With 360-degree video, IEEE Spectrum puts you aboard drones that are flying high above the Tanzanian landscape: You’ll ride along as drones soar above farms, towns, and the blue expanse of Lake...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/360-video-zoom-over-zanzibar-with-tanzanias-drone-startups
With 360 video, IEEE Spectrum takes you behind the scenes with one of the world’s first drone-delivery companies. Zipline , based in California, is using drones to deliver blood to hospitals ...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/360-video-go-on-a-mission-with-ziplines-delivery-drones
Do your travel plans include New York City? Are you a techie? If the answer to those questions is yes, let IEEE Spectrum be your guide! We've put together a list of some of our favorite places t...
In the early hours of 5 February 1971, Don Eyles had a big problem: Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were orbiting the moon, preparing to land, but it looked like they were ...
When was the last time you sipped algae? Chances are, you’ve never done that. But while working on a special report about potential climate-saving technologies, IEEE Spectrum decided to try to...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/we-grew-algae-and-asked-spectrum-editors-to-taste-it
Making biochips, a key technology in studying disease, just got a little easier. This new nanoprinting process uses gold-plated pyramids, an LED light, and photochemical reactions to print more ...
Bicycling at night can be dangerous, particularly if you don't put much effort into making yourself visible to drivers. Alas, many people don't. This video describes the construction of an Arduin...
On Broadway, a few blocks north of Times Square in New York City, visitors flock to the Ed Sullivan Theater . The theater is currently home to television’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ...
Residents settle into swivel chairs in a beauty shop on the campus of Ebenezer, a senior living community in the heart of the Minneapolis, Minn. They strap on Samsung Gear VR headsets. With a co...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/better-living-through-virtual-reality
Animal-inspired technology has gone electric. These brightly colored, 3D-printed gels have the potential to create up to 110 volts of electricity in an instant, similar to the electric eel....
https://spectrum.ieee.org/origamifolded-hydrogel-paper-instantly-generates-110-volts-of-electricity
Editors Note: Due to popular demand, we're releasing this extended version of our interview with Ted Nelson, in which he talks about the work of Douglas Englebart, and in more detail about the or...
Ted Nelson is one of the original prophets of the information age. In the 1960s he invented the word hypertext, and created project Xanadu , which prefigured many of the elements of the World Wid...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ted-nelson-on-what-modern-programmers-can-learn-from-the-past
Building a mirror for any giant telescope is no simple feat. The sheer size of the glass, the nanometer precision of its curves, its carefully calculated optics, and the adaptive software require...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/casting-a-20-million-mirror-for-the-worlds-largest-telescope
One of the most ambitious telecommunications projects in the rural United States was completed this year, after US $300 million of investment and six years of construction. TERRA , General Commun...
Good soldering requires good tools. In particular, a soldering iron that uses feedback to keep the tip at a set temperature works much better than one that doesn’t. That functionality is easy t...
Wifibroadcast is a collection of open-source software that uses ordinary Wi-Fi dongles and Raspberry Pi hardware at each end to provide telemetry, recording capability, and high-resolution ...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/testing-diy-digital-video-for-fpv-flying
There are many reasons to admire the octopus, including its ability to instantly pop up tiny protrusions of various shapes from its skin to match the texture of its background. This technique, co...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/octopusinspired-camouflage-for-soft-robotics
Last year, SRI’s Alexander Kernbaum introduced us to Abacus Drive, a new kind of rotary transmission based on pure rolling motion that promises to be much cheaper and much more energy efficie...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/sri-inception-drive-infinitely-variable-transmission
Every day, Kevin Argentieri tracks down devices that are causing radio-frequency interference, and then tries to persuade their owners to shut them off. This is a delicate process that involves ...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/radio-frequency-hunters-saving-your-cell-signal
Today’s mobile users want faster data speeds and more reliable service. The next generation of wireless networks—5G—promises to deliver that, and much more. Right now, though, 5G is still...
Researchers at Ohio State University developed a way to change cells inside the body from one type to another—with just one touch from a nanochip. This new technology, called “tissue nanotra...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/repairing-organs-with-the-touch-of-a-nanochip
Most home robots are designed primarily for convenience and function. Not Kuri. Silicon Valley startup Mayfield Robotics designed Kuri specifically to be an adorable home companion . And tha...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/kuri-robot-brings-autonomous-video-to-a-home-near-you
Let’s say you are the program manager of a very large, complex system. Perhaps it’s an aircraft, or a building, or a communications network. Your system is valued at over US $500 million. Cou...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/robot-mechanic-could-prevent-satellites-from-becoming-space-junk
If your friend says she feels relaxed, but you see that her fists are clenched, you may doubt her sincerity. Robots, on the other hand, might take her word for it. Body language says a lot, but e...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/robots-learn-to-speak-body-language
Today’s mobile users want faster data speeds and more reliable service. The next generation of wireless networks—5G—promises to deliver that, and much more. Right now, though, 5G is still ...
For decades, global standards defining Wi-Fi and cellular networks have allowed people to exchange data over the air. But those technologies are worthless below the waves, and until now there ha...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/underwater-robots-learn-a-new-language-janus
When Anki introduced Cozmo almost exactly one year ago, we started off with a bit of skepticism , and a feeling that Anki was going slightly overboard with the kinds of promises that it was m...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/anki-makes-programming-easy-with-drag-and-drop-coding
Rats are nimble navigators, able to find their way around, under, and over obstacles, and through the tightest spaces. Roboticists have long dreamed of giving their creations similar navigation s...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/watch-this-robot-navigate-like-a-rat
Today’s mobile users want faster data speeds and more reliable service. The next generation of wireless networks—5G—promises to deliver that, and much more. Right now, though, 5G is still ...
The neocortex is the part of the human brain that processes the world around us. It controls language and motor function. It helps us recognize our friends’ faces or our favorite songs. And i...
https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-happens-in-your-brain-when-you-learn-a-song