Robots

Now here's a novel concept. We've seen all manner of objects take remote-controlled flight, from mosquitos and dragonflies to laser choppers and UFOs, but there's one that's been conspicuously overlooked: a bird.

Actually, it's an "iBird," to be exact (of course). Silverlit, which makes this winged avenger, says it simulates a bird's flight by using "realistic flapping wing movements" and is part of the "latest generation of RC flyers," according to GeekAlerts. That, at least, may be the case as long as it doesn't go anywhere near … Read more

DARPA is close to awarding a contract for the initial development phase of an unmanned aircraft capable of staying aloft for five years at a time, according to the aviation magazine Flight.

"Aviation has a perfect record--we've never left one up there. We will attempt to break that record," DARPA Vulture program manager Daniel Newman told Flight Global. "We want to completely change the paradigm of how we think of aircraft."

Call it a "persistent pseudo-satellite capability in an aircraft package"--DARPA does. Documents from the R&D agency envision the Vulture … Read more

Birds are a perennial nuisance at many airports, but removing them can be a labor-intensive and potentially dangerous affair when winged raptors are trained to chase them away. So a European company called Bird Raptor has taken live hunters out of the equation altogether by creating an unmanned air vehicle that serves as a "gregarious bird removal system," according to FlightGlobal, or "GBRS."

The "Falco"--not to be confused with the '80s Euro-pop star--is the product of 11 years of development, a life-size mechanical replica of a female goshawk with a 5.25-foot … Read more

It's kind of surprising that one of the big handset makers didn't come up with a Transformers phone at the height of the movie's hype last year. After all, just about every other form of gadget tried to cash in on it, from laptops and stereos to earphones and MP3 players.

Perhaps Softbank just and Toshiba knew that that true Optimus Prime loyalists would appreciate such a phone regardless of the movie. But it's unclear whether hard-core fans would look past the fact that the new 815T PB handset on the Japanese market doesn't really … Read more

Two Turkish engineers have built a prototype of an autonomous rescue helicopter equipped with Microsoft robotics and mapping software so that it can capture video of disaster sites and stream it back to command centers. The engineers Oguz Bayrakdar and Omer Celik began developing the robot, called RoboTurk, last year with the help of the Istanbul municipal government and Microsoft Robotics Group, which makes commercial software for autonomous applications that could range from a child's robotic Lego set to an unmanned helicopter.

It's an independent project from motivated developers, but RoboTurk is a boon for Microsoft's young … Read more

Whether it's disguised as a personal spa or an airport nap station, the trend is clear: There's a conspiracy afoot to create human pods.

Until now people might have been lulled into thinking that we actually need these things, letting their natural inclinations get the best of them. But look at the photos accompanying this post, especially the one on the right. How can that be a good thing? Using something called "psychoacoustic stimulation," it's supposedly an advanced sound system and de-stress mechanism "lets the music gently relax your whole body by emitting low-frequency … Read more

Modu has generated a lot of buzz for itself at the GSMA World Congress. The Israeli company has developed a concept for a modular cell phone that can be placed into "jackets" that change the both the appearance and the functionality of the handset. I got the chance to check out the Modu phone today, and I admit it's an intriguing concept that could prove to be successful if it evolves as Modu promises.

The overall concept is quite simple. The primary device is a small black cell phone, aka a Modu (clever name, huh?), that's … Read more

There's a reason why no mobile social-networking company has broken out yet. They haven't found themselves--on a map, that is.

Mobile networking, at least in the U.S., remains a limited extension of the social-media industry's biggest PC-based players: lighter, messaging-focused versions of Facebook and MySpace.com, as well as instant-messaging software like Yahoo Messenger and AIM. Social-networking start-ups with a major or exclusive focus on mobile use, like Twitter, have failed to amass a following outside the alpha-geek crowd. For mobile social networking to really take off, it's going to have to move beyond providing … Read more

Privacy--who needs it? The creators of WeFi don't seem to think much of it, although that might not be a bad thing

Today the company, which offers up a pretty svelte little replacement for Windows' clunky Wi-Fi manager, is launching two new items: a mobile application for Windows Mobile users (which could soon be SideKick users too), along with a Facebook application to help users track people using the service. Oddly enough, in all its news release bravado the company failed to offer up a link to said Facebook application, and it's not in the directory--so I can'… Read more