Set on a rock formation overlooking a spectacular lake, the Cliff House integrates building elements with the beautiful natural assets of the site and terrain. Located at Muskoka Lakes, Ontario, the cottage offers private areas with calming views of the surrounding nature. Designed by Altius Architecture Inc, it is completely off-grid and it has various… »

Comparable to some other animals on our planet, bats use other methods instead sight in order to navigate or hunt. They are able to “see” in the dark by sending out sound waves that bounce back to the bats’ ears from objects such as fruit on trees and flying insect prey. The echolocation or biosonar… »

Dr. Masaaki Kumagai, director of the Robot Development Engineering Laboratory at Tohoku Gakuin University, in Tagajo City, Japan, and his student Takaya Ochiai have built a robot named BallIP (Ball Inverted Pendulum) that is able to balance on a ball. Such a ball-balancing design is like an inverted pendulum, and thus naturally unstable, but it… »

We already wrote about a 3D camera from Fujifilm named the Real 3D W1, however, the folks from Sharp have added a new ingredient to the mix and claim they have achieved  an industry first in the process. The company has announced the development of a 3D camera unit compact enough to be used in… »

This article might be interesting for all of our readers concerned about their security around aiding robots.  German researchers performed a series of stabbing, puncturing, and cutting experiments in order to understand the biomechanics of soft-tissue injury as well as to test a robot internal collision-detection system that could prevent or at least minimize injury…. »

Inspired by moths, the research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, Freiburg, developed a new nanocoating that ensures a perfectly non-reflecting view on displays and through eyeglasses. The necessary surface structure is applied to the polymeric parts during manufacture, obviating the need for a separate process step. The hybrid coating also… »

Environmental Center, part of the Harmony Union School District which will serve grades K-8, became the first public elementary school building in California that reached LEED Platinum certificate. The building design was done by Persinger Architects and Symbios Design – part of the global “green” design and architecture movement. The goal for the building is… »

By installing a pair of optical sensors on the back of a mobile phone or mp3 player, the researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that the entire device could have many of the same benefits as that of a computer mouse when the device was placed against a surface, a piece of clothing or the… »