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Researchers fuse lab-grown human brain tissue with electronics
In a story ripped from the opening scenes of a sci-fi horror movie, scientists have bridged a critical gap between the biological and electronic. The study details a “hybrid biocomputer” combining lab-grown human brain tissue with conventional circuits and AI.
Researchers give robots roly-polies for hands
Last summer we got inflatable necrobotic spider corpses. This summer we get captive woodlice grippers. Next summer, arthropods take their revenge.
Elon Musk: 'Oh btw I’m building a cyborg dragon'
Oh btw I'm building a cyborg dragon — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2018 Where my Model 3, tho?
Vote for Engadget R+D's 'Superhumans' series to win a Webby Award!
Engadget R+D's first documentary Superhumans debuted back in September and now the series is up for a Webby Award. The look inside the first cyborg games is nominated for a People's Voice award in the Technology Film & Video category, but we need your help. Head over to the voting page between now and Thursday, April 20th to cast your vote for us. We would certainly appreciate it! It's not the first time we've been up for the prestigious award, but we would like to add some more hardware to our mantle. If you need a refresher on the series, you can re-watch every episode at the show hub right here.
The Cybathlon returns in 2020
The world's first Cybathlon, a single-day sporting competition designed for people with severe disabilities, was a massive success in 2016. We documented the games, tech and cheering crowds that filled Zürich's Swiss Arena in a five-part video series -- and in 2020, we'll have the chance to do it all again. The Cybathlon will officially return in May 2020 as a two-day event in Zürich.
Brain implant helps a paralyzed woman communicate at home
A 58-year-old woman left paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) has now become the first patient to use a brain-computer interface to restore some of her day-to-day functions. The woman was left "almost completely locked-in" after the disease caused her motor neurons to deteriorate to the point where she could only control her eye muscles. While brain implants have been in development for years, this particular patient has become the first to make use of one at home and outside of a research or hospital setting.
Watch the first live-action 'Ghost in the Shell' trailer
Want to see how Hollywood takes on Ghost in the Shell outside of a handful of tiny video clips? You just got your chance. Paramount has released a full-length trailer for its spin on the anime/manga classic, and it's at least interesting -- if not necessarily what purists would want. It's visually stunning, with more than a few moments that will remind you of at least the 1995 animated movie. It's mainly the casting and unanswered questions that might leave you on the fence ahead of the movie's March 31st, 2017 launch date.
Cyborg locusts with tattooed wings can sniff out bombs
"Men, bring out the sniffer locusts." That's something a bomb squad chief could say in the future, thanks to a team of engineers working to turn the insects into cyborgs that can be sent anywhere to sniff out explosives. It won't be an easy feat -- the researchers, who hail from the Washington University in St. Louis, will have to equip the insects with several pieces of technology. Good thing they have a powerful backer: the Navy. Team leader Baranidharan Raman has received a three-year $750,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to make his dreams a reality.
ICYMI: A real hoverboard for 20K, the worm robot and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-511213{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-511213, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-511213{width:570px;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-511213").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists have built a robot that is controlled by software directly modeled on a worm's brain, near cyborg-style. ARCA has built a hoverboard they say can actually hover above ground for up to six minutes and is being sold for $20,000. Meanwhile the U.S. Marines are discharging a robot for being a bit too loud for stealthy applications: The LS3 is being put out to pasture.
Doctor dubbed 'the father of cyborgs' tested implants in his own brain
How far would you go to create a brain-controlled speech decoder? Doctor Philip Kennedy already helped blaze a trail in brain-computer interfaces back in the 80s. Now, a report in MIT Technology Review explains how the neurosurgeon decided to crank his research up a notch. Well, several notches, really, by having implants put into his own brain to better learn how neurons function with speech. What's more, Kennedy paid $25,000 and underwent highly invasive surgery -- including the removal of the top of his skull -- for the privilege.
ICYMI: Weather in a box, cyborg drummer and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-596751{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-596751, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-596751{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-596751").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The world's biggest 3D printer was just unveiled in Italy and it's a hefty 40 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter, earning its name, "Big Delta." Its intended purpose is to build mud huts for emergency housing. A device called the Tempescope can be synced with an app in your home and actual rain or show condensation for fog, depending on the day's weather forecast. And a drummer who lost his right arm is back in the game, fiercer than before, with help from a robotics professor.
7 real-life cyborg implants
By Cat DiStasio Medical technology advances faster than the speed of light, or at least that's the way it seems sometimes. These days, there are implants to treat all sorts of afflictions, and researchers are developing new medical devices that can help a person become a little more human than human. You can implant a bionic lens to get superhuman eyesight, get a tattoo to manage diabetes and -- someday soon, hopefully -- use a wireless device to control fertility. Read on for more amazing medical implants that can enhance your life in ways you never thought possible.
ICYMI: Thought-controlled exoskeleton, textingbrella & more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-947132{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-947132, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-947132{width:570px;display:block;} Today on In Case You Missed It: Thought-controlled exoskeletons are walking around a lab in Korea and we remain impressed. An advertisement for a redesigned handle on an umbrella is making us all shout #firstworldproblems. And this may have happened back during MakerFaire, but it's news to us: A 15-year-old beat out everyone else at a "Game of Drones" competition that pits drones against one another, Fight Club style.
