Category: Technology

Microsoft is betting big on artificial intelligence tech and has already rolled out a version of its Bing search engine with an integrated version of ChatGPT. While the industry debates AI tech’s safety and existential threats, Microsoft would prefer to make its AI-assisted chats more relatable.

The Smartflower solar energy system is a sculptural array of solar panels in the form of a flower that follows the sun throughout the day. Due to the system’s movement, it’s able to collect as much as 40% more energy than a comparably sized static solar panel.

The Camera-Shy hoodie is a piece of anti-surveillance wear created by Mac Pierce that prevents a wearer’s identification from being captured by infrared cameras. It does this by strobing the cameras with 12 ultra-bright infrared LEDs.

Have you ever felt like Zoom calls weren’t weirdly futuristic enough? Well, to help fill that gap comes the $1,999 Wehead, a full-size head-shaped display that brings a caller into the room with the ability to look around, following their own head movements and displaying their face on its screens in real-time.

Seen here about to lose at rock-paper-scissors (I’m choosing rock), Clone Robotics’ Synthetic Hand v18 is the latest and greatest version of a humanoid hand created by the company. This 1:1 scale iteration of a human hand features artificial muscle fibers and custom valves that allow it to move eerily like the real thing.

Making me seriously regret not stockpiling them when they came out and storing them in the basement for the past 15 years; a first-generation iPhone (Model A1203) recently sold at auction for a staggering $63,356.40. That’s a 10,500% increase.

Developed with technology created by researchers at the University of Washington and manufactured by OmniVision Technologies, the OmniVision OV6948 has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s smallest commercially available image sensor.

This new gasoline fueling system was developed by Autofuel. It’s powered by an industrial robotic arm and is capable of filling a customer’s gas tank without the motorist ever needing to leave the comfort of the driver’s seat.

Because innovation is everywhere, sports manufacturer Wilson recently unveiled its 3D Airless Basketball prototype, a new basketball created as near to the specifications of its official game-used NBA balls but with no air. Or leather. Or the same aerodynamics since it’s filled with holes.

Presumably, in an attempt to prove Spider-Man is actually a highly advanced artificial intelligence robot developed by Doctor Octopus that went rogue, YouTuber b2studios took it upon himself to see if he could get a basic AI Spider-Man to swing like the superhero.

Developed by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the waterproof Mirs-X autonomous drone is capable of both flying AND swimming underwater using its same four rotors for propulsion. It positions itself vertically to swim up or down and tilts itself horizontally to swim side to side or at an angle.

Appropriately piloted by a man dressed as Elvis, the Ryse Recon electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) craft was recently flown over the old Las Vegas strip. And, because the hexacopter is classified as an ultralight aircraft, it doesn’t require a pilot’s license to fly.

Because the future nears (and it’s weirder than you expected), researchers at The University of Chicago have developed a smartwatch with a heart monitor that’s powered by slime mold. And you have to nurture that slime mold in order for its heart monitor functionality to work.

Developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s (KAIST) Department of Mechanical Engineering, the RaiBo quadruped robot was designed to be able to tackle any terrain. The robot is even capable of traversing loose sand at around 7 MPH.

The future: it’s undeniably going to be a terrifying place. If you thought today was scary, just wait to see what tomorrow brings. Case in point: this sea cucumber-inspired shape-shifting soft robot developed by researchers at Carnegie Melon and Sun Yat-sen University can melt, escape a prison cell, and reform itself outside the bars just like a T-1000 Terminator.

By feeding the original polygonal images from a Sega Saturn emulator into an image-to-image mode of the Stable Diffusion text-to-image deep learning model, artist Colin Williamson was able to turn 1993’s Virtua Fighter characters from polygonal people into much more realistic versions of themselves.