Upcoming Tech Product Releases

Wondering what's coming in the weeks ahead? You could consult your favorite fortune teller, but she won't tell you what's really important: the latest gadget releases!
Whatever it is—a game, a phone, a tablet, or a mysterious new product—if we've got the scoop on when it's going to make a public debut, we'll share it here. Bookmark this page so you'll know when you can get your hands on the latest products. Maybe you'll even discover something here you didn't know you absolutely had to have.

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March 2015
Bloodborne
Bloodborne is a PlayStation 4 exclusive RPG game developed by From Software and director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who also directed Dark Souls. It's set in the ancient, abandoned, and cursed city of Yharnam that's rampant with a mysterious illness, turning its inhabitants into horrifying, murderous psychopaths and

Do we live in a computer simulation? Researchers say idea can be tested

A decade ago, a British philosopher put forth the notion that the universe we live in might in fact be a computer simulation run by our descendants. While that seems far-fetched, perhaps even incomprehensible, a team of physicists at the University of Washington has come up with a potential test to see if the idea holds water.

The concept that humanity might be living in a computer simulation was discussed in a 2003 paper published in Philosophical Quarterly by Nick Bostrom, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford. In the paper, he argued that at least one of three possibilities must be

LuminAR Bulb turns any surface into a touch screen

A new computer being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology can display interactive images on any surface, just by screwing into a light socket.

The team behind the device – led by student Natan Linder – aims to create "a new form factor for a compact and kinetic projected augmented reality interface."

LuminAR combines a laser pico-projector, camera and wireless computer, with software that can recognise objects and sense when a finger or hand is touching the surface. It also functions as a scanner with built-in wi-fi.

The project was developed through 2010, and demonstrated earlier this year at the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. The team has now released a video of

Tactus morphing touchscreen keyboard

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a company called Tactus has been demonstrating the world's first fully-integrated dynamic touchscreen tablet.

This 7" device showcases the company's tactile touchscreen technology and introduces an entirely new category of product made possible through its Tactus Morphing Tactile™ surface.

By enhancing both function and usability with Tactus, it is now possible to merge the essential capabilities of smartphones, tablets and laptops through a true physical interface. In a world of flat, static devices, Tactus aims to bring new life to touchscreens by enabling real, physical buttons that rise up from a screen's surface on demand, then disappear back into

Researchers break million-core supercomputer barrier

Stanford Engineering's Center for Turbulence Research (CTR) has set a new record in computational science by successfully using a supercomputer with more than 1 million computing cores. This was done to solve a complex fluid dynamics problem – the prediction of noise generated by a supersonic jet engine.

Joseph Nichols, a research associate in the centre, worked on the newly installed Sequoia IBM Bluegene/Q system at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL). Sequoia recently topped the list of the world's most powerful supercomputers, boasting 1,572,864

FDA clears first autonomous telemedicine robot for hospitals

RP-VITA, created by iRobot and InTouch Health, enables doctors to provide patient care from anywhere in the world via a telemedicine solution.

Credit: iRobot

US technology firm, iRobot Corp., has announced that its RP-VITA Remote Presence Robot has received 510(k) clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in hospitals. RP-VITA is the first autonomous navigation remote presence robot to receive such

Transparent smartphone being developed

Taiwanese company Polytron Technologies is working on a touchscreen smartphone that is almost entirely transparent. Due to its early stage of development, there is no software running yet, but the hardware is mostly in place. In this video from Mobile Geeks, the presenter claims that battery technology is "not even close" to becoming transparent yet. This is not true, however, as demonstrated by a breakthrough at Stanford University in

Major breakthrough in 3-D printing

Photonics West – the world's leading photonics, laser, and biomedical optics conference – took place this week in San Francisco. During the event, a German company called Nanoscribe GmbH presented the world's fastest 3D printer of micro- and nanostructures.

Nanoscribe's latest printer allows the smallest three-dimensional objects – often smaller than

Artificial intelligence could slash healthcare costs by more than 50%

New research from Indiana University has found that machine learning – the same computer science discipline that helped create voice recognition systems, self-driving cars and credit card fraud detection systems – can drastically improve both the cost and quality of health care in the United States.

Using an artificial intelligence framework, combining Markov Decision Processes and Dynamic Decision Networks, IU School of Informatics and Computing researchers Casey Bennett and Kris Hauser show how simulation modeling that understands and predicts the outcomes of treatment could reduce healthcare costs by over 50 percent while also improving patient

Google Glass features unveiled in preview video

Last year, Google announced "Project Glass" – a research and development program which aims to prototype and build an augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display. The project's intended purpose was to allow hands-free displaying of information currently found on smartphones, while providing interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands, in a manner similar to the iPhone application Siri.

Developers were given early access to the device for $1,500, with a consumer version expected in 2014. New details have now emerged on the company's website, including this video which shows the glasses in action. The search giant is offering trials of the product to "bold, creative individuals" and wants people to suggest ways in which they would make use

Stretchable battery could power wearable and implantable computers

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed the first stretchable lithium-ion battery – a device that could power a new generation of flexible electronics.

The power and voltage of the stretchable battery are similar to a conventional lithium-ion battery of the same size, but the flexible battery can stretch up to 300 percent of its original size and still function. It can work for eight to nine hours before it needs recharging, which can be done wirelessly.

The potential applications are diverse and may include wearable computers, or even implantable electronics, that could monitor everything from brain waves to heart activity – succeeding where flat, rigid batteries would fail.

Professor Yonggang Huang, who led the portion of the research focused on theory, design and modeling: "We start with a lot of battery components side by side in a very small space,

Brain-to-brain communication between rats

In a feat that sounds like science fiction, researchers have electronically linked the brains of pairs of rats for the first time, enabling them to communicate directly to solve behavioural puzzles. A further test of this work successfully linked the brains of two animals thousands of miles apart, via the Internet.

