Science Fiction in the News:
Science and Technology News

China's Crab Walker Robot Tank In Firing Mode
'The mechanism was to consist of eighteen segments, each equiped with a pair of legs...'- Jack Vance, 1964. (re: Jack Vance)

'Hello, Computer!' Intel's Core M Catches Up To Scotty
Scotty's impulse to talk was right, it seems. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Visual Speech Recognition - When Will HAL Read Lips For Real?
Will computers be able to read lips? (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

MIT's Robotic Cheetah Runs Free - And Frolics In The Grass
THEY sent A SLAMHOUND on Turner's trail- William Gibson, 1986. (re: William Gibson)

Flying Robot Has An Arm
Drones with arms. Well, one arm. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Strati 3D Printed Car
'You rode in it - you know how good it is.'- Philip K. Dick, 1956. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Tracking Spinning Space Junk
'Loose nuts and bolts... had been accumulating in Earth orbit'- Arthur C. Clarke, 1978. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Baidu Kuaisou Dune Poison Snooper Chopsticks
'Unobtrusive inspections with... snoopers... Will it be chaumas - poison in the food?'- Frank Herbert, 1965. (re: Frank Herbert)

Crystalized Light Created At Princeton
'It will be matter, matter made of light...'- John W. Campbell, 1930. (re: John W. Campbell)

The Amazing Gravity-Assisted Journey Of Rosetta
'...We used the [moon's] attraction to give us additional starting speed'- Ray Cummings, 1930. (re: Ray Cummings)

AirDog Auto-Follow Drone Captures Your Awesomeness
'Tight mid-shot and pull out on but behind me...' -Karen Traviss, 2004. (re: Karen Traviss)

Dell's Venue 8 7000 Tablet With RealSense Depth-Mapping
Focus on any part of a picture later. (re: Ridley Scott)

Google's Cartographer Backpack For Indoor Mapping
'He reached to unsnap the cartograph from his belt.'- Jack Williamson, 1931. (re: Jack Williamson)

T-Mobile Sues Huawei Over Button Pushing Robot Idea From The 1930's
'Not the slightest change in their working betrayed the fact that they were now being directed by a machine instead of human beings.'- Schachner and Zagat, 1931. (re: Schachner and Zagat)

Hayabusa-2 Asteroid Cannon Strategy From 1950's SF Novel
'Fire streaked in a thin line from the muzzle of a cannon-like tube...'- EC Tubb, 1958. (re: EC Tubb)

Dyson 360 Eye Robot Vacuum Cleaner
'It vacuum-cleaned... or polished, consulting tapes in its idiot memory to decide which.'- Robert Heinlein, 1956. (re: Robert Heinlein)

First 3D Printer In Space?
'It can be mass-produced only in the orbiting factories...'- Arthur C. Clarke, 1978. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Google's Project Wing Will Find You
'Mechanical entities that flit at the edges of our vision, that can go anywhere, that are in our very midst...' - Philip K. Dick, 1960. (re: Philip K. Dick)

3D Printed Space Pizza For Astronauts
Put those butcher knives aside, and let me save that meal! (re: Various)

World's First Rapid 3D Nanoscale Printer
'Down, to the limit imposed by the ultimate indivisibility of the atoms themselves...'- Raymond Z. Gallun, 1937. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Ralph Lauren Polo Tech Shirt
'It can feel your heartbeat...'- Rudy Rucker, 1988. (re: Rudy Rucker)

Smartphone Holographic Displays In 2015
If Sith Lords can have one... So can you! (re: Edmond Hamilton)

Touch Typing Taught Haptically DIY-style
'He then started hand movements of definite pattern...' (re: Robert Heinlein)

New Material Is One Molecule Thick
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent...'- Roger Zelazny, 1966. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Robot Swarm Obeys Commands
'What is the nature of this cloud? What is your opinion?'- Stanislaw Lem, 1954. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

AliveCor App Detects Heart Arrhythmias, Has FDA Approval
Works on humans and puppeteers. (re: Larry Niven)

