A new laser eye surgery fixes your vision without any gnarly eyeball slicing
Researchers at Columbia University have developed a new noninvasive laser surgery which could permanently correct vision, minus any of the less pleasant-sounding aspects of regular laser surgery. Here's how it works -- and how long you'll be waiting until you can try it.
Freakishly accurate A.I. security system identifies you based on your footsteps
Researchers from the U.K. and Spain have developed a new A.I. biometric verification method which can accurately identify individuals based entirely on how they walk across a pressure pad on the floor. The technology could one day be usefully employed in places like airports.
Finally, an ‘umbrella drone’ that hovers above your head
Is it a drone? Is it an umbrella? It's both actually, and it hovers directly above you to keep the rain off your head or the sun off your skin. If you can ignore the rather annoying racket, and have $275 to spare, this unique contraption could be yours as early as next year.
Drones are helping efforts to free whales from dangerous marine debris
A whale-protection group in Hawaii has teamed up with a nonprofit group that uses drones to protect ocean environments. They are using camera-equipped quadcopters to fly over whales entangled in marine debris, with the livestreamed footage providing the rescue team with vital data.
World’s first 3D-printed cornea made from algae and human stem cells
Researchers have mixed stem cells, collagen and algae molecules to create a bio-ink, which they used to 3D-printed an artificial cornea. The research is currently just a proof-of-concept but lays the groundwork for future techniques to create low-cost, easy-to-produce bionic eyes.
We may be ready for autonomous cars, but how about self-driving bikes?
A U.K.-based company, AB Dynamics, has created a self-driving motorbike. The reason? To help simulate real world driving conditions on test tracks which could help make future autonomous or semi-autonomous cars smarter. Check it out in all its amazing self-balancing glory.
Clever new method solves VR’s ‘infinite walking’ problem by tricking your brain
By exploiting an involuntary eye movement that humans use to orient themselves in physical space, VR researchers from Stony Brook University, Nvidia and Adobe have found a way to make infinite walking possible in virtual reality. It sounds impossible, but here's how it works.
Watching liquid crystals undulate under a microscope will melt your brain
Liquid crystals are all kinds of awesome. Want some proof? This trippy music video for musician Max Cooper uses footage shot by scientist and engineer Ben Outram, showing liquid crystals under the microscope. Check this remarkable footage out in all its mind-bending, hallucinogenic glory here.
50,000 Las Vegas workers set to strike, demand protection from robots
Fifty-thousand workers are set to strike across Las Vegas. Among the Culinary Workers Union's demands are higher wages, better job security, and protections from automation. The workers, whose contracts are up on June 1, are employed by more than 30 of the city’s most well-known resorts.
Scotland has a rehab clinic for people who are addicted to trading bitcoin
Can't help yourself when it comes to Bitcoin? Castle Craig Hospital is starting to treat cryptocurrency addicts like gambling addicts, and they think they can help you break the "hold on for deal life," or HODL trap. The treatment involves a rather expensive residential program, however.
Drone to the rescue: Hawaii resident saved from Kilauea’s lava flows
Real-time footage from a drone flying over the lava flows on the island of Hawaii this week helped to save a resident caught up in the chaos. Deployed by the U.S. Geological Survey, the flying machine identified new flows and was able to guide emergency responders in a brave rescue effort.
Drone-delivered meals come to Shanghai, but they’re dropped off by … a human?
When city roads are clogged with traffic, meal delivery services can suffer, with food arriving at customers' doors late ... and cold. A service in Shanghai has taken to the skies to speed up deliveries, employing drones along fixed routes as part of a setup that also keeps its delivery drivers in work.
For these researchers, building a ‘smart cockpit’ means reading a pilot’s mind
In a bid to develop a “smart cockpit," where pilots and plane become one, researchers have shown they can measure a pilot’s brain activity in real time. They hope to design advanced technologies and training plans to help pilots overcome stressful mid-flight situations.
This desktop ornament tracks the value of cryptocurrency using a … seesaw?
Want a more entertaining way to track currencies? The Market is a kinetic smart sculpture ornament of a bull and a bear on a seesaw, which tilts in real-time to reflect actual day-over-day changes in capital markets. It's totally steampunk, and you can pre-order it right now.
In Boston’s newest restaurant, all the chefs are robots
Four recent MIT graduates just launched a new fast-food restaurant in Boston called Spyce. Its hook? The fact that all the meals are prepared to order by a kitchen full of robots. Not only does this add novelty, but the automation also keeps the food prices down to $7.50 a meal.
Tummy ache? Swallow this sensor-studded pill to get a diagnosis on your phone
Imagine popping a pill which can then monitor your insides for potential signs of poor health. That’s what a team of researchers from MIT have been working on with a pill-sized ingestible capsule that's designed to monitor blood in the GI tract. Here's how it could help save your life.
A.I. detects skin cancer better than dermatologists in international study
In an international study that compared dermatologists and A.I. neural networks in their ability to correctly diagnose skin cancers based on images, A.I. was accurate more often than the doctors. Regardless of the physicians' experience levels, the convolutional neural network scored higher.
