Researchers at the MIT Media Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have developed a new display technology that automatically corrects for vision defects — no glasses (or contact lenses) required. The technique could lead to dashboard-mounted GPS displays that farsighted drivers can consult without putting their glasses on, or electronic readers that eliminate the need for reading glasses, among other applications. “The first spectacles were invented in the 13th century,”...

Mitochondria, often called the powerhouse of the cell, have been harnessed in a new battery-like device that could one day power small portable devices like mobile phones or laptops. Mitochondria convert fatty acids and pyruvate, formed from the digestion of sugars and fats, to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the cell's energy supply. Along the way a tiny electrical current is generated, and Shelley Minteer and coworkers from Saint Louis University in Missouri, US, have now harnessed those flow...

An interesting device known as the npowerpeg has been released. It uses kinetic energy to gain electrical power, and is a hybrid so almost all electronic devices can be charged. Using this  creative new concept, the npowerpeg is a great item to have in case of an emergency, as it can allow you to still use a phone you forgot to charge. For emergency situations, simply shake this device to give your phone enough battery for a quick call. This technology is truly innovative, as it allows you to ch...

  Stanford scientists develop water splitter that runs on ordinary AAA battery   Hongjie Dai and colleagues have developed a cheap, emissions-free device that uses a 1.5-volt battery to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen gas could be used to power fuel cells in zero-emissions vehicles. BY MARK SHWARTZ Mark Shwartz/Precourt Institute for EnergyStanford University Professor Hongjie Dai has developed an emissions-free electrolytic device that splits ...

Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) is a hot area of research. In the past year alone we’ve looked at a system to allow people to control a robotic arm and another that enables users to control an ASIMO robot with nothing but the power of thought. Such systems rely on the use of an electroencephalograph (EEG) to capture brain waves and translate them into commands to control a machine. Now researchers at the University of Southampton have used a similar technique to show it is possible to transmit ...

NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program   The supersonic bi-directional flying wing (SBiDir-FW) aircraft in high-speed configuration (Image: University of Miami)   Looking ahead to an exciting future, NASA is continuing to invest in concepts that may one day revolutionize how we live and work in space with the selection of five technology proposals for continued study under the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directo...

  There is something so attractive about sleeping in the trees; that is probably why theTreeHotel in Sweden is such a hit. Now you can get even closer to nature atWaldseilgarten in Bavaria, where you can hang out over the edge of a cliff or if you are a little bit nervous about sleeping with a mile of air under you, there are trees. Waldseilgarten/Promo image Portaledges were invented for rock-climbers doing multi-day climbs; they are not for people who toss and turn a lot. They ...

  Solar energy that doesn’t block the view A team of researchers at Michigan State University has developed a new type of solar concentrator that when placed over a window creates solar energy while allowing people to actually see through the window. It is called a transparent luminescent solar concentrator and can be used on buildings, cell phones and any other device that has a clear surface. And, according to Richard Lunt of MSU’s College of Engineering, the key word is “...

  The most compact folding bike in the world Imagine a folding bicycle with a weight of 7 kg, which fits conveniently in the airlines hand luggage size, is folded in less than 10 sec and still has 4,5 - 7,5 meters of development. Kwiggle®Bike is the only bicycle in the world featuring this unique combination of drivability, compactness and weight. Kwiggle®Bike is ideal for your next journey, perfect for commuters and everyone will find space for it in his flat or backpack. T...

Dryer blasts water off your entire BODY in less than 30 seconds     This is just like those Dyson Airblades that are used in public restrooms instead of paper towels, only much more ambitious. This dries the whole body. It’s only a little bit bigger than a scale, but the highly-compressed ionized air apparently gets delivered at all the key angles, whisking all the water off your skin in just about 30 seconds. Once the right amount of air has been collected into the pressuri...

Robotic vacuum cleaner that "sees" its environment   Dyson revolutionized the vacuum cleaner industry when it introduced its bagless vacuum cleaner. Now, the company hopes to do the same again, with the introduction of a robot that cleans without human assistance. The Dyson 360 Eye "sees" its environment and can be controlled using a mobile app. Dyson originally announced plans to launch a robot vacuum cleaner back in 2004 with its  DC06,but the project was eventually binned. I...

SmartSense Presence Sensor The SmartSense Presence sensor lets you receive updates about a person or pet coming and going. It works for objects, too, such as cars. And using SmartThings SmartApps lets you customize different actions to take place when these things come in and out of range of the SmartThings Hub. You Can: Receive push or text notifications when people and pets approach and leave a specified area, such as a home or office. Use SmartApps to trigger different actions to ...

  GPS-enabled smart sports shoes will be marketed under the name 'LeChal'. Now, an Indian high-tech startup is promising to do the same in real life with a new, GPS-enabled smart sports shoe that vibrates to give the wearer directions. The fiery red sneakers, which will also count the number of steps taken, distance travelled and calories burned, will go on sale in September under the name LeChal, which means "take me along" in Hindi. The shoes come with a detachable Bluetooth tra...

The quest for a high-tech “shopping cart of the future” is nothing new, but Whole Foods is planning to test a new spin on the concept, using Microsoft’s Kinect sensor for Windows. The motorized cart identifies a shopper with a loyalty card, follows the shopper around the store, scans items as they’re placed inside, marks them off the shopping list, and even checks the shopper out in the end. Microsoft showed the very early prototype, being developed for Whole Foods by a third-party developer, Au...

