Cables For Robot Skin Will Stretch Like Human Skin
And how far will your skin stretch? About 1.5 times. (re: Roger Zelazny) |
We Robot 2012 Conference Needs Your Help
'We seek reports from the front lines of robot design and development.' (re: Various) |
Are We As Smart As We Can Get?
Can cognition be improved for humans - can we get smarter? (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Apple Idea Accelerator (tm) Coming!
Designed to accelerate idea creation, the Apple Campus 2 is a cyclotron of innovation! (re: Various) |
Basement Holodeck With Playstation Move And EyeToy
'Almost every home had its dimensino room, rigged with the apparatus which picked up the weird, alien impulses...' (re: Ray Bradbury) |
Quadrotor Robots Improve Building Skills Video
I can think of construction tasks these bots can do right now! (re: James P. Hogan) |
DARPA Shredder Challenge Won!
In which DARPA creates a 'Who can put Humpty Dumpty back together again' challenge for document mavens. (re: Vernor Vinge) |
Woolly Mammoths To Be Created For 'Pleistocene Park'?
Will mammoths thunder down the plains, as they once did? (re: David Brin) |
Kinect 2 Could Read Lips - Like HAL
Don't talk about disconnecting your Kinect 2 in front of your Kinect 2. (re: Arthur C. Clarke) |
Multigait Soft Robot Squishes, Walks And Crawls
Simple actuation, complex motion. (re: Rudy Rucker) |
Little Printer Like Dick's Homeopape
SF greats Philip K. Dick and Hugo Gernsback both thought of this idea. (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Mask-bot Robot Human Face
I'm imagining a very bizarre teleconference. (re: Isaac Asimov) |
Space Solar Power - A Truly Limitless Source
SF writers popularized and elaborated on this idea a generation before the first patents were filed. (re: Murray Leinster) |
Surveillance Robots Learn To Hide
This robot listens for the sound of footfalls, and then hides. (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Robot Prison Guard From South Korea
'They are helpers... not Terminators.' (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Computer Knows You're Mad, Chills You Out
Those irritating computerized voice recognition systems may make you less annoyed. (re: Arthur C. Clarke) |
Virtual Reality Contact Lens Shows One Pixel
SF authors have led the way on this idea; fans of Vernor Vinge and Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, rejoice! (re: Niven and Barnes) |
'Loogie Gun' Deployed On Pennsylvania Turnpike
Ever been stuck on the highway? (re: Neal Stephenson) |
DARPA's 'Biometrics-At-A-Distance' Knows You By Heart
Your heart is calling out to DARPA, just like E.T.'s heart called out to the mothership. (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Interactive Robotic Painting Machine Can Hear You
Like a blind artist, it creates based on what it hears. (re: William Gibson) |
WAM Arm Robots Help Patients Get Dressed
Take me into your caring robotic arms. (re: Stanton Coblentz) |
Project Black Mirror Thought-Controlled iPhone
Think and communicate - with Siri on your iPhone. (re: Pournelle & Niven) |
C-Path Computational Pathologist Better Than Doctors
Computerized systems keep getting better; one day they may be better than human doctors. (re: Larry Niven) |
Meeting Wendy Of Wendy's
Wendy of Wendys meet Rondald of McDonald's. (re: Alfred Bester) |
Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surface
Get the last little bit from containers, thanks to materials science. (re: Frank Herbert) |
Laser-Activated Rescue Thrusters For Astronauts
Make sure those pod bay doors are open, too. (re: Robert Heinlein) |
HAL Exoskeleton To Assist At Fukushima
Maybe atomic-powered lifting suits are not quite right for this mission. With video. (re: John W. Campbell) |
Lab-Grown Burger $345K
Soon, you'll be able to have it your way. (re: H. Beam Piper) |
NTT DoCoMo Auto Japanese - English Translation
Close to real time translation service lets you converse in either language. (re: Hugo Gernsback) |
Airdrop Moisture Vaporator
'A vaporator sunk securely through sand and into deeper rock.' (re: George Lucas) |
NASA's Super-Black Now Even Blacker
'Our material is darn near perfect across multiple wavelength bands, from the ultraviolet to the far infrared.' (re: E.E. 'Doc Smith) |
Nth Lights From NthDegree Are 'Printed Lights'
Let there be light, and let it be flat. (re: Isaac Asimov) |
Giant Asteroid Misses Earth!
