The privacy concerns over the widening use of drones have apparently not gone unnoticed in the defense sector, where a leading UAV supplier to the U.S. Army is actively working to make field reconnaissance less intrusive for bystanders caught in the stare of the camera. Prioria Robotics disclosed the fruits of its efforts for the…
Category: Sci-tech
This Italian exoskeleton could revolutionize physiotherapy
The term “exoskeleton” brings to mind images of futuristic battlefields and exotic industrial settings, but where bionics are most likely to achieve widespread use first is the medical field, in therapeutic and rehabilitative applications. Researchers at Rome’s Università Campus Bio-Medico hope to speed along that mechanized revolution with a new cybernetic support frame for the lower…
LG’s radical smart glasses wrap a battery around your neck
Manufacturers have been experimenting with exotic wearable designs for a quite while now in an effort to stand out from the growing competition, but LG’s latest entry may just take the cake. It’s a regular pair of smart glasses save for an oversized external battery that hangs over your shoulders like a sort of high-tech necklace.…
IBM is reviving an experimental memory type that could replace all others
Heightening performance expectations have spurred multiple parallel efforts to develop faster memory in recent years, but the answer to the growing demand for speed may come from a much older source. Two new patent applications reveal that IBM is working to revive a storage technology dating back to the 1990s that could blow everything else out…
Microsoft is developing a service to automate 3D printing
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella apparently had a lot more in mind than cloud services and mobility when he laid out his plan to “reinvent productivity” following his appointment last year. A newly released patent filing suggests that Redmond is working on 3D fabrication software that aims to extend that vision to the maker community. The…
LG wants to build graphene microwaves
Graphene is a long way from becoming viable for semiconductors and the other applications where its unique physical properties could make the most difference, but if you’re a leading manufacturer that needs large quantities of the stuff on the cheap for lower-tech projects, that can already be arranged today. And LG is using its access…
Samsung has averted the mobile industry’s indium shortage crisis
The proliferation of mobile devices is something of a double-edged sword for manufacturers. On one hand, Apple once again beat sales expectations in its most recent fiscal quarter, but on the other, the enormous demand is rapidly depleting global reserves of the precious metals needed to build the touchscreens common to every smartphone and tablet. At particular…
IBM is developing smart glasses for the visually impaired
IBM has made no secret of its involvement in the medical field, having bought out a clinical data company only a few days ago, but never mentioned that it’s actively developing equipment for patients. A patent application released as part of its latest batch of filings to have reached their disclosure date reveals the design…
Google has been granted government funding to pursue its airborne wind turbines
Like other web giants, Google constantly experiments with new technologies to hedge its chances of stumbling across the next big thing. But one ambitious pet project has apparently turned into something much more, attracting the attention of the U.S. Department of Energy’s DARPA-inspired internal research arm. That’s the highlight of the latest of the search giant’s…
This Japanese security system deploys lasers against intruders
Directed-energy weapons have a long way to go until becoming a viable alternative to existing technology, but laser is already finding extensive use in various small-scale security systems, like the one detailed in a new patent filing from OPTEX Co. Ltd. of Japan published last week. The design marks a major evolution of automated intrusion prevention. The…
Inside Magic Leap's mystery $542 million augmented reality system
Stealth startups are by definition secretive about their work, but it’s difficult to keep secrets when you have to file patents. And so it came to be that nine months after its registration, a very special patent application from Magic Leap has reached its mandatory disclosure date to reveal just what half a billion dollars…
Microsoft wants to make it much harder for the NSA to eavesdrop through your mic
It’s the ultimate privacy nightmare: hackers taking over your machine and subverting the microphone to extend their reach beyond the digital confines of the operating system into the real world. That’s a scenario that Microsoft hopes to take off the table with a newly patented design that implements privacy measures directly into the hardware. The…
This surgeon bot could be the ultimate operating room assistant
Flexibility is one of the most fundamental priorities for robotics, but it takes on entirely new significance in medical applications, where a single motion can quite literally make the difference between life and death. Taiwan’s Hiwin Technologies hopes to stack the odds in favor of the former with the automated surgery unit revealed in its…
Hitachi has designed an ultra-efficient robotic exoskeleton for the elderly
Bullet trains, satellites and nuclear reactors may soon be joined by robotic exoskeletons on the list of bleeding-edge equipment that Hitachi manufactures if one of its most recent patent filings is an indicator. Detailed inside is a simple but ingenious variation on the concept that could bring bionic-assisted motion a big step closer towards reality…