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Spielzeuge lernen sprechen: Der japanische Spielzeughersteller Tomy verbindet dazu einen schafsähnlichen Bonsairoboter mit künstlicher Intelligenz vom Mobilnetzkonzern NTT Docomo.

Japan probiert mit Elektronik seit jeher alles Mögliche aus – und oft auch das Unmögliche. Jeden Donnerstag berichtet unser Autor Martin Kölling an dieser Stelle über die neuesten Trends.

Wer sagt, das Roboter smart sein müssen? Ein teures Rechnerhirn, eine Heerschar von Sensoren und motorisierte Extremitäten mit sic…

A company based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, has spent the last 3 years designing, developing, tweaking and building what's described as a new breed of musical instruments. Just when the sonic scientists at Omnipresent World of Wizkids (OWOW) had reached a point where the five "smartly built, but stupidly simple to use" MIDI devices were ready for the production line, they ran out of money. So they've turned to Kickstarter to get the wob, wiggle, drum, pads and scan into the hands of players.…

If you pay attention to tech or gaming news, you're going to hear a lot about virtual reality in the next week. Oculus will be officially launching the Rift tomorrow, and other big VR companies will be showing off their work at next week's E3. Is the world ready?

Lens-facing side of the Samsung Gear VR (Credit: Will Shanklin/Gizmag)

Full-on consumer virtual reality will be here soon. HTC says the Vive will launch later this year, while the Oculus Rift and Sony's PS4-based Project Morpheus will…

Over the years, various manufacturers and inventors have tried different ways of putting "two wheels" to the snow. The rise of fat-tired mountain bikes, not to mention extreme Antarctic fat trikes, has been the biggest news in this area, but we've also seen recreational equipment like the KTrak and BikeBoards. A group of mechanical engineering students at Quebec's University of Sherbrooke is developing a new solution that aims for a smoother downhill ride by combining elements of existing winte…

The crowd at East Grinstead makes for an odd sight — most of them are wearing plastic goggles with long antennas sticking up, apparently ignoring their surroundings and staring out into empty space. Despite this, they react like a crowd at a football match, letting out oohs and aahs in unison, responding to some unseen action. Suddenly, a small drone skitters out of the trees on their right, crashing through the brushes before landing in a spray of dirt and leaves. There’s a cheer from the bego…

The Department of Transport has partnered with car manufacturers to develop the technology. Can you imagine breathing into your car's steering wheel to prove you're sober enough to drive? It sounds far-fetched, but it's a technology that the US Department of Transport (DOT) is seriously investigating as a solution to drunk driving. Last week, it unveiled its latest research into two types of in-car alcohol sensors: the first is a breathalyzer housed in the steering wheel, and the second is an i…

Former Apple engineers have built a $1,495 oven that can identify your food. And it only has one button. For the past four months, I’ve learned to operate in silence, moving about my house like a ninja. I pick up and put down each and every item as if it’s a delicate wine glass. Because if I don’t, I might not get any sleep.

I live with a baby now — which, among other things, means food has become a problem. Cooking makes a lot of noise. Time spent in the kitchen to create complicated meals, w…

Tesla Motors has said that its Nevada lithium-ion cell "Gigafactory" will be the largest of its kind in the world. And a massive factory requires a massive number of workers. However, many of the people at the Gigafactory at first will not be employees of Tesla, but rather of its battery-supply partner, Panasonic.

Tesla battery gigafactory site, Reno, Nevada, Fabruary 25, 2015 (photo: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Bob Tregilus)

The Japanese company will send several hundred employees to Nevada this fall to …

Are giant seaplanes the future of flight? Blended wing design can carry 2,000 passengers at once - without the need for an airport. Blended wing design reduces drag making plane more efficient - Can land on water negating the need for major airport expansions - Solves problem of large jets creating noise over urban airports.

Seaplanes could be the future of flight, it has been claimed. Experts have revealed a radical 'single wing' seaplane that could carry upto 2,000 passengers. It would help e…

A state-run Russian news site is reporting that the country has ambitions to build a huge, supersonic cargo plane capable of transporting tanks to the field in a matter of hours. While there's plenty of reason to be skeptical that transporting such heavy loads at high speeds is even feasible, let alone realistic, Russia's military is reportedly giving itself roughly the next decade to figure it out.