Laws Of Robotics Rewritten for Health Care
A lot has happened in health care robotics since 1942. (re: Isaac Asimov)

Origami Robot Finally Self-Assembles, Walks On Its Own
Now shipping flat, but better than Ikea, because self-assembling. (re: Various)

A.L.O. Robot Butler Serves You At Aloft Hotel
'Her idea of what a butler-valet combo should look like...'- William Tenn, 1951. (re: William Tenn)

Mometum Machines Burgerbot
'One of these gorgeous eating places where we were served entirely by mechanical apparatus...'- Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1912. (re: Edgar Rice Burroughs)

Google Lobbies For Autonomous Motorcycles
'He had never ridden any motorized device that lacked onboard steering and balance systems.'- Bruce Sterling, 1988. (re: Bruce Sterling)

No Cages In Future Zoos Is Zootopia?
'The park... twisted through specimens from every inhabited planet of the known universe.' (re: Frank Herbert)

Navdy HeadUp Display (HUD) For Your Car
'All displays are thrown on a mirror in front of you...'- Robert Heinlein, 1959. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Computer 'Aesop' Writes Fables With A Moral
'I handed Tony the master tape and he played it into the IBM'- JG Ballard, 1971. (re: JG Ballard)

Artificial Wombs - Ectogenesis Technology - Is On The Way
'Magnificent, aren't they? (Lama Su, in Star Wars II) (re: Aldous Huxley)

Robotic Exoskeleton For Shipyard Workers
'Earth's scientists solved the problem... devising rigid metallic clothing not unlike armor...'- Edmond Hamilton, 1932. (re: Edmond Hamilton)

Timeful Appointment App Learns, Optimizes Your Routines
'The [Daily Schedule program] suited its tone to his movements and the combined analysis of his psychophysical condition.'- Frank Herbert, 1977. (re: Frank Herbert)

3D Printing Your Science-Fictional Metals
I love science-fictional materials! (re: Various)

Bespoke Clothing In 30 Minutes
'He sat himself down in a sales cubicle and dialed the code number for kilts.'- Robert Heinlein, 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Low Cost Spray-On Solar Cells
'It turns sunlight into electricity... you spray it on.'- Larry Niven, 1995. (re: Larry Niven)

Survival Seed Vault Low Cost Life Bank
'They existed in the Life Bank, as did virtually every plant...'- John Varley, 1977. (re: John Varley)

PoseiDrone Tentacled Undersea Robot Like HG Wells'
'Its motion was so swift, complex, and perfect that at first I did not see it as a machine...'- HG Wells, 1898. (re: HG Wells)

Bionic Hand Provides 'Lifelike' Sensations, Like Luke Skywalker's
A fictional scene becomes reality in just thirty-five years. (re: George Lucas)

Man-Made Space Leaf Creates Oxygen From Water And Light
'What better purifying machine is there than... grass?'- George O. Smith, 1942. (re: George O. Smith)

Robot With Broken Leg Learns To Walk Again
Robots that learn to walk again are now on the march. (re: Various)

World's First Android Newscaster (Video)
'The autonomic TV interviewer, camera in its hand, blocked his path.'- Philip K. Dick, 1965. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Japan Invites Robot Athletes To Gather For 2020 Olympics
It's time we started to get rid of that distinction between metal and flesh, and IC and neuron, don't you think? (re: Various)

CV Dazzle Anti-Surveillance Make-Up
'Let's hear it for the vague blur!'- Philip K. Dick, 1977. (re: Philip K Dick)

LG Display's 18 Inch Flexible OLED Panel Is Awesomely Cool
'...a wide sheet of clear material suddenly flared with light and swirling color.'- EC Tubb, 1958. (re: EC Tubb)

Tiniest Microphone Inspired By Fly
'Transmitting to its manipulator, far away now, all that it heard through its ear microphones...'- Raymond Z. Gallun, 1936. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

