Cutting Edge

Photo scientists at Stanford University's Computer Graphics Laboratory have conceived of what is probably the world's first open-source camera. Their contraption, dubbed the Frankencamera, consists of a Nokia N95 mobile phone camera module; a circuit board; a couple of lenses from Canon; and Linux for all the open-source goodness.

The current prototype of the Frankencamera is constructed from off-the-shelf parts, in some cases borrowed from dead cameras. Its creators say it's ugly--thus the name.

Now, you may be wondering what the big deal is about having an open-source operating system on cameras. Well, it means programmers can … Read more

BERLIN--In the midst of America's raging debate on the future of health insurance, one man says he has a solution to out-of-control health care costs: more robots.

Of course, this is coming from Colin Angle, a roboticist and CEO of iRobot, the company that makes both robotic vacuum cleaners and bomb-defusing gadgets currently in use by the U.S. military. At IFA here on Friday, he said that robotic telepresence devices, which would act like nurses in a person's home, could reduce the $2.2 trillion, or 17 percent of the U.S. GDP, currently spent on health … Read more

Work began this week on restoring what will be the world's oldest working stored-program electronic computer.

Volunteers at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park--about 50 miles northwest of London--will rebuild the Witch machine--a computer first used in 1951 for atomic research.

Witch, or the Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computing from Harwell, was based on telephone exchange relays and 900 Dekatron gas-filled tubes, which could each hold a single digit in memory. Paper tape was used to both input data for and store the output of the machine.

The device is not the oldest electronic calculating device but … Read more

BERLIN--Shelled out several thousands for a Philips Cinema 21:9 television? You'll be pleased to hear it's obsolete.

Philips has bumped the firmware and added a micro polarizing lens to the screen, to create a prototype 3D TV.

The TV gets its tri-dimensional input from a prototype 3D Blu-ray player. Philips said Thursday at IFA 2009 that it's "actively participating in the 3D specification work of the Blu-ray Disc Association."

But hold it right there. Amid the 3D arms race--which has all the major manufacturers at IFA insisting that 3D is the next big thing--Philips … Read more

FORT HOOD, Texas--Soldiers and civilian contractors braved the heat here this week for the first Robotics Rodeo to view and interact with a long lineup of robot systems and to give feedback on which ones could potentially find a place in the U.S. Army's robo stable.

Despite the hundreds of military robots that show up in concept or as prototypes on company Web sites and corporate reports, humans still do the fighting on the ground and it's likely to stay that way for a while. However, there's a growing niche for "the dirty, the dull, … Read more

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, training for a flight to the International Space Station next month, said Wednesday he plans to orchestrate a five-continent extravaganza as part of his "poetic social mission" to raise awareness of water as a critical cultural and environmental issue.

"As soon as I arrive on board of the International Space Station, I will actively prepare my segment of a planetary artistic event that will happen on October 9, two days before I land back on Earth," Laliberté said during a Webcast from Moscow.

"On October 9, for … Read more

James May, co-host of U.K. car show "Top Gear," has a new gig for entertaining engineers and toy lovers alike.

The show, "James May's Toy Stories," engages the public in extreme building with favorite childhood toys and films the communal construction in progress.

While the show won't air until spring on BBC Two, photos and videos of the projects are already showing up online.

May's show includes the construction of the first house made almost entirely out of Legos. It's located on the Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey, England.

The … Read more

Best known for its Roomba vacuums, iRobot also counts the U.S. Army as a top customer. And the latest Army deal is the company's single biggest.

iRobot said Tuesday it has received an order from the U.S. Army for $35.3 million for robots equipped to help soldiers safely evaluate dangerous conditions.

The order, made by the U.S. Army TACOM Contracting Center in Warren, Mich., calls for 486 iRobot PackBot 510 with FasTac Kit robots by March 31, 2010. This single order is part of an overall larger contract worth $286 million, of which $125 million … Read more

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Shuttle commander Frederick "C.J." Sturckow, forced by a leaky steering jet to use Discovery's big maneuvering thrusters instead of preferred fine-control vernier engines, deftly guided the spaceplane to a flawless docking with the International Space Station Sunday night to cap a two-day rendezvous.

Approaching from directly in front of the laboratory complex as both spacecraft sailed 220 miles above the central Atlantic Ocean at 5 miles per second, the shuttle's payload bay docking port engaged its counterpart on the front end of the station's Harmony module at 7:54 p.m. … Read more