The heavy transport craft concept, dubbed the PAK TA, could fly at supersonic speeds of up to 2…

Das Brain4Cars-Forschungsprojekt entwickelt ein System, das Unfälle vorhersehen kann, bevor sie passieren.

Wenn es nach einer Wissenschaftlergruppe an den US-Universitäten Stanford und Cornell geht, bekommen Fahrzeuge bald eine Art siebten Sinn: Das Brain4Cars-Projekt arbeitet an einem System, mit dem der Bordcomputer die Fahrabsichten der Person hinter dem Lenkrad bereits mehrere Sekunden vorher erkennen kann.

(Brain4Cars-Forschungsprojekt)

Das hat mehrere Vorteile: So könnte ein Navigationss…

Mit dem Pacif-i von BlueMaestro soll sich der Nachwuchs nicht nur durch Nuckeln beruhigen. Eltern können über das Gerät auch Gesundheitsdaten erfassen.

Wie geht es dem Baby? Eltern wissen, wie schwer die Körpertemperatur mit normalen Thermometern zu messen ist. Der smarte Schnuller hat einen Sensor im Nuckelbereich, der die Temperatur per Bluetooth Low Energy laufend an eine App sendet. So können Eltern aufziehende Krankheiten früher erkennen.

Zudem dient der Schnuller als Aufpasser: Verlässt…

Der orangefarbene Prototyp wurde Ende März in Qingdao vorgestellt: Brennstoffzellen laden eine eingebaute Batterie während der Fahrt der Straßenbahn nach. Die Tram schafft 100 Kilometer mit einer Tankfüllung und eine Spitzengeschwindigkeit von 70 Kilometern pro Stunde.

Fehlende Wasserstoff-Tankstellen, die beim Auto bisher die Verbreitung der Technologie ausgebremst haben, sind in diesem Fall kein Problem: Weil die Straßenbahnen auf festen Routen fahren, müssen die Tankstellen nur entlang der …

Google has became the latest firm to experiment with smart textile design, weaving conductive threads into clothes to create touch-sensitive panels that work like smartphone screens (+ movie).

Project Jacquard was revealed at Google's I/O developer conference in San Francisco last week, when the tech company also unveiled sensors that use radar to translate hand movements into controls for electronic devices.

Devised by Google's Advanced Technology and Progress (ATAP) department, Project Jac…

Lift Lab, a Google owned company, has created a spoon that allows people with essential tremors and Parkinson's Disease to eat without spilling. In clinical trials, the Liftware spoons reduced shaking of the spoon bowl by an average of 76%.

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-lift-lab-spoon-for-parkinsons-2014-11#ixzz3cY0fspia

Next time you fly, imagine that the interior of the airplane was made from plant-based materials, making much of the cabin sustainable. Boeing's improving the environmental performance of airplane interiors through novel use of flax.
See more Boeing innovations at http://www.boeing.com/innovation/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkYuegykWJY

The US Navy's next-gen electromagnetic catapult for aircraft carriers works! Well, OK, the military hasn't exactly used it to launch an actual fighter jet yet, but a recent test has proven that it can handle thousands of pounds of steel. The Navy has been testing the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System or EMALS for months aboard the Gerald R. Ford carrier, but this is the first time a "dead-load" (or a weighted steel sled that weighs up to 80,000 pounds) is involved.

Its advantages over tra…

State Route 87, the thin band of pavement that approaches the mostly shuttered town of Coolidge, Ariz., cuts through some of the least hospitable land in the country. The valley of red and brown sand is interrupted occasionally by rock and saguaro cactus. It’s not unusual for summer temperatures to top 116 degrees. And there is almost no water; this part of Arizona receives less than nine inches of rainfall each year.

Then Route 87 tacks left and the dead landscape springs to life. Barren road…

The city of Seattle saw a robotic population explosion this week as the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) descended on the Washington State Convention Center. The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s flagship conference ran the gamut of all things robotic, from showcases of new technology to forums on government policies as they relate to robotics.

The…

Machine vision and robotic precision have combined in a new way to further fruit fly research. Scientists at Stanford's Bio-X program have developed a robot that can catch and sort the tiny creatures much faster than a human can, though to the flies themselves it must seem like an alien abduction.

This robot's ability to quickly capture and identify fruit flies allows new areas of research and frees scientists from drudgery (Credit: Stanford University)

The fruit fly (or Drosophila) is one of …