Category: Future Tech

In long-awaited news, Israeli researchers at Ben-Gurion University have successfully taught goldfish how to steer a vehicle in order to reach a target and receive a treat, using a specially designed FOV (fish-operated vehicle). The future, ladies, and gentlemen – we’re finally here.

Because some people still care about making the future we all dreamed about as kids a reality, professor Homei Miyashita at Meiji University in Japan has developed a monitor that can imitate on-screen flavors, appropriately naming it Taste The TV (TTTV).

Do you have a knot in your back? Do you trust a robot to massage it out without snapping your neck in the process? If you do, you’re in luck, thanks to Massage Robotics’ MR-01, a $310,000 fully autonomous massage robot with two 6-axis collaborative robotic arms that operate using cloud artificial intelligence.

I was just thinking the other day somebody should combine a donut and a drone, and apparently Boston-based Cleo Robotics was already on the case, developing the $9,800 Dronut X1 – the world’s first bi-rotor ducted drone that can operate in much tighter spaces than traditional drones.

Sure Old MacDonald had a farm, but did he have an Autonomous Weeder robot from Carbon Robotics? I think not. E-I-E-I-O indeed! The Autonomous Weeder, designed to kill weeds without harming the soil or water, scans the ground with its 12-camera array, identifies weeds via onboard AI, then kills them with high-powered carbon dioxide lasers.

Because every possible piece of Star Wars merchandise that can exist does, Disney is selling droid restraining bolt magnets in the Galaxy’s Edge areas of its amusement parks. Thankfully for those of us without a Disney trip planned in the foreseeable future, they’re also available on Amazon (affiliate link).

The past year has put video conferencing tools in the limelight, and in my opinion, they are sorely lacking. But technology marches onward. Just check out this mind-blowing prototype that Google claims is already in use in a few of its offices.

Tying your shoes: what a hassle. You think you did it right but they always come untied or end up in knots. Well, now the team at YouTube channel Hacksmith Industries has created a pair of self-lacing shoes inspired by the Nike MAGs worn by Marty McFly in Back To The Future II.

Because our scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should, physicists at Leiden University have 3D printed a tiny tugboat only 30-microns in length. For reference, an average human hair is about 90-microns in width, although mine is much thicker because I shampoo with a product specifically formulated for bears.

If you really want to stand out at a rave, you dress up in fluorescent colors and then stand under the black lights. But if you want to take your illumination to 11, there’s a new material that could up your visibility even more.

Since it first landed on the scene back in 2014, the Apple Pencil and its successor Apple Pencil 2 have brought a tremendous amount of creative freedom and expression to the iPad. Now, it appears that a future Apple Pencil might add a great new feature, the ability to sample colors from the real world.

I’ve been fortunate enough not to have needed a COVID-19 test yet, but my friends who have had one have described the part where they stick that swab up your nose as incredibly uncomfortable – as if the thing could touch their brains.

From our smartphones to our laptops to our cars to our kitchen appliances, touchscreens have turned up just about everywhere. But touchscreens are generally limited to flat, squared-off surfaces. Now, a team of engineers at the UK’s University of Bristol are demonstrating a technology that could enable touch-based interfaces on all kinds of surfaces.

Back in the 1990s a team of engineers created a device called the iSmell. This unusual gadget used scent cartridges to simulate a wide variety of aromas, which could be triggered through computer code. The iSmell ultimately failed due to lack of market interest, but I always thought the idea that you could create anything from the smell of hot chocolate to pepperoni pizza just by mixing chemicals was pretty fascinating.

When it comes to wall-climbing robots, most of them rely on vacuum suction to make their way up the side of a building. The trick there is that you need a very smooth surface, like glass or marble in order to get a good grip.

Not too long ago, I visited with Toyota in Tokyo to learn about their plans to transform from an automotive company into a mobility company – concerning themselves with all of the different ways that people need to get around, and not just cars and trucks anymore.