NASA's Highway In The Sky For Drones
Jeff Bezos may find that there are rules to drones. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Palcohol Powdered Alcohol - Try Or Ban?
'I had a small can of powdered alcohol disguised as tooth powder...' - Harry Harrison, 1970. (re: Harry Harrison)

pd.id Personal Drink ID Device Like Dune 'Poison Snooper'
'The jeweled hands clutching drinks (and the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers)...'- Frank Herbert, 1965. (re: Frank Herbert)

Monsieur Bartending Robot
'He poured the liquids into his maw...'- Anthony Boucher, 1943. (re: Anthony Boucher)

Cities Detect Gunfire Acoustics With ShotSpotter
'Sound trackers on the roof...'- Greg Bear, 2007. (re: Greg Bear)

Cruise Automation's 'Highway Autopilot' For $10K
'It cut her out of the stream of vehicles and reduced the speed of her car...'- Robert Heinlein, 1941 (re: Robert Heinlein)

Pengheng Space Capsule Hotel Staffed Entirely By Robots
'A planet-wide chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'- Harry Harrison, 1970. (re: Harry Harrison)

Electric Bacteria That Live On Pure Energy
'April 5, 1977; that was the night the waveries came.'- Frederic Brown, 1945. (re: Frederic Brown)

EXACTO Smart Bullet From DARPA
Nicely visualized in what 1984 movie? (re: Michael Crichton)

Neural Implant To Treat Memory Loss
'You've got remote storage. How regular is the update?'- Richard Morgan, 2003. (re: Richard Morgan)

MIT's Shape-Shifting Robot Materials
The T-100, an advanced prototype, is made of liquid metal. Not quite ready. (re: Various)

LS3 AlphaDog Robot Marine Corps Video
'He admired the fast-plodding, articulated legs, so necessary since roads had degenerated...'- Anthony Boucher, 1951. (re: Anthony Boucher)

Vantablack Is Blacker Than Your Black
'Well, we have a black coating now that’s ninety-nine percent absorptive...'- Dpc Smith, 1934. (re: Doc Smith)

Remotely Operated Gardening Rover - Student's Space Agricultural Robot
'There were things growing all over the place, not just in some domed enclosures blasted some millions of miles out in to space.' (re: Various)

Revisiting A Cloud City On Venus
I've been looking forward to something like this since 1980. (re: Fritz Leiber)

'Windowless Cockpit' Like Star Trek's Patent Applied For
Wait - you thought Sulu had a window? (re: Gene Roddenberry)

'No Man's Sky' - The Matrix Is Almost Ready
Ready for an adventure, Neo? (re: Various)

The Claustrum - The Brain's On Off Switch?
'All I have to do is move this switch and he'll recover consciousness...'- John Brunner, 1976. (re: John Brunner)

Haptic Gloves Teach Braille Without Effort
'Jenkins bit his lip... [at] the sensation of having his fingers manipulated by the gauntlets he wore.'- Robert Heinlein, 1942. (re: Robert Heinlein)

India's Commuters Face Philip K Dick's 'Sales Pitch' Future
'All around him the vague half-defined echoes of ads glittered and gibbered...'- Philip K. Dick, 1954. (re: Philip K Dick)

Harvard's Robobee Has Insect-Inspired Eyes
'It studied its surroundings... and saw with its minute vision tubes.'- Raymond Z. Gallun, 1936. (re: Raymond Z. Gallun)

Robots Implore Humans For Help Online
'Whenever a robot finds something it can't identify straight off... it puts whatever it is in the hopper outside your window.'- Harry Harrison, 1956. (re: Harry Harrison)

Ladybird Agricultural Robot Is Solar-Powered
'A robot gardener worked over the same patch of grass again and again...'- Philip K Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K Dick)

Beating Mini-Heart Grown In Lab
'Runciter's body contained a dozen artiforgs...'- Philip K. Dick, 1969. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Robot Journalists Join Associated Press
'The very news-gathering services of the homeopape had reached into his own life...'- Philip K. Dick, 1963. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Candidate Claims His Opponent Is A Robot Body Double
'A transmitter would place my voice upon those sculptured lips.' - Manly Wade Wellman, 1938. (re: Manly Wade Wellman)

