43 posts
Created by artist Martin Backes, this installation of a lone “robot” singing 90s power ballads is almost hypnotizing in a quietly terrifying way. Fittingly created with SuperCollider, a freeware audio program that synthesizes audio using al
At Duke University a researcher who’s pioneering brain-computer interfaces has circuited four rats’ together via their brains and created a gooey and organic “Brainet”. Miguel Nicolelis, the neurobiologist pioneering this neuroengineering a
A long time ago on the WeirdThings podcast, because we’re always ahead of the curve when it comes to hypotheticals about how new tech might be used in ridiculous scenarios, we pondered how someone might use smart-car tech to commit manslaug
Since the very idea of giant robots the thought of giant robots beating the paneling off of one another has also existed. Japanese movies, Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Voltron, Robot Jox, Shogun Warriors, Pacific Rim, Real Steel and a massive li
In 2013 Boston Dynamics introduced its ATLAS robot to the public. It was a little creepy because the thing walked around sort of like a child learning to walk around… Like this… The only thing making us all feel relatively safe from the nar
Robots. We just can’t stop building them even though countless movies tell us where it’s all headed. Not only can we not stop trying to emulate ourselves mechanically, a small portion of the robotics community can’t stop trying to emulate c
Like an elaborate version of the famous Pepper’s Ghost effect where a projection appears to interact with a real world person, this incredible floating haptic interface will absolutely blow your mind… Because unlike Pepper’s Ghost? You’re a
As Google continues to document every crevice of our world with a camera so armchair world travelers can sit at home in their underwear and globe-trot, they’re realizing that a car with a first-gen Imperial Probe Droid mounted on its roof c
Meet Otonoroid (the more stately female android on the right) and Kodomoroid (the awkward android on the left). Unveiled in Japan as part of a future museum exhibit asking, “What is human?”, these two androids are accessing news stories in
Disney is continually developing things that will make us hand over a substantial amount of cash to play in their parks. Recently the Disney Research Hub’s YouTube Channel dropped a video showing something called PixelBots. As entertainment
In what’s probably the cheesiest way to show this incredible feat off, HeliGraphix, a company that specializes in aerial photography using RC helicopters, has posted a video of something that we’ve all probably kinda thought, “…if only…”. U
Google has a new program where they’re asking hikers who’re willing to strap a on 40lb Google Street View backpack version of the device that’s usually strapped to the roof of a car. They’re asking that, should you be heading off to explore
Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is one of the many joys associated with getting older. New generations of AMD sufferers won’t have to worry about that in the rapidly approaching future. DARPA has funded the development of contact len
Musicians are usually willing to jam with anyone that has some ability at playing an instrument. As we begin walking hand-in-hand with our quickly-becoming-commonplace robotic friends, it only seems natural that musicians and robots would s
There’s really not much to talk about here with a bunch of words. They’ll just get in the way of you pressing play and smiling like a little kid as your brain sort of automatically speculates on the possibilities of this in peoples’ homes.
Recently a group of Japanese scientists at the IEEE Virtual Reality Conference in Orlando, Florida have unveiled the latest incarnation of… (sad, loungy drumroll please) Smell-O-Vision! That’s right. Scientists have been working hard at mak
Quadcopters are the new must-have toys of the tech-headed kids. They’re showing up everywhere and there are thousands of them out ‘in the wild’. For those frightened that these things will eventually be controlled by SkyNet, this latest adv
For a LOT of the more nerdy kids out there, we’re placing bets that many of you pretended you had the ability to throw fireballs, move objects by waving your hands and occasionally even tried in vain to channel the Force. That was all fun,
We’re always making references to the ‘Robot Apocalypse’ or about all of us being enslaved by ‘our future overlords’ when it comes to our slowly evolving erector set-like counterparts. While 30 and 40-somethings stand around and make jokes,
Not sure about you…but pretty sure that having the ability to create our own bad-ass appendages like He-Man’s Trap-Jaw would take precedence over things like eating…sleeping…everything…well almost everything. Ivan Owen created a mechanical
In our article about the other new toddler robot called Roboy we mentioned Diego-san. Here’s your first look into the robotic wagon-train that’s leaving Uncanny Valley slowly but surely. When John Connor shows up and SkyNet goes live it won