Whew, that's a relief. It did come inside the orbit of the Moon, though. (re: Niven and Pournelle) |
Slug Crawler Robot Has Retractable Skin
Its flexible skin is manipulated by internal robotic parts. (re: Various) |
SLS Robot Spider 'Daddy Longlegs'
I'm hoping they make these available in kit form. (re: Arthur C. Clarke) |
Marie Curie's Papers Still Radioactive
And the half-life of radium's most common isotope is 1,601 years. (re: Robert Heinlein) |
Magnetic 'Tongue' Can Taste Tomatoes
How else will robots enjoy pizza? (re: Anthony Boucher) |
Korean Talking Robotic Head
Another strange robotic head, that may come to a classroom near you. Some day. (re: William Gibson) |
Smart Textiles For Wearable Communicators
'Antenna clothing' for all occasions. (re: Murray Leinster) |
PETMAN Robot Video
Wear in (and wear out) your clothes robotically. (re: Frederic Pohl) |
Multi-Target Photo-Radar System
No more safety in numbers when speeding, thanks to this Cordon system. (re: John Jacob Astor IV) |
Switchblade Surveillance Missile
'You've heard of a bullet that has your name on it.' (re: Michael Crichton) |
Worlds First Intelligent Absorbent For Radioactive Contaminants
The material uses titanate nanofiber and nanotube technology. (re: John W. Campbell) |
Throw This Panoramic Ball Camera!
Let's hope that it proves possible to manufacture this camera at a price at which we can afford it. (re: Robert Silverberg) |
Sensitive Artificial Skin For Touchy-Feely Robots
Let's face it, robots feel distanced and remote with their cold, metallic skin. Diligent researchers work to remedy this problem. (re: Roger Zelazny) |
BlueBiped Passively-Powered Robotic Legs
Take a walk, and let gravity be your energy source. (re: Martin Caidin) |
A Prosthetic Arm That Feels
Amazing next-generation work by surgeons and engineers catches up with last-generation science fiction imagination. (re: Martin Caidin) |
Gesture-Controlled iPads?
What do you think, you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hands in the air? (re: Samuel R. Delany) |
'Supra B 'Toys Soon Self-Healing
Toy, heal thyself. (re: J.G. Ballard) |
Spray-Foam Robot Built By... Another Robot
Now robots can make your sfnal robot dreams come true. (re: Gene Roddenberry) |
New Transistor Interfaces Directly With Biological Functions
Talk directly to the malfunctioning processes in your body. Someday is getting sooner. (re: Various) |
See People Through Walls
You (and your imaginative proxies, sf writers) have been trying to see through walls for a long time. (re: John W. Campbell) |
Artificial Muscles Made From Carbon Nanotube Yarn
This research could lead to miniaturized electric motors, compressors, and turbines. (re: Martin Caidin) |
Flex, The First Portable VeinViewer
Michael Crichton actually thought of this idea forty years ago. (re: Michael Crichton) |
Use Steganography by Printed Arrays of Microbes For Secret Messages!
Secret writing always fascinated me; modern biology offers improvements. (re: Paul McEuen) |
Automated Biology Explorer (ABE), Robot Scientist
Remarkable strides taken in the autonomous exploration of nature. (re: John M. Faucette) |
Raytheon Sarcos Exoskeletonized Ditch Witch
Now I can really take on those backyard chores. (re: Robert Heinlein) |
SMELL-IT 'Surround Sound' For The Nose
Smell-o-Vision! One day, we'll breathe deeply of our favorite movie or game. (re: Aldous Huxley) |
FAST Program AIs Search For Human 'Malintent'
Passive biometric information gathering, also known as covert sampling, is on the rise. (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Space Habitat Has Inflatable Loft
Tested in a pretty good substitute for Mars, the moon and even asteroids, found right here in the USA. (re: Arthur C. Clarke) |
10 Exotic Human-Energy Harvesting Devices And Technologies
Presented all on one page! and yet, profusely illustrated. (re: Frank Herbert) |
Generate Elecricity From Breathing With Microbelt PVDF Device
Unique method of harvesting energy from low speed airflows will have many applications. (re: Frank Herbert) |
How Smart Is Siri?
