Military tech

If the apparel oft proclaims the man, as Polonius said in "Hamlet," then the camo suit proclaims the robot.

Boston Dynamics is showing off new duds for its Petman humanoid robot platform, and it looks rather badass.

Peman is a walking, squatting, flexing hazmat suit testing machine. It's designed to stand up to chemical warfare agents.

With nothing on, it looks like The Terminator. But when it's wearing this camouflage chemical suit and gas mask, you could mistake it for a real soldier. … Read more

In the future, the U.S. Army could rely on low-cost ambidextrous autonomous robots, instead of bomb disposal technicians or remote control robots, to defuse improvised explosive devices. Better yet, activating and operating the smart robots may only require a nearby solider to say, "Go find and defuse the bomb."

As a precursor to that end goal, DARPA's Autonomous Robotic Manipulation program released a video that shows a robot changing a tire by itself. The robot, complete with a camera and an array of sensors, successfully uses two hands (one equipped with a drill) to remove a tire and put a new one in its place. A small screen shows the robot's virtual view of the tire, which reveals how software algorithms detect each the scene and its minute details in real time.… Read more

"We're gonna need a bigger jellyfish." I imagine that's what the Navy and researchers at Virginia Tech were thinking when they started development on Cyro, a robot jellyfish that is 5 foot 7 inches across and weighs a hefty 170 pounds.

The Navy has been into robot jellyfish before, but none have been on this scale for sheer size. This big boy is a much larger version of an earlier robot called the Robojelly, which was only about as large as a hand.… Read more

Looks like someone in the New York City area needs to keep their robot plane on a shorter leash.

Federal authorities are investigating today after the pilot of an Alitalia flight spotted what appeared to be a small, unmanned drone hovering close by as the passenger flight made its approach in to New York's JFK airport on Monday afternoon. The drone reportedly came within 200 feet of the jet.

Don't get all panicky over the prospect of a possible al Qaeda sleeper cell in Queens though. The eyewitness said the drone was black in color, no more than 3 feet wide, and had four propellers -- a description much more similar to a Parrot drone than a Predator.… Read more

The last time we checked in on Boston Dynamics, its "robot bison" was busy demonstrating what it could do out in the field. And we were impressed.

Today we get to see a different kind of robot animal in action. I'll give you a hint on the type: fetch!

Awww... who's a good boy? The robot on display in the video is BigDog, a DARPA-funded all-terrain cyber-canine meant for military use. It can tackle slopes up to 35 degrees, rubble, snow, mud, and water, and can carry a 340-pound load. Boston Dynamics writes of the monster dog's latest trick: … Read more

It's no secret that the standard hand-eye coordination tests doctors use to monitor neuromuscular deficits -- typically when a patient is injured or as a patient ages -- can be subjective, relying on, say, descriptions of reflexes and cognitive status such as "mild," "moderate," and "severe."

So researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, the Beth Israel Medical Center, and Hebrew SeniorLife have been developing what they call a rapid neuroassessment device, nicknamed NeuroAssess, to measure neuromuscular performance quantitatively instead of qualitatively.

They've recently tested it on 150 … Read more

You might want to watch the video below before you check in, update your status, or snap and share that photo of you at lunch with your smartphone.

The Guardian got hold of this 2010 video demonstration from Raytheon, a big-time contractor that also develops things like missile systems for the Department of Defense, which shows an online tracking tool called Rapid Information Overlay Technology, or RIOT.

As Raytheon's Brian Urch explains in the video, the system takes in data about an individual from social networks including Facebook, FourSquare and GoWalla (remember, it's late 2010 in the video), … Read more

There's no disturbing lack of faith among Kickstarter supporters.

After all, a crowdfunded project to construct the Death Star that was launched less than a week ago already has nearly 1,500 backers and an astonishing $364,772 in pledges.

Well, the Rebels aren't taking that threat sitting down. A rival Kickstarter campaign to build X-wing fighters has just taken off. Its goal is to build one of the famous spaceships from "Star Wars" and then more. … Read more

In the midst of this year's particularly bad flu season, we're reminded just how many nasty little particles roam the air we breathe -- from bacteria and viruses to allergens and diesel exhaust particulates.

But a new device that recently protected immunocompromised mice from these particulates has the potential to be both effective and safe for human use as well, according to researchers behind a new study published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

"Small particles are difficult to remove, and our device overcomes that barrier," says Pratim Biswas, who chairs the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at Washington University. In fact, the device not only traps the particles, it even inactivates them -- and that includes bioterror agents, Biswas says.… Read more