Necomimi, a mashup of the Japanese words for cat and ear, is a new device that lets you express yourself visually through your thoughts. The ears, which you wear on your head, are connected to a strap that touches your forehead. By reading the electric impulses in your mind, the device attempts to express your current mental state through the position of the ears. When concentrating, the ears spring up. When you relax, the ears droop. They can also read other emotional states and move back and forth to match. While the practical use of the device is purely aesthetic, the technology itself has applications….

Man has been able to achieve flight for over a century, but we have never truly mastered the art and science that propels birds and other flying animals through the skies. The team at Festo has brought us one step closer with the “SmartBird,” an ultralight flying robot that achieves and maintains flight on its own power without assistance from other devices. Here are the specs and designs that make it fly: Wingspan: 6.4 ft Weight: 15.87 oz Wings: Include a lever mechanism increasing the degree of deflection Directional Control: Achieved through opposing movement of the head and torso Tail: Produces…

Not content to robotically emulate any and all members of the animal kingdom, humanity has turned to another branch of the Tree of Life for inspiration: that of plants. Japanese artist Akira Nakayasu has developed plant (no, really, it’s just called ‘plant’), an interactive robotic installation that does little but look beautiful. Then again, what else would a plant-bot do? The installation is designed to resemble grass blowing in the wind, and reacts to nearby objects – for instance, a human hand. 169 shape memory alloy actuators control 169 artificial leaves, which bend and sway independently,…

How cool is this? The answer, before you read any further or watch the video for additional information, is this: really cool. The Biological Cybernetics Lab at Tsukuba University here demonstrate a robotic arm that mimics a user’s movement via Kinect-like camera. It can recognize over 100 different hand shapes (after all, some of us, myself included, have pretty weird hands), and checks over one hundred times per second what position your hand is in, so it can adjust itself accordingly. The idea is not only to provide a real-time robotic control solution, but also an intuitive way to program…

Morning, all – or, afternoon, as it were. I trust your Halloween was both hollow and weeny? Mine sure was, but we won’t get into that. Instead, let’s hardcore gangsta rap about robots. Incidentally, yesterday was Asimo’s 10th birthday, and frankly, I don’t think the date could be more fitting – the little guy’s movements are so Uncanny Valley, it’s nothing short of spooky. You don’t agree? Let’s go to the tapes, then. To celebrate 10 years of creeptacular human motion emulation, Asimo’s team thrust the robot into the thick of a dance battle versus Japanese comedian Papaya Suzuki. Really, ‘battle’…

This is just downright threatening. Software engineer Will Gorman has seen fit to play god and create a robot out of Lego that can build things out of Lego. Really. The machine is essentially a robotic tank of Lego that is fed instructions from MLCad, a 3D modeling program. As of yet, it can only do up to 8×2 bricks (you know, the Lego brick), and can’t handle much more than simple structures. But imagine a Mk.2 that could work with NXT hardware? What about one that could 3D-print its own Lego bricks? “There is a recursiveness to this whole thing,” says Gorman of his brainchild. “I love the idea of…

Six Slovenian volunteers have been undergoing a bizarre test: being punched in the arm over, and over, and over, and over again by a robot. A researcher at the University of Ljubljana, Borut Povše, has somehow coerced six of his colleagues to agree to let an industrial robot repeatedly sock them in the arm, in an effort to discover the threshold of robot power. Honestly, had I known this is the kind of stuff I could be doing with my life, I’d have paid more attention in science class. “Even robots designed to Asimov’s laws can collide with people. We are trying to make sure that when they do, the collision…

What’s your kid wearing for Halloween? He’s not going as Batman, is he? I see, like, a trillion child Batmans running around every Halloween, all wearing that foam (plastic?) muscle bib chestplate deal, with snowpants so they don’t catch a cold. Parents, your child isn’t going to catch a cold. He’s the goddamned Batman. Anyway, the point is, your kid’s Halloween costume is stupid – muscle bib or no. If you really wanna have a pissing contest with the other parents on the block, you’ll consider the Kid’s Walker from Sakakibara Kikai. Obviously from Japan, the Kid’s Walker is a robot that… well,…

Microsoft’s Kinect would have you believe that no controller is the way of the future for gaming. Microsoft’s Kinect would have you believe that gaming hardware represents a barbaric, uncivilized class of gamer. Well, colour me barbaric, because Microsoft’s Kinect don’ got nuthin’ on this. Researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have slapped together (I guess more accurately, like, ‘toiled meticulously for countless weeks’) a gaming rig that refuses to take any of this new age motion control bullspit. Seriously, start making some phone calls – you’re…

If you’re not good and rested, take a nap before continuing with this article – because you’re never gonna sleep again. Bina and Martine Rothblatt are an extraordinarily wealthy couple concerned with human immortality. Martine is involved in the Terasem Movement, which explores immortality “via geoethical nanotechnology and personal cyberconsciousness.” In short, the Rothblatts are really keen on not dying. I don’t blame them – I too am pretty stoked about this whole ‘life’ thing I’ve got going on. In an attempt to immortalize herself for her partner, Bina has contracted Dave Hanson of Hanson…