Science fiction often influences the world of technology. The iPad is essentially the tablet computer from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Back to the Future II in 1989 got a lot right about the technology of 2015. The man who invented the world’s first flip phone, the Motorola Star-Tac, was inspired by the Star Trek communicator.
Robots are on the march, and a new breed of them can leap obstacles in a single bound. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have taught one of Google’s four-legged robots how to detect and jump over objects without breaking stride.
Virtual reality has been virtually fiction so far, at least for consumers. At Google’s I/O developer conference today, however, the company may have taken another step toward turning its Cardboard headset into something everyone might actually use.
It’s soon going to become a lot harder to get lost, even when you’re in an unfamiliar city without cellular service.
The wearable camera company GoPro announced at Google’s I/O conference today that it will develop a multi-camera array that can shoot immersive virtual reality video, with the help of Google Jump, Google’s new virtual reality system.
This post has been updated with a comment from one of the lead scientists on the study.
While the world’s most advanced robots are still trying to master stairs (and karate), there will come a time when many jobs currently held by humans are done by robot workers. Quartz met four robots at the RoboUniverse conference in New York earlier this month that are already doing some jobs that previously would have been done by humans.
If you say “tom-ay-to” and I say “tom-ah-to,” Google may someday suggest a tall latte for you and a nice cuppa tea for me.
This post has been updated.
Shake Shack, the New York-based burger chain that already has taken on an IPO and a global expansion, now might be looking to take on chicken.
Amazon has its black cylinder for you to talk to, and then there’s Jibo, billed as “The World’s First Social Robot for the Home.” Soon Google may have its own voice-assisted robot: a teddy bear.
You’re pretty sure no one saw you do it. It was just that one time, and no one was watching. You hurry through the subway turnstiles and then you see it. It’s a bit off, but you definitely recognize it: It’s your face, digitally remastered on billboards everywhere. The world knows. You spit your gum on the floor and the world knows you did it. Soon, they’ll be coming for you.
The US government today released a trove of documents and materials found at Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound during the raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader in 2011. As well as a trove of English-language books—bin Laden was apparently a fan of Noam Chomsky, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and Bob Woodward—they came across what’s apparently the application form (pdf) for eager new members of the terrorist group.
“Pelé has scored more goals than any other soccer player.”
With the falling costs of digital cameras and the proliferation of smartphones, these days it seems like photography has gone to the dogs. Now it actually has, thanks to Nikon and its dog-mounted Heartography experiment.
It has long been rumored that Apple plans to enter the TV market but, according to the Wall Street Journal, the company was once working on a radical see-through display that wouldn’t have been like any TV in history. Unfortunately, Apple shelved the design last year.
There are drones that can follow their owners around, or hover on paths plotted out by a human, but for the most part, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) still tend to require someone, somewhere to fly them. And those human operators are prone to errors. One company is looking to make drones that are truly unmanned.
While the consumer 3D printing industry is going through a bit of an existential crisis, industrial 3D printing is going strong. Last week, Stratasys announced it had 3D-printed over 1,000 parts for Airbus’ A350 XWB planes that shipped in 2014. Now, Scientists at GE Aviation’s Additive Development Center have made a working jet engine entirely from 3D-printed parts.
It’s been a year since the EU’s Court of Justice ruled that Google and other search engines must give Europeans the ability to request that information about them be removed from search results. According to Google, the company has received over 250,000 requests for information to be removed from search results over the last year, and it has analyzed nearly one million websites to see what should be removed.
Generations before us have had lofty goals—being the first to fly, the first to walk on the Moon. A new challenge stands before us today: to capture the most extreme, most mind-blowingly awesome aerial selfie.
This time each year, many of us experience a vague yet familiar sense of panic: Have I missed Mother’s Day? Is it too late to send Mom a card? How long much do express flower deliveries cost?
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay Amazon’s drones from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. In a patent application from last month, uncovered by the BBC yesterday, the retail giant outlined a plan for its proposed delivery drones to get packages to you in half an hour, regardless of where you are.
In the lobby of MakerBot’s office is a framed issue of the Economist, featuring a cover story about the rise of the 3D printing industry. It’s from 2013, when MakerBot was the pride of the burgeoning consumer 3D printing market.
Fitbit, the maker of myriad step-tracking devices, has taken the first step to going public, lodging IPO documents with US regulators this afternoon.
