelligence – Hint: IQ Not So Important

When it comes to a successful group, the easiest way to ensure victory may be placing women on the team. MIT's Center for Collective...

Why Am I Wearing This Glove? Oh, It Controls My Robot Hand, That’s All

If you've never thought about describing a robotic limb as sleek and sexy then you've never met Handroid. The latest production of Japan-based ITK,...

Al Qaeda In Azeroth? Terrorism Recruiting and Training in Virtual Worlds

In their pursuit of terrorists, government intelligence agencies leave no digital rock unturned: telephone calls, emails, text messages, blogs, news sites - they monitor...

Robot Band Rocks Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People”

Some bands play heavy metal, this band is heavy metal. End of Life is a robotic ensemble ready to rock all you puny humans...

Entrepreneur Anshe Chung Makes A Fortune Selling Virtual Land, Banking and Fashion

How much would you pay for a piece of imaginary real estate? Anshe Chung has made millions renting it. Maybe your investment portfolio needs...

Singularity University About To Graduate Its Third Year of Summer Students

What would you get if you combined the Justice League with business school? Singularity University. The startup university, located at NASA Ames smack dab...

Texting While Driving… Are You Crazy? Get iSpeech and Talk to Your Phone Instead

Texting while driving leads to thousands of accidents each year in the United States alone, and the death toll continues to rise. Luckily, text...

Scotland Yard Using Facial Recognition To Find Rioters – But Tech Isn’t Up To The Task

There are more than a million CCTV cameras in London, and it's time for them to start paying off. The recent riots have left...

100,000+ Sign Up For Stanford’s Open Class on Artificial Intelligence. Classes With 1 Million+ Next?

A groundbreaking change has struck academia, and its reverberations may be felt for years to come. One of Stanford's first full courses to ever...

Company Scans Your Books For a Dollar – Ship ‘Em In, Get a PDF via Email

Someday my grandchildren will ask me what a printed book looks like. Hell, at the rate we're going, my children will probably ask the...

Augmented Reality Game Fueled By Advanced Robot Mapping Technology – SLAM Goes Mobile!

One of the most powerful tools in the robot software arsenal just made it's way into a video game. SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping)...

Synthetic Legs, Real Athlete – Oscar Pistorius ‘The Blade Runner’ Qualifies For the Olympics

One of the fastest runners in South Africa is finally going to the Olympics. Oscar Pistorius is the twenty four year old sprinter who...

$80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next?

It seems like just yesterday when only the slickest kid on the block had a smartphone, but now, this revolutionary gadget is selling like...

One Armed Robot From Willow Garage Set to Expand Open Source Robotics

Willow Garage is running a half off sale on their PR2 robot. Take half off the price and half off the robot. The PR2...

The ‘Free Coffee’ Starbucks Card Has Died. What The Social Experiment Really Meant.

The Italians call it "caffe pagato". In the US it's referred to as "pay it forward". 7-11 dubbed it "take-a-penny, leave-a-penny". At Starbucks it...

More Than 1 Million Download Socialcam So They Can Share iPhone Video Instantly

The social network has taught us to love sharing our thoughts at the speed of light, and now our mobile videos are ready to...

Dutch PlantLab Revolutionizes Farming: No Sunlight, No Windows, Less Water, Better Food

You've heard of paint by numbers? Get ready for feed-the-world by numbers. Dutch agricultural company PlantLab wants to change almost everything you know about...

The Wheel Reinvented – The Q Drum Is An Easy Way To Transport Water In Developing Countries (video)

For people in developing countries, getting clean water to cook with, clean with, and drink, can be a difficult and dangerous task. In rural...

A First Look Inside Virgin Galactic’s Commercial Spaceship

If there is one dream that captures the imagination of most little children, it is that of space travel. Countless books, movies, and heroes...

Autonomous Robot Truck Will Debut in Afghanistan This Year

While robots aren't ready to carry the burden of being a soldier, they are more than able to carry their load. Lockheed Martin's Squad...

Complete Genomics’ Stock Plummets Despite Thousands of New Genomes On Order

Mo' genomes, mo' problems - it's as true for Complete Genomics as it was for Biggie Smalls. The Silicon Valley startup has a revolutionary...

The Gamification of Google: Image Labeler, Logos, Google+, and Now Badges in Google News

The word “gamification” has gotten a lot of buzz lately, which hopefully means it will be in the running for Oxford Dictionary’s 2011 Word...

Are Nations Less Important Than Phone Calls? New MIT Map Redraws The U.S. According to Communication

Who we talk to may be a better measure of how to draw our maps than the arbitrary lines laid down by history. MIT's...

Portal 2 Achieves What Games Aspire To Be — A Funny, Enthralling, Thought-Provoking Story That Makes Money

Portal 2, Valve’s follow-up to the groundbreaking, first-person puzzle game Portal, has been out since April 19 and has received a boatload of near...

Massachusetts Police Want To Track All Cars On The Road — Are Your Rights Being Violated?

Last month, the governor of Massachusetts approved half a million dollars in grants for 27 police departments to acquire automated license plate readers that...

Stunning Sculpture of the Modern City Circulates 100,000 Cars Every Hour!

Information may be the fuel of the modern city, but traffic is its blood. Chris Burden's massive model Metropolis II pays respects to the...

Square Transforms Your Phone Into a Credit Card Machine – Now Handling $4 Million A Day!

A tiny phone attachment is helping credit cards become a truly universal currency. The Square mobile reader allows anyone with a smart phone, iPod,...

Internet-Based Political Movement Aims To Put Presidential Ticket On Ballots For The 2012 Election

The response to the recent debt ceiling fiasco underscores how Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the U.S. government. Though many feel we are stuck...

AIDS Turns 30: Are We Close to a Cure?

On June 5th, 1981, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report told the world about five rapidly deteriorating men who arrived at clinics in Los...

Robot Roommates Prove To Be a Dynamic Dining Duo Cooking Sausage and Pancakes

It's official: robots make great roommates. Sure, they may hog all the electric outlets and WiFi bandwidth, but they'll also cook you breakfast. The...

Reminder: Transcendent Man Movie Blowout Tonight – Ray Kurzweil, Steve Wozniak, Michio Kaku, and Many More!

**This article was originally posted on July 14th, but we're reposting it today to remind everyone that the event is happening tonight. Hope you'll...

Scientists Bag and Tag the Stem Cell That May Create An Endless Supply of Blood

Rejoice ye vampires, the pursuit of an endless supply of blood took a major leap forward this month. Researchers at the Ontario Cancer Institute,...

25 Ordinary Citizens Write Iceland’s New Constitution With Help From Social Media

The newest government in the world was designed with help from comments on the internet. God help us all. After Iceland's economic collapse in...

Albert Brooks’ 2030 Is a Funny, Age-Obsessed 1984

A good book can make you laugh or cry or think. A great book makes you do all three. 2030, the debut novel of...

World’s Largest Electronics Manufacturer Foxconn Wants 1 Million More Robots In 3 Years. Bye-bye Human Labor

Cheap labor isn't cheap enough for the world's largest electronics manufacturer. Terry Gou, the CEO of Foxconn recently told employees that they would...

Robots Riot In Brixton – Eye-Popping Short Film Discusses Civil Rights With Machines

Unemployment, poverty, and oppression can push humans to take desperate actions. Why should robots be any different? Drawing inspiration from the 1981 Brixton Riot...

Take A Look Inside The Video Spy Glasses That Conquered Kickstarter

Apparently the internet really wants video spy glasses. ZionEyez, a Seattle startup recently offered to sell you a pair of their Eyez video recording...
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