Yearly Archives: 2012

Football’s Not A Rough Sport Until A Bunch Of Japanese Robots Play It

When my brother and I were young we used to get on opposite sides of the kitchen and slam our matchbox cars into high-speed,...

Privilege Has Its Rewards — How Longevity Will Become The New Class Inequality

Here's a news flash that isn't really new: the rich live longer than everyone else. Now, on the surface, this seems like a no-brainer....

Archetype Futuristic Viral Video to Become Feature Film. Aaron Sims Uses Youtube, Web to Conquer Hollywood

Sometimes dreams do come true, just ask special effects guru and burgeoning director Aaron Sims. His short film, Archetype, looks like a blockbuster Hollywood...

India Plans To Create 12 Times The Number Of Colleges As The U.S. By 2020

After 20 years of economic reforms, India is emerging into a new prosperity thanks to progressive polices and globalization, which has reduced poverty and helped...

Most Viral Video of all Time? Kony Video Released 7 Days Ago Has 70+ Million Views

This weekend I became the 55,240,519th person to view a certain YouTube video. Can you guess which one? After being posted on March 5th,...

The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 In Action

Just when you thought the Parrot AR.Drone was awesome, it gets awesomer. Parrot gave quadricopter enthusiasts a sneak peek at its new AR.Drone 2.0...

NETRA, The $2 Device That Turns Your Smartphone Into An Eye Test

About two billion people worldwide suffer from visual impairments brought on by refractive errors when light entering the eye isn’t properly focused. Uncorrected common...

Robot Begs to be Allowed to Live – Don’t Miss The Impressive “Kara” Video Demo from Quantic Dream

How human does a robot have to act before the world will think it's alive? Video game studio Quantic Dream, makers of the 2010...

Mobile Payment Revolution Continues With The IPad Cash Register From Square

Makers of mobile credit card reader, Square, have taken the next logical step. Not only can your iPad become a credit card reader, it...

Flying Robots Rock the James Bond Theme Song to Amaze Onlookers at TED 2012

My confidence in humanity's superiority over robots has been shaken...but not stirred. Flying drones can play the James Bond theme song from the series...

Futulele Combines iPad And iPhone Into Real Functioning Ukulele

Forget the cloud, here’s a new way to sync your Apple devices that’s sure to get your toes tapping – or hips swinging. Amidio...

Need a Little Robotic Help Around the House? Say Hello to Romeo

Good help is hard to find. So why not just build it? Project Romeo is a €10 million project aimed at creating a robotic...

Around the World Without a Drop Of Gasoline – Solar-Powered Catamaran Nears End Of More Than Two Years At Sea

Right now crossing the Gulf of Aden on its way to the Red Sea is a catamaran that is nearing the end of a...

Why Outsourcing Science May Be The Best Hope for Its Future

No human is an island, so why should research scientists be any different? YCombinator backed startup, Science Exchange, helps researchers hire the expertise, equipment,...

More Robots, Less Farmers – Company Installs 12,500th Robotic Cow Milking System

A decreasing number of farmers are getting their hands dirty, lest they gunk up their smartphone. Dutch maker of farming technologies, Lely, recently installed...

The Crowd-Funding Phenomenon Continues – Comic Raises $1.2M on Kickstarter (+Q&A with Creator Rich Burlew)!

After years and years of giving his work away for free, Rich Burlew just raked in more than a million. That's the power of...

Love That New Single? Mathematical Equation Predicts Music’s Hits And Flops

Technology is continually getting better at predicting our behavior, and signaling to us that perhaps we’re not as unpredictable and free-willed as we humans...

The New Nokia TrueView Has A 41-Megapixel Camera

Tired of trying to capture the moment only to have your phone take a grainy photo that you post on Facebook anyway? Well with...

Raspberry Pi is Ready to Buy! $35 Computer is so Popular it’s Crashing Websites with Sales

You want a $35 computer? You got a $35 computer. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has finally launched its Model B Linux computer through two...

A Dozen Years In The Making, Highest Resolution Picture Of Universe Released

At the last dim horizon, we search among ghostly errors of observations for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. The...

Happy Future Day! March 1st, 2012 Marks the Start of this Soon to be Great Tradition. Celebrate Change!

March 1st, 2012 – Today is the best Future Day that's ever been. It's also the only Future Day that's ever been, but that's...

Weight Loss Pill Recommended By FDA Panel, Company’s Stock Doubles

Want to lose weight? Well now there’s a drug that allows you to shed ten percent of your body weight – no exercising, no...

Lab-Grown Burger To Be Served In Six Months

A number of laboratories around the world are trying to grow meat in a Petri dish. So far we’ve heard about clumps of cells...

The Logic Behind Bailing Out the Auto Industry: Job Creation With Robotics

"Today, I'm calling for all of us to come together- private sector, industry, universities, and the government - to spark a renaissance in American...

How Should a Singulatarian Vote?

As the 2012 U.S. Presidential election draws near, many followers of the Singularity are asking themselves how their vote might best reflect their desire...

