Robotic instincts

University of Manchester researchers have developped a vision chip that can be used as an eye for the new-generation humanoid robots. The chip will work in a way similar to the way the human retina does its job, giving the robot excellent peripheral and central vision. It will process complex images at rapid rates, filter them through to the robot’s brain and enable it to react in real time. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed an array of polymer-based flexible tactile sensors that will vastly improve their sensitivity to touch. A signal-processing algorithm helps identify and manipulate objects, and classify surface textures like the human fingers.

Child-tracker

Gillian Swain, a final-year design student at the Brunel University in London, has built Square Eyes, a shoe insole that can monitor and control how much television a child watches, based on how much exercise they do in a day. The insole has two buttons. One of them tracks how many steps a child has travelled, and the other calculates and displays how much TV-watching time the wearer has in credit. Once the earned time runs out, the TV automatically switches itself off, until more exercise is done.