X
December 9, 2014 Rhett Jones

Anyone who’s ever been on the Cyclone in Coney Island can tell you that if you want to feel the pit in your stomach on a dangerous and poorly constructed carnival ride, there’s just nothing better than a rickety wooden roller coaster. Students at MIT took that sensibility all the way recently, constructing their own wooden […]

Read More…

August 4, 2014 Marina Galperina

Using an algorithmic technique, researchers at MIT can now reconstruct audio that makes objects vibrate just by “reading” the video of those objects vibrating. The data — like this a houseplant’s “minute” movements generated by someone playing “Mary Has a Little Lamb” at it — can be gathered and translated into audio signals, which then can be played back. […]

Read More…

March 6, 2014 Andy Cush

In an effort to better understand animated images’ ability to “convey emotion, empathy, and context in a subtle way,” a pair of MIT researchers created GIFGIF. The site presents you with two randomly selected animated GIFs, and asks which better conveys a specific emotion, like fear, shame, excitement, or amusement. The goal is to use the […]

Read More…

October 10, 2013 Kyle Chayka

According to BBC, the U.S. Special Operations Command is currently seeking to develop an Iron Man style body suit to give soldiers “superhuman strength” for an advantage while in combat. The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (Talos) would have a metallic frame, similar to the one in Iron Man, the film. These suits would be composed of additional layers […]

Read More…