Ekso Bionics Sells its First Set of Robot Legs Allowing Paraplegics to Walk

Mark down February 14th, 2012 as the day when exoskeletons became an established medical therapy. Ekso Bionics, formerly Berkeley Bionics and creators of the...

Transforming Skin Cells into Neurons Leads to New Insights for Alzheimer’s

Researchers at UC San Diego have created a new weapon in the fight against Alzheimer's: living neurons in the lab. Lead by Laurence Goldstein,...

New ‘Robot and Frank’ Movie Looks Like A Realistic Portrayal Of The Not-Too-Distant-Future

Get excited Singularitarians, a new robot movie’s coming out. But don't expect them to transform into gigantic battle bots and destroy whole city blocks,...

Chronicle Movie’s Real Superpower? Cameras.

What if three young high school students became more than just ordinary teenagers, and what if an action-packed blockbuster movie was about more than...

Brain Scans Detect Autism In Six Month Olds

Autism is normally diagnosed in children at around 18 months to 2 years of age, when parents see odd behavior and take their child...

Drug Delivery Microchip Implanted in Patients, Passes Human Trial

A remote drug delivery system has successfully been tested in a human trial. A microchip was implanted in 8 women and delivered a drug...

Starting March 1st, A Red License Plate in Nevada Means the Driver is a Robot!

*UPDATE: Nevada DMV director Bruce Breslow wrote into the Hub, see his comments below.* An extended campaign in Nevada by Google has led to a...

U.S. Being Left In The Dust Of The Global Telecommuting Revolution

A recent poll from Ipsos/Reuters shows the extent of workplace evolution as well as the fallout of globalization. Nearly 1 in 5 (17%) of...

“Heart Stop Beating” – New Film Documents Heartless Man

By criteria doctors conventionally use to analyze patients, Craig Lewis was dead. He had no heartbeat, no pulse, his EKG was flatlined. Yet he...

The First Kickstarter Project to Raise $2 Million is an Adventure Video Game!

The future of video games is in the hands of the crowd...and it looks like it's going to be a great adventure. In the...

Canadian Man Excavates His Basement Using R/C Trucks Over 7 Years!

One man's incredible hobby is another man's vision of the future. Since June of 2005, farmer Joe Murray has been excavating a basement in...

Free Facial Recognition With KLIK: Point Your Phone At Friends, It Knows Who They Are

I never forget a face. Neither, apparently, does my iPhone. KLIK, the exciting new app from Face.com, can automatically recognize faces through the smart...

A Vintage Toy Robot Website For The Nostalgic Nerd In All Of Us

There’s nothing like vintage toys to take us back to days gone by, and there’s nothing like vintage robot toys to take us back...

Gene Therapy For Blind Again A Success, More Patients To Be Treated

In 2009, 12 people participated in a clinical trial through which they received an experimental gene therapy for an inherited form of blindness. The...

Scientists Use Brain Waves To Eavesdrop On What We Hear

The day we can scan a person’s brain and “hear” their inner dialogue just got closer. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley recorded...

While Average Lifespans Increase, 114 Remains A Stubborn And Mysterious Upper Bound. Why?

Ray Kurzweil predicts that in the coming decades the term “life expectancy” will become irrelevant. By then medical advances and nanotechnology will be such...

Latest Game In The Star Wars Universe Cost $200 Million, Inspires Millions To Envision The Post-Singularity World

On December 20, 2011, a new chapter in the Star Wars universe was unleashed on the world. After 5 years in development at a cost...

Can A Free Online Education Land You A Job? The Era Of Online Education Dawns

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently announced an initiative to create a learning platform for online education. Preliminarily dubbed "MITx", the initiative aims...

Special FX Guru Aaron Sims Unveils ‘Archetype’ – New Short Film on Robots With Memories

What good is a killing machine that's developed a conscience? In Aaron Sims' exciting new short film Archetype, RL7 is a devastatingly powerful military...

Ray Kurzweil for President (Seriously?)

Ray Kurzweil has made a name for himself by forecasting important trends in consumer technology, global politics, and computer intelligence. Yet even Kurzweil couldn't...

Want to Prepare Your Kids for the Singularity? Read Jonathan Mugan’s The Curiosity Cycle

In the future your children won't just be competing against other children, they'll be pitted against robots and computers too. What's a parent to...

Meet The Author Of “Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That’s OK”

Growth is a good thing, right? It’s the buzzword on seemingly every politician’s lips, the answer to our economic woes. You know this if...

The Era of Robotic Warfare Has Arrived – 30% of All US Military Aircraft are Drones

Some herald it as the cure for terrorism, others deride it as mindless video game warfare, but few doubt that the American era of...

Hospital Throws Down $25,000 Prize To Decode Genomic Information

Children's Hospital Boston recently announced a $25,000 competition for the development of an interpretation and communication system that can deliver genomic information from the lab...

Boston Dynamics Takes Alpha Dog Military Robot Out For Its First Walk

First there were porters, then beasts of burden, then mechanized vehicles. And now we’re back to beasts of burden – and I mean beast!...
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