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Hijacked headphones could be used to listen in on your life
Fun fact: If you're in a pinch and need a microphone, a spare pair of headphones can do the job. Not so fun fact? A group of researchers at Israel's Ben Gurion University just figured out that those headphones can be hijacked to spy on you. Yeah -- 2016 is scary.
ICYMI: Robosurgeon, wigglebot and a very cute penguin
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A robot from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev produces a wave-like motion that can propel itself across a floor or through water, only with one motor. Also a robotic surgeon called Flex can snake its way down throats or other orifices and perform surgeries in a less-invasive way than traditional means. But you should probably take in Purps the penguin and her 3D-printed boot, and also the robotic massager we all wish we had. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Researchers developing danger-sensing BioPen
Scientists at Ben Gurion University in Israel are out to make detecting dangerous biological agents as simple as a pregnancy test with their yet-to-be-completed BioPen, which they say could eventually be in use everywhere from the battlefield to the veterinary lab. The pen uses a modified form of Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (or ELISA) antigen detection to detect potentially harmful compounds, and can apparently also be used to determine if water is drinkable, along with ratting out environmental toxins, Ebola, Hepatitis B and C, Dengue, West Nile virus, and bird flu, among other nasty things. It works by taking a blood sample with a disposable tip, which is then automatically processed in the non-disposable cap, delivering the verdict in twenty minutes or less. Of course, they haven't actually gotten it into pen size yet -- for that, they're looking for one or two million dollars of funding -- but when/if it gets fully developed, they foresee the BioPen being a fairly affordable option, costing about $15 per test.
