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 ...

Consumer & Gadgets

For most US drivers, EVs offer emissions benefits and cost savings

Despite regional variability in climate, electricity sources, congestion, and the wide variation in individual driving patterns, electric vehicles generate less greenhouse gas emissions and do not cost more than comparable ...

Consumer & Gadgets

On-body tech could expose users to new privacy and safety risks

Compared to the possibilities offered by on-body interaction techniques such as wearables, smartphones and computers are increasingly beginning to look like technologies of the past. But what risks arise when mini-computers ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Crash data reveal women face 60% higher injury risk than men

A study by TU Graz shows that women have a 60% higher injury risk in car accidents compared to men. This is especially true for female passengers and older women. The findings suggest that the safety systems and legal test ...

Consumer & Gadgets

What does it mean to train an AI to speak like you?

Ultra-personalized artificial intelligence for assisted communication risks muting aspects of the user's identity and occasionally breaches privacy, according to a new study from a Cornell Tech doctoral student who trained ...

Consumer & Gadgets

The friendlier AI gets, the more it can backfire

Major AI platforms, including OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as social apps like Replika and Character.ai, are increasingly designing chatbots to be warm, friendly, and empathetic. However, new research from the Oxford Internet ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Are you addicted to your AI chatbot? It might be by design

AI chatbots can grant almost any request—a celebrity in love with you, a research assistant, a book character sprung to life—instantly and with little effort. New research presented at the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors ...