future tech on technabob...

Curious and/or impatient techies! An early developer build of Google (Google’s?) Chrome OS – which was just formally announced – has been unleashed on the Internet for those who want to take an early early early peek at what I like to call the BrOSer. From what I’ve read about it Chrome OS basically offers…

How many times have you had to get your lazy ass off of the couch to get up and change the channel because the batteries in your remote died. Well thanks to some fine high-tech minds, someday you may never need to worry about changing the batteries in your remote again.

This unassuming looking prototype…

Yuta Sugiura and his colleagues at the Graduate School of Media Design in Keio University had a valid starting point – most of the software or hardware input systems today have no direct correlation to the command to be executed, and so are not that easy to master. As high-tech items like robots become more…

Designed by Haneum Lee, the Gaon street light/wastebasket concept composts biodegradable waste and uses the methane by-product to power its light, saving energy and eliminating waste while lighting the streets. It’s a bright idea – or is it?

I like how one simple gadget can help solve a couple of environmental issues, but I’m not…

“The birth of the Homo Spaciens.” That’s how Spanish-based Galactic Suite Ltd. describes its vision of a hotel in space, one that enables guests to literally go around the world in just 80 minutes and see 15 sunrises and sunsets in a day, and of course marvel at a breathtaking view of our planet. Best…

NEC aims to overcome language barriers with the Tele Scouter, a system that will process spoken language and display a translation on a retinal display. To maintain the portability of the gadget, NEC split the Tele Scouter into three parts: an eyepiece, a small computer and a remote server.

Aside from the display, the microphone…

As we look for more ways to generate energy-efficient light, we’ve seen a gradual move away from the warm glow of incandescent light, to the ugly pinkish hues of CFL, to the strange blueish-white point-source light produced by LEDs. And frankly, none of those are nearly as cool as what awaits us in our futures…

Developed by researchers at MIT’s SENSEable City Lab in cooperation with Audi, AIDA (Affective Intelligent Driving Agent) is a drivers’ companion that offers useful information while interacting in a “socially appropriate and informative way.” AIDA will be mounted on a car’s dashboard, where it’s “face” will be visible to the driver.

As you can see…

Ah, software problems. We’ve all experienced them in varying degrees – sometimes it’s just a stupid online video that won’t load, and sometimes the operating system itself gives up. Now imagine a future where programs can still be compromised, or attacked, but will no longer crash or hang. A group of MIT researchers, led by…

The YikeBike is a new electric transport vehicle coming from New Zealand. The compact personal transporter features an innovative design that can speed you along through city streets and country roads without ever requiring you to stand up.

The sit-down electric YikeBike tops out at 20km/hr (appx. 12 MPH). An electric chainless drive powers the…

We can now add telepathy to the list of things that’s possible thanks to the Internet. Researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK have demonstrated that it is possible to transmit thoughts from one person’s brain to another person’s brain using nothing but pieces of tape, a couple of EEG amplifiers, some special…

This new technology from Hitachi automatically detects when you’re actually watching your television, then shuts the display off whenever you’re not looking.

By using advanced facial recognition technology, the monitor can tell when your eyes are on the TV screen, and keeps it turned on only when you’re actually watching. Jump to the 45 second…