Category: Future Tech

For years now, display manufacturers like LG and Samsung have been teasing flexible displays by creating mobile devices that can be folded to be more portable. But researchers at Queen’s University’s Human Media Lab show us that flexible displays can also lead to novel yet intuitive ways of interacting with devices.

Last October we checked out a fascinating animation technique that transfers facial movements from one person to another in real-time. Disney Research’s FaceDirector on the other hand blends two different takes of an actor’s face into one customizable performance.

I want a robot in my house that can clean, cook, and do laundry. That will free me up to watch movies and play Fallout 4. The catch is that robot hands today can’t really pick up fragile items like eggs, and if the robot can’t make bacon and eggs, it’s pretty much worthless to me.

There are many exoskeletons in development around the world. While the goal of some is to make your average human able to lift and carry more, the goal for others is to help people who are paralyzed to walk again.

Thanks (or no thanks) to Microsoft, someday we could have clouds under the sea. The software giant recently shared details on what it calls Project Natick, an experiment about constructing and operating an underwater datacenter. The datacenter in these images is Project Natick’s prototype Leona Philpot, named after a character in the Halo universe.

When I was in college, I watched a bunch of different surgeries being performed in the operating room. The thing that sticks out in my mind is just how long doctors have to spend standing in one single location, without moving.

Toshiba is showing off a robot that will be performing a task that no human can safely do themselves. Sometime next year, this big crane-like robot will be lowered into the cooling pool of Japan’s Fukushima reactor 3 building where radiation levels are too high for humans to go.

Welding and soldering form strong bonds that conduct electricity and heat, but they require high temperatures that can be dangerous to both people and equipment. A new company called MesoGlue claims that its eponymous metallic glue has all the advantages of welding and soldering but with the ease of use of polymer adhesives.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the snazziest TVs boasted HDR and 8K resolution screens. But perhaps the coolest ones at the show won’t ever go on sale. Made by Samsung, these two concept TVs consist of borderless displays that can split into smaller displays.

It’s no Optimus Prime or Hot Rod, but the Segway Robot does have a vehicle mode and a robot mode, and maker Ninebot hopes it will be useful whether you’re on or off the machine. The Segway Robot is a variant of Ninebot’s Mini Pro, which works much like the trendy self-balancing “hoverboard” transport devices.

A few years ago, we saw that Microsoft’s Kinect sensor could be used to control a quadcopter with hand gestures. In the future, we might be able to do that and more using wearable devices, thanks to Taiwanese company PVD+.

CES 2016 starts this coming week, and it looks like LG will be doubling down on OLED as the next big display technology for the living room. In preparation for the upcoming electronics show, I like to do some preliminary research, and came across numerous LG OLED display models which recently were granted Wi-Fi certification.

Researchers from The University of Tokyo’s Shinoda – Makino Lab have created a mind-blowing device that clones both images and low amounts of haptic feedback. In other words, it creates reflections that you can “touch” and can “touch” you back.

I have talked before about SpaceX and its woes in trying to land the first stage of one of its Falcon 9 rockets. The company has been trying to land the first stage successfully to try to make space flight cheaper and more attainable to anyone interested.

Applications allow PCs and mobile devices to serve different functions. But what if your gadget could change its physical form too? That’s the idea behind LineFORM, a proof of concept robot by Ken Nakagaki, Sean Follmer and Hiroshi Ishii of MIT’s Tangible Media Group.

Last week, I showed you guys a drone that had a flamethrower attached, and was cooking a turkey. That flame-throwing drone could just as easily be used to attack people or property. With that in mind, the Tokyo police have a plan to stop nefarious drones before they can cause problems.