Future tech

Artificial pancreas tells your tablet when you need insulin

As recently as the 1950s, one in three people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes died within 25 years of diagnosis. People in the '50s had to monitor their glucose levels via urine testing and inject themselves with animal-derived insulin.

How far we've come. Today, researchers are working to develop an artificial pancreas for people with Type 1 diabetes that works with a smartphone or tablet to both monitors blood glucose levels and disperses insulin 24/7.

The goal, they say, is to reduce complications and improve the life expectancy of the millions of people with the metabolic disease -- because even though only 7 percent of them now die within 25 years of diagnosis, this rate is still far above general population mortality.… Read more

Spill a lot? NeverWet's ready to coat your gear

Imagine spilling red wine or chocolate syrup on your shirt, only to watch it glide off as if nothing ever happened in the first place. Hogwash? No, it's called NeverWet.

Awhile back, I wrote about NeverWet, a superhydrophobic coating that can be applied to nearly any surface and repels liquids startlingly well. To bring NeverWet to the masses, developer Ross Nanotechnology licensed the product to Rust-Oleum, which recently started selling the spray for $19.97 at Home Depot.… Read more

The 404 1287: Where we just need a green bed (podcast)

Polygon's Russ Frushtick joins me in the studio today to talk about the lighter side of our recent trip to Los Angeles. Best of all, he'll help answer the most-asked question of last week: "What was the best food you had at E3?"

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Enter CNET's "From Old School to Tech Cool" contest.

- What do you think of the new "Anchorman 2" trailer?

- Follow Russ on Twitter.

- Listen to Russ' podcast, The Besties.

- Watch Human Angle on Polygon.… Read more

The 404 1286: Where we're tired of zombies (podcast)

On today's show we're welcoming Dan Chiappini from GameSpot Australia along with 404 veteran Scott Stein. We'll briefly recap Scott's time down at WWDC but then get right into some more E3 talk where we make Scott feel jealous about missing what was probably the biggest E3 in something like seven years. Dan think he knows why Nintendo refuses to open its "vault" of games and we all wonder how the company can rebound from a bleak E3 showing.

We're also chatting about the mundane abundance of shooters at E3, the lack of innovation, and which games actually piqued our interest.

And be sure to enter CNET's awesome "From Old School to Tech Cool" contest that's currently underway on our Facebook page!

- Follow our new buddy Dan Chiappini on Twitter.

- Make sure to do the same for 404 veteran Scott Stein.

- Catch up on Scott's and the rest of CNET's WWDC coverage.

- Give CNET's E3 2013 page one last skim.… Read more

Project Zero tiltrotor shows off battery-powered flight

LE BOURGET, France -- Sure, there are electric vehicles on the road now. But aviation company AgustaWestland thinks they may have a place in the air, too.

At the Paris Air Show here, the Finmeccanica subsidiary showed off an exotic tiltrotor aircraft called Project Zero that's powered by lithium batteries. It flies, but project manager Jianye Zhang wouldn't say how far or how fast.

The single-passenger aircraft looks like a flying wing, but it's got two propellers built into the surface of the wing. For takeoff, the propellers push air downward to thrust the aircraft up like … Read more

Flying bicycle with built-in tent cruises at 4,000 feet up

First, flying food became a trend. Now, the hot new flying creations are flying bicycles. The latest entry in the wheeled-air-machine category comes from British company XploreAir. It's a bicycle, flying machine, and camping tent all built into one device.

The Paravelo can be taken apart and used as just a bike, or it can docked to its trailer with a flexible wing and biofuel-powered fan. Up in the air, it can go at speeds up to 25 mph for up to 3 hours and reach heights up to 4,000 feet up.… Read more

The 404 1285: Where E3 is no place for fanboys (podcast)

I don't get it. I'm gone an entire week and there's not one show. I get back, Justin's gone, but I still have to do one. What's up with that? Luckily it's a non-issue. Today we've got CNET HDTV editor Ty Pendlebury on the program to help me wrap up the chaos that was E3 2013 and filter out some of the new-found disgust I have for videogame fanboys. You know, the worst kind of fanboy.

- Check out Jeff's slideshow showing the most exciting games of E3.

- Play catch-up by looking back at the rest of CNET's E3 2013 coverage.

- Follow Ty on Twitter.

- ESPN drops 3D, four years after the rest of world has already given up on it. … Read more

Meet Google's 'Project Loon': Balloon-powered Net access

Google has officially announced "Project Loon," its plan to connect the entire world to the Internet that uses a decidedly 19th century technology: Balloons.

According to a post on the official company blog:

We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It's very early days, but we've built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today's 3G networks or faster.… Read more

Google Glass search shown off in new video

This week Google's Project Glass team released a video demonstrating just how good the augmented reality specs are at what Google does best, search.

Much of the hype around Glass has centered on its ability to capture a true first-person perspective (we've already seen the first marriage proposal through Glass), but the 20 sample searches in the embedded vid below showcase the power of what's essentially Google Now at its best, integrated into the new hardware.

We've heard plenty of rhetoric from Sergey Brin and others at Google about using Glass as a means of getting the device out of the way; providing a more seamless experience that allows a user to search without having to translate a query into a series of swipes and taps. The video shows off some of the most realistic uses for a Glass search, such as accessing flight information while driving, checking last night's sports scores, and even the requisite pictures of cats in pajamas.… Read more

Mind-controlled cursor may be easier than previously thought

When scientists at the University of Washington recently drilled into the skulls of seven people with severe epilepsy and placed thin sheets of electrodes directly onto their brains, they were surprised by the brain activity they observed.

While physicians were studying neuro activity to investigate seizure signals, a separate team of bioengineers was simultaneously on the lookout for exactly how the brains of the seven volunteers behaved as they learned to move a cursor using their thoughts alone. It turns out that, in as few as 10 minutes, activity went from being centered on the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with learning new skills, to areas seen during more automatic functions, such as waving one's hand or kicking a ball.

In other words, in just a matter of minutes these brains behaved as if they had already mastered these Jedi mind tricks.… Read more