Remember the gender recognition system we saw at the Singapore-based CommunicAsia trade show last month? Well, those zany Japanese have a more creative way of implementing a somewhat similar face recognition software.

Putting a new spin on the phrase "service with a smile," employees of Keihin Electric Express Railway will need to check their smiles in every morning. The software will determine the quality of their smile, and display visual alerts if they don't look happy enough.

According to an article in the Mainichi Daily News, the software assigns smile values to various parts of the face. … Read more

Stormy weather approaching the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday forced NASA launch managers to order another 24-hour delay for the hard-luck crew of the shuttle Endeavour, their fourth slip since a hydrogen leak derailed an initial launch try in June.

There were no leaks or technical problems of any significance during Sunday's countdown and Endeavour's external tank was loaded with a half-million gallons of rocket fuel without incident.

Commander Mark Polansky and his crew mates began strapping in a few minutes before 4 p.m. EDT, hopeful about finally kicking off a 16-day space station assembly mission.

But … Read more

NASA managers cleared the shuttle Endeavour for launch Sunday after a 24-hour delay to make sure launch pad lightning strikes Friday caused no damage to critical systems. With a clean bill of health and forecasters predicting generally good weather, engineers loaded the shuttle's external tank with rocket fuel to set the stage for liftoff.

Wearing bright orange pressure suits, commander Mark Polansky, pilot Douglas Hurley, Canadian flight engineer Julie Payette, David Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Thomas Marshburn, and space station flight engineer Timothy Kopra began strapping in for launch a few minutes before 4 p.m. EDT.

Liftoff is targeted … Read more

Already a month behind schedule, launch of the shuttle Endeavour on a 16-day space station assembly mission was delayed at least 24 hours, from Saturday to Sunday, to give engineers time to evaluate the effects of multiple lightning strikes at the launch pad during a severe thunderstorm Friday.

Eleven lightning strikes were recorded within 1,800 feet of the launch pad 39A, and while the shuttle is protected from lightning-induced electrical surges, NASA managers decided more time was needed to make sure no critical systems were affected.

"We've seen nothing so far that indicates anything was actually affected … Read more

The shuttle Endeavour's countdown is ticking smoothly toward launch Saturday evening on a delayed space station assembly mission to attach an experiment platform to a Japanese lab module, to replace aging solar array batteries, and to deliver spare parts and supplies.

There are no technical problems of any significance at launch complex 39A, but forecasters are predicting a 60 percent chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms and electrical activity that could trigger another delay. Launch is targeted for 7:39:35 p.m. EDT Saturday.

"Overall, our primary concern on launch day is for thunderstorms and showers to … Read more

Both the American public and researchers have a high regard for scientific advancement. But they disagree over the standing of science in the U.S.

A full 84 percent of the public believes science's effect on society has been mostly positive, reveals a survey released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. And 70 percent feel scientists contribute a lot to society's well-being.

However, only 17 percent of the public think that U.S. scientific achievements rank as best in the world. That contrasts with 49 percent of scientists surveyed who feel U.S. science is still at the … Read more

Venture capitalists are the latest group showing more confidence in an economic recovery that will revive business, according to a quarterly survey released Thursday.

For the second quarter, the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index showed an uptick, hitting 3.37 on a 5-point scale, up from the previous quarter's mark of 3.03. This is the second consecutive rise since the index dropped to a five-year low in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Based on an ongoing survey of San Francisco Bay Area venture capitalists, the index measures their confidence level in the market for initial public offerings … Read more

Can robots be more humane than humans in fighting wars? Robotics engineer Ronald Arkin of the Georgia Institute of Technology believes this is a not-too-distant possibility. He has just finished a three-year contract with the U.S. Army designing software to create ethical robots.

As robots are increasingly being used by the U.S. military, Arkin has devoted his lifework to configuring robots with a built-in "guilt system" that eventually could make them better at avoiding civilian casualties than human soldiers. These military robots would be embedded with internationally prescribed laws of war and rules of engagement, such … Read more

And you thought it was a problem when folks went into the locker room toting cell phones with cameras.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a fabric made of a mesh of light-sensitive fibers that collectively act like a rudimentary camera. The fibers, which each can detect two frequencies of light, produced signals that when amplified and processed by a computer reproduced an image of a smiley face near the mesh.

"This is the first time that anybody has demonstrated that a single plane of fibers, or 'fabric,' can collect images just like a camera but … Read more