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September 27, 2013 Andy Cush

The Verge’s entire video profile of the maker space i3 Detroit is worth watching, but if you’re in the mood for some spectacle, fast forward to about 6 minutes. That’s when i3 president Matt Oehrlein shows off his mind-controlled flamethrower, which, yes, throws flames and requires only brain waves as input. Watch it in action above. […]

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August 27, 2013 Andy Cush

Void, a mechanical sculpture by artist Wit Pimkanchanapong, looks like a giant, floating spider. Thanks to a system of eight winches, it can fly around, moving freely through the air above a little parking lot. It’s pretty stunning on its own, but wait until it gets dark, and Void’s light comes on, then this happens: GIF magic! The […]

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August 12, 2013 Andy Cush

Thanks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this week, you’ll be able to take an afternoon break to the deepest recesses of the Atlantic Ocean. From now until Friday, the NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer and an accompanying unmanned submarine are traversing the Northeast U.S. Canyons, and live streaming the entire thing. To tune in, use the player below. The […]

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August 8, 2013 Andy Cush

Q: What’s scarier than an animation designed to employ the uncanny valley to terrifying effect? A robotic face designed to interpret the electrical signals given off by slime mold as human emotion. And also it’s wearing a little top hat and scarf, for some reason? Watch the video, replete with a soundtrack of dissonant electronic […]

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July 30, 2013 Andy Cush

DFA, in this case, stands for “Distributed Flight Array,” but it’s hard not to think “Death From Above.” The acronym refers to a fleet of partly 3D-printed drones that, among other things, have ground mobility, and can detect each other’s presence, then form into a larger, modular unit. Once together, the individual robots’ propellers work […]

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July 25, 2013 Andy Cush

RHex, a small, six-legged robot, is designed to navigate tough terrain, with springy limbs, relatively high speed, and the ability to move even after its been flipped upside-down. According to Boston Dynamics, creators of one of several RHex types, the bot “climbs in rock fields, mud, sand, vegetation, railroad tracks, telephone poles and up slopes […]

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July 17, 2013 Marina Galperina

Pacific Rim (2013) BBBOOOOOOOOOOOMMM. Glurgh glurgh GLURGH GLURGH GLURGH GROOOOARGH!!!! Big monster, ugly. Much city fall down. CRASH. KABLOW, KAKAKABLOW. More, bigger monsters destroy questionable futuristic metropolises. Giant robots and shit, with people inside. Dramatic score. DRAMTIC-ER SCORE!!! BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. Yey. SCIENCE: 1.5 out of 5 An inter-dimensional asshole rips open at the bottom […]

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July 16, 2013 Andy Cush

Add “gymnast” to the list of jobs humans will definitely lose to robots within the next few decades. Look at this thing! 10.0! 11.0! All I need is a little McKayla Maroney face at the end. Seen on Hacker News; made by Japanese roboticist Hinamitetu. If you have the time, take a look at the rest […]

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June 10, 2013 Andy Cush

We’ve seen robotic roaches and tweet-controlled critters before, but nothing quite like this. RoboRoach, currently funding on Kickstarter, is a $99 kit that would allow users to turn a cockroach–yes, an actual, living cockroach–into their own personal cyborg. See the thing in action above. Getting the bug under your command is just as gruesome as you might imagine. […]

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June 4, 2013 Andy Cush

In the video above, Antonio Melillo, who has been paralyzed from the waist down for two years, can be seen walking. He moves slowly, holding two handrails for support, and he has several people spotting him, making sure he doesn’t stumble along the way–but still, there he is, walking. Melillo is being assisted by a Mindwalker, […]

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