Ray, Your Parking Robot
'[Mary] claimed her car from the robopark...'- Robert Heinein, 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Time For Bradbury's 'Smart Home'?
'This house which clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep and played and sang and was good to them...' - Ray Bradbury, 1951. (re: Ray Bradbury)

Google's Project Tango VR Tablet Pictures Your 3D World
'Surely most were virtual, but the blending was perfection.' - Vernor Vinge, 2006. (re: Vernor Vinge)

myCopter Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV)
Not quite as freewheeling as the sfnal version, but it might work. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Wristify, Your Personal Cooling and Heating Device
'By law [a mandatory cooling unit] had to be strapped to every commuter's back...'- Philip K. Dick (re: Philip K. Dick)

Spam Autonomous Cars And Philip K. Dick
'The news vending machine, being homotropic, headed toward them...'- Philip K. Dick, 1963. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Tesla's Elon Musk Has Some Concerns About AI
'A potentially dangerous outcome... like Terminator.' (re: Various)

Greenhouse Plugin Reveals Your Congressman's Money Sources
'Fuller details may be obtained by punching the code number...'- John Brunner, 1975 (re: John Brunner)

Toyota's Camatte Has William Gibson's Digital Hood
'That's a nice car out there," Rydell said...'- William Gibson, 1993. (re: William Gibson)

Oculus Rift Combats Battlefield Trauma
Virtual reality could soften the blow of real reality. (re: Roger Zelazny)

Are Human Settlements On Asteroids Possible?
'Here on Vesta... the interior of this five-acre greenhouse was the one most desirable place to be.'- Raymond Z. Gallun, 1953. (re: Raymond Z Gallun)

Google Offers Future Prediction In The Cloud
'Beyond the machinery sat the three precogs, almost lost to view in the maze of wiring...'- Philip K. Dick, 1956. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Robots Converse, But Should They Count In A Minyan?
'This is the morning everyone has waited for, when at last the robot cardinal is to be elected Pope...'- Robert Silverberg, 1971. (re: Robert Silverberg)

NASA's Warp Speed Starship Design
'As Earth's faster-than-light spaceship hung in the void between galaxies...'- John W. Campbell (re: John W. Campbell)

x.pose 3D Printed Corset Has Data Transparency
'I'll put on my new plastirobe, the one I've never had nerve enough to wear.'- Philip K. Dick, 1954 (re: Philip K. Dick)

Vertical Farms Have Advantages
'Like the office In-and-Out baskets stacked up to the sky...'- Pohl and Kornbluth, 1952. (re: Pohl and Kornbluth)

Ostendo Quantum Photonic Imager Hologram Projector
'Instantly there appeared standing upon the disk, the image of a man...'- Edmond Hamilton, 1928. (re: Edmond Hamilton)

Robot Lamp Assembles Itself (Via 3D Printer)
'You see, the Sheen Robots assemble themselves...'- James Schmitz, 1966. (re: James Schmitz)

Pinwheel Battery-Powered Unicycle Is Segway In Your Price Range
'A tumblebug does not give a man dignity...'- Robert Heinlein, 1941 (re: Robert Heinlein)

Shatterproof Phone Screens Coming Soon
'It was like the pounding of a rock...'-Clifford Simak, 1963. (re: Clifford Simak)

NASA Harvests Lettuce On ISS
First we test, then we taste. (re: Gregory Benford)

Cortana, Your Personal Assistant
'If I were you, Man Forrester, which is to say, if I were human...'- Frederik Pohl, 1965. (re: Frekerik Pohl)

Pepper, Your Robot Companion
'She's - she's not like a machine. She's like a person. A living person.'- Philip K. Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Secret Service Wants Sarcasm-Detection Software
There must be some website able to help them. (re: Matt Groening)

ForceShoes, NASA's Exercise Sandals For Astronauts
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses.'- Murray Leinster, 1953. (re: Jack Williamson)

Google Developing 'KITT' Functionality For Android?
Ah, but when will they develop the 'Hasselhoff' functionality? (re: Various)

Brainflight Brain-Controlled Airplane
Mr Gant, you must think in Russian. Can you do that? (re: Various)

Is The OutRunner Robot Like Smartwheels?
'Each spoke telescopes into five sections.'- Neal Stephenson, 1992. (re: Neal Stephenson)

Skype's Translator Like Gernsback's Language Rectifier
'He immediately turned the small shining disc of the Language Rectifier on his instrument till the pointer rested on French.'- Hugo Gernsback, 1911. (re: Hugo Gernsback)

3D Printed Food Served In German Nursing Homes
'The food slot gave him flat reddish-brown bricks.'- Larry Niven, 1970. (re: Larry Niven)

Self-Healing Plastic Fixes Even Big Holes
'The room had been strained and healed faultily....'- JG Ballard, 1962. (re: JG Ballard)

Google Autonomous Electric Car Prototype Unveiled
'She gestured him ahead of her, toward a bubble-car...'- Larry Niven, 1976. (re: Larry Niven)

Samsung Round Wearable And HG Wells
'He flicked out a little appliance the size and appearance of a keyless watch'- HG Wells, 1899. (re: HG Wells)

Focus Life Gear Protects From Virtual World
'Stooping, he peeled off thick overtrousers as massive as the coat.'- Robert Heinlein, 1941. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Tesla's 100th Supercharger Station!
'Recharge the batteries, which can be done in almost every town and village..'- John Jacob Astor IV. 1894. (re: John Jacob Astor IV)

Crabster Robot Deployed At Korea's Sewol Ferry Disaster
Remote-controlled robots helping out in time of need. (re: HG Wells)

GiraffPlus Robot Helps Elderly At Home
SF writers wrote about telemedicine much earlier than you think. (re: EM Forster)

Michael Jackson, Resurrected
Singing an original song, no less. (re: Gene Roddenberry)

Who Will Own The Robots?
'...machines did the work of man, and the aristos, owners of the machines, played in soft idleness...'- Zagat and Schachner, 1931. (re: Zagat and Schachner)

Solar Roadways Could Power USA - Times 3
This would be great if it works - the roads might be better maintained as well. (re: Various )

OMsignal Heart Shirt With Woven Electronics
'It can feel your heartbeat … look...'- Rudy Rucker, 1988. (re: Rudy Rucker)

Outrunner Robot, Six-Legged Slamhound
You don't want one of these running you down. Because it's probably faster than you, and can outlast you. (re: William Gibson)

Napping Station Now At UofM Library
'Then he strolled across the dayroom to the hypnoteleset...'- Pohl and Kornbluth, 1952. (re: Pohl and Kornbluth)

Living Root Bridges Of India
Grow your own infrastructure and housing using ecologically sound materials. (re: Jack Vance)

Russia Bans Cursing, Demolition Man Morality Device Next
'John Spartan, you are fined five credits for repeated violations of the verbal morality statute.'- Demolition Man, 1993. (re: Various)

Thailand's Chatterbox Social Media App Influences Content
'He adjusted the n, the r and b knobs, and hopefully anticipated a turn for the better in the dire droning-on of the speech...' Philip K. Dick, 1964. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Tabbot Robot Inspired By Spiders (And Clarke?)
'Each leg in turn acted as a pivot around which the creature whirled its body...'- Arthur C. Clarke, 1972. (re: Arthur C. Clarke)

Tapster Automates Smartphone App Testing
'Rapidly, purposefully, the metallic fingers moved over the key-boards...'- Schachner and Zagat, 1931. (re: Schachner and Zagat)

An 'OFF' Switch For The Brain
'Yes, sir, he's status go.'- John Brunner, 1975. (re: John Brunner)

PaperFold Foldable Smartphone
'...it gave me a little plastic book with four fold-outs'- Stanislaw Lem, 1961. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