The brains of children with autism are relatively inflexible at switching from rest to task performance, according to a new brain-imaging study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Instead of changing to accommodate a job, connectivity in key brain networks of autistic children looks similar to connectivity in the resting brain. And the greater this inflexibility, the more severe the child’s manifestations of repetitive and restrictive behaviors that characterize autism, the study...

Researchers have invented a cheap, portable, microchip-based test for diagnosing type-1 diabetes that could speed up diagnosis and enable studies of how the disease develops. Described in a paper published online July 13 in Nature Medicine, the test employs nanotechnology to detect type-1 diabetes outside hospital settings. The handheld microchips distinguish between the two main forms of diabetes mellitus, which are both characterized by high blood-sugar levels but have different causes and ...

Garbage, and more specifically, plastic, may pave the streets of the future. In fact, in India, it already has now. It is difficult to exaggerate India’s garbage problem. Jairam Ramesh, the nation’s former environment minister, has said that if there were a “Nobel prize for dirt and filth,” India would win it. Much of India’s garbage is made up of plastic—a scourge of the nation’s new consumer economy. Although the nation’s per capita consumption of plastic is low compared with that of the...

Cognitive computing is the future of computer processing, or at least, that's what it seems. Researchers earlier this month unveiled a powerful new postage-stamp size chip delivering supercomputer performance using a process that mimics the human brain. The so-called "neurosynaptic" chip is a breakthrough that opens a wide new range of computing possibilities from self-driving cars to artificial intelligence systems that can installed on a smartphone, the scientists say. The researchers...

Would you go to a restaurant where you are greeted and served by robots? Science fiction meets reality at a Chinese restaurant that uses robots to cook and deliver food. Mechanical staff greet customers, deliver dishes to tables and even stir-fry meat and vegetables at the eatery in Kunshan,which opened last week. "My daughter asked me to invent a robot because she doesn't like doing housework," the restaurant's founder Song Yugang said. Two robots are stationed by the door to cheerful...

What are the world's most innovative companies? Forbes has the coveted answer. The annual Worlds Most Innovative Companies list has been topped by California-based global cloud computing company Salesforce for the fourth year in a row. Five Indian companies, including Hindustan Unilever and Tata Consultancy Services, are among Forbes list of the worlds’ 100 most innovative companies that investors think are most likely to "generate big, new growth ideas". These five on the list are cons...

Be cautious, the plants have ears. Or, far more accurately, they are ears. In a boon to eavesdroppers, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have figured out a way to reproduce speech by analyzing the surface vibrations of every day objects using our eyes. In one experiment, for example, the researchers shot higher-speed video by means of soundproof glass of a potato chip bag sitting on the floor even though a individual spoke. Even though to the naked eye the bag was just a pi...

It took eight years of research, but the inventor of the Segway finally succeeded in developing the closest thing to a replacement for amputated arms—and it’s a game changer. Dean Kamen’s bionic version works by picking up on the electric signals near the point of amputation and translating those to the prosthetic, a transparent replica of a human arm and hand, complete with fingers and a thumb. Named Luke after the Star Wars hero who lost his hand in a light-saber duel, the arm gives users t...

                                                                                     In what is believed to be the largest genetic analysis of what triggers and propels progression of tumor growth in a common childhood blood cancer, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center report that they have identified a possible new drug target for treating the disease. This time, the treatment doesn’t include chemotherapy. T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia is one of the most common and aggressive chil...

Hungry for Indian "tortillas? An Indian couple in Singapore has invented a first-of-its-kind robot to make chapatis that has already raked in about S$5 million in pre-orders from Americans. Rishi Israni and his wife Pranoti took six years to develop the robot, Rotimatic, which can produce about one baked roti, or Indian tortilla/chapati, per minute. Rotimatic is the first kitchen device to use robotic technology and awaits U.S. certifications required for sale in the U.S. market. The...

For years, a team of researchers at MIT and Harvard University has been working on origami robots — reconfigurable robots that would be able to fold themselves into arbitrary shapes. In today’s issue of Science, they report their latest milestone: a robot, made almost entirely from parts produced by a laser cannon that folds itself up and crawls away as soon as batteries are attached to it. “The exciting thing here is that you create this device that has computation embedded in the flat, p...

Posture problems? Phillips has an innovative solution. Improper posture at your work can possibly lead to a lot of workplace related injuries, including annoying back and neck pain, eyestrain, and carpal tunnel syndrome. In case you couldn't tell, this means don't slouch. Realizing that "work should be suited to people, and not the other way around," Phillips has released an interesting new 24″ LCD monitor. Besides being an all-around nice display to have at your workstation, the new monito...

Tooth decay is an issue that most of us would prefer not to deal with. Fortunately, the creators of SMaRT Replacement Therapy have come up with an innovative solution to combat this widespread ailment: Use bacteria. SMaRT Replacement Therapy is designed to be a painless, one-time, five-minute topical treatment applied to the teeth that has the potential to offer lifelong protection against tooth decay caused by S. mutans, the principal cause of this disease. The creators have extensively a...