Technology, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 30, 2009

New Device Gets a Better Grip on Gaming

It's hard enough to navigate an unexplored realm in an online role-playing game, but when your only means of control is the constant back and forth from keyboard to joystick, it can be hard to get into character. Now, an approach originally designed to help people with carpal tunnel syndrome...

Nov 30, 2009

New Device Makes Guns More Accurate

A new technology may make it easier for gun owners to improve their marksmanship. Opti-sight, a new pistol-aiming device, was developed to reduce the time law enforcement, professional and amateur shooters need for target practice to get better results at the firing range. Typically, shooters use an optical device known...

Nov 30, 2009

Americans Delay Cell Phone Upgrades

More Americans are delaying the purchase of a new cell phone because of the current economic slump, a new survey of recycled phones suggests. ReCellular, one of the world's largest cell phone recyclers, collected about 5 million cell phones from consumers in the United States and Canada in 2009. That...

Oct 31, 2009

Do-It-Yourself Home Theater Control

Cords and controllers can make the best home theater system more frustrating than entertaining. A beautiful flat panel should stand on its own and display content from many sources: a Blu-ray player, DVD player, cable box, and an Xbox or PS3 gaming console. All of these peripherals must be connected...

Oct 31, 2009

The Future of TVs: What to Expect in 2010

With TV sets, the past is easy to remember — boxed tubes with black and white images. But now that we're deep into the age of flat panels, the choices are many. And with the TV buying season in full swing, it's worth looking ahead before you buy now, so...

Sep 30, 2009

Computers Faster Only for 75 More Years

WASHINGTON (ISNS) -- With the speed of computers so regularly seeing dramatic increases in their processing speed, it seems that it shouldn't be too long before the machines become infinitely fast -- except they can't. A pair of physicists has shown that computers have a speed limit as unbreakable as...

Sep 30, 2009

New Robot Delivers Snacks

Rrobotics researchers at Carnegie Mellon University get hungry at work just like you do. Unlike you, however, they can create robot minions to bring them food. Their latest creation is Snackbot, an autonomous mobile robot whose mission is to bring tasty treats. Snackbot is a mobile robot, about the size...

Sep 30, 2009

Sea Creature's Amazing Eyes Could Inspire New DVD Players

Humans see three colors that, combined, allow us to enjoy the visible light spectrum. The mantis shrimp sees 12 colors, ranging into the near-ultraviolet to infrared parts of the spectrum. The creature can also distinguish different forms of polarized light. Scientists now say this sea shrimp's remarkable eye could inspire...

Aug 31, 2009

Can Robots Make Ethical Decisions?

Robots and computers are often designed to act autonomously, that is, without human intervention. Is it possible for an autonomous machine to make moral judgments that are in line with human judgment? This question has given rise to the issue of machine ethics and morality. As a practical matter, can...

Aug 31, 2009

Scientists Move Cells with Joystick

WASHINGTON -- Biomedical research could someday look a lot like playing video games thanks to a new device that allows users to manipulate cells with the swerve of a joystick. A team of physicists and engineers at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio developed the device from a tiny piece...

Aug 31, 2009

The Challenge of Making Real 'Surrogate' Skin

The new movie Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis, depicts a world in which people live through surries, highly realistic humanoid robots. But without realistic skin, robots will never have that humanlike personal touch, and will not have the degree of social acceptance that robots would need to have to share the...

Jul 31, 2009

Obama: Key to Future Is Innovation

In another nod to the value of basic science and technology research, President Obama in his weekly radio address today said long–term investments in innovation are needed to ensure the country's long-term economic growth. The recession is easing, Obama said. But recovery will be slow, and he called for a...

Jul 31, 2009

Good Vibrations Generate Electricity

A new device that can harvest useful energy from extremely tiny vibrations may allow new ways to power remote electronic devices with batteries that need replacing less often, or are actually self-charging. The vibration-to-electricity device could capture up to 10 times more energy than is possible with the conventional device....

Jun 30, 2009

The Strange Ingredients in Fireworks

Fireworks for the 4th of July are all about light, color and sound. But inside, there are some bizarre ingredients, from aluminum to Vaseline and even the stuff of rat poison. An ancient mix of black powder, essentially gunpowder little changed from its invention in China a millennia ago, gets...

Jun 30, 2009

Light's Repulsive Force Discovered

A newly discovered repulsive aspect to light could one day control telecommunications devices with greater speed and less power, researchers said today. The discovery was made by splitting infrared light into two beams that each travel on a different length of silicon nanowire, called a waveguide. The two light beams...