Consumer & Gadgets news

Consumer & Gadgets

Wearable glove turns data into heat and touch for more personal insights

University of Adelaide researchers have developed a wearable glove that uses heat, touch and physical objects to transform data into a sensory experience. The prototype, called ThermoPhy, was developed as part of a remote ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Intelligent, but not conscious: A warning about AI chatbots

Have you ever said "thanks" to ChatGPT, or "please" to Claude? Maybe you're just being polite, showing some civility to a helpful and eloquent conversational partner. You may even consider politeness a safe choice, just in ...

Consumer & Gadgets

AR-assisted Japanese flower arrangement helps beginners learn at home while preserving mindfulness

Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, is an important form of Japan's Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) that fosters creativity, mindfulness and aesthetic sensitivity. Also known as "Kado," or way of the flower, ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Love at first prompt? How AI-assisted courtship is rewriting the rules of online dating

In the famous French play Cyrano de Bergerac, the brilliant but insecure Cyrano lends his eloquence to the handsome, tongue-tied Christian to help him woo his lover. Today, a remarkably similar scene is playing out among ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Can Pepper the robot be a good playmate?

What's it like to play a physical game with or against a robot that both looks and behaves like a person? That's what NTNU researchers wanted to find out when they conducted a controlled laboratory experiment with Pepper, ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Rising costs and competition threaten GoPro

For nearly 25 years, GoPro cameras have gone underwater, glided with parachutes and slipped down ski slopes, allowing the adventurous to record images of their experiences.

Consumer & Gadgets

Entirely new way of making espresso shakes up the coffee world

Researchers at UNSW Sydney have harnessed the power of ultrasonic sound waves to make espresso-strength coffee with room-temperature water, cutting energy use by up to 75%. That morning coffee kick from a shot of espresso ...

Consumer & Gadgets

The consequences of relying on AI for accurate news

It's no secret that the last few years have seen a massive explosion in the use of artificial intelligence for general information-gathering. An even more recent trend, though, is how large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, ...

Consumer & Gadgets

How AI chatbots become better learning coaches

Many AI systems answer questions in a matter of seconds—and, in the process, often prevent people from doing exactly what learning is all about: thinking for themselves. Machine learning expert Jakub Mačina is therefore developing ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Apple tries again on AI, turns to Google for help

Apple unveiled an artificial intelligence overhaul for the iPhone on Monday, turning to Google for help two years after the company stumbled in its first attempt.

Consumer & Gadgets

New app lets anyone operate a robot from their phone

Someone with no computing experience may soon be able to remotely control a robot from anywhere on the planet using a smartphone, thanks to new technology developed by Georgia Tech. The new technology is also set to revolutionize ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Framework generates 'shadow art' from scan of any object

Some people have a gift for creating beautiful works of art. Others appreciate art but do not have the talent to create it. Researchers at Cornell Tech and the Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science have ...

Internet

AI produces shallower knowledge than web search, study finds

Learning about a topic by interacting with AI chatbots like ChatGPT rather than following links provided by web search can produce shallower knowledge. Advice given on the basis of this shallow knowledge tends to be sparser, ...

Consumer & Gadgets

VR hand gestures risk excluding millions, study finds

Hand gesture controls being developed for the next generation of virtual and augmented reality systems risk excluding millions of people, including those with common conditions such as arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome, ...

Consumer & Gadgets

How blind and low-vision users manage their passwords

Passwords remain the go-to authentication tool in everyday life, says CISPA researcher Alexander Ponticello. At the same time, passwords are often a security weak spot: too short, too simple, and reused far too often. Blind ...

Consumer & Gadgets

E-scooters up rideshare, cut bikeshare, raise safety concerns

A new study from a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign marketing expert finds that electric scooters, one of the fastest-growing forms of urban transportation, reshape city mobility in unexpected ways.

Consumer & Gadgets

How attractive do AI voices sound?

With recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), synthetic voices have become increasingly prevalent in our everyday soundscape, raising the question: Can AI voices still be distinguished from human voices, and how attractive ...

Consumer & Gadgets

New study uncovers data protection gaps in popular mHealth apps

Researchers at the University of Bremen have uncovered significant discrepancies between the data protection claims and the actual behavior of mobile health applications (mHealth apps). Many apps transmit personal data before ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Five ways to make AI more trustworthy

Self-driving taxis are sweeping the country and will likely start service in Colorado in the coming months. How many of us will be lining up to take a ride? That depends on our level of trust, says Amir Behzadan, a professor ...

Consumer & Gadgets

How video games can alter reality

Since its release 40 years ago, Tetris has become one of the most prevailing video games ever.