In actuality, the idea of autonomous cars has been around since 1939 with the first robotic car introduced in 1980. It hasn’t been until recently that the technology has really caught up to make autonomous cars a reality. Google is the first developer, however, whose car has received a state driver’s license.

The car was tested on the highways and neighborhoods of Carson City and Las Vegas and is controlled by computers processing a combination of mapping data, radar, laser sensors and video feeds. The system regulates the brakes, acceleration and steering, though it is still a work in process as evidenced by a 5-car crash a year ago caused by a Google autonomous car.

Though the car can drive itself, humans can take control by turning the steering wheel or stepping on the gas pedal.

The Nevada DMV has reviewed Google’s safety plans, employee training, system functions and accident-reporting mechanisms for these cars and found it suitable enough to issue a license for these cars. The autonomous car will be distinguished from other cars with a red license plate and infinity symbol. In the future, should these autonomous cars become mass-produced, the infinity sign will appear on a green background.

Google is not the only company developing these cars. BMW has been testing driverless cars since 2005, Audi sent a driverless Audi TTS to the top of Pike’s Peak, GM is planning on releasing semi-autonomous cars by 2015 and fully-autonomous ones by 2020 and Mercedes has announced their autonomous S-class car that will drive itself at speeds of up to 25mph.

Autonomous cars will not only prevent crashes, it can also potentially reduce oil consumption, alleviate parking scarcity, reduce need for road signage, and even reduce or eliminate car insurance. There’s a lot of issues that need to be worked out, but this is definitely the wave of the future.

Roughly fifteen years ago, MIT  began developing a wirelessly controlled device that would release medication at preset times via a microchip that is implanted just under the skin’s surface. This breakthrough technology has long been sought after, and the lucky company that received the licensing for this project is microCHIPS (very creative).

The microchip is only a few centimeters long and is broken up into 20 compartments each holding around 600 nano-liters of drug solution. Each compartment has a thin, titanium or platinum coating that is burned away with an electrical current when the dose needs to be released. The exact amount and timing of the dosage is controlled by the patient’s physician and can be reprogrammed wirelessly through a computer or even a cell phone.

Eight women who take osteoporosis injections tested the device this past February and results showed the implant worked just as effectively as the traditional needle injections patients self-administered and was far more accurate in the dosing than those administered by the patients. The implant operation itself only lasted less than 30 minutes with no pain, while treatments for osteoporosis tend to be very painful and inconvenient. In fact, only around 25 percent of patients go through the entire 24 month standard treatment.

Although the current model only allows for 20 doses, the researchers at microCHIPS are working on a device that will hold an entire year’s worth of medication, though it probably won’t be ready for another four years.

This technology is definitely sought after, however it is still in its infancy. Out of the eight implants, one of the devices did not work at all, which could be crucial for patients that need a regular dose of medication like diabetics. Other issues include overdosing a patient. Some malfunction could burn all of the titanium backings releasing an entire month’s full of medication. There is definitely much more testing necessary until the device is fully utilized and marketable, however the company plans on filing for regulatory approval for its first microchip device in 2014.

The two-seater plane wraps up its wings into a seven-foot tall, seven and a half foot wide, nineteen-foot long car.

The prototype’s first flight took off in Plattsburgh in 2009 (pun intended here, folks), and since then Terrafugia has attained an exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for a “roadable aircraft.”

It is a legal, functional, land-air vehicle that will be one of the highlights of this week’s New York International Auto Show.

Why wait for the endless airport lines and the arduous connecting flights – from NY to Atlanta to Philadelphia before getting on to Miami – when a Transition can hit the road, get to the airport, take off in the air and arrive at another landing strip before shedding its wings and driving to the final destination.

Forget the cabs, the airport shuttles, and the incessant juggling of carry-on luggage (unless of course you decide to charge yourself for extra bags).

The details as to how far one can fly with this are not yet available, but anyone who is a licensed pilot can certainly use this to travel in style.

