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That guy meandering back and forth on a downtown street could be seriously lost. Or serious trouble. A computerized surveillance system in the works could help decide which, with its wide-angle panoramic shots, location tracking software and ‘smart’ video cameras that flag suspicious behavior.
Snake-like robots that can climb scaffolding to inspect high-rise construction sites, bend at will to defuse roadside bombs or roll down your esophagus to peer at your digestive tract may soon be lending construction workers, soldiers and doctors a flexible hand.
Could a computer pick the next “American Idol”? The next Ludacris or Madonna?
Just in time for Christmas, German researchers are ramping up a manufacturing technique for making intricate Nativity figurines, toys, and even hi-fi speaker boxes from a renewable and surprisingly versatile source: liquid wood.
Getting test subjects lost in a virtual building could reveal a lot about how to construct more people-friendly hospitals, schools and other spaces, according to a unique collaboration by a group of California neurologists and architects.
Remember those sweltering summer days when the air was so muggy you could practically drink it? A new home appliance is promising to make that possible by converting outdoor air into nearly 13 quarts of fresh water every day.
One car of the not-so-distant future is powered in part by a battery weighing more than two fully grown men. Another lacks side doors in the interest of reducing drag. And dozens of teams from around the world — both amateur and professional — are racing to build sleek, ultra-fuel efficient cars powered by alternative energy and attractive to cash-conscious consumers.
“Open the pod bay doors, HAL.”
Coal may be a four-letter word for former Vice President Al Gore and many environmentalists. But some researchers believe technology may yet salvage the concept of “clean coal” — or at least coal — as an alternative to foreign oil while the drive for longer-term alternative energy picks up steam.
One software program can merge multiple camera shots to eliminate that half-dazed look that always seems to afflict one person in every group photo. Another can combine a picture taken with and without a flash to pair your smiling face with a properly illuminated nighttime scene. Yet another program can pull out crystal-clear details by shifting the focus after you've snapped a picture. And who wouldn’t want a camera that can clarify an otherwise blurry image like a speeding bicyclist?
How can a snail crawl along the surface of a pond while hanging upside-down underwater, especially when there’s seemingly nothing to grab? The spot-on snail solution, according to a team of engineers, is finding the perfect balance between surface tension and the motion of the snail’s large, slime-trailing foot.
A tsunami is headed right for a vulnerable shallow-water gas platform. The next minute, the first wave passes by harmlessly as if the structure had completely disappeared. Impossible? Perhaps not, according to a team of French and British physicists that has devised an ‘invisibility cloak’ that could, in theory, hide susceptible platforms or coastlines from ocean waves such as tsunamis.
The election was rigged.
How well can you hide your age? Computer scientists at the have developed a software program that estimates age based solely on someone’s facial appearance, suggesting that in the near future you won’t be able to fool either Mother Nature or that video camera verifying your ID at the local bar.
A new program aims to put the squeeze on malicious software that can disable, infiltrate or transform a computer system into an unwitting zombie — before the cyber attack ever materializes.
A big bad wolf of a “hurricane” hasn’t exactly blown down the roof or walls of a brick house at the University of Western Ontario. Even so, the university’s “” project is offering a revealing look at how winds from storms such as Hurricane Ike, which buffeted the Gulf Coast of Texas earlier this month, can easily destroy unsecured homes.
Its invisible eddies and vortexes can dramatically alter the flight of everything from golf balls to hypersonic jets. Grasping the vast power of turbulence could help researchers design better weather forecasts, more efficient cars, quieter helicopters and even faster ships that “float” through the high seas on a cushion of air.
Adam Boesel isn’t quite ready to light up his neighborhood with a legion of electricity-generating exercise bikes, much less his own gym.
You’re in the produce aisle doubtfully eyeing those serrano peppers and fresh spinach. Are they really safe to eat?
The swirls of hot pink, lime green and turquoise might be mistaken for some kind of abstract expressionist painting if they weren’t so neatly contained within Canada’s national borders. Ditto for the softer pastels of Afghanistan and the streaks of color within the 28 other countries included in OneGeology’s newly unveiled digital map of the planet.
Researchers have relied on the technique to trace a dead warbler found in the lettuce of a Canadian salad bar back to California. Other scientists have used the strategy to identify China as the true origin for a mouse head unexpectedly starring in a TV dinner and a deadly pufferfish posing as benign monkfish.
Researchers fighting the rise of drug-resistant bacteria have found a new guiding light and tapped into the cleansing power of a good cry.
A sea of potential is lurking just beneath the waves. In a sinuous rubber tube dubbed the Anaconda and in the unusual features of dolphin flukes and humpback whale fins, scientists are looking to the ocean and its inhabitants for a little alternative energy inspiration.
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