Watch Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic test its tourist spaceplane
Virgin Galactic believes it can launch a commercial "space tourism" service for suborbital trips within the next 12 months. On Tuesday it took another step toward its goal with the second successful rocket-powered test flight of VSS Unity, the spaceplane that will carry the crew and passengers.
Amazon delivery drone may use lights and music when it shows up at your home
Amazon noted in its latest patent that its customers "may be alarmed or confused" when one of its noisy delivery drones approaches their house. With that in mind, the company proposes fitting its drone with lights, speakers, and even a projector to help the flying machine communicate with the customer.
High-tech search for Malaysia Airlines passenger plane ends in disappointment
The latest effort to find the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared four years ago has ended in disappointment. Despite using highly advanced seabed exploration technology, the effort by Texas-based Ocean Infinity failed to locate the aircraft, which went down with 239 passengers and crew on board.
To train robotic servants, scientists built a virtual world where chores never end
The goal of VirtualHome is to help robots learn tasks by first experiencing them in a virtual system. In the current system, an avatar can perform 1,000 separate actions, broken down as subtasks, in eight different settings, including a living room, kitchen, and home office.
Smartphones may get ‘smell-o-vision’ thanks to this tiny electronic nose
Researchers from Germany have been developing an “electronic nose” that's capable of sniffing out a range of different scents faster than a human can. It could help give your future smartphone an in-built smoke detector or the ability to sniff out bad meat. Here's how it works.
DJI Ronin S is a one-hand gimbal for DSLRs; Osmo Mobile 2 embraces vertical video
The Osmo Mobile 2 takes smartphone video to the next level, while the Ronin S is DJI's first single-handle stabilizer for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. After announcing the gimbals during CES earlier this year, the last one to hit the market, the Ronin S, is now available for pre-order.
A.I. scans social media to predict when protests will turn violent
In a new study, researchers at the University of Southern California created an artificial intelligence algorithm that scanned posts and correlated their content with impending violence. Such a tool could be used to better prepare for demonstrations that are prone to escalation.
Drone propellors are great at slicing fingers — this $20 sensor prevents that
For drones to truly become everyday technologies, it's important that they learn to play nice. Researchers in Australia have developed a smart $20 sensor add-on which will stop a quadcopter's rotors if your fingers get too close to the blade -- and do so within just 0.06 seconds.
8 Amazing CRISPR projects that could change life as we know it
Since it burst onto the scene a decade ago, CRISPR-Cas9 has shaken the field of genetics to its core with a genome editing tool that’s faster, cheaper and more accurate than previous methods. Here are eight examples of amazing CRISPR projects with the potential to change the world.
The ForwardX Ovis is the first smart suitcase custom-built to follow you
Luggage is only getting smarter. Case in point? The autonomous Ovis, a suitcase specifically designed to follow you throughout the terminal. After making a highly anticipated debut at CES 2018, the Ovis has now officially launched on Indiegogo, where the team is offering early bird pricing of $399.
Prime delivery, straight from the moon? Bezos dreams of heavy industry in space
Amazon and Blue Origin boss Jeff Bezos still wants to go to the moon, but not to simply marvel at the spectacular view. Speaking at an event in Los Angeles, the billionaire said he wants to focus on how to shift heavy industry there from Earth, a move that he said would "make this planet better."
You can now tip London buskers without handing over cash
Buskers in London are welcoming a new scheme that enables them to receive tips from passers-by using contactless cards and the like. Using supplied reader devices, the street performers can set a pre-defined amount that members of the public pay when they make the cashless transaction.
Virgin Galactic ‘neck and neck’ with Blue Origin in space tourism race
Virgin boss Richard Branson says Virgin Galactic's first commercial space tourism flight is "months away, not years away," and he plans to be one of the six passengers on board. The company recently completed a successful test of its new Unity spaceplane that will take tourists to the edge of space — for $250K each.
Robot submarine discovers the ‘holy grail’ — a shipwreck with billions in gold
After being lost during a fierce naval battle 300 years ago, the location of the San José -- and the billions in treasure it carried -- has been a mystery to maritime historians and treasure hunters alike, until a high-tech robot submarine discovered the wreckage.
Electric cars can serve as mobile power storage, save billions on infrastructure
A new study out of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California shows how EVs may also have an added benefit for consumers and society at large, bolstering the energy grid by providing mobile power storage.
Big things do come in small packages. Here’s the tiniest tech in the world
Check out the coolest miniature tech, from super small phones to computers that can get lost among grains of sand. It's a crazy world of tiny tech out there, and you won't believe what some people have downsized in the name of science! Let's take a look.
A miniature chemistry lab is headed to Mars to search for signs of life
The upcoming ExoMars mission, scheduled for launch in 2020, will include an entire chemistry lab shrunk down to the size of a toaster oven. The sophisticated spectrometer will analyze samples from below the Martian surface to search for organic molecules which could indicate there was once life on the red planet..