robots

New iPhone Robot Remote-Control Lets Your Fingers Do the Walking

A brilliantly intuitive interface for robot control, designed by Japanese researchers (of course).READ»

The Most (and Least) Inventive Inventions on Time's '50 Best Inventions' List

If someone decided to do a list of innovative magazine lists, it probably wouldn't include Time magazine's "50 Best Innovations" list. The new one's out, and we've sub-selected some of the good items for you. But a broad swath of the ...READ»

Scripps Gets a Cool $1 Million for Ocean-Going Robotic Swarms

Divers of the future may come across an interesting sea-dweller, if the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have their way. Thousands of autonomous underwater explorers (AUEs), or robotic probes, will be deployed throughout the ...READ»

MIT, Volkswagen's In-Car Personal Robot Thinks You're Driving Like a Maniac

My parents already treat the GPS on their car like it's a person: "Shh! She's talking!" Now researchers at the MIT Media Lab, in partnership with Audi, want to take that relationship one step further with AIDA, the "Affective Intelligent Driving Agent."READ»

Boston Dynamics Robots Tiptoe Toward Terminator

A new video of a Boston Dynamics robot has surfaced--possibly the scariest yet. The company's name alone should give you the willies if you've watched the Terminator movies or seen the previous chilling robots ...READ»

Shape-shifing Robot Revealed, No Comment From Skynet

iRobot's new, blob-like robot prototype is able to roll around and squeeze itself through tiny holes.READ»

Eco Building Rebuilds Itself Using Robotic Arms and Eco Power

We've seen every kind of architectural concept related to green design, but here's an exciting new one that may also be the oddest. It seems to borrow from a NASA design concept; it constantly re-builds itself and grows biofuel on its ...READ»

In Defense of Slapping a Robot

By inflicting pain on entities with artificial intelligence we enable them to become truly intelligent.READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Daft Punk Comes to DJ Hero

The definitive DJ duo creates 11 mixes for DJ Hero, the upcoming game from the makers of Guitar Hero.READ»

KDDI's Smartphone Future: Your Phone Roves Around, Steers You Too

Dumbphones are giving way to smartphones, which are becoming more like mini computers. But how will this trend extend into the future? Japan's KDDI has imagined the next next-gen device. This smartphone has evolved to become even ...READ»

Three Possible Economic Models (Part II)

Life in three different economic futures: Resilience Economics, Just-in-Time Socialism, and Robonomics. Where do you want to live?READ»

Why Is Jeff Bezos Investing $7 Million in Heartland Robotics?

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, coined the phrase Artificial Artificial Intelligence, and invested in human spaceflight startup Blue Origin. Now he's expanding his portfolio to include robots.Specifically, he's investing in Heartland ...READ»

How a $20k DARPA Robot Became a Kids' Toy

Bossa Nova designs robots, guided by research into how kids play.READ»

Three Possible Economic Models (Part 1)

Engaging in a bit of socioeconomic speculation and thinking about what a 21st century economy might look like.READ»

NPL's Robot Finds Ripe Vegetables, Harvests Them

Remember that roll-out vegetable mat we looked at this week? Turns out it makes harvesting fruits and vegetables look like hard work compared to the National Physical Laboratory's (NPL) intelligent harvesting machine. The proposed ...READ»

Seven Entertaining Things Online This Week

Let's face it: it's almost August, the official month of no productivity. Why not start off a week early? Here's seven bits of Internet fun stuff that topped the social news sites this week. Sit back and enjoy. Dangerous ...READ»

Run for Your Life: The Pentagon's Robotic Hummingbird Takes Flight

Video of the latest flying contraption by DARPA, the Pentagon's hyper-strange research lab.READ»

Carnivorous LCD Clock Is Powered by Bugs

For times when solar or grid power just won't do, consider this bug-powered LCD clock from U.K.-based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau. The prototype clock contains a flypaper-equipped roller with a scraper at its base ...READ»

Panasonic's Would-be Roomba Killer Crawls Like an Inchworm

Recently, Panasonic unveiled a new robot that looks like a washcloth--Except for the fact that it crawls along the floor, mopping up as it moves along. The secret of the Fukitorimushi--which ...READ»

Five Robots To Ease Your Domestic Chores

The science magazines of the 50s were fond of portraying the future as populated with 'droids designed to ease life in every way imaginable. Sadly, it is the future, and that's not quite the way things turned out. But at least there ...READ»

Seven Curious Things Online This Week

Torture, sex, killer robots, cheap hacked iPhones and Julia Allison (did we mention torture?). This week was a good one in the Web world. You can now find photos of your friends more easily on Facebook, or find yourself on Facebook endorsing a "friend" you never meant to. Or just watch Christopher Hitchens get pretend-drowned, if you're feeling that semi-violent spring fever. It's all below in FastCompany.com's seven best things this week.READ»

Doing The Robot: An Android With A Familiar Face

Soon all those with social anxiety may toss away their cares. ThatsMyFace and MechRC have teamed up to provide a solution to rule out human interaction altogether: A remote control robot with a customizable photorealistic face. ...READ»

• Mech RC - A Revolution in Robotics!
• ThatsMyFace - Facial Analysis and FaceStatues

Terminator Tech Isn't as Far-Off as You Think

Do you remember seeing your first Terminator movie, and getting that creepy, itchy, uncomfortable feeling at the thought of a piece of autonomous intelligent machinery killing humans with electronic efficiency? It's not quite time ...READ»

• The Terminator Economy

Is Our Future Filled With Robotic Farmers Tending to Sensor-Equipped Vegetables?

Farming is time-intensive, back-breaking, tiring work--so why not leave it to the robots? A group of MIT students are doing just that with a cluster of tomato plants placed on artificial turf. The students' "precision ...READ»

RG3 Mower Tends Golf Greens With Eco-Green Robotic Precision

Maintaining high-grade greens on a golf course is both a time-consuming and expensive task: It's one of the reasons your club fees are so high, and that's exactly where Precise Path's RG3 robot may help. It's designed to do the job ...READ»