GPS Bullets Legal For Cops In Hot Pursuit?
OTOH, the Jedi homing beacon tracking device allows Obiwan to follow Fett through both hyperspace and heavy asteroid fields. (re: George Lucas)

MorpHex MKII The Unreconstructed Hexapod
'Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed.'- Philip K. Dick, 1957. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Spaser-Based Circuits Could Be Printed On Clothing
'Alex rolled his wrist over to check the watch imprinted on his sleeve.'- Niven and Barnes, 1981. (re: Niven and Barnes)

Amazing Video Shows Chameleon-Like Crystal Display
'Across the vast impersonal face of metal... a ribbon of fluid letters appeared...'- Philip K. Dick, 1960. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Will Autonomous Systems' Self-Preservation Lead To Dangerous Behavior?
'This, the new types. The new varieties of claws. We're completely at their mercy, aren't we?'- Philip K. Dick, 1953 (re: Philip K. Dick)

Ooho Water Bulb (Or Blob) Replaces Horrific Plastic Bottles
'I held up my bulb of water ... visibly there was water missing.'- Pohl and Kornbluth, 1952. (re: Pohl and Kornbluth)

SRI International's Speedy, Ant-Sized Microrobot Swarm
'As if swarms of tiny animals were busily scurrying about...'- Stanislaw Lem, 1954. (re: Stanislaw Lem)

SF Authors Have Wearable Computing Ideas
The device would need to convey essential information, to the wearer and perhaps to those around him. (re: Various)

Bookies Let You Place Your Bets On the Future!
I'll bet you feel strongly enough about at least one of these bets to want to put your money down. (re: David Brin)

How Do Americans See The Future Of Technology?
What is most likely to happen in the future? Do you want to participate in the future? (re: Various)

Updated: Flying Graffiti Drone Will Alter The Urban Landscape
The tagger's dream - lie in bed while painting at a remote location. (re: William Gibson)

Should Autonomous Cars Have Feelings About Crashes?
'Robots have worse problems than anybody.'- Philip K. Dick, 1952. (re: Philip K. Dick)

M-Block Modular Robots Assemble Themselves
'... as though a child should build from nursery blocks a fantastic shape which abruptly is filled with throbbing life.'- Abraham Merritt, 1920. (re: Abraham Merritt)

Augmented Reality Ship's Bridge From Rolls Royce
'... the immense, three-dimensional, minutely cubed model...'- 'Doc Smith, 1934. (re: E.E. 'Doc Smith)

Artificial Blood From Factories
This blood's for you. (re: Various)

Wrigley's Anti-Impotence Chewing Gum
'Chew one of these, Mr. Chip.'- Philip K. Dick, 1969. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Arcology Now Universal Constructor
'... the hotel direly wanted to exist.'- Bruce Sterling, 1998. (re: Bruce Sterling)

MisTable Fog Display Like SeaQuest DSV
Captain Bridger, a message is coming in. (re: Francis Flagg)

Full-Size Invisibility Cloak Now Possible
'I donned it and drew its hood, and threw on its current.'- Ray Cummings, 1930. (re: Ray Cummings)

Bioengineered Muscle Grows In Mice
'Joeboys... shoulders bulging with grafted muscle.' (re: William Gibson)

Self-Assembling Nanoparticles Move Like Tiny Gears
'Microscopic machinery, smaller than ants, smaller than pins, working energetically...'- Philip K. Dick, 1955. (re: Philip K. Dick)

PredPol Predicting Crime As It Happens
'All day long the idiots babbled...'- Philip K. Dick, 1956. (re: Philip K. Dick)

UK Internet Filters Default To 'Family-Friendly'
'People bought personalized filter programs...'- David Brin, 1990. (re: David Brin)

NASA Gives Away Rocket Code - For Dads
'The rocket thundered and leaped. The children danced in their hammocks, screaming.'- Ray Bradbury, 1952. (re: Ray Bradbury)

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