Sleep Number’s x12 smart bed monitors your sleeping habits.

Posted on November 9, 2015 by

Sleep Number just announced the x12, which packs a variety of sensors to monitor your sleeping habits, movement, heart rate and breathing rate. The bed has two sections, each of which are independently adjustable, so that once the bed knows your sleeping patterns, it can suggest ways you might want to change, say, the head incline. Additionally and this is perhaps our favorite feature a Partner Snore feature allows you raise your partner's headrest to help ease snoring. Having a lumpy mattres...

Enhancing movement with computational models.

Posted on October 13, 2015 by

MIT’s David Hill, a PhD student in media arts and sciences, builds computational models of human locomotion, which are the basis for designing ever-better prosthetics and his advisor, Hugh Herr, an associate professor of media arts and sciences, is a double amputee. Hill says living in the world of theoretical models can be somewhat insular, so having a real-life example of someone who can benefit from and pilot some of the work he does is part of what helps him stay focused. Human movement i...

Google wants your glasses to stay on while you run, with self-adjusting specs.

Posted on October 5, 2015 by

The latest invention from Google are the new self-adjusting specs that could change the lives of the active and near-sighted .Wearing spectacles and keeping them in place, especially while doing physical work such as running, would be much easier now. The patent outlines a system built into a wearable device like Google Glass that uses motors and motion detectors to automatically tighten or loosen the spectacles' arms depending on what the wearer is doing. It relies on a simple input, adjustm...

New Technology Creates “Cyborg Insects”

Posted on September 8, 2015 by

Scientists at the University of California demonstrated a new technology for creating "cyborg insects." That is, beetles implanted with miniaturized electronics that allows the insects to be controlled. The flying beetle is powered by a wireless signal from a mobile transmitter that controls the insect. Varying impulses trigger an appropriate response from the beetle so that it flies according to its handler. The movements of flying insects is controlled using a radio transmitter and a min...