Posted June 19th 2009 9:00PM

Surgeon and inventor Catherine Mohr tours the history of surgery (and its pre-painkiller, pre-antiseptic past), then demos the next generation of the Da Vinci robot surgeon which allows operations to take place through tiny incisions, performed using nimble robot hands. Fascinating -- but not for the squeamish.

Posted June 19th 2009 8:27PM

The RepRap 3D printer is coming along nicely. The potential of this technology, which allows the average person to have a small open-source factory in their house, is utterly outstanding.

Posted June 19th 2009 8:08PM

Dean Kamen's brain controlled cyborg arm, has received an additional three years of research funding. This time, it’s not from DARPA, but from the VA’s Prosthetics and Sensory Aids Service. This is a big step; even without knowing all the details, when funding shifts from the crazy world of DARPA to the Veteran’s Administration, actual availability seems a lot closer. And this appears to be the case: “veterans fitted with the arm will provide feedback to guide engineers in refining the prototype, before it is commercialized and also made available through the VA health care system.” So, it’s very possible that in just a few years, an 18 DoF thought controlled cyborg arm will be available to people who need one.

Posted June 8th 2009 10:27PM

Rodney Brooks envisions what might happen once people are able to interact with robots in the same way that we interact with computers today.

Posted April 29th 2009 12:23AM

The Beggar Robot has access to areas normally off-limits to beggars, such as shopping malls and community events, where the richer members of society more often frequent. The hypothesis is that this part of society is only able to show some sympathy towards the marginalized if they communicate from a safe distance and via a technological interface. The project tests and exploits the advantages of robotic interface by bringing the Beggar Robot to public spaces in different countries and adapting it to the local context and local language, to beg in the name of the poor.

Posted April 26th 2009 10:40PM

The stage debut of Shimon, the robotic marimba player. Also, the world first human-robot rendition of Duke Jordan's "Jordu", for human piano and robot marimba.

This robot listens to the human play and tries to match its beat, sync, and themes. It autonomously uses choreographic gestures to generate both motion and sound.

Programmed and performed by: Guy Hoffman
Robot created by - The Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology

Posted April 21st 2009 12:30PM

Aldebaran Robotics has done a wonderful job marketing their charming humanoid robot NAO. Initially only glimpses of the robot were made available, then some brief footage of it emerged. Now this well made demo shows off some of the robots capabilities, and has captured my imagination all over again.

From the site:
In the last 20 years, new technologies have altered daily life considerably. Now, following the rise of the personal computer and the internet, a new revolution is at hand: the age of the autonomous home robot.

Although the launch of the domestic service robot is still a few years away, the second generation of humanoid robots, intended for the average household, is about to explode…

Posted April 5th 2009 11:17PM

In this TED Talk presentation P.W. Singer shows how the widespread use of robots in war is changing the realities of combat.

Posted April 2nd 2009 9:10PM

A laboratory robot developed by Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge in the UK has become the first robot to make a scientific discovery without human help.

This robot, called Adam, is capable of generating its own hypotheses and running experiments to test them. Adam has been studying the genetics of yeast and has made new discoveries by doing the grunt lab work normally conducted by graduate students.

Freeing people from arduous lab work and autonomously advancing human knowledge is a promising robotic contribution.

Source - New Scientist

Posted March 29th 2009 1:34PM

OnLive was revealed earlier this week during this press conference at GDC 2009. This new technology promises to stream on-demand games at the highest quality on nearly any computer, or via a small plug-in device. The cloud computing technology that makes this possible will likely have a major impact on the gaming industry, but the transformative potential of cloud computing applied on in a broader sense could completely eliminate the need for people to ever upgrade their computers again.