Stories by Nick Barber

Technology runs the Boston Marathon

The runners took center stage during the Boston Marathon Monday, but behind the scenes of the prestigious road race was an enterprise-class data center capable of accurately tracking more than 26,000 runners and relaying that information to a number ...

Controlling RFID tags to protect privacy

A researcher is working on technology he hopes will be able to control RFID tags and protect private information.

Simon the robot has the ability to learn

Simon the robot, who has the ability to learn new tasks, got his first public outing at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Atlanta Monday.

Skinput makes the entire body a touch interface

Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon University publicly unveiled work at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Atlanta Monday that makes an entire body a touch interface. Called Skinput, the system listens to the sounds made by tapping on p...

Luminos add third dimension to Microsoft Surface

Using a Microsoft Surface table computer has typically been limited to two dimensional interactions, but research presented at the Computer Human Interaction (CHI) conference in Atlanta adds a third dimension.

New application could make all software 'open source'

Imagine controlling Apple iTunes from inside Microsoft Word without having to switch applications. That could be possible, according to researchers at the University of Washington who are working on a project that could essentially make any proprieta...

Homemade, soccer-playing robots compete for trip to Atlanta

Cheering crowds packed into Boston University's Agganis Arena over the weekend not for a rock concert or sporting event, but for a robotics competition. More than 50 teams from across the Northeast U.S. and three other countries brought homemade robo...

MIT opens new Media Lab Complex, expands research space

MIT has expanded the footprint of its Media Lab with a new US$90 million, 163,000-square-foot modern building.

TSA installs full-body scanners to screen air travelers

Full-body scanners were installed at Boston Logan International Airport on Friday, a technology that some see as important in identifying terrorist threats but which others worry is an invasion of privacy.

Battling AR helicopter controlled by iPhone

The new AR Drone helicopter combines an iPhone and virtual games to make a product that's drawing much attention at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The helicopter, or what France-based Parrot calls a quadricopter has four fans that allow ...

LightSpeaker combines wireless audio and LED light

Klipsch has developed a device that combines a wireless speaker and LED light and installs into most standard light sockets. Called the LightSpeaker, it uses a base station transmitter to stream music to each unit, up to 50 feet away, using 2.4 GHz w...

EU closes 54 Web sites for consumer law violations

The European Union published findings of an 18-month investigation Tuesday finding that 301 Web sites that sold mobile phone ringtones, wallpapers and other services had "serious breaches of EU consumer law," according to a statement.

CEATEC: KDDI shows low-cost joystick for mobile phones

Japanese telecommunications company KDDI showed a low-cost, 3D joystick for mobile phones at Ceatec on Wednesday.

CEATEC: Unicycling Murata robot is back, this time faster

Muratagirl, the unicycling robot, is back at Japan’s Ceatec with improvements and some new tricks.

3D not just for TVs, but gesture control too

As 3D imaging emerged as a theme at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications took the technology a step further and presented its research on 3D gesture control.