BluScreen, an interactive advertising technology that identifies passers-by using their Bluetooth-enabled cellphones, is being tested at the school of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University in the UK. At the school, the system will chose from different announcements about school events and scheduling. Once out in the real world,...

NEW YORK—The continual advancement of technology will be critical in determining whether humanity will evolve into a true global civilization or destroy itself in the next century, a panel of experts said this week. In the next 100 years, humanity could leap forward into a true global civilization—complete with a...

The Vecna BEAR robot (Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot) is being developed as an adjunct to other rescue technologies for extracting combat casualties. The BEAR bot has three main elements; hydraulic upper body, mobile platform and dynamic balancing behavior. The robot should be able to fully stand up by straightening...

A new type of robot balances on a ball rather than relying on legs or wheels. The Ballbot, as it is called, can move in tight spots, making it potentially more useful than other designs for some uses. Carnegie Mellon University robotics Professor and inventor Ralph Hollis first started fiddling...

Cyberviolence, a form of vigilante justice in which a large group of Internet users post attacks against an individual, are increasing in South Korea. In Seoul, a 30-year-old accountant named Kim Myong Jae became theNo. 1 hate figure of South Korea's huge Internet community.People who belied that he had killed...

The Pong Dress is the creation of artists Max Moswitzer and Magarete Jahrmann of the Ludic Society. The classic video game Pong is implemented on a 5x7 LED screen worked into the front of the dress. Two pixels on the right and left borders form the paddles; a single pixel...

Scientists have yoked bacteria to power rotary motors, the first microscopic mechanical devices to successfully incorporate living microbes together with inorganic parts. In far future plans, we would like to make micro-robots driven by biological motors, researcher Yuichi Hiratsuka, a nanobiotechnologist now at the University of Tokyo, told LiveScience. Hiratsuka,...

Multiple Gear Speed Reduction Unit (Image credit: Courtesy Sandia National Laboratories, SUMMiTTM Technologies, www.mems.sandia.gov)Microelectromechanical systems or MEMS are micro versions of electrical gears, motors, switches, etc. that are used to significantly reduce the size of many of today's and future devices from all kinds of industries. Common uses include defense/munitions...

First, for the uninitiated, an explanation of the lighter salute: You're at a concert. The music slows, the first guitar wails of a power ballad begin, and hundreds of disposable lighters illuminate the audience like so many sequins on a vest. Three or four (or 10, if it's a particularly...

Using a retina plucked from the eye of guinea pigs as a model, scientists estimate that our eyes transmit visual information to our brains at about the same rate as an Ethernet connection. The finding is detailed in the July issue of the journal Current Biology. The guinea pig retina...

Blinding rain. Careening traffic. Distracted drivers. There are lots of reasons why car crashes are America's leading cause of accidental death. And one way that most accidents could be prevented: with cars that predict a coming collision—and take action to stop it. The key to the crash-free future is vehicle-to-vehicle...

According to the Israeli news site Haaretz.com, soldiers in the field may carry an emergency blood supply based on their own blood. Israeli Defense Force Medical Corp Lieutenant Colonel Amir Blumenfield says that a Nes Tziona-based company is working on the product. The idea is to take a soldier's blood,...

Designers around the world are busy designing the next generation of cell phones that will still drop calls—but look exceptionally cool doing it. Cell phone giant Nokia recently collaborated industrial design students from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London to come up with the cell phone...

After decades of upgrades to a fleet of notoriously cramped Sikorsky VH-3 Sea Kings, the White House has tasked Lockheed Martin with a dramatic, $6.1-billion makeover of Marine One, the presidential helicopter, starting this summer. The goal: to fit a mobile Oval Office into the tight quarters of a chopper....

UPDATED MAY 12, 2006 AT 2:42 PM ET Correction: This article in its original form was inaccurate. The study involved two types of air purifiers, those commonly called ionic and those that employ a process called ozonolysis. Only those using ozonolysis were found to contribute to ozone levels that can...