Mad Catz's Tournament Edition Rat is lighter, faster and brighter
If you didn't have enough transforming mice in your cursor collection, Mad Catz has one more for you: the Rat TE (Tournament Edition). It's the latest in the company's line of formerly Cyborg-branded mousing products and is designed specifically, as the name implies, for professional and competitive gamers. That means it's lighter (to improve inertia, the company says), offers faster reaction times and has been outfitted with a new 8,200 DPI laser sensor. Mad Catz has also given the mouse the ability to adjust its lift-off height calibration, giving pro gamers one more aspect of play to fine-tune. That said, it's not exactly a dead-ringer for the original Rat -- the horizontal scroll wheel is missing and the ever-important sniper button is twice as large as the mouse's first design. Mad Catz hasn't announced the teal-accented mouse's price yet, but expect to see it ship in early 2014.
Infinite Crisis adds Cyborg to the mix
While the last superhero to join the Infinite Crisis lineup was mystically imbued, the newest member is a mix of man and machine. Today Turbine announced the addition of Cyborg to the roster of champions as well as released new art for the Green Lantern. Like you'd expect a man with an energy cannon for an arm, Cyborg is a ranged fighter, doling out powerful blasts while dodging direct confrontation with melee. His various skills include Cybernetic Targeting, Cascade, and Plasma Cannon. Charged Burst is an AoE attack and Tracer Shot marks opponents and adds a debuff that can be triggered for additional effects by his other skills. Check out the reveal video after the break for some tips on fighting as -- and fighting against -- this newest champion. After the video, take a look at the newest Infinite Crisis art, showing off Arcane, Prime, and Atomic versions of Green Lantern. [Source: Turbine press release]
Injustice match videos continue with Aquaman, Cyborg, Grundy and Lantern
The latest round of Injustice: Gods Among Us fight tapes have been released following the results of NetherRealm Studios' ongoing popularity contest between the game's sizable stable of heroes and villains. This time, Atlantean king Aquaman is pitted against fellow Justice League of America member Cyborg (above), while interstellar cop Green Lantern dukes it out with the also green (albeit for a different reason) Solomon Grundy, after the break.While these videos still mysteriously lack any indication of how meter management is working during these fights, we are learning more about each character's abilities with each new bout. Aquaman, for instance, can cancel incoming projectile attacks by creating a whirlpool around himself, and Cyborg appears to be one of the most mobile characters in the game, thanks to his zip-line/grappling hook thingy. Meanwhile, Green Lantern's ability to create complex, working machines and weapons has been put to full use, as has Solomon Grundy's, uh, deadness.
Nano-machines built to mimic human muscle could help power cyborgs, keep the OSI budget down
At today's prices, building a Six Million Dollar Man would cost around $31 million. Of course, being a TV show means the Office of Scientific Intelligence doesn't have too many bionic employees, but that might not the case in the future. Nicolas Giuseppone and a team at the Université de Strasbourg and CNRS have created thousands of nano-machines to replicate the movement of human muscle fibers. Weaving them all together, the machines are able to make a coordinated contraction movement that stretches and contracts. For the moment, the supramolecular polymers can only stretch a matter of micrometers, but in the future they could be used to create artificial muscles, small robots or even materials that can move. Hopefully it'll also give us the power to leap tall buildings, so we'll be outside practicing our sound effects.
Harvard scientists grow human cells onto nanowire scaffold to form 'cyborg' skin
Growing human tissue is old hat, but being able to measure activity inside flesh is harder -- any electrical probing tends to damage the cells. But a new breakthrough from Harvard researchers has produced the first "cyborg" tissue, created by embedding functional, biocompatible nanowires into lab-grown flesh. In a process similar to making microchips, the wires and a surrounding organic mesh are etched onto a substrate, which is then dissolved, leaving a flexible mesh. Groups of those meshes are formed into a 3D shape, then seeded with cell cultures, which grow to fill in the lattice to create the final system. Scientists were able to detect signals from heart and nerve cell electro-flesh made this way, allowing them to measure changes in response to certain drugs. In the near-term, that could allow pharmaceutical researchers to better study drug interaction, and one day such tissue might be implanted in a live person, allowing treatment or diagnosis. So, would that make you a cyborg or just bionic? We'll let others sort that one out.
Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 gaming keyboard announced at Gamescom (hands-on)
In the hubbub of a late evening soiree in the center of Cologne, Mad Catz unveiled its new gaming keyboard. While the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 keyboard is certainly punctuation-rich, it's aiming to match all those periods with just as many functions and permutations. The keyboard has a modular design, including a new touchscreen interface offering up some new swipe and gesture controls across both gaming titles and day-to-day PC use. Mad Catz reckons it's the final piece in their gaming range puzzle, complementing both the aforementioned R.A.T. mice and its F.R.E.Q gaming headsets. We take a closer look -- and throw in the suitably bombastic promo video -- after the break. %Gallery-162428% %Gallery-162343%
Injustice's two newest fighters pulverize (and get pulverized) in Comic-Con trailer
Wondering what Nightwing and ... uh ... that Cyborg dude will play like in NetherRealms' next big game, Injustice: Gods Among Us? Well too bad! Er, rather, you can find out above. Sorry about making you feel bad.
