Crave

No muss, no fuss.

(Credit: Bed Bath & Beyond)

It's always been a dream to have kitchen appliances know what we want for dinner--or if not what we want to eat, at least how to make it. From the popcorn button on our microwaves to toaster ovens with preset functions, kitchen appliances have always strived to be more accommodating to our wants and needs. While we may not yet have fully integrated kitchens, we do at least have a continuing trend of smart appliances geared to automatically make adjustments as needed.

The Bosch Tassimo Titanium Single-Serve Beverage Brewer takes a familiar technology and uses it to facilitate effortless coffee making. Using bar-code technology, the machine reads information off of special T-Disc (Tassimo Disc) beverage containers, and adjusts brewing time and temperature accordingly. More than 40 beverage varieties are available in the special T-Disc packages, including ones for cappuccino, tea, latte, and hot chocolate.

With virtually no cleanup or setup, brewing is made as easy as can be. Each cup is predetermined in volume, so this really is a machine built around ease of use; those that prefer control should look elsewhere. Meanwhile, the effortless aspect of this beverage brewer is certainly a plus, and bound to be an appealing aspect to those that want simplicity of use. Until that time when the integrated kitchen can learn how to read minds, appliances that just know how to do their job will have to do.

(Credit: Nissan)

Nissan has developed a mini robotic car that can move autonomously in groups while avoiding crashing into obstacles (including other cars).

The Eporo, Nissan says, is the first robot car designed to move in a group by sharing its position and other information. The aim is to incorporate the technology into passenger cars to reduce accidents and traffic jams.

Although a group of Eporos may look like a gang of cybernetic Jawa, Nissan says the cars' design was inspired by the way fish move in schools.

An evolution of the bumblebee-inspired BR23C robot car unveiled last year, the Eporo uses Nissan's collision avoidance technology to travel in groups. Check out BR23C trying to get away from a Japanese lady in this video.

Eporo can dodge obstacles just like fish.

(Credit: Nissan)

The automaker studied how large schools of fish can move without colliding. It says Eporo imitates three rules of fish movement: avoiding crashes, traveling side by side, and keeping close to other members of the school.

The robots use laser range finders and ultra-wideband radio to determine distance to obstacles. They also communicate with each other to form the most efficient group formation to maneuver through tight spots.

Eporo stands for "Episode O (Zero) Robot." That zinger of a mouthful means zero episodes, as in zero accidents and zero emissions.

Nissan intends to show off Eporo at the Ceatec trade show next week in Tokyo.

(Credit: VeryPC)

Look up above this article. A little higher, above the screen. Chances are that if you're on a laptop or even one of many desktops made in the last five years you'll see a Webcam built in. And that Webcam might end up saving you--and the environment--a little bit of power.

British inventor and self-described "ecogeek" Peter Hopton and his company VeryPC have come up with a piece of software, called PecoBOO, that uses open-source face detection to detect when you're looking at you screen and, more importantly, when you're not.

When you look away for more than a few seconds, get up, or generally ignore your screen, it'll turn off. Then, when you face it again, it turns on. This reduces backlight power consumption and thus overall energy consumption of your device. That saves energy for your battery and your wallet.

The general idea isn't new; other devices have similar technology, like the iPhone. Its optic sensor disables the touch screen and backlight when you put the phone up to your ear. This is just a natural progression of the same idea, though the end effect is different.

I'll cop to being one of the people who disables the power-saving features of my laptop most of the time. Sometimes, as a writer, I have to sit and think for a few moments about how a paragraph should be put together. For some reason if my screen goes blank I find it very distracting, but if I had this built into my MacBook Pro, I wouldn't really have to worry about it.

Unfortunately, PecoBOO is currently available for Windows Vista and XP platforms only.

(Via New Scientist)

Brian Tong, host of CNET TV's The Apple Byte, finally makes the trip out to New York for the sole purpose of helping us host the show. Alright, we wish--in reality Brian is out here for a much nobler cause. Today's show is filled with everything you'd expect from Apple fanboys and video game nerds!

(Credit: Brian Tong)

It's always an insane show whenever Brian Tong of CNET TV's The Apple Byte rolls through the studio, and today is absolutely no different. Although we'd like to think that Brian is here just because he loves us so much, it turns out that his trip is for a much greater cause: The big Moon personally invited him out to speak on a panel in front of CBS interns about what it's like being a minority in the media, something that Wilson and I definitely could have spoken about, but clearly CBS wanted a positive influence on the kids. Unfortunately, Brian finally drops some bad news when he tells us that these 13-year-olds are already vying for all of our jobs.

In today's episode, Brian gives us a rundown of his sojourn to E3 and all the recent video game news coming out of the pipe, including Project Natal, Xbox 360 rumors, next-gen console forecasting, and everyone's favorite Nintendo Wii vitality sensor! I wish I could remember what else they were talking about, but I blacked out (on purpose) just as they started talking about E3. Much thanks to B-Teezy for getting up early to do the show!

