The octopus is a natural escape artist. It can squeeze its soft body into impossibly tight spaces and often baffles aquarium workers with its ability to break out of tanks. These abilities could be very useful in an underwater robot, which is why the OCTOPUS Project, a consortium of European robotics labs, is attempting to reverse engineer it in all its tentacled glory. Now researchers from the Foundation for Research and Technology (FORTH), in Hellas, Greece are learning how the robot might use its tentacles to swim.  Read More

It must be hard for university professors ... they tell their students to shout out if they don’t understand what’s being said in a lecture, yet few students are likely to feel comfortable raising their hand in front of the class and saying “I don’t get it.” Scientists at Spain’s la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid are hoping to address that situation, with a set of augmented reality glasses that let profs see who’s “not getting it,” without those students having to say so verbally.  Read More

Whether it’s a job interview or a hot date, there are certain interpersonal situations where we really want to be at our best. In some cases, we may even run through possible conversational scenarios in our heads beforehand, in order to “train” for the big event. The problem is, those imaginary interactions can’t provide us with unbiased feedback on what we could stand to improve. MIT’s new MACH (My Automated Conversation coacH) software, however, does exactly that.  Read More

We've already seen the Solar Kettle, which uses heat from the sun to boil water. Now we have a product called SolSource that also harnesses the sun's heat, but instead of boiling water, it can cook anything you would put on a regular grill.  Read More

The appropriately-named Allies Farm in Essex UK was formerly the airbase and shelter at RAF Ridgewell, from where the US Air Force's 381st Bombardment Group flew B-17 Flying Fortresses on 296 bombing runs during World War II. Following a conversion masterminded by Cameron Scott of Timber Design, the shelter is now a timber-clad farmhouse, home to the Grays and their three children.  Read More

Certainly one of the more intriguing things on display at this year's Paris Air Show, the Sherpa by Belgian startup Sagita aims to make the helicopter simpler, more efficient, more reliable and more affordable. The helicopter's rotors are directly driven by turbines which are themselves powered by hot air and fumes from the helicopter's power plant. Sagita claims that this makes the the aircraft approximately 85 percent efficient while doing away with the need for a tail rotor.  Read More

Almost two-thirds of the world still does not have access to high-speed internet, but Google is determined to change that. Unfortunately, setting up an affordable infrastructure in remote areas is beyond even a huge multinational corporation's capabilities, which is why the company had to devise a completely out-of-the-box solution called Project Loon. As part of the project, Google recently launched a series of internet-enabled balloons into the stratosphere over New Zealand to provide broadband connectivity to rural areas.  Read More

One of the most frustrating parts of DIY projects is when a screw is at just the wrong angle for the screwdriver to reach. It’s even worse when an electric screwdriver with all its bulk is involved. To make things a bit easier, former University of Washington robotics student Joel Townsan of Bellingham, Washington came up with the Flipout Tantrum, an articulated electric screwdriver designed to work in very tight spaces.  Read More

Mobile devices have turned the traditional PC market upside down. While Apple's "post PC" strategy is all about the iPad, the Mac still gives it a horse in the traditional PC race. Microsoft's strategy is more convergent: it wants hybrid devices like the Surface Pro to become our primary computers. How do the two measure up? Let's find out, as we compare the specs (and other features) of the 2013 MacBook Air to the Microsoft Surface Pro.  Read More