Another Pohl prediction comes true, right on time. (re: Frederik Pohl) |
iCub Crawling Robot
iCub may seem to be taking a step backward, but it's all human development. (re: Brian Aldiss) |
Panasonic Hair-Washing Robot
It's the extra fingers that make this robot worth upgrading to. (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Steve Jobs 1955-2011
Steve Jobs was a one-of-a-kind visionary whose creations had a profound effect on my life. Rest in peace. (re: Various) |
Princeton's Magic Carpet
I never thought I'd be writing a story about this one. (re: Dan Simmons) |
AlphaDog Proto Stronger, Quieter Than BigDog
I'm waiting for someone at Boston Dynamics to realize that regular people would like something like this on hikes. (re: Anthony Boucher) |
PETMAN Bipedal Robot Tests Your Future
Now, we need to get this robot to test consumer products - and then, to consume them. Then you and I can relax. (re: Frederik Pohl) |
Blacker-Than-Black Corrugated Metamaterials
This idea also fascinates sf authors; can you think of sfnal materials that are darker than black? (re: E.E. 'Doc Smith) |
Bolshoi: Largest Computer Simulation Of The Universe
'A machine able literally to contain the Universe Itself within it's innumerable memory banks.' (re: Stanislaw Lem) |
Warrior Web: Superman Underwear From DARPA
With quasi-passive regenerative actuation technologies! (re: Joe Haldeman) |
Drones Stick Tight, Remember Your Face
This technology makes drones smarter. (re: Jack Vance) |
BOLT Bipedal Ornithopter Robot
Remarkable video shows progress in flapping wing robotic MAVs. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun) |
Autom Weight Loss Robot Ready
This device can help all of us with our fitness goals. (re: Clamp) |
The Garbage Mines Of Ghana
'They break down electronics with hammers and hands.' (re: David Brin) |
Self-Propelled 'Microrobots' For The Blood Stream
Keep your fingers crossed, Fantastic Voyage fans. Your day will come. (re: Isaac Asimov) |
LOBIN Intelligent T-Shirts
At some point, we'll all wear intelligent t-shirts. (re: Rudy Rucker) |
Living Bridges Grown From Trees
Some are one hundred feet in length, and support up to fifty people at a time. (re: Jack Vance) |
Smart Window Goes Clear Or Opaque In Seconds
Warmer in winter, cooler in summer, manufactured in a non-toxic manner - what's not to like? (re: Frank Herbert) |
E-Health Point Telemedicine In Rural India
Amazing story of a medical start-up that provides affordable health care services in rural India. (re: EM Forster) |
Electric Brain Stimulation Quickens Learning
Faster learning is as close as the nearest electrical outlet. (re: James Blish) |
'Bubble Galaxy' NGC 3521
This doesn't have to do with prediction, but I love what sf writers do with this idea. (re: Edmond Hamilton) |
AI Chatbots Teach English Online
Manga-style online 'chat robots' will help people learn English, 24x7. (re: Isaac Asimov) |
Printed Artificial Capillary Blood Vessels
We need these for the lager, more complex artiforgs we've already made. (re: Larry Niven) |
Super Bainite Armor Steel
'There's a sheet of just plain Nothing between us and it's impenetrable.' (re: Theodore Sturgeon) |
Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering Project
Save the planet from global warming the all-natural way. Is there such a thing as geomimicry? (re: Neal Stephenson) |
Emotion Detector Like PKD's Voight-Kampff Empathy Test
This device was predicted by Philip K. Dick forty years ago. (re: Philip K. Dick) |
'World's Heaviest Woman' Title Sought
To balance out the World's Greatest Losers, we find the world's most serious gainers. (re: Jack Vance) |
Klout Score Measures Your Influence
Based on 10 networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare. (re: Jack Vance) |
Innovega IOptik Micro-Display Contact Lenses