If the lightning gets too hazardous, landing at a local airport and driving the rest of the way is also very feasible.  Production is ongoing and for a $10,000 deposit, you can reserve a Transition which the company expects to sell for $279,000 (Ouch!).

Check out the license plate, this bad boy’s street legal!

Imagine the board room meeting droning on for hours on end, and the very second a couple of the corporate clowns bend their heads down to joke with one another at a whisper (so that they can placate themselves and not lose their sanity in such a dry environment) the director points a radar gun-like device at them and – BAM – silences them instantly.

The device created by Kazutaka Kurihara, from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba, and Koji Tsukada, at Ochanomizu University is not science fiction. On the other hand, it is simple, easy to engineer, and fully functional. It can stop people from talking in mid-sentence.

Psychologists have known for some years that it is almost impossible to speak when your words are replayed to you with a delay of a fraction of a second. There must be some inner sentience within the brain that is self-conscious and cannot abide hearing itself played back in near tandem.

The effect is not physically harmful in any way (or so they say), and as soon as the SpeechJammer is turned off everyone is free to banter on again.

In a report posted at the Cornell University Library web site, Kurihara and Tsukada state that “[they] utilize this phenomenon and [have] implemented two prototype versions [of the guns] by combining a direction-sensitive microphone and a direction-sensitive speaker, enabling the speech of a specific person to be disturbed. We discuss practical application scenarios of the system, such as facilitating and controlling discussions.”

It will be interesting to learn just whose discussions are controlled in the future.

Ninja Blocks is one of those products that I fell in love with the moment I read the pitch, sure, I can’t think of a practical use for one right this second, but with APIs for social services becoming more and more popular and, in turn, becoming more integrated with our lives, it’s easy to imagine that one day I might hook up a Ninja Block as a monitor for my kids or something.

The idea is that you can take one of these blocks and upload ‘rules’ to it using various add-on features and channels – this is of course all done in their own cloud service. Its a lot like IFTTT and if you are a user of that then their idea will be a familiar one. You define the rule to say IF a certain criteria is met, THEN perform an action. In this case, using the various sensors available, you might take a picture of your driveway every hour and upload it to your dropbox – why? – I don’t know, I couldn’t think of a better example.

At launch, the channels supported will be;

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google Docs
• Dropbox
• SMS + Phone
• XBox Live

No doubt, as the project is open source, once some developers get their hands on devices and source code, APIs will be added all over the place. I’d certainly like to get the Spotify API playing with this toy, maybe playing a certain song anytime someone mentions me on twitter or something.

The blocks also have a built-in accelerometer and thermometer . With additional external sensors, Ninja Blocks can sense current, humidity, motion, distance, sound, light and even capture video.

The project has surpassed their goal on Kickstarter so they will certainly go into production, but there is still time to head over to the project, sponsor them, and maybe bag some T-Shirts, Stickers or if even a Block itself for $155.

So, what would you do with one?

HzO’s WaterBlock technology protects all kinds of valuable electronics from humidity, rain, and even total water submersion. Unlike bulky waterproof cases, this invisible coating protects delicate circuitry at a molecular level, from the inside out – no need to worry about plugging up charging ports or headphone jacks.

The waterproof coating is created by placing any device or material into a vacuum chamber and replacing the typical atmospheric gases with an organic gas that builds up a solid thin film through a secret magical proprietary process.

In addition to consumer applications, HzO is also working with the makers of industrial equipment, theme park rides, underwater surveillance equipment, emergency communications equipment, and other critical systems that cannot afford to go down because they happen to get a little wet.

The lifetime of the coating does depend on the environment but, HzO says their product is stable and will generally outlast most devices.

Although coated gadgets have continued to run for hours underwater, WaterBlock was specifically designed to protect against accidental immersion. This means pouring rain, falling into a pool, or dropping into a fish tank – good. Putting your iPhone through the washing machine – bad.

Unfortunately, as of today there is no obvious way for consumers to send HzO a device for coating, even though the website FAQ states “We also can perform coatings applications on-site at our own production facility for lower volume requirements.”

