If you live in a large city, even a smaller town, you may have noticed it. As populations surge, ideas to improve life in those urban environments emerge almost as quickly. The future certainly looks interesting, but when advancing technologies present a new set of struggles for city leaders, growth can fast become growing pains. “There’s a huge movement…

People have been building unique creations using LEGO bricks since Ole Kirk Christiansen (The Lego Group) began manufacturing the toy bricks back in 1949. Over the years, LEGO bricks have evolved into multiple revisions over basic blocks, including Duplo and Technic, which is the more popular among makers. One such maker took his Technic set…

Imagine having an Echo (Amazon’s voice-activated home automation device) controlling every device in your home. That’s the idea behind Seeed’s latest endeavor, the ReSpeaker. The ReSpeaker adds voice recognition/interaction to everything from speakers and home appliances to IoT devices. What’s more, the device was designed using open-source hardware and can even be uploaded with your…

What if you had a device that let you repair a broken laptop or even upgrade it just by swapping out a card? What if that card IS your computer, completely modular and able to be upgraded quickly and swapped between devices? Those questions have been answered and that device now has a face, a…

Rendering physical systems in computer simulations can be a daunting task even for the best of programmers, and more so if more than one model parameter is required. If you’re familiar with MATLAB or Eigen, then you know what it takes to develop some of these simulations and the number of lines of complex code…

Flash tats and metallic jewelry tattoos are all the rage among the fashionistas. Why? Well, they can be used to aesthetically augment traditional metal jewelry or make you stand out from normal tattooed people. And you know what? Turns out they can also be used as on-skin electronic connected interfaces for any number of devices…

While known primarily for creating products that digitize analog gestures via a pressure-sensitive stylus, Wacom’s focus as of late has been on extending this experience back over to native analog tools –– yes, the original plain old paper and pen. Utilizing electromagnetic resonance (EMR) technology to bridge the gap between the physical and digital, the…

It’s no secret that assembling the dozens –– or hundreds –– of parts that make up a consumer electronic product assembly is both costly and time-intensive. But what if said electronics could –– gosh darn it –– just assemble themselves? What better things have they got going on? Such is the premise behind the latest project…

For some, it seems to come almost too easily before even having started grade school. For others, it can take a lifetime (if it ever happens) to master. Regardless, throwing a perfect football spiral is necessary for accuracy, and for the first time ever, beginner and expert players will now be able to measure those…

Unless you’re a true toast and marmalade connoisseur, chances are you pay little mind to your toaster aside from a somewhat considered industrial design that may or may not match the rest of your kitchen appliances. Either way, your toaster is toast. Enter Balmuda the Toaster. Priced at a hefty 24,000 yen ($230 – or…

Pirate radio, HAM radio and streaming/music player projects involving the Raspberry Pi can be found ALL over the interwebs, in the hobby shops and between the couch cushions, but while most are opensource, none give us the tinglies like Audiophonics’ Rasptouch Audio Player. The Bordeaux-based company designed their platform for audiophiles with Hi-Fi in mind,…

LiquidPiston has invented a new rotary type engine that is piston-less, valve-less, and weighs only four pounds. They published a proof of concept video for the XMv3 engine, shown powering a small go-kart, that builds evidence that the High Efficiency Hybrid Cycle (HEHC) engine could be the compact, energy-efficient engine of the future.

If you haven’t heard of Minecraft, some may consider you lucky. Others may be shocked. It’s a block-based, build-it-yourself video game that has become popular over the years with gamers of all ages, especially younger ones. It allows people to create virtually anything in their blocky worlds, encouraging users to pump their creative juices. One…

By day, Wataru Kami is a concept artist at a production company in Tokyo, Japan. By night, he is a seasoned hardware tinkerer with one hand on the keyboard and the other holding a soldering iron. More recently, the Japanese designer put his two passions together to create what is surely one of the most…

It’s small–a little bigger than a box of matches–has a 120 degree wide-angle, 2-megapixel lens and can be placed anywhere you need another set of eyes. That’s the short list of features that describes Armstart’s WiCAM, which is currently in the pre-order phase after recently completing a successful Kickstarter campaign back in April of this…

There are people who dream about becoming a famous athlete. Then there are others who want to be an astronaut. Well, even if you’ll never make the cut to launch into space, you can at least be part of future space exploration tech. If you’re an maker, inventor or artist, NASA wants your help.

