Technology

Researchers in the United States are developing robots with "eyes in the backs of their heads" in the form of nine digital cameras attached to a frame the size of a beach ball.

Providing a robot with "omni-directional" vision could vastly improve its navigational skills, the scientists said. A report on their work is in the latest edition of the New Scientist magazine.

The new "eye," named the Argus Eye after the all-seeing Greek god, passes the images to a computer which works out the direction in which the robot is pointing and heading.

L33tdawg: Wow -- what a useful tool. Now you could send a trojan via e-mail and have the e-mail deleted once the trojan's installed and voila` no more traces! Or what about aiding spammers? That being said though, tools of this sort have been around for sometime, but TOUTING it is something else all together.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a government rule requiring all but the smallest new televisions to have tuners that can receive digital TV signals by July 2007.

The makers of TVs, VCRs and DVD players tried to block the Federal Communications Commission rule, saying it would make sets more expensive and is unnecessary because cable and satellite viewers don't need the tuners.

Disposable DVDs have been on store shelves for a little over a month and, for the most part, they seem to be staying there.

A police officer sees a bank robbery suspect speed by and says "pursuit." Automatically, the cruiser's blue lights, siren, flashing headlights and video camera turn on. The car also sends a message to dispatch giving the location and saying the officer is chasing someone.

This voice-recognition system is not a prototype -- it's on patrol in New Hampshire today, and if the robbery scenario were to occur, officers could keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road instead of fiddling with switches, buttons, dials and microphones as they weave through traffic.

Unpleasant shocks await car thieves in Karachi.

With the click of a computer mouse, a satellite tracking system allows remote operators to seize control of the stolen vehicle, bring it grinding to a halt, and snap its locks shut as police swoop in.

"One of my friends' cars was snatched, but he got it back within an hour because of this system," said Saleem Khan, owner of Samad Rent-a-Car Co in the grimy Pakistani port city. He has had the system installed in six of his new cars.

A new way of generating electricity from flowing water could mean that in the future you will never have to charge up your mobile phone again. Instead of a normal battery, mobile phones could be fitted with a battery that uses water - you just need to pressurise it regularly.

What is the world's most widely used operating system? It's not Windows, Unix or Linux , but ITRON, a Japanese real-time kernel for small-scale embedded systems. ITRON runs on mobile phones , digital cameras, CD players and countless other electronic devices.
ITRON emerged as an ambitious Japanese initiative known as The Real-time Operating system Nucleus (TRON). Launched in 1984, TRON was designed to replace disparate computer systems with a unified, open architecture for a "total computer environment."

Attention confounded consumers: There's a high-tech solution that could render obsolete your growing jumble of credit card pin numbers and computer passwords -- and it's as plain as the nose on your face or fingerprint.

UK chip firm ARM is designing chips for mobile phones that require less power but contain antihacking and antivirus features

Because mobile phones are increasingly being used in the same ways as computers, chip designer ARM has moved toward increased security and scaled-down power consumption.