Until that day glorious day comes, you’ll have to just settle for a medium-tech, DRY-ALL emergency kit or the very low-tech, bowl of rice and prayer.

The self described geniuses at Chaotic Moon have taken a motorized longboard and put it on geek steroids with a Xbox Kinect, Samsung Windows 8 tablet, phidget interface module, and all terrain tires – because they can.

The aptly named “Board of Awesomeness” utilizes video and speech recognition along with location and accelerometer data to allow riders complete control of the board without the aid of any other controllers (and while only looking mildly crazy).

Input captured by the Kinect is fed into the on-board Windows 8 tablet which controls the motors three speed settings and ultimately, the off switch. Simply push your hands forward to speed up and pull them back to slow down.

Although there might be easier ways to control a beastly all terrain longboard at 32mph… who am I, as a creator of no board of any kind, to criticize the makers of the “Board of Awesomeness?”

[via SlashGear]

Warning: this looks extraordinarily dangerous and possibly deadly.

Now if that label does not get consumers to flock to the newest invention from Zapata Racing, nothing will. For 4900 Euros, or $6500 US dollars, a FlyBoard can be attained and, with it, a water-based jetpack flying experience.

The sport of wakeboarding has often dazzled spectators with displays of human beings soaring in Superman-like poses above the water for mere seconds before gravity takes them down

The FlyBoard extends the flying ability a bit longer by harnessing the power of a hundred plus horsepower jet ski (or PWC) motor. The human is strapped onto the board and a suit that links them to the FlyBoard system. The unit taps into the water that flows fiercely through the PWC and diverts it into tubes that are attached to the wakeboard-like device on the rider’s feet. Video after the jump…

Depending on whether or not the free flyer dishes out an additional 900 Euro determines if the possibly suicidal pilot can control the acceleration from the board, or (if they neglected the option) are dependent on the PWC driver to speed up the flight.

The rider can launch upwards of thirty feet due to the platform’s hose and hydrojet thrusting water downward as though the jet ski accessory was a rocket being launched.

The moves of the FlyBoard veteran are impressive. The rider graces along the water’s surface horizontally and hoists themselves straight up into the air vertically, like the James Bond jetpack of legend.

This looks perilously fun.

This retro beach cruiser style bike sports a super efficient polished 125cc four-stroke motor capable of of taking riders a cool 150 miles, in style, with one tank of gas. This 176lb work of art also features fuel injection, a four speed transmission, belt drive, and LED lights.

Although beautiful, the general simplicity of the design and four-stroke engine means the Y125 will be cheap to both run and maintain. That practicality accompanied by the undeniable style makes it easy to see a future where mass adoption of this green two wheeler could be a real possibility.

Unfortunately, this is all still a conceptual dream but, I can’t imagine anything but positive feedback driving something Y125-like into a not too distant Christmasey future.

[via motorcycle.com]

The Teaguedino is a development board loaded with the Teensy++ USB Development board plugged right into their custom breadboard which supplies you with 5 inputs and 5 outputs. They also supply you with an array of knobs, buttons, servos, speakers and lights that will literally just snap onto the board. Along with this, The Teaguedino team give you a copy of their open source software which makes the whole learning part easier. It offers up what looks to be a nice GUI with fairly simple to use Drag and Drop features. The idea is to get as many people as possible, spanning all ages, into development for embedded electronics and as all the components just snap into place (No soldering required) this can guarantee adoption.

The great thing is that once you have experimented with the board and grasped the basics – there is nothing stopping you from taking off the Teensy++ board, grabbing a soldering gun and getting down to some hardcore programming.

I can’t wait to see how the community behind The Teaguedino grows and if its anything like the Arduino community, it will be full of life for time to come. We need to get these into school classrooms as soon as possible and get kids programming ASAP and I think that within the educational system is a place where these great open source projects can grow.

Teaguedino has only recently raised funds on Kickstarter so the kits are not readily available yet, but keep an eye on their website for details on development. In the meantime, here is a video to whet your appetite on the possibilities.