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Innovation / Technology

This hardware innovation will make it easier for conservationists to identify where illegal deforestation efforts are happening and stop them before the trees have been taken down.

Tech Watch

How Solar-Powered Recycled Smartphones Could Save the Rainforest

A Silicon Valley non-profit is ready to give the forests of Africa and the Amazon ears to listen for loggers—and the ability to phone the authorities

A mock-up of what GE's calorie-counting device might look like.

Tech Watch

A Device That Counts Calories for You

GE researchers are developing a system that calculates the exact calories in food using microwaves

A wearable wireless radio replaces your PIN code.

Tech Watch

This Temporary Tattoo Can Unlock A Phone

Motorola and VivaLnk release an electronic sticker that replaces your passcode

The E-Fan 2.0 completes a demonstration flight at the Farnborough International Airshow.

Tech Watch

Airbus Demos A Near-Silent, Zero-Emission Plane

The E-Fan 2.0 is the first step on the road to all-electric and hybrid flight

Pedestrians cross London's Millennium Bridge at dusk toward the lit dome of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Tech Watch

How to Plan the Most Beautiful Stroll Through a City

A team of researchers has used crowdsourcing to develop an algorithm that can map out the most eye-pleasing walks

Materials scientist Huolin Xin, shown here at Brookhaven Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials, is optimistic that his team will find ways to improve batteries for future electric vehicles and portable electronics.

Tech Watch

Next-Generation Electric Cars May Never Need A Battery Swap

U.S. Department of Energy researchers pinpoint the reasons why rechargeable batteries lose their ability to hold a charge over time

New traffic-light timing software could put an end to gridlock.

Tech Watch

Better Traffic-Light Timing Will Get You There Faster

New algorithms from MIT researchers keep gridlock at bay by predicting traffic before it starts

An attendee at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, in Los Angeles, California, tries out an Oculus VR headset kit.

Can’t Picture a World Devastated by Climate Change? These Games Will Do it for You

Augmented and virtual reality games may help crack the code of getting humans to do something about the environment

The 3D-print surface on Orange Maker's prototype heliolithography printer.

Tech Watch

Coming in 2015: A Faster, Sharper Way to 3D Print

Orange Maker’s Helios One prints in a spiral, as opposed to layer by layer, making the entire process more efficient

Actor Andy Serkis's motion-capture performance rendered into a photo-perfect computer-generated ape.

How New Motion Capture Tech Transformed Actors Into Creatures for “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”

The special effects team behind Gollum and King Kong took on its most-challenging feat yet: animating 2,000 apes in a real forest

Scientists are looking to restore memory by stimulating neurons deep in the brain.

Tech Watch

Could Implants in the Brain Revive Memory?

The Defense Department is funding research to see if “neuroprosthetics” implanted in the brain can heal damaged memory.

A doctor administers a common glaucoma test.

Tech Watch

A Smart Sensor Could Detect Glaucoma Before Your Doctor Does

A pair of Washington researchers could be first to implant an electronic sensor—designed to give real-time analysis of the disease—directly into the eye

Anyone with a touchscreen can help shape the constantly evolving Universal Typeface.

The Universal Typeface Project Averages the World’s Handwriting to Produce an Incredibly Average Font

With your help, ballpoint pioneer BIC aims to create a font as common as their pens

The clip-on Bluetooth device guides you through less-stressful days by keeping tabs on how you're breathing.

Tech Watch

Stressed? The Latest In Wearables Could Help Keep You Calm

Spire, a clip-on Bluetooth device available this fall, keeps tabs on stress by monitoring how you breathe

The TellMeDave robot is designed to take orders.

Tech Watch

Robots Are Smart—But Can They Understand Us?

Researchers at Cornell are developing a new way for the machines to interpret the imprecise way humans speak

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Tech Watch

With $20 And Some Cardboard, You Too Can Enter Google’s Virtual World

A new project from the tech giant hopes to entice developers by creating a low-cost platform users can assemble on their own.

New fabrication techniques and digital technologies are expanding the possibilities of the analog medium.

Forget Vinyl. Forget the Cloud. In the Future We’ll Listen to Music on UV-Cured 3D-Printed Resin

Musicians, developers, and inventors prove that there’s more to records than vinyl

The current go-to method for testing blood-alcohol is a breathalyzer. But lasers could help police officers detect drunk drivers as soon as next year.

Tech Watch

Lasers Could Detect Drunk Drivers On The Road

Polish researchers say they have developed a method to check blood alcohol levels through car windows

The Scoop works like a mini sound mixer.

Tech Watch

Having Trouble Hearing? There’s An App For That

Called the Scoop, this earpiece is a mini-mixer, allowing the wearer to adjust to his or her environment.

How Scientists Are Using Games to Unlock the Body’s Mysteries

They’re not just for kids anymore

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