Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 30, 2009

My Wife is a Zillow Addict

We used to choose cell phones for their basic functionality, carrier quality and maybe relatively unimportant things like color or ring tones. But more and more, it's about apps. Take, for example, Zillow, an app that rhymes with pillow probably because the company knew my wife would choose one over...

Mar 31, 2009

Robots Getting More Like Us

This is not a newsflash, but at the Robobusiness conference in Boston last week, companies showed off everything from a robot firefighter to a mechanical gardener, receptionist, tour guide and security guard. What we may sometimes forget is that an incredibly sophisticated robot can be just a computer hooked up...

Mar 31, 2009

Cell Phone Unlocks with Arm Swing

We all have cell phones that will lock out unauthorized users. But few of us use this feature because it is a pain in the neck. Who wants to type in a code when you want to make a call? Thanks to some new software from KDDI R&D Laboratories, you...

Feb 28, 2009

Coming Today: Robot Madness

Robots have not taken over the world. Yet. But with recent advances in humanoid robots and the growing field of cybernetic enhancement of humans, a convergence looms. Exciting? Scary? In a three-week full-court press of videos and stories, LiveScience will examine how: Robots are being made in our image.Robots are...

Feb 28, 2009

You Pay, Computer Prays For You

Information Age Prayer is a site that charges you a monthly fee to say prayers for you. A typical charge is $4.95 per month to say three prayers specified by you each day. We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each prayer at a volume...

Feb 28, 2009

Vacuum Cleaner Senses Human Emotions

A specially-equipped Roomba robot vacuum cleaner can now sense human emotional states. University of Calgary researchers published their results in a paper titled Using Bio-electrical Signals to Influence the Social Behaviours of Domesticated Robots. Using a special headband to capture bioelectric signals from the forehead of a human user, the...

Feb 28, 2009

World's Most Powerful Laser Starts

The force of the sun itself has been harnessed in the world's most powerful laser, which is set to come online after decades of effort and $3.5 billion. The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is ready to start experiments, AP reports. An announcement is...

Jan 31, 2009

Step Made Toward Invisible Electronics

Researchers have made an advance toward a long-sought goal of building invisible electronics and transparent displays. The work could eventually lead to better heads-up displays for pilots or even windshield displays and cars, as well as electronic paper that could deliver all the contents of a magazine or a newspaper...

Dec 31, 2008

How Birds Can Down a Jet Airplane

Early reports suggest that a bird strike caused a jet plane to crash in the Hudson River near Manhattan today, leaving questions about how a little flying animal could down a big airliner. More than 200 people have been killed worldwide as a result of wildlife strikes with aircraft since...

Dec 31, 2008

Video Game Violence Not Why Most Play

Contrary to popular belief, violence does not make video games more enjoyable, a new study suggests. For many game players, gore actually detracts from the experience, decreasing players' interest and desire to purchase a game, the scientists conclude. For the vast majority of players, even those who regularly play and...

Dec 31, 2008

New RoboCop Operated by Cell Phone

Paul Blart, step aside. The fat, bungling mall cop may succeed in Hollywood, going after bad guys on his oh-so-yesterday Segway. But in real life the future of mall enforcement could lie with a new robotic cop that can be operated remotely from a cell phone and can — it's...

Dec 31, 2008

Lies Take Longer Than Truths

A new technique that separates truth from lies finds it takes about 30 percent longer to fib. The computer-based analysis, reported in The Times of London, showed that British test subjects took 1.2 seconds on average to speak reality in recent tests, while prevarications took 1.8 seconds. The timed antagonistic...

Dec 31, 2008

Who Says Green Can't Be Mean?

It generates an incredible 1,000 horsepower. Goes zero to 60 mph in a hair-raising 2.5 seconds. Top speed is 208 mph. Now hold on to your seat for the real news: The Ultimate Aero EV is electric. Manufacturer Shelby SuperCars aims for it to be the world's fastest electric car...

Oct 31, 2010

New Airplane Design Mimics a Seagull

An attempt to redesign the airplane resulted in a surprising craft, one that mimicked a familiar, if much smaller, flyer: a seagull. In a bid to increase the energy efficiency of the familiar tube-with-wings architecture, Joachim Huyssen, of Northwest University in South Africa, began by thinking about the basic principles...

Aug 31, 2010

How Is Crowd Size Estimated?

Reports of the number of people who attended Glenn Beck's Aug. 28 rally have varied wildly – from 78,000 to 800,000 people. How is crowd size estimated – and who does the counting? For large outdoor events, whether they're political gatherings, benefit marathons or just massive crowds watching firework displays...