Tell me if this is an offer you could pass up. (I can’t.) An Intel Atom x5-E8000 or Celeron N3160 quad-core CPU, up to 8GB DDR3L dual-channel RAM, 8GB of eMMC storage, and enough power to “drive up to three 4K screens at the same time” with a starting price of $89.

Sometimes you just need to unplug, pack up some snacks, grab the gear, and make for the hills. But just because you want a weekend free of social media and the internet doesn’t mean you can’t be a little tech savvy while sleeping under the stars.

Typically, a bullet would completely shread a piece of foam, but now the tables have turned. Various types of foam have been developed and used as fire retardants, crack sealants and insulate all mater of objects. However, a team of researchers from NC State has created a metal foam; one they say is capable of…

What do we want? Handheld computers! When do we want them? By October 2016 or thereabouts! That’s Wade Wang’s mantra. He is the mastermind behind the GPD WIN – a 5.5-inch handheld PC the Shenzhen-based team is pushing as a game console. However, we’re convinced it could be the first Ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) that could…

Back on April 1st, a video hit YouTube that featured a drone outfitted with a chainsaw that flew/cut through everything from snowmen to treetops. Of course, it had some scratching their heads, wondering if it was staged or completely fake. While the idea of a flying chainsaw seems disturbing to some, it turns out the…

As anybody who has worked freelance knows, getting actual client work done is only half the battle; the other half is spent doing boring but necessary office administration tasks including account management, expenses and of course, time tracking. Thankfully, a number of Cloud-based solutions have helped streamline these tasks to put more actual work time…

Despite the growing number of options for connected note taking and options for sharing analog documents in the Cloud, most team interactions still rely heavily on the mother of all note taking surfaces: the whiteboard. Although modern smartphone apps are capable of digitizing a meeting’s whiteboard notes in a single snap and uploading them to…

While companies are cashing in on kiddos rolling around atop exploding, self-balancing and frustratingly mis-named two-wheeled ‘hoverboards’, people with more passion, knowledge and design prowess are attempting what has always seemed the impossible. People like Frank Zapata, CEO of Zapata Racing. The company recently published a video showing Zapata flying on what looks like a…

The future of virtual reality promises immersive experiences that will completely redefine how we create and consume content. While we may not totally be there yet, some non-gaming VR “utilities” have been springing up that give further insight into what kind of experiences a VR headset will offer those who might consider using one for…

After reading a 2009 article that declared ‘the speed of human cognition dictates that 18mph is a comfortable speed at which to travel through and perceive the world’, Rhys Newman – a former VP of Advanced Design at Nokia and bicycle racer – decided to further explore the human relationship between bicycles and the many connected…

According to industrial designer Oscar Diaz, despite the performance and display capabilities of today’s tablets, many are underused when sitting idle on the desktop. Frankly, we couldn’t agree more. The London-based designer, who set up his own practice shortly after graduating from the Royal College of Art in London in 2006, set out to create…

According to researchers at Princeton University and the University of California at Los Angeles, students who take handwritten notes generally outperform those who type via a computer. Not surprisingly, those who write their notes by hand are able to comprehend new material better while retaining that information for longer. But in a world where we…

There’s one thing I’ve been looking forward to since SolidWorks World. And now that I have that shower out of the way, I’d like to reveal what Lenovo shoveled me off from the event to the dark corner of a hotel restaurant to show me secretly whilst enjoyed an assemblage of assorted meats and cheeses.…

As a research group focused on making user experiences more seamless, natural and integrated into our physical lives, MIT’s Fluid Interfaces research collective exists at the forefront of what’s next in interaction design. Founded by tech pioneer Pattie Maes, the goal of the group is to design and develop interfaces that are a more natural…

In 1995, I got my hands on some crazy future tech, an IBM ThinkPad Pen Computer. The first wave of  pen tablets had arrived. As it goes however, when a college student needs money for a new drum kit, they sell cool things to pilots who pay a lot for that kind of stuff. I did…

Jamming-out with two pencils and a table, rocking with a tennis racket, or slapping a rooster’s wattle was once looked down upon… and may still be. Thankfully (or not), that’s no longer the case.

