English and Spanish speakers can now have a Skype conversation without learning the other language or typing. Skype Translator is now available in a “preview” edition to anyone on Windows 8.1. The service had previously been in a limited-numbers preview but has now rolled out publicly, though you will need to sign up to use […]
A company has unveiled a wireless charging system with three times the power of current models. It’s probably not quite enough for laptops yet, but shows the concept is scalable. At the moment, wireless chargers are usually limited to five watts, which is about the same as you’d get in a dedicated wired phone charger. […]
Check out these robots packaging 9v batteries at PackExpo 2014. There’s just one thing missing from this video: Daft Punk’s song “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” Work It Harder Make It Better Do It Faster, Makes Us stronger More Than Ever Hour After Our Work Is Never Over [Chris Baird]
IBM researchers say 70 percent of discarded laptop batteries could be used to power lighting in locations without reliable electricity supplies. They say it could make LED lighting far more affordable than with either solar panels or rechargable batteries. The researchers are based in Bangalore and recently carried out tests using UrJar. That’s a gadget […]
Psy’s Gangnam Style video has long been the most watched clip on YouTube. Now it’s forced a rethink of the site’s “hit counter.” The video recently passed the 2,147,483,647-view mark. Maths and computing geeks among us may already have spotted the significance of that, but for the rest of us, it’s all down to that […]
Two years ago a cheetah-inspired robot “ran” at 28.3 mph, faster than Usain Bolt. A new rival model can only manage 10 mph, but does so without any external power cables. Both Cheetah model are funded by the American military’s gadget department DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) but are produced by different firms. In […]
We already had “cloud” printing that lets people print documents from thousands of miles away. Now NASA has sent a print out of this world — and with an extra dimension. After astronaut Barry “Butch”Wilmore installed a 3D printer in the International Space Station, NASA ground crew sent remote commands for two test calibration prints, […]
A company called Double Robotics makes telepresence robots, including models that display the user’s face so that they can “be” in a location remotely. To show off the technology, they made one such robot available for anyone to control online, making sure to keep it in a room with a closed door. That is until […]
A Georgia Institute of Technology professor has proposed an alternative to the Turing Test in assessing artificial intelligence. It would be based more on creativity than communication. The idea of the test comes from a 1950 paper by Alan Turing in which he talked about the possibility that a computer could one day pass itself […]
A deaf man has modified his hearing aid so that he can “hear” the presence of wireless networks. Writing in the New Scientist, Frank Swain says it’s an experiment to explore the way tech works for deaf people. With the modifications, the hearing aid makes different sounds to indicate both the quantity and type of […]