From flies to fish to lobsters, small insects and animals have long been ideal models for robotic and computer scientists. Bees, for example, possess unmatched elegance in flight, zipping from flower to flower with ease and hovering stably with heavy payloads. A multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, engineers, and biologists at Harvard received a 10… »
Swedish researchers have developed an interactive touchscreen 3D autopsy table that allows pathologists to examine virtual representations of real bodies in minute detail and from different viewing angles. The Virtual Autopsy Table has been developed by Norrköping Visualization Center in cooperation with Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization using science and technology which is… »
The energy available in sunlight is a resource we’ve only begun to really get a handle on. Current photovoltaic-cell technology, typically a semiconductor-based system, is expensive, not very efficient, and only does instant conversions from sunlight to electricity. But an artificial photosynthesis system or a photo-electrochemical cell that mimics what happens in plants could potentially… »
We already wrote about modular and shape-shifting robots in our previous articles. Swarm robotics is inspired by the social insect behavior, and emphasizes aspects such as decentralization of control, limited communication abilities among robots, use of local information, emergence of global actions, and robustness. Most current studies in swarm robotic systems have focused on robotic… »
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Army Research Office awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to iRobot to create the flexible military robot. The maker of the Roomba and Scooba, along with University of Chicago researchers, develops the palm-size ChemBot as a mobile robot that can move over soft terrain and navigate through small… »
“Team Germany” from the Technische Universität Darmstadt has won the 2009 Solar Decathlon with their project surPLUShome. This is the second time in a row that a team from TU Darmstadt wins this international contest after already winning the title in Solar Decathlon’s last edition in 2007. After 9 days and 10 contests, Team Germany… »
Carbon neutral master plans are being adopted increasingly in times when energy and emissions are becoming important. And that’s exactly what Azerbaijan will do to develop Zira Island, located in the bay of Caspian Sea next to the capital city Baku. Besides being carbon neutral, this project will make a self-sufficient resort out of a… »
The 23-inch Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 finally became available in most parts of the world, and it looks like a thinner, sleeker version of Samsung’s P2370. The Samsung XL2370 is Samsung’s highest performance display and their first display that incorporates LED technology, giving the model a super-slim profile and significant energy-saving benefits. Although it doesn’t offer… »