Credit: Duke University Medical Center

The results of these projects suggest the future potential for linking multiple brains, to form

Mobile data revenue will overtake voice by 2018

The rise of connected devices will drive mobile data revenues past voice revenues globally by 2018, according to a new report from the Global System Mobile Association (GSMA). This data explosion will provide better access to healthcare and education, help lift people out of poverty, fight hunger and reduce carbon emissions.

Mobile data is being driven by a surge in demand for connected devices and machine-to-

We are evolving into meta-intelligence group-minds

Peter Diamandis is the founder and chairman of X PRIZE Foundation, co-founder and chairman of Singularity University and the co-author of Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think. He is also co-founder of the asteroid mining company, Planetary Resources. In this video, he discusses the future of humans evolving into meta-intelligence group-minds and invites participants to the second international Global Future 2045 congress (June 2013).

3D printing helps replace injured patient's skull

In a world first, researchers have successfully replaced 75 per cent of an injured patient's skull with a precision 3D-printed polymer version. In the near future, any type of damaged bone could routinely be replaced with custom-manufactured implants.

Connecticut-based Oxford Performance Materials (OPM) was founded in 2000 with a simple purpose: to exploit a highly advanced molecule known as Polyether ether ketone (PEEK). PEEK is an ultra-high performance thermoplastic with a range of applications. Its advantages include high strength and toughness, chemical resistance and low toxicity.

After years of development, OPM has now gained FDA approval for its OsteoFab Patient Specific Cranial Device (OPSCD). This is the company's brand name for 3D-printed medical implants created from the PEEK polymer. These implants are "grown" layer by layer – directly from a digital CAD file, CT scan or MRI file – without the aid of tooling and with few practical limits on what can be produced. As such, OsteoFab is ideal for unique, one-off implants that are specifically shaped to an individual patient's anatomy.

One very desirable use of patient-specific implants is the replacement of bony voids in the skull. This was demonstrated by OPM's researchers on 4th March, when they scanned the head of an unnamed patient and replaced 75% of his skull with polymer components.

Scott DeFelice, President and CEO of OPM: "It is our firm belief that the combination of PEEK and Additive Manufacturing is a highly transformative and disruptive technology platform that will substantially impact all sectors of the orthopaedic industry. We have sought our first approval within cranial implants because the need was most compelling; however, this is just the beginning. We will now move systematically throughout the body, in an effort to deliver improved outcomes at lower overall cost to the patient and healthcare provider."

Up to 500 U.S. patients could use skull bone replacements every month, according to DeFelice. Possible patients include those with cancerous bone, as well as car accident victims, and military members suffering from head trauma.

FDA clearance for OPM marks the first approval of an additively manufactured polymer implant in the USA. The company now intends to seek well-qualified partners to bring this revolutionary process to market.

Last year, a similar procedure was undertaken in the Netherlands, when surgeons used 3D printing to replace the entirelower jawbone of an 83-year old woman.

Cloud computing platform for robots launched

Researchers of five European universities have developed a cloud-computing platform for robots. The platform allows robots connected to the Internet to directly access the powerful computational, storage, and communications infrastructure of modern data centers – the giant server farms behind the likes of Google, Facebook, and Amazon – for robotics tasks and robot learning.

With the development of the RoboEarth Cloud Engine, the team continues their work towards creating an Internet for robots. The new platform extends earlier work on allowing robots to share knowledge with other robots via a WWW-style database, greatly speeding up robot learning and adaptation in complex tasks.

Indestructible self-healing circuits

Imagine that the chips in your smart phone or computer could repair and defend themselves on the fly, recovering in microseconds from less-than-ideal battery power or total transistor failure. It might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but a team of engineers, for the first time ever, has developed just such a system.

The team, from the High-Speed Integrated Circuits laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has demonstrated this self-healing capability in tiny power

Samsung introduces the Galaxy S4

Samsung this week unveiled its latest flagship smartphone – the Galaxy S4. Even lighter and thinner than its predecessor, it features a 13-megapixel back camera, and a 5-inch display with 441 ppi (1920×1080) resolution. It will be available in late April, on 327 networks and in 155 countries.

Other new features include:

• Eye-tracking: pause video and scroll through pages using eye movements alone

• Dual Camera: take simultaneous photos and videos, using both rear and front cameras, and blend them together

• Air View: hover with your fingers to preview the content of an email, S-Planner, image gallery or video without having to open it

• Air Gesture: change a music track, scroll up and down a web page, or accept a call with a wave of your hand

• Story Album: curates content, such as SNS posts, memos, location and weather

A virtual "talking head" with realistic emotions

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have demonstrated a virtual "talking head" with realistic emotions, which could lead to improvements in human-computer interactions.

Credit: University of Cambridge

The system, called Zoe, bears a striking resemblance to Holly, the ship's computer in British sci-fi comedy, Red Dwarf. It is based on a template that, in the near future, could allow people to upload their own faces and voices. Users would be able to customise and personalise their own digital assistants for a range of applications – in mobile "face messages", gaming, audio-visual books, as a means of delivering online lectures or

Hitachi reveals self-driving mobility support vehicle

Japanese electronics firm Hitachi has unveiled "ROPITS" – Robot for Personal Intelligent Transportation System.

ROPITS is designed to aid the short-distance transportation of the elderly, or those with walking difficulties. The vehicle is equipped with a "specified arbitrary point autonomous pick-up and drop-off function" which can navigate to locations specified on a tablet or mobile device. Thanks to its small size and slow speed (3.7 mph, or 5.9 km/h), it can move safely