Technology

Netflix engineers recently developed a mind-control gadget that could use your brain to help you browse the streaming service. As part of Netflix’s hackathon in January, which challenged employees to come up with an innovative project in 24 hours that was aimed at improving the Netflix experience in some way, a group of the company's engineers made a device that allows viewers to choose what they want to watch by using their brain waves. The so-called "Mindflix" uses a Muse headband — a wearable device that measures brain signals — that was designed to help users with meditation. However, engineers hacked the device so that it could be used for the more forgetful (or lazy) viewer. In a "commercial" that was produced for the hackathon, the developers said that their invention could help Netflix users when they lose their remote — or, if the remote is simply too far away. The people in the YouTube video then demonstrate how the " brain wea...

Google was granted a patent for a hat-and-camera system on Feb. 28, 2017. Credit: Google Inc./US Patent Office Google recently filed a patent for a technology-enhanced baseball cap that can take still photos and capture video from a camera mounted on the brim, according to news reports. The high-tech cap may be the tech giant's follow-up to its failed Google Glass and could offer competition to similar wearable devices, including Snap's Spectacles. The patent , granted on Tuesday (Feb. 28), describes a hat-and-camera system that offers users an interactive experience for social media purposes, and it can also be used for personal safety, reported Silicon Beat . Users could share photos or video directly from what's been dubbed the Google Hat to a social media account, but the hat's technology could also be useful in an emergency. The patent indicates that the wearable camera hat could protect the user...

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos piloted a giant "mech" robot at the 2017 Machine Learning, Home Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration (MARS) conference. Credit: Jeff Bezos/Twitter Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos got to live out every 6-year-old's fantasy when he got behind the controls of a giant "mech" robot. The Verge reports that Bezos tried out the 13-foot-tall (4 meters) robot yesterday (March 19) at his company's private Machine Learning, Home Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration (MARS) conference. Video of the bot, developed by Hankook Mirae Technology in South Korea, first surfaced in December in promotional clips. Live Science was skeptical of the robot's existence and functionality at the time. But the new video reveals that the robot does, indeed, exist. However, it's far from clear how much the mech (a term for piloted, humanoid robots) can really do. Bezos flails the arms around using...

A robotic hand with intrinsically stretchable rubbery sensors. Credit: Cunjiang Yu Rubber electronics and sensors that operate normally even when stretched to up to 50 percent of their length could work as artificial skin on robots, according to a new study. They could also give flexible sensing capabilities to a range of electronic devices, the researchers said. Like human skin, the material is able to sense strain, pressure and temperature, according to the researchers. "It's a piece of rubber, but it has the function of a circuit and sensors," said Cunjiang Yu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Houston. Yu and his team describedtheir innovation in a study published online Sept. 8 in the journal Science Advances . [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures] Yusaid the rubber electronics and sensors have a wide range of applications, from biomedical implants to wearabl...

A material with random irregularities scatters an incident light wave into all directions. Credit: TU Wien Once thought of as the province of only "Star Trek" or "Harry Potter," cloaking technologies could become a reality with a specially designed material that can mask itself from other forms of light when it is hit with a "beam of invisibility," according to a new study. Theoretically, most "invisibility cloaks" would work by smoothly guiding light waves around objects so the waves ripple along their original trajectories as if nothing were there to obstruct them. Previous work found that cloaking devices that redirect other kinds of waves, such as sound waves, are possible as well. But the new study's  researchers, from at the Technical University of Vienna, have developed a different strategy to render an object invisible — using a beam of invisibility. [Now You See It: 6 Tales of ...

From navigating turbulence, to sleeping midflight, to soaring without a sound, animals' flight adaptations are helping scientists design better flying robots. Airborne drones and the animals they mimic are featured in 18 new studies published online Dec. 15 in the journal Interface Focus. This special issue is intended "to inspire development of new aerial robots and to show the current status of animal flight studies," said the issue's editor, David Lentink, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University in California. Though humans have been building flying machines since the 18th century, these new studies revealed that there is still much to be learned from looking closely at how birds, insects and bats take flight, keep themselves aloft and maneuver to safe landings. [Biomimicry: 7 Clever Technologies Inspired by Nature] Flying drones are rapidly becoming a common sight worldwide. They are used to photograph glorious vistas...

A quadcopter drone with wheels attached so it can fly and drive. Credit: Brandon Araki/MIT CSAIL Whether they're swooping in to deliver packages or spotting victims in disaster zones, swarms of flying robots could have a range of important applications in the future, a new study found. The robots can transition from driving to flying without colliding with each other and could offer benefits beyond the traditional flying-car concepts of sci-fi lore, the study said. The ability to both fly and walk is common in nature. For instance, many birds, insects and other animals can do both. Robots with similar versatility could fly over impediments on the ground or drive under overhead obstacles. But currently, robots that are good at one mode of transportation are usually bad at others, study lead author Brandon Araki, a roboticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and his colleagues said in their new ...

What happens when you walk into a wall in virtual reality? Nothing yet, but soon, your muscles could get shocked when you smack into a barrier, thanks to a new research project that aims to simulate walls and other objects in virtual reality. This expansion on the virtual reality (VR) experience uses electrical muscle stimulation to give users the sensation of hitting a wall or lifting a heavy object. The effect is created via haptic feedback, a type of tactile communication that uses forces or vibrations to re-create the sense of touch. A team of researchers from the Hasso Plattner Institute at the University of Potsdam in Germany created a wearable system that can shock different muscle groups throughout a person's body. In addition to a VR headset and tracking gloves, the researchers outfitted users with backpacks containing electrical muscle stimulators and a series of electrode patches that attach to the wearers' skin and produce the shocks. [Beyon...