Even with all the private sector space rocketry going on, NASA is still cuttin’ the edge and stayin’ relevant. They have experts in their field aiming to reach new heights on a daily basis–been doing so for decades–but now they’re looking for a little help. The agency has teamed up with Freelancer.com to hold a…

Ever since its release early this fall, the Sonos PLAY:5 has been getting rave reviews – saying the petite speaker packs a punch and delivers great no matter if you’re using the iPhone or a tablet. Such great reviews may be enough to convince you to put it on your post-Christmas list, but going behind…

The point of technology? Make our lives easier. It’s almost 2016, and I still have to press buttons? Puh-lease. How about a microbot made to push your buttons, literally? That’s the new invention from South Korean startup Naran.

Imagine being able to interact with virtual objects that are tangible in any given 3D space. For instance, designing a building using hovering 3D geometry that can be manipulated and positioned into a myriad of configurations. Got that?

There’s a face people make when they’re overwhelmed with excess awesome. It’s somewhere between a wide-eyed pucker and explosive, jowl-shaking laughter. I saw some people making that face today when they tried out the new ThinkPad P40 Yoga, Lenovo’s newest machine that doubles as a tablet and a fully-loaded workstation. Lay it back, flip it…

Over the last several years, drones have graduated from being primarily used by the military as a spy or hunter/killer platform to being employed by everyone from corporations to civil authorities. What are they up to? They do everything from delivering packages to crime fighting. Now, a group of engineers from UNL’s Nimbus Lab is…

With VR viewing innovations like the Oculus Rift, and Microsoft’s HoloLens or Sony’s Playstation VR headset looming, everyone wants a bag of that virtual reality cash. Now camera maker Lytro is taking advantage of the VR technology buzz with their new camera. The company recently announced their latest imaging technology called Lytro Immerge, and according…

Have you ever been frustrated with the limitations of Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone and other mini computers? For me, it comes down to IO. I needed 100 IO pins on the Pi, and I had to get shift register ICs – annoying. Anyway, you’ve made simple hardware, but you’re ready to create something truly scalable, like…

Technology keeps advancing, but not always in the way we predicted in the 90s. Volumetrics hopes to change that with the rollout of its open-source volumetric display design, which is not only the highest quality available, but also the most affordable to produce. But wait. What is a volumetric display?

Ever since the release of Back to the Future, people have been clamoring for their own hoverboard. McFly made them look cool as he glided through the future streets. However, it’s 2015 and hoverboards are still not commercially available, neither are self-drying jackets for that matter. But one Canadian inventor is one step closer to…

I am currently certain that we are approaching the apex of our societal laziness. I would be surprised if future generations will even bother to walk or eat for themselves (they will probably create a button which will call a robot to do these things for them).

The tech world is swarming with stories about the latest drone innovations. Before you know it, someone else has built a drone that can draw, follow you, or build a bridge. It can be overwhelming, especially if you want to join in on the drone-driving party. Now, one group of Greek engineers have a challenge…

Super enhanced vision is something we dream about when we’re kids, only to discover the closest humans can get are corrective lenses or laser surgery. Apparently, that’s not good enough for the Interactive Architecture Lab. The London-based studio, out of The Bartlett School of Architecture, is interested in the behavior and interaction of things and…

When it comes to pretty much anything new and exciting, MIT and all of their various labs are almost always fairly dependable. More recently, the team at the school’s Tangible Media Group updated their interactive pin table – a table that’s capable of reproducing a virtual version of any object placed under its sensors in…

Balancing a metal structure on top of a dandelion without the dandelion breaking sounds like the beginning of some sort of bar trick sorcery – yet this is entirely possible without the need for any sleight of hand or other forms of trickery. After years of researching and developing a way to make some of…

There are literally hundreds of different smartphones on the market. We buy them, hoard them sometimes, and enjoy their apps while blocking out everything and everyone around us. Ah, technology.

The fight has begun. Or maybe, it ended before it even began. The Apple Pencil isn’t available until November and already it’s giving all the other styluses a run for their money. Apple Pencil or Wacom’s Cintiq stylus? FiftyThree’s Pencil or a stick wrapped in aluminum foil? In a recent article, designer Linda Dong tries…

When running from a bear whilst out on a hike, there’s but one concern–getting clear, shake-free footage. There are various gimbals and stabalizer systems for the GoPro, but a new motorized option is making all the other options look weak. SLICK is a motorized GoPro stabilizer that allows you to record video hands-free, to let you focus on the activity, ahem, fleeing that…