There’s a new invisibility cloak for sound that could not only help doctors find tiny tumors but could also hide submarines from enemy sonar. And this same technology could also be used to create high-def ultrasound pictures or detect tiny tumors that can’t be found by today’s conventional methods.

The way it works is by bending acoustics waves before they can hit a surface and guiding them smoothly around the object. For instance, you would be able to bend sonar around a submarine so that it can’t be detected a enemy. Invisibility cloaks, whether for sound or light, both manipulate waves.

Whatever the wave type, the principle is basically the same; bend a wave around an object without breaking it. The cloak is supposedly to be made out of sonic metamaterial that uses cubes and octagons to create holes that can then bend the wave around the covered object. The most obvious application would be as a coating for submarines that want to avoid detection from enemy sonar.

We’ve also heard chatter that there have been some advances in light invisibly cloaks. As you can see in the picture it maskes the person thats standing there. But in fact this isn’t a true invisible cloak at all. In the image, there is a camera behind the person that films the scene and then a projector shines that real-time movie onto the person’s jacket thus creating a sort of optical illusion.

However, it only works in 2D thus defeating the whole ‘noone can see me’ since someone at a different angle (such as from the otherside) will clearly be able to see the person standing there. But despite this…diappointment, it does show that there are strides being made in the development of invisibility apparatuses that one day may in fact hide us from those we wish to avoid.

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German scientists have undertaken the challenge of showing that robots do not need to rely on positioning software (such as GPS) in order to find their way. There robot, ACE, was able to find its way around unknown urban areas by asking people for directions and making its own map as it explored!

“The mobile robot simply rolls up to any humans nearby and asks for directions. By using that strategy, their robot has become one of the first to be properly let loose in the real world, not just carefully controlled environments.”

Mizuno Golf selected the Takara Tomy i-SOBOT robot as the perfect spokesperson for their new Cyborg Head line of golf clubs. The Cyborg Head promotional campaign will last six months, and features special gifts, magazine promotions, and even a professional golf tournament sponsorship with the details to be announced soon.

It seems that now we’re starting to see robot advertisers and spokesmen. It certainly is a creative idea and a great way to gain interest from people who will be drawn in by a robot using their product. Although in fact it would be quite difficult to have a robot spokesperson it seems more like its functioning as a branding image. I wonder what the Roomba will be marketing in the near future?

Citizen, the Japanese watch company, has unveiled several microbot kits. The idea is to get kids interested in the field of robotics. One tiny robot is solar powered and the other robot is guided by an infrared beam. No word on prices or a release date yet.

May they sure do keep getting smaller and smaller every single month don’t they? Although we can’t complain because that only means we can build even more into the same amount of space or even less space. That just gives rise to our creativity so we can add in those extra features that we wanted but couldn’t before because of space limitations. But lets not get into the effect it would have on performance/speed….

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Get ready boys, because 3D is becoming a reality! More advancements have been made to 3D display technology and now there have been several working models out. Its only a matter of time until this design is perfected and made available to the public. Soon there will be plenty of three dimensional screens that will be used for everyday activities. It will probably be first used by advertising agencies in order to have more flashy ways of getting your attention but soon that will lead to consumer based uses. So now its only a waiting game until it does go out on sale at your local neighborhood Best Buy.

While the US excels at robots to explore the outer reaches of space, the Anie development team here has a closer goal in mind - exploring the dark, forbidding spaces under the floor of your house. Anie is designed “to bravely go where no man in his right mind wants to go.”

The Anie robot, and it’s close robotic cousins also designed by the team at Topy, explores building crawl spaces, cavities, and even narrow pipes and ducting so that you don’t have to.

Anie is intended for the relatively benign environment encountered under most structures, though TOPY also makes ‘rescue robots’ used for natural, and man made, disaster recovery.