Interesting new take on getting us our lightweight, unobtrusive augmented reality displays. (re: Niven and Barnes) |
Narrative Science And Phil Dick's Homeostatic Newspaper
'The structure... was once a great homeostatic newspaper, the New York Times.' (re: Philip K. Dick) |
The Infinite Adventure Machine Generates Fairy Tale Plots
Run out of ideas since J.K. Rowling finished the Harry Potter series? Let artificial intelligence help you out. (re: Isaac Asimov) |
Harvesting Power From Flying Insects
DARPA has been looking for a way to power the devices that will be carried by tiny HI-MEMS cyborg insects. (re: Thomas A. Easton) |
Author Barely Stays Ahead Of The Future With Transparent Jeans
Mainstream authors can barely keep up; old-school sf authors have already come and gone. (re: Gary Shteyngart) |
Wooden Mirror Like A Kinotrope
The spinning wooden blocks are pixels. (re: William Gibson and Bruce Sterling) |
Star Trek-Style Sick Bay Bed
Dr. McCoy, your sick bay bed is almost ready. (re: Gene Roddenberry) |
PIGORASS Pneumatic Quadruped Robot
'The mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep...' (re: Ray Bradbury) |
Nexus S Directs SPHERES On ISS
Now that NASA has the 'seeker remotes' from Star Wars under control, how about those light sabers? (re: George Lucas) |
Surveillance Drone Bird Crashes
If it really is a surveillance drone, whose is it? (re: Roger Zelazny) |
Robobee Learns The Waggle Dance
Karl von Frisch, are you watching this? (re: Raymond Z. Gallun) |
Implanted Glucose Sensor Glows Thru Skin
This approach may facilitate development of long-term, fluorescent, implanted continuous glucose sensors. (re: William Gibson) |
Bulletproof Human Skin Works! Kind of.
As Achilles knows, it's important to have bulletproof skin all over. Just saying. (re: Various) |
BookTrack Adds Sound To Books
I really don't think this is a very good idea. Readers? (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Energy-Harvesting Shoes With Reverse Electrowetting
A new energy-harvesting technology that could be embedded in your shoes. (re: Frank Herbert) |
Dogs Sniff For Cancer
Take a whiff, Fido! (re: John Brunner) |
Samsung Cites 'Space Odyssey' Newspad Against iPad In Patent Suit
Should a science fiction movie be used as 'prior art' in a patent dispute? (re: Arthur C. Clarke) |
IBM's Neurosynaptic Computing Chips
Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE). (re: Isaac Asimov) |
Sony DEV-5 Digital HD Binoculars
Perfect for looking for Bantha and Sand People. (re: George Lucas) |
Hexapod Robot Scuttles Through Beethoven
How does a hexapod robot get to Carnegie Hall? See the video, but it takes more than practice. (re: Herbert Goldstone) |
Micro-Robots Self-Assemble From Tiny Particles
'The bits were in motion.' Philip K. Dick (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Musical Robotic Head
'An anthropomorphic robotic head with a human-like face and a sheet of artificial skin.' (re: William Gibson) |
MABEL Robot Biped Now Runs Faster Than You
'It pushes the state of the art in bipedal mechanism design.' (re: Various) |
Lockheed Samurai MAV Drone
That's no maple seed; that's a micro-air vehicle. (re: Various) |
Medical Monitoring With Flexible Electronic 'Tattoos'
Not only incredibly thin, but also 'structured into a serpentine shape' that allows them to deform without breaking. (re: Jack Vance) |
Sifteo Tiles
The cubes communicate with one another wirelessly. (re: Jeff Noon) |
i2R E-Paper Is Erasable
This display technology is erasable paper - in e-paper format. (re: Greg Bear) |
Firefly Cameras Shot From Grenade Launcher
How about one launched from space? (re: Robert Silverberg) |
Real TIme Crime Tracking Algorithm
Holy computer crimefighters, Batman! (re: Various) |
Robot Daycare With Robot Nannies?
