Tag Archives: robotics

New research: Very touchy sensors

News: Sensor Technology    September 14, 2010
Butterflied sensor……Credit: Linda Cicero, Stanford University News Service Just how hard is it to sense a butterfly alight? On the tip of your finger – no problem. For an electromechanical sensor – impossible, until now. The advance in sensor technology was inspired by an insight: Detection of touch on a membrane (like skin or rubber) [...]
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Halfway between robot and avatar

Impact: Robotics    September 8, 2010
Telerobot physician consulting with nurse………….credit: InTouch Technologies, Inc. What’s halfway between an autonomous robot and an avatar? You’ve probably seen avatars in the movies (James Cameron’s Avatar being the prime example). No doubt you’ve also seen various kinds of (semi) autonomous robots that move about under their own power and have a kind of intelligence, [...]
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Robofish: Leader of the shoal

News: Robotics    June 30, 2010
Hail robofish…..courtesy University of Leeds Making lifelike animal decoys is a very old human activity, especially for hunters. Some of the results are surprisingly accurate in appearance – but they don’t move. On the other hand robotic devices move, but making them move in a lifelike way – that’s difficult. Researchers at the University of [...]
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Nanotech spiders: On track with molecular robotics

News: Nanotechnology    May 14, 2010
You have to love it when the lead scientists on a project say: “You could imagine the spider carrying a drug and bonding to a two-dimensional surface like a cell membrane, finding the receptors and, depending on the local environment,” adds Yan, “triggering the activation of this drug.” Such applications, while intriguing, are decades or [...]
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iFeel_IM robotics: Online touchy feely

Impact: Virtual/Augmented Reality    April 14, 2010
This story comes under the heading: “They said this was going to happen – now it’s almost here.” It is a wearable robotic device that provides a real sensory element to a personal contact over the Internet. More specifically, it interprets emotional language embedded in Internet Messaging (IM), which is why it’s called iFeel_IM (intelligent [...]
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Ethical killer drones

Impact: Robotics    April 1, 2010
The trend in modern warfare, which typically means the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, is attack your enemies by remote, work with the friendlies up close. Air power, rocketry, and artillery have long been weapons of remote attack; now the arsenal includes drones – flying robotics that do everything except make the decision to [...]
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Going for the full-body controller

News: Virtual/Augmented Reality    November 8, 2009
From the mouse and joystick, to the haptic hand, to the wii motion controller – the next (big) thing in gaming, and a lot of other things, is a commercial version of the full-body controller. Like it sounds, the goal of full-body controller research is to capture gestures and movements from the entire body: Legs, [...]
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It’s a team: Robot brain model and rat recordings

News: General Robotics    November 7, 2009
There may be a long way to go before development of an android brain (robotic-human), but the pathways leading there are interesting. The latest announced example is the use of simulated robotic brain model (dubbed “Carl”), based on recordings of rat brain patterns, which will be used to study how the human brain reacts to [...]
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