Do you deliberately avoid visiting friends who live in multi-story buildings without an elevator? No one would fault you—having to climb even just a single flight of stairs is like being forced to workout against your will. But thanks to engineers at Georgia Tech and Emory University, stairs might one day do all the…
We all know that frogs have one of nature’s coolest methods of catching their prey—blasting their tongue out and latching onto the victim. But we haven’t fully understood how the process works. New research shows that frog saliva transforms in surprising ways and could be applied to making super adhesives.
In a breakthrough that will appeal to both spies and those who work with priceless but frail historical documents, researchers at MIT have developed a camera that uses terahertz radiation to peer at the text on pages of a book, without it having to be open.
All the sensors, servos, and motors that allow humanoid robots like ATLAS to walk on two feet require a lot of battery power—so much so that they’re still impractical for real-world applications. But by more closely replicating a human’s gait—at least one with lots of swagger—Georgia Tech’s DURUS requires far less…
Everyone assumes that self-driving cars will stick to the rules of the road as strictly as a teenager taking their driving test. But life is unpredictable, and often times fast, evasive maneuvers are needed to avoid an accident. To ensure they’ll perform just as reliably when they have to drive more aggressively, this …
It turns out that your seemingly random taps, swipes, and other finger gestures on a touchscreen display might not be so random after all. In fact, the way you interact with a touchscreen is so unique that researchers at Georgia Tech have successfully created software that can lock down your tablet if someone else…
You're probably sitting there thinking A convocation speech? Really? Yes, really. Stop what you're doing and watch this now. And make sure your face is firmly attached, lest you lose it in the deluge of oratory excellence you're about to experience.
The robots in use around the world today are built for very specific purposes. Industrial arms can assemble cars, and Roomba can vacuum your home. But researchers at Georgia Tech hope that one day they could do more, to the point of using other tools and objects to handle any number of tasks. Like a cyborg version of…
Vibrators are distracting (at least my interpretation of them). Vibrating gloves? Apparently helpful! Researchers have found that wearing vibrating gloves can improve tactile sensitivity and motor performance in your fingers. How is that possible?
Willow Garage's PR2 robot can fold laundry, play billiards, and fetch a beer from the fridge. But can it pick up a spoon?
Have you ever dreamed of being fed mama-bird style by a huge automated duck? Your wildest visions are now a reality thanks to students at Georgia Tech's Digital World & Image Group.
Georgia Tech actually has a Robotic Musicianship Group in its Center for Music Technology, which means that some lucky so-and-so's are getting government funding to form hippie drum circles with an array of artificial companions. In the video above, two robots demonstrate their ability to listen to grooves laid down…
Click to viewAs badass artificial limbs go, it probably doesn't get any better than Rose McGowan's machine gun leg from Planet Terror. But that's probably pretty hard to walk on, so a team from the mechanical engineering department at the Georgia Institute of Technology would suggest you use their artificial bone…
UK robotics professor Noel Sharkey is raising a fuss over the US Defense Department's intention to put $4 billion into "unmanned systems" in the next year or two. One fear is that spillover from all that R&D will give terrorists new ways to build effective GPS-guided suicide bombers for $500 or less.
Georgia Tech is going to create the nation's interdisciplinary Ph.D program in Robotics, pulling from various engineering (mechanical, electrical, biomedical, aerospace) and computer science disciplines to form a more focused program. Other schools tend to offer a concentrated look at one area of robotics. The idea…
Asthma attacks can come out of nowhere, or so it would seem. A new portable system is trying to predict asthma attacks by sampling the air and identifying likely triggers. The 1-lb. device, designed by a team at Georgia Tech, takes samples every two minutes, looking at recorded air temperature and humidity, and…
Wire haters can rejoice knowing IBM has entered the 60GHz wireless radio business, with partner MediaTek. They follow Georgia Tech and a whole bunch of TV makers into the space. IBM claims 2.5Gbps of bandwidth, plenty enough to shift 10GB of high-def movie in 5 seconds. [CNet]
Think your dual core 3-GHz processor is the bee's knees? IBM and Georgia Tech will more than likely make you cry today with their expected announcement of a silicon-based microchip that runs at 500GHz, a world record. No, not 50GHz, but 500GHz. This feat is accomplished because researchers essentially froze the…