This cooking simulator, being developed by a research group at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, features a force feedback fry pan and spatula to accurately recreate the sense of cooking. This simulator calculates the heat transfer from the pan to the meat or vegetables that are being cooked, and displays the visible changes caused by heating. The fry pan interface allows for three dimensional input, and as well as moving the fry pan to aid the cooking process, the simulator can feed back the weight of ingredients combined with the tactile feeling of the ingredients cooking. "When you move the frying pan,
Read MoreWorry about cybercriminals getting into personal files and online banking accounts? Imagine if someone could actually extract that information directly from your brain. Scientists from the University of California and the University of Oxford in Geneva are working on developing technology that could hack or retrieve sensitive data from a person’s brain, such as PIN numbers and place of birth, by using a low-cost device. With the help of an off-the-shelf Emotiv brain-computer ($299) — a wireless head piece — researchers are able to track brain signals when someone is shown familiar messages. For example, scientists asked subjects to wear the device
Read MoreWolfram Alpha is offering you the chance to mine your own Facebook data. Wolfram Alpha bills itself as a “computational knowledge engine.” In contrast to other search engines such as Google and Bing, which return pages of blue hyperlinks in response to queries, Wolfram Alpha offers up objective data: type in the name of a person, for example, and you might receive their dates of birth and death, a timeline, and a graph of Wikipedia page hits. That’s a pretty far cry from more conventional search engines, which might take the same keyword and deliver tons of photos, video, blog pages,
Read MoreMost kids know using a mobile phone while driving is a bad idea, but nearly 60-percent of high school seniors admitted in a recent CDC study that they text while driving. Now a new free app (android, app store) called DriveScribe is a game-changer which turns your phone into a “driving coach.”. The app monitors speed, and blocks all texts, updates and calls while the car is in motion. It uses GPS, social media, real-time voice feedback and a jamming function to block texts and calls. The app will tell drivers to slow down if they’re going too fast. To
Read MoreApple has added a new feature to its Online store in the UK: Apple Specialist are now on hand to help you pick the right iPhone. The new feature - launched on Wednesday in the UK, Germany, Spain, and Brazil - will provide answers via an online chat service with Apple employees. Once you've bought your phone, Apple will set you up with the product, helping you configure your email, stay in sync with iCloud and more. "Now there’s a whole new way to shop for an iPad or iPhone at the Apple Online Store," says Apple. "You can talk directly
Read MoreWe live in such a busy world that some people don’t even have the time to go to church anymore. Luckily, there’s the Pray-O-Mat, a converted old photo booth that features 300 pre-recorded prayers and incantations in 65 different languages, and lets you get your blessing on the go. Waiting for the service at the local church or temple takes time, and in this day and age that’s a valuable commodity. But thanks to German artist Oliver Sturm, you don’t have to skip out on getting closer to the supreme being you happen to be worshiping. Known as the “Gebetomat” in
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Bing expand Facebook integration, offers Facebook friends’ photos search feature
Bing has added a new feature which allows users to search through their friends’ Facebook photos directly within the search engine. Users can access this through the Bing social sidebar or at www.bing.com/friendsphotos. With a reported 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook daily, the feature looks to enable users to quickly find desired images. With users’ privacy in mind, the feature only searches through friends’ photos that they have been made viewable. Once users access the tool, the images appear in a news feed displaying the most recently uploaded photos first. The tool allows for users to engage with the photos
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