future on technabob...

DARPA’s Self-Explanation Learning Framework (SELF) program “seeks to construct systems that can participate in their own construction.” Imagine a robot helping build itself. Who or what runs DARPA these days? Are there still humans in there? Things are moving too fast folks. Let’s look at the matchup for a sec: Human fetus – looks cute/scary/funny, probable source of clones and…

In a breakthrough that will undoubtedly lead to more expensive LCD TV models that people like me can only dream and write about, electronics giant Sharp has developed a 5-primary-color LCD display that will supposedly lead to more lifelike images. Apparently, the traditional 3-color (red, green and blue) setup has some trouble recreating certain colors as they appear in real…

Asimov concocted the Three Laws of Robotics in 1942 and built many of his stories around these rules. While Asimov benefited greatly from those rules as an artistic concept, giving him ideas to explore, in the future our lives may really depend on robot ethics.  Fortunately, a computer science professor at Georgia Tech named Ronald Arkin is already working on…

Last October, Pattie Maes had the idea of making a gesture-controlled interface similar to what was in the movie Minority Report. But unlike the interface in the movie, which was projected onto a screen and was thus stationary, Maes wanted a cheaper and portable equivalent. One that people could walk around with, projecting stuff all over the place, and interacting…

As much as I dig my iPhone and HP Touchsmart touchscreens, there’s something that I still miss about actually feeling buttons under my fingertips. And while I’ve gotten pretty good at typing without even looking at the screen anymore, I’ll never achieve the kind of touch typing speed I’ve hit on a traditional keyboard. So I was really intrigued when…

Filmmaker Rob Spence lost his eye when he was 11 years old. He was playing with a shotgun back in his grandfather’s farm in Ireland when it backfired. Now he and his partners in the Eyeborg Project want to “transform his loss into a superhuman strength” for art’s sake. Spence wants to install a video camera into a prosthetic eye…

When I was a kid, I really wanted to be Marvin the Martin. No, not because of his stylish scrub-brush headgear or his oversize clown shoes. Nope, it was the awesome destructive power of his ACME Ray Gun that I envied.

Now, thanks to sculptor Andy Hill of Electro Art Works, you can own your very own one-of-a-kind ray gun.…

Honda’s hand-shaking, stair-climbing, head-bowing, face-not having robot ASIMO has been exposed to Gigantor rays and has been blown up to 12 times it’s size. But don’t expect any Double Blizzards coming out of it: Robert over at GeekAlerts says that Gigantor ASIMO “will be completed with natural materials like lettuce seed, rice, carnations and strawflower.” Yay?

The 49-foot tall Veggie…

Looking like something that David Bowie might have worn during while wearing a skin-tight silver jumpsuit during his Space Oddity / Starman phase, the latest digital watch from Diesel definitely makes a bold statement (if you happen to be a 1970s glam rocker).

The DZ7090 not only features a futuristic dot-matrix LCD digital face, but enshrouds it in a shiny patent…

This “capsule train” concept will give each person their own little train compartment fiefdom to rule on their way to work. Their are individual capsules that fit one person, or larger 4-person capsules.

The concept was designed by Hamit Kanuni Kuralkan from Melbourne, Australia. There’s no word as to whether or not this thing will ever get made.

Check out…

This is a concept for Singapore’s Metro Rail Line so that trains can pick people up without ever stopping. That sounds impossible, right?

The idea is that people who want to board the train get into a smaller car that piggybacks onto the moving train as it passes through the station. To get off, you get into the smaller upper…

Cisco has unveiled and demonstrated their new On-Stage TelePresence Holographic Video Conferencing. In layman’s terms, it means that now you can actually do that thing they do in Star Wars when they talk to a Princess Leia hologram, and I have to say, it looks quite convincing.

The video is pretty boring except for the fact that it’s a guy on…

Think of the latest contraption from Japan’s Bandai as a virtual soothsayer. The pocket-sized device uses a digital personality assessment, along with a dash hocus pocus and other less-than-scientific gibberish to predict your future.

The Mirai Scope starts out by asking its owner about fifty personal questions, which help to assign you one of 236 unique personality types (you can…

These prop guns, designed and hand-built by WETA Workshop master model maker David Tremont feature a unique design sensibility inspired by turn of the century science fiction.

Three designs are available (the Goliathon 83 Infinity Beam Projector , Manmelter 3600ZX Sub-Atomic Disintegrator Pistol and the FMOM Industries Wave Disrupter Gun) and each gun will be made in a limited series…

If you thought the technology in the 2002 flick, Minority Report was impressive, you can now own one of the very cool futuristic cars that Tom Cruise drove in that film.

One of the three custom-built Lexus 2054 concept cars made for the Cameron Crowe film will be put up for auction next month. The car currently has only 38 miles…