Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 30, 2012

Uncanny Valley Watch: Making Android Faces

Can an android that looks convincingly happy or sad get beyond the creepiness of the uncanny valley trap? The FACE android's best efforts to imitate human expressions still leaves it floundering somewhere deep within the valley. The idea of the uncanny valley coined by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori attempted to...

Jun 30, 2012

Political Ad Database to Have Facebook-like Features

Americans will soon be able to look up how much TV stations are paid by political advertisers on a website run by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). And to make the new site more intuitive for people to navigate, it will look a little like Facebook, Greg Elin, the commission's...

May 31, 2012

Clumsy Insects Inspire Clever Flying Robot

Most flying robots resemble larger helicopters or aircraft that can't risk hard collisions or catastrophic crashes. But a Swiss robot takes a different approach based on flying insects — it can survive clumsily bumping into walls and learn about its environment based on such bumps. The idea allows the AirBurr...

Apr 30, 2012

Iron Woman: Paralyzed Mom Finishes Marathon With Bionic Legs

It took 16 days, but Claire Lomas of England, paralyzed from the waist down after a horse-riding accident in 2006, completed all 26.2 miles of the London Marathon last week with the help of robotic legs. She had with her at the finish line her 13-month-old daughter, Maisie — also...

Apr 30, 2012

First Video Captured by Google Glasses Hits the Web

Google has publicly unveiled new photos and the first video from the real view of their augmented reality glasses prototype. The images show what the wearer sees while reading a newspaper, catching a football in the backyard and helping a smiling child play on the jungle gym. Such views don't...

Mar 31, 2012

Navy Pilots Ejected from Jet Flying 170 MPH

Yesterday, just minutes after an F/A-18D jet took off from the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virgina Beach, Va., the two pilots on board realized their aircraft engine had failed catastrophically. Immediately, they turned back toward the airfield, dumping jet fuel in order to reduce the aircraft's weight, a technique...

Feb 29, 2012

Viral 'Human Bird Wings' Video Fake, Probably an Ad

A Dutch engineer has stunned the world with a new video in which he is shown taking flight by strapping on a set of wings, running and flapping his arms like a bird. Using Nintendo Wii technology, Jarno Smeets has rigged a contraption in which the motion of his arms...

Jan 31, 2012

2012 Mayan Doomsday Inspires Chevy Super Bowl Ad

It's perhaps as inevitable as seeing a partially clad Danica Patrick trying to sell us domain names; the 2012 Mayan doomsday phenomenon is coming to this weekend's Super Bowl. All this doomsday nonsense was bound to grab the attention of one or two marketing departments, and for the famous 2012...

Jan 31, 2012

New Technology Turns Hand Gestures into Music

Some people are said to talk with their hands. A professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of British Columbia decided to make it a literal statement. Sidney Fels and his team equipped a set of gloves with position sensors that track were they are in three dimensions....

Jan 31, 2012

Apple Stock hits Record High (Infographic)

The company's stock rose 50 percent in value in the past year. (Image credit: Ross Toro, LiveScience Contributor) ...

Nov 30, 2013

Where Are the Autopilot Lanes for Driverless Cars? (Op-Ed)

Melba Kurman, author, and Hod Lipson, Cornell University associate professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering, are co-authors of Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing(John Wiley & Sons, 2013), and are leading voices in the field of 3D printing. They contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights...

Nov 30, 2013

'Terminator' Obsession: Why So Many Robots Look Like Humans

Humanity, it seems, escaped the Terminator apocalypse: Atlas, the 330-lb. (150 kilograms) robot developed by Boston Dynamics, tripped again — this time during a test at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola. But Atlas was never intended for combat. The humanlike robot is a research tool...

Nov 30, 2013

Robots of the Future: Q&A With DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — For the past two days, engineering teams from around the world have been competing in a unique competition that showcases some of the most advanced capabilities in the field of robotics. The two-day DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials began Friday (Dec. 20) here at the Homestead Miami Speedway....

Oct 31, 2013

Drone Pilot Challenges FAA on Commercial Flying Ban

Model airplanes took off as a hobby in the U.S. after the Wright brothers credited their toy helicopter as the inspiration behind their flights in the early 20th century. Comprehensive books were published on the subject, and thousands of model aircraft clubs were established. Perhaps it was the nation’s fond...

Oct 31, 2013

Are Educational iPad Games Really Educational?

There's no such thing as too much education, right? As iPads have become ubiquitous, companies have rushed to develop educational games that teach math, physics and even urban planning. But many of these games are only educational in the loosest sense of the term, and almost none have been tested...