Would you turn your young children over to robots? (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Don't Drive Your Self-Driving Car
Don't try to drive your self-driving car, Googlers. Lesson learned. (re: Robert Heinlein) |
RIBA Robot for Interactive Body Assistance
Robot nurses are friendly and strong enough to pick you up. (re: Katsuhiro Otomo) |
Bioelectronic Nose To Have Biomimetic Chemical Sensors
How many uses can you think of for a bioelectronic nose? (re: Michael Crichton) |
Mobile Devices At Core Of Future Appliances
Just wait till all of your appliances start talking back. (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Swede's Home Nuclear Reactor On Back Burner
'His interest in nuclear physics was awakened as a teenager.' (re: Various) |
Shape-Changing Metal Antenna
Once the skin is ruptured, the metal flows extremely quickly – in a few milliseconds. (re: Robert Heinlein) |
Texas Couple Married By Computer
'Do you take this woman as your lawfully wedded wife Y/N?' (re: Robert Silverberg) |
'Robotic Mule' Ready For Duty, Sir
It uses ladar to identify the unit it needs to follow and drives off autonomously behind. (re: Anthony Boucher) |
Mushroom Death Suit Consumes You
A flesh-eating Infinity Mushroom-based item of apparel. (re: Edwin K. Sloat) |
Menlo Device By Microsoft Tracks You Precisely
This little gizmo can track you everywhere, indoors and out. (re: Jack Williamson) |
'Predict Your Death' Paper Withdrawn
How long have _you_ got? (re: Robert Heinlein) |
Songdo IBD Smart City
How smart do you want your city? (re: John W. Campbell) |
First DNA-based Artificial Neural Network
Artificial intelligence at a molecular scale. (re: Greg Bear) |
Small Spherical Robots Needed For Radiation Leak Testing
Spherical robots are definitely the way to go. (re: Various) |
Soft Biocompatible Memory Device
Perfect for DARPA's GummiBots, this device also holds promise as a way to achieve implantable memory devices. (re: Various) |
VoltAir Electric Aircraft Concept
An electric powered aircraft might be quieter and more comfortable. (re: John W. Campbell) |
Brain Scans Reveal 'Uncanny Valley'
Brain scans reveal the basis for the human reluctance to accept humanlike androids robots. (re: Various) |
Human-like Brain For Robots?
Could our own brains inspire research that leads to robots that can think for themselves in challenging situations? These researchers think so. (re: Isaac Asimov) |
CFM LEAP Engine Perfect For Podracing
Just watch out for those wrenches thrown by competitors (I'm looking at you, Sebulba!) (re: George Lucas) |
Teeth From Stem Cells
This research may someday permit your dentist to grow new teeth for you from your own stem cells. (re: William Gibson) |
JediBot Robot Arm Senses The Force
How many novels can you think of that combine swords and robots? (re: Frank Herbert) |
Our Galaxy's Habitable Zone
How many habitable planets are there in the Milky Way? This paper presents interesting research in this area. (re: E.E. 'Doc' Smith) |
Interactive Storytelling On iPad
The iPad moves further into a science-fictional future. (re: Neal Stephenson) |
AI Wins At Civilization II By Reading Manual
World domination is so much more satisfying than a nice game of chess. (re: Iain Banks) |
Flexible, Transparent Speakers From Graphene
See through your speakers, someday. (re: Bruce Sterling) |
Synthetic Trachea From Patient's Own Cells Implanted
Amazing success in Stockholm; the patient has been discharged from the hospital. (re: Philip K. Dick) |
Philips Luminous Textile Panel Soft Cells
Luminous textiles that work with sound waves. (re: Vernor Vinge) |
NASA's Forward Osmosis Bag (For Stillsuits?)
Perfect for astronauts - and maybe Fremen. (re: Frank Herbert) |
Auti Interactive Toy For Autistic Children
This little toy may be of special interest to Anne McCaffrey fans. (re: Anne McCaffrey) |
iBag Urine Bag Tweets When Full
A top hospital tweeter? Collectively. (re: David H. Keller) |