I was fortunate enough to be in the audience when Steve Jobs wowed the world with his demonstration of the iPhone a couple of years ago. As he was showing off multitouch technology, I remember turning to my friend and saying something along the lines of, "Gesture control like this is going to change everything." I remember it being a touchstone moment.

Monday's announcement of gesture control for the Xbox 360 marks another advance for the technology, but there are some ideas that could come to market quickly as well.

The below video shows Canesta's new 3D gesture control system, which it's hoping to sell soon with help from Hitachi and GestureTek. The idea is to build the sensors into media devices such as game consoles or Apple TV-like gear to give your remote control a rest.

It's a pretty cool idea, and according to the accompanying press release, it should be a low-cost product. We're not sure when--if ever--this will make its way into living rooms, but the know-how is there. If this Cinesta video and Microsoft's E3 announcements prove anything it's that the technology is ready, too.

So..much...neon.

(Credit: Thingiverse)

We've seen keyboards integrated into pants before (in this edition of DO NOT CRAVE), but we're willing to give it another chance because Brooklynite Zach Hoeken actually made these himself.

Zach spawned the keyboard pants idea at Sunday's Fashion Hacking Day sponsored by NYC Resistor, a collective that brings hackers together to share knowledge and collaborate on creative projects. Instead of throwing away a flexible silicone keyboard he had lying around the house, he decided to cut it in half and sew it onto a pair of shants.

Hoeken lists the required tools and outlines a basic six-step process to making your own keyboard pants on his blog, but we still can't understand why someone would want to walk around in this things (I don't even think nerdy girls will want to get anywhere close to that spacebar).

Nevertheless, we applaud Zach's DIY mentality and encourage him to get to work on the Nike high tops from "Back to the Future 2" as soon as possible.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you might have heard that "Battlestar Galactica" is airing its final episode Friday night. Along with the "Stargate" TV series, the show brought the Sci Fi channel (soon to be simply SyFy) back from the brink of playing back old "Twilight Zone" re-runs and in-house B-movies, and into the go-to place to see the latest special effects and watch an epic story that unfolded over four seasons.

As an homage to all the joy it's brought us over the years, we've put together a slideshow of some of the technology featured within its episodes. This list is not exhaustive. Some things we left out, like the faster-than-light drive, and artificial gravity because, hey, you can find that in most any other science fiction story set in outer space. We have, however included quite a few things that may spoil the show if you stopped watching it after the third season, so click ahead with caution.

The series finale airs on the Sci Fi channel at 9 p.m. Friday night.

Images: The technology of 'Battlestar Galactica'

Each robot in MIT's garden is outfitted with a robotic arm and a watering pump, while the tomato plants themselves are equipped with local soil sensing, networking, and computation.

(Credit: Jason Dorfman, CSAIL/MIT)

I'm allergic to tomatoes. Also black olives and mushrooms. That means I'm about the worst guy in the world to order a pizza with. But tomatoes are in about everything. Tacos, spaghetti--you name it, it's got tomatoes.

MIT's Luke Johnson and Sam Dyar program an autonomous robotic arm. Why do these guys want to kill me?

(Credit: Jason Dorfman, CSAIL/MIT)

That is why I can't fully get behind these robotic, automated tomato-farming machines being developed by MIT. Clearly, they're Terminators sent from the future to try to kill me. Or Sarah Connor, though I'm not sure what she's allergic to.

I mean where else would something so high-tech come from? The robots are just part of a system that monitors each individual tomato plant in an urban garden at the school, thereby watering it and dispensing food exactly when it needs it. This creates superior and more economically friendly crops, again clearly designed to kill me more efficiently.

The machines are networked and communicate in real time. The project was put together by Nikolaus Correll, a postdoctoral assistant working in MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, with the aim of getting a similar system to someday work on a large, economically viable scale.

The researchers, in fact, envision a fully autonomous greenhouse, complete with robots, pots, and plants connected via computation, sensing, and communication.

Of course, in the near future, all farming in America might be done by semi-intelligent robots controlled by Skynet. Just think of what might happen if we let these things achieve self-awareness. I'm scared now. And hungry.

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Nadya Vessey's prosthetic tail is mostly constructed from wetsuit fabric and plastic molds, and covered in a digitally printed sock.

(Credit: stuff.co.nz)

Good: double amputee gets prosthetic legs so she can walk. Better: double amputee gets realistic-looking mermaid tail so she can swim. Awesome: it's developed and built by Weta, the special-effects company that did work for the "Lord of the Rings" movies, as well as "King Kong" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" series.

Nadya Vessey's legs were amputated below the knee when she was a child due to illness. At one point, reports Stuff, a child asked her what happened to her legs and she told him she was a mermaid. The idea stuck with her, so she wrote to Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand, two years ago asking for a mermaid tail. To her surprise, they said they'd do it.

Now she has a fully functional mermaid tail with an attached suit, making her look practically just like a real mermaid (if, you know, mermaids were real).

She can swim well and says the prosthesis feels quite comfortable. We're not sure if anything like this could go into mass production for amputees, but we wouldn't be surprised if 10 years from now there are mermaids swimming about in your local pool.