Convincing kids to sit still long enough to take their picture either takes a small army of distracting stuffed animals, or the University of Tokyo's new high-speed camera tracking system which guarantees your subject is always in frame. Read More >>

People with a fear of social situations are often labelled as loners and ostracised, but in reality social phobias are incredibly common. For example, how many of us get anxious about speaking in front of a large crowd? And to help people over come these fears, researchers at MIT have developed an interactive program that coaches people through social interactions, which boosts their confidence. Read More >>

Microsoft Research has come up with a clever way to let users actually feel what they're interacting with on a touchscreen. And it doesn't involve complex finger contraptions, or bulky gloves. Instead, the researchers simply installed the display on a robotic mount that moves in response to where and what is being touched, simulating an interaction with what's on-screen. Read More >>

There's something uncanny about drones, those autonomous aeroplanes that kill insurgents and civilians — but mostly civilians. But drones aren't all bad. Outside of warzones, drones have been helping everyone from farmers to journalists and now they're helping doctors too. Read More >>

In the cold winter months you'll do everything you can to maximise your exposure to the sun. In the scorching summer, though, it's just the opposite. So what if there were a way to harness/banish the sun's rays without a constant battle with curtains or venetian blinds? Read More >>

Gesture recognition systems like the Kinect, or the upcoming Leap Motion, rely on special hardware and require you to be in a specific place to detect your motions. A limitation that researchers at the University of Washington have all but eliminated by instead using the Wi-Fi network in your home to recognise gestures. Read More >>

As impressive as Honda's Asimo robot is, it still walks like a small child perpetually taking its first careful steps. So to ensure that one day robots will be able to fight our wars, clean our homes, and dominate us at sports, researchers at the Humanoid Robotics Institute at Waseda University have redesigned their robot's lower legs to function more naturally like a human's. Read More >>

Have you ever had a problem with your car, but were left completely and utterly bewildered when you popped the hood in hopes of fixing it yourself? If this clever augmented reality app from Inglobe Technologies ever hits the market, even the most clueless driver will be able to easily maintain their vehicle, and maybe even have a chance of fixing a problem themselves. Read More >>

It is not the louse we hate. Nor is it the mosquito, shirt tag, wool sweater, chicken pock, or sudden rash that torments us—the itching itself is what drives us mad. But finally, scientists have finally been able to identify the molecule that signals our brain to start scratching us raw—and removing it kills itchiness forever. But don't we itch for a reason? Read More >>

Microsoft's Kinect provided gamers with a hands-free way to play their favourite titles. But when the controller was removed from the situation, so was the haptic force feedback that can enhance gameplay. Most of us were ok with the tradeoff, but not the Imagineers at Disney Research who've come up with a way to provide tactile force feedback using nothing but targeted puffs of air. Read More >>

Fabrics geared towards athletes are designed to wick sweat away from the body so they don't feel drenched. But the fabric is still wet and weighed down with perspiration. To really feel dry, researchers at UC Davis have developed a fabric with channels that literally drain sweat away. Gross and awesome. Read More >>

There are endless metrics a store has access to when it comes to when, what, and who is buying merchandise. But surprisingly, there's not a heck of a lot of data on why a customer decides not to buy something. So Fujitsu is hoping its new Kinect-based research tool provides more insight into how customers browse, and why they may decide against a purchase. Read More >>

Had the Wright Brothers foolishly chosen to build their original flyer from concrete, their names probably wouldn't have gone down in the history books. But South Dakota School of Mines & Technology students David Haberman and Tyler Pojanowski did, and were the first to fly and safely land an 8kg remote control concrete aircraft. Read More >>

In the not too distant future the world is going to be abuzz with quadrotors flying about making deliveries, monitoring traffic, and of course spying on everyone: a skill this gecko-like craft is particularly adept at. Thanks to a special dry adhesive it's able to stick and unstick from surfaces, letting it land and perch almost anywhere. Read More >>

This might be the biggest tech humblebrag ever. A team of scientists at Los Alamos National Labs has quietly shrugged its shoulders and admitted to the fact that, yeah, it's been using quantum internet for, like, the last two years. Whatever. Read More >>