(Toronto Star 2/3/2003)
An humorous look at Microsoft's home of the future.
From the article: The house of the future has no bathroom. And I really have to go.
(Toronto Star 6/10/2004)
A review of one of the first cellphones capable of recording video.
(Technology Review 1/6/2010)
Researchers have developed an automated system for creating still and video images that can be identified by humans but not by computers. Such technology could be useful for Captcha systems, which were designed to keep "spambots"--or automated junk e-mail programs--from signing up for free online accounts.
(Technology Review 10/27/2009)
Apple's Magic Mouse might be slick, but Microsoft is also working on five new designs.
(Technology Review 9/30/2009)
A new non-contact, 3-D fingerprinting system could make spotting the bad guys faster and easier, whether it's at the border or the police precinct. By projecting patterns of light onto a finger and analyzing the image, researchers from the University of Kentucky are able to create a more accurate print than those made with ink or sensor plates. The researchers say the system is more efficient than traditional fingerprinting and significantly reduces the number of incorrect matches.
(Scientific American 10/1/2009)
A study in the journal American Surgeon finds that trauma victims who were inebriated at the time of their injury have higher survival rates than their sober counterparts.
(Technology Review 10/7/2009)
Scientists around the world are working on different ways to get drugs into specific cells without negatively impacting the rest of the body. Now researchers in England and Germany have created gold-studded polymer microcapsules that release compounds into cells by rupturing when exposed to ultraviolet light. The capsules could be useful for researchers studying the effects of drugs on cells, and eventually they could serve as a clinical tool for administering medication.
(Toronto Star 7/22/2002)
In this article I investigate the origins of the beer widget, commonly found in cans of stout. The article was part of a regular column that explored the history of invention.
(Toronto Star 8/21/2005)
A straight news story about physics research on spaghetti.
(Toronto Star 10/11/2004)
A feature story about health and safety concerns posed by certain nanoparticles. The article also outlines the Canadian government's lax attitude toward the use of nanoparticles in products.
(Technology Review 10/8/2008)
Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a new approach to handling bugs on computer chips. The system, known as the semantic guardian, only allows a chip to work in ways that have been tested by the manufacturer. All other scenarios are automatically disabled by the guardian, to help ensure that the computer runs smoothly.
(Technology Review 9/29/2008)
Programming instructions for robots can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive task. Many roboticists believe that training robots by demonstrating new skills could speed up the process and enable the machines to perform more difficult tasks. Now researchers have created such a system for robotic helicopters. With their approach, the team can train a robotic helicopter to perform a complicated aerial maneuver in less than 30 minutes simply by analyzing video footage of the trick. The work could one day be applied to a wide variety of robots on land and sea, as well as in the air.
(Toronto Star 1/3/2005)
A feature story investigating why the Canadian government dumps its own electronic waste on poorer nations.
(Toronto Star 8/30/2004)
This feature story looked at the technological and social implications of the EU's decision to eliminate lead in electronics.
(Technology Review 10/20/2006)
This article looks at the technology the latest fashions by clothing designer Hussein Chalayan.
(Toronto Star 8/2/2003)
From the article:
Why don't we all have robots to do the housework?
Cleaning toilets takes more smarts than you think.
(MSNBC 4/27/2000)
From the article:
When we think of the elderly, we don’t generally associate them with robots. But with an aging demographic in both the U.S. and Japan and the rising costs of care, the need for robotic assisted living will continue to grow. Eager to fill this need, roboticists from around the world got together to present their ideas for rehabilitation robots this week at the robotics 17th annual IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in San Francisco.
