Household robots can be security risk

October 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While people are increasingly using household robots for chores, communication, entertainment and companionship, researchers have raised alarm over the security and privacy risks linked with these information-gathering objects that move around homes. A new University of Washington study discovered security weaknesses in three robots currently on the market.

October 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Japanese car firm Nissan has developed robots that mimic the behaviour of fish, and could be used in crash avoidance systems. According to a report by BBC News, the tiny robots, called Eporo, can move in a fleet without bumping into their travelling companions.

September 29th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The Aussies have managed to enter the Guinness Book of World Record, after more than 300 people, including university students, danced in robotic unison. The group broke the previous world record set by 276 people dancing like robots, when they danced on a lawn at the University of Melbourne, reports the Australian.

September 22nd, 2009 MELBOURNE - Robots of the future would be used for sexual purposes, believes a leading scientist. US robotics scientist Professor Rodney Brooks, former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, said he had no reason to doubt that the technology would have 'sexual drivers'.

September 19th, 2009 LONDON - A robot walking up to you to collect the daily garbage and another one sweeping the street. Soon, this fond dream may turn into reality.

September 19th, 2009 MADRID - An European company has developed innovative robots which are mobile, multifunctional, collaborative, autonomous and polyvalent, suitable for a wide range of work from street cleaning and rubbish collection to accompanying elderly people. According to a report carried out in www.basqueresearch.com, this new generation of robots have been developed by TECNALIA Technological Corporation, and are a part of the European DUSTBOT research project under the remit of the VI European Framework Programme and in which TECNALIA is participating.

August 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists is exploring the fundamental basis for the unique sixth sense of fish to "touch" objects in their surroundings without direct physical contact, or to "see" in the dark, which could better equip robots to orient themselves in their environments with multiple sensors. The research work is being led by Professor Leo van Hermmen and his team in the physics department of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) in Germany.

August 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Elderly people with limited mobility may soon come to be served by robots in a manner as if they are being served by other persons, thanks to a collaborative study by three University of Illinois at Chicago engineers and a Rush University nursing specialist. "We want to help elderly people communicate with robots, to tell them what they need, and to perform physical activities," said Milos Zefran, UIC associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

August 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A newly opened restaurant in Japan has robots instead of humans as its chefs. The FuA-Men - Fully Automated raMen restaurant in Nagoya, Japan features a chef and an assistant, and both of them are robots.

August 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has shown that micro flying robots that hover like flies can save up to 50 percent energy if they swing an insect wing around like a helicopter blade. Previously, engineers have long been stymied in their attempts to fabricate micro aerial robots that can match the amazing flight capabilities of nature's most advanced flying insects - flies.

August 6th, 2009 LONDON - Computer experts say robots being developed by various militaries the world over could turn on their inventors and murder millions of people. Scientists fear that these Terminator-like self-thinking, attack resistant and heavily armed robots could not only attack humans but also help terrorists to penetrate into the army by hacking.

July 27th, 2009 LONDON - Osaka University engineers in Japan have turned to an unlikely source of inspiration to improve dexterity among robots-a pizza parlour. "An Italian chef dextrously manipulates a pizza in an oven using a tool called a pizza peel," New Scientist magazine quoted Makoto Kaneko, the team's leader at the university, as saying.

July 25th, 2009 LONDON - A group of Japanese engineers has turned to an unlikely source of inspiration to boost robots' dexterity: a pizza parlour. "An Italian chef dextrously manipulates a pizza in an oven using a tool called a pizza peel," says Makoto Kaneko, the team's leader at Osaka University.

July 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists is developing novel underwater laser networking and imaging technologies that will be used onboard a group of small, co-operating robots, which will be able to rapidly identify and communicate potential threats in murky coastal waters. The new technology is being developed by scientists at the Ocean Visibility and Optics Laboratory at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University.

March 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Children and siblings of people with venous thrombosis, or blood clots in the veins, may be more than twice as likely to develop the condition than those without a family history, say Dutch researchers. Venous thrombosis typically begins in leg veins, although the clot may subsequently break off and travel to the lungs.