Geek culture

Interactive robot aids autistic kids in the classroom

Nao is a humanoid robot created by Aldebaran Robotics. He wears a jaunty orange headpiece, moves his limbs, dances, and interacts with humans. Nao has held jobs ranging from human-machine interaction research subject to synchronized show dancer at events. His new role, however, may be one of the most impactful yet. ASK Nao is a special version designed to work with autistic children.

ASK stands for "Autism Solution for Kids." The robot is programmed with games and applications geared toward helping autistic kids develop social and learning skills. "Most children on the autism spectrum have a natural attraction towards technology and Nao's humanoid shape creates a perfect link between technology and humanity," said Olivier Joubert, autism business unit manager at Aldebaran.… Read more

Maj! Bing adds Klingon language translation

'Ij, eartHlIngh, veng SuvwI' Hol chu' tu'lu'. I'm not sure how accurate that really is, but, according to Bing, it means, "Listen up, earthling, there's a new language in town."

Bing is so excited about the new "Star Trek Into Darkness" movie that it added Klingon to Bing Translator, the translation service that usually handles Earth languages like Bulgarian, Turkish, and Polish.

Bing didn't just throw together some guttural sounds and call it done. Microsoft got together with "Star Trek" studio Paramount, the Klingon Language Institute, and Marc Okrand, the creator of the Klingon language, to do it up right.… Read more

Pucker up! Kissing machine rates your smooches

On a scale of 1 to 8, how are your kisses? You could check in with whomever you're smooching these days -- or you could consult the Kissing Evaluator.

The electronic contraption, built by a team of San Francisco makers, reacts to a couple's canoodles with LED lights and woob woob and bleb bleb noises (a method that's been officially certified by the International Association of Kissing Metrics).

The team built the whimsical device for Red Bull Creation, a national competition that challenges contestants to invent something creative around a piece of hardware -- and then display it in public. Red Bull sent this year's participants a "Turbull Encabulator" circuit board that it designed as a tool for making LED light art, along with RGB LED lights and instructions to "make something awesome." … Read more

The 404 1269: Where rad goes viral (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Follow Spotify's Shanon Cook!

- More on the Deadpool videogame.

- The story goes deeper on The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

- Nvidia's Project Shield comes closer to reality.

This week's Viral Top 10 list from Spotify:

1. "Royals" by Lorde 2. "#Beautiful" by Mariah Carey 3. "Alone" by Falling In Reverse 4. "The One" by Tamar Braxton 5. "Rattle (Sexy Lady)" by Bingo Players 6. "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke 7. "Young And Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey 8. "Spring Break Anthem" by The Lonely Island 9. "Get Lucky - Radio Edit" by Daft Punk 10. "Dear Mama" by 2Pac… Read more

$325,000 stem cell hamburger to be eaten soon

The race for a lab-grown meat alternative has been on for years. Modern Meadow, for example, has gone after a type of 3D-printed meat using bioprinting techniques. Dutch tissue engineer Mark Post is using stem cells to make a lab-grown hamburger, one that may be actually going down someone's gullet very soon.

Post's Cultured Beef Project has been in development at Maastricht University in the Netherlands for some time thanks to $325,000 in funding from an anonymous donor. Cow muscle stem cells are grown into miniscule strips of tissue. Each strip can take several weeks to grow. It takes 20,000 of these to make a single hamburger. It's a time-consuming and expensive product at this stage of the project.… Read more

Play Breakout on Google Image search

With a 1976 release, Atari's Breakout was right at the frontier of video game history -- and, it would seem, Apple's. The task of designing a prototype board with as few chips as possible fell to Steve Jobs, with an extra $100 for every chip less, and Jobs delegated it to his pal Steve Wozniak, who completed the board with just 42 chips in only four days.

Jobs, the sneaky cur, kept the bonus to himself, paying Wozniak a pittance. Atari couldn't even use the board, and ended up going with a different design that had about 100 chips.

Anyway, as interesting as all that is, you want to play Breakout on Google Image search, right? Head on over to Google and do an image search for "Atari Breakout" (or just click the hyperlink). … Read more

Students blast off in egg payload rocket contest

Big rockets like the SpaceX Grasshopper and the Orbital Antares have been in the news lately, but those are a little out of reach for the average student. That's why the Aerospace Industries Association's Team America Rocketry Challenge exists. It fans the maker flames by challenging kids to design, build, and launch model rockets.

The rocket challenge finals took place over the weekend. It was a record year for the competition's turnout, with 725 teams battling through the initial rounds. The top 100 teams participated in the final fly-off in Virginia, representing 29 states with teams from schools, 4-H clubs, and even a team made up of Civil Air Patrol volunteers.

The competition was open to students in grades 7 through 12. All the teams had one goal: build the best model rocket. The challenge was to fly an egg to 750 feet up in the air, and then parachute it back to the ground with no damage. That's even harder than it sounds.… Read more

Beam your face onto a 3D-printed 'Star Trek' figurine

Being a fan of the Original Series, "Star Trek Into Darkness" doesn't really get my dilithium crystals humming. I'd prefer to watch "Spock's Brain," as laughable as it is.

But what I'd much rather do is slap my mug on my own "Star Trek" figurine. 3D print shop Cubify has a new "Star Trek" service that lets you upload your photos and print your own likeness on a 3-inch Enterprise crew member.

It's similar to putting your face on Star Wars Stormtrooper figurines at Walt Disney World in Florida, but smaller and cheaper. … Read more

Archos ChefPad tablet: Now you're cooking with Android

My poor iPad has survived flour, oil, lemon juice, and countless other kitchen mishaps. Maybe it's time I look a little more seriously at a dedicated kitchen computer. My options have just expanded with the arrival of the Archos ChefPad, an Android tablet built to handle the rigors of the cooking life.

The ChefPad is a full-blown 10-inch Android tablet running Jelly Bean with a 1.6GHz processor and 1GB of RAM behind it. There are the usual front and back cameras, in case you want to launch your own online cooking show. What makes it kitchen-specific are the preloaded cooking apps and easy-to-clean case.… Read more

Closed-captioning glasses get big rollout to cinemas

Google Glass isn't the only pair of high-tech specs making a splash on the personal viewing scene. Sony Entertainment Access Glasses are about to give deaf moviegoers a way to watch first-run films with closed captions at the theater.

The glasses project closed captions at the bottom of the viewer's eyesight. The text is sent via a wireless system to a receiver that feeds the data to the glasses. Regal Cinemas also is offering an audio headset option for the blind, providing descriptive audio tracks to match what's happening on screen.… Read more