Harry Potter had one. Frodo Baggins had one. Even Max from Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place had one. In fact, just about every single geek on the planet at some point in their life has probably hypothesized about how cool it would
When the Hall of Presidents attraction opened in Disneyland decades ago, the animatronics featured in it floored guests with their life-like movements. Disney became known for its animatronics in other attractions like Pirates of the Caribb
Star Wars uses tractor beams as frequently as newly graduated college kids use U-Haul trailers. Imagine if, just like in the movies, you could hook up those U-Hauls with a tractor beam instead of trying to get one of those ball-and-cup trai
Remember that weird and completely creepy mule-like, self-stablizing robot that’s been swimming around the internet for a while now called the BigDog from Boston Dynamics? Well BigDog just got out-weirded and out-creeped by DARPA’s newest s
Because there’s not enough tension already in North and South Korea, a company has now developed what’s being hailed as a ‘super gun’ to help keep an eyeball on the demilitarized zone between the Hatfield/McCoy-style rivalry amongst the two
Because some people just can’t get the job done while locked in a room by themselves with some fun magazines or just some mental photography, some genius in China has developed something to help those people out… The lonely Chinese scientis
Tech-heavy eyewear has always been something that seems like too good-to-be-true science fiction. Various accessories promising amazing visuals for your peepers have included everything from those vintage ads in comic books for X-Ray Specs
Something straight out of a science fiction story is becoming a reality in Yokohama, Japan right now: regenerative organs. There have been tons of attempts, theories and even a small handful of groundbreaking work concerning regenerating ne
“Hello world. I am tony nicklinson, I have locked-in syndrome and this is my first ever tweet.” With the exception of a mention of something called ‘locked-in syndrome’ this isn’t a ground-breaking or particularly interesting tweet, right?
GOOGLE PROJECT GLASS LOOKS AS PROMISING AS MICROSOFT’S VISION OF THE TABLET PC IN 2001… Google has only released one video and little else on their project for bringing augmented reality to the masses, so it’s hard to cast aspersions on wha
This iBook commercial from the very early Return of Jobs era for Apple demonstrates something very rare for Mac products. Not the telekinetic ability to move physical objects with a mouse or empty your garbage with a click of your OS9 drop
In the post World War II era the future seemed like a wonderful place full of atomic-powered wonders. A Future World unspoiled by pollution, radiation or flower children. Lets examine the promises and realities of that vision of the Past’s
Q: What qualifications do I need to fly? A: You must be a good swimmer, and should not feel uncomfortable having your face in the water from time to time. You should not have a fear of heights. You should be in good health and physical cond
You know, if we have a machine that can destroy legendary trivia heads at Jeopardy it’s high time we had a piece of software that could spot some creep trying to pull out their 4 Wood on sites like Chatroulette. But how? A new research pape
Please introduce yourself to Skynet Suzette, the latest winner of the Loebner Prize. The Loebner Prize is a version of the Turing Test where a judge talks to both a computer and a human at the same time for a set interval and then chooses w
Amongst all the hubbub today about Roxxxy the new amorous robot designed to satisfy your carnal desires, comes this little tidbit buried in an article by The Money Times… Hines inspiration for Roxxxy came from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. “I
Want to know how our robot overlords are going to implant our circuitry? Silk. From Popular Science: …in the quest to make our bodies ever more bionic, researchers have now developed implantable silicon-silk electronics that almost dissolve
Penn Bullock Reports: Did Nikola Tesla prophesy the Internet in 1904? In the pages of Electrical World and Engineer, he envisions a global media system – based on the Telegraph:
Preparing for the inevitable Terminator: Salvation robot apocalypse a five part series We here at Weird Things aren’t just committed to telling you about all the weird things going on in your world, we’re here to do something about it! As e
A five-part series that tries to explain how to make the science of Star Trek real… In an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation called the “The Chase” a long running problem in Star Trek was finally solved – Why do all the aliens in Star
A five-part series that tries to explain how to make the science of Star Trek real… The transporters in Star Trek are an exciting concept. Recent developments in quantum physics have made the possibility of teleporting matter a theoretical
The depraved Neural Interface Technology researchers at University of Wisconsin Madison have unleashed a device of unspeakable evil. Just to clarify: We think direct brain/computer interfaces are nifty and are important science. But with gr