Researchers in Italy and Sweden have spent the last ten years developing what they call the “Smart Hand,” a
prosthetic hand which enables feeling in its fingertips. The hand — which was recently wired up to a test patient through a surgical procedure — has four motors and forty sensors which are linked directly to the
brain. In the surgery, the nerve endings of the patient were linked up to receptors in the hand, which allows for feeling in the fingertips of the hand, even though the hand is not really a part of his body. In the video after the break, you can see the greater precision and dexterity this hand allows for. Though the research still needs to be refined before practical use, it looks pretty far along — and pretty awesome — to us.
Continue reading Prosthetic, robotic ‘Smart Hand’ has feelings, too
Filed under: Robots, Science
Prosthetic, robotic ‘Smart Hand’ has feelings, too originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Hey, you — yeah you, the BlackBerry Storm owner over there. You listening? Good. That mythical software update we heard about just last week is obviously the real deal, and a screen grab from Verizon’s internal systems has shown up to prove it. We’re told that it should go live tomorrow (that’s October 25th for those in strange, potentially illegitimate time zones) at 6PM. On the whole, it’ll make your Storm act a lot more like the forthcoming Storm2, but specifically you can expect a “faster, more accurate and more natural text input experience, word completion, a virtual QWERTY keyboard in portrait view and enhanced sensitivity when editing, copying and pasting.” You’ll also get the ability to “enable Auto Correction as opposed to Word Completion in landscape view.” The full changelog should be coming soon, so hang tight! Oh, and cancel those plans for tomorrow night, okay?
[Thanks, Anonymous]
Update: Check out the full (purported) changelog after the break!
Continue reading BlackBerry Storm update landing tomorrow, bringing lots of good stuff (update: now with changelog!)
Filed under: Cellphones, Software
BlackBerry Storm update landing tomorrow, bringing lots of good stuff (update: now with changelog!) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Samsung’s made some lofty boasts regarding its LTE support before, and here we go with some official documentation of US-bound products care of the FCC. The agency’s database lists device A3LSLCU100 (catchy name, eh?) as a pre-production LTE USB modem from the company — and that’s about it. As for the usual fun of looking at over-saturated internal / external photos, good ol’ Sammy’s got a window of 180 days of confidentiality that started September 24th, so by our count, we’ve got potentially quite a while before we see something. The best we get now is this label outline above — one more, equally nondescript shot after the break, if you’re curious.
Continue reading Samsung LTE USB modem winds up in FCC database
Filed under: Networking
Samsung LTE USB modem winds up in FCC database originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We’ve been led to believe in the past that there’d be a GSM version of Motorola’s mighty Sholes for markets outside the US, but this particular version that passed the FCC this week — ID IHDP56KC5, if you must know — has us particularly interested. Why? Well, it’s packing WCDMA on the 850 and 1900MHz bands, which means it’d work on AT&T, Rogers, and HSPA newcomers Bell and Telus. We’ve been led to believe, though, that this particular device is destined for Latin America where 850 / 1900 is also used in favor of the 2100MHz spectrum more prevalent in Europe. That doesn’t rule out Canada, but our instincts tell us that Verizon has every intention of locking up the Sholes as a US exclusive, which means AT&T is a likely no-go — the carrier’s been strangely silent on Android, anyhow, and we haven’t heard a peep of recent intel suggesting they’re prepping Google-powered gear in time for the holidays. Of course, enterprising individuals will probably figure out how to unlock and import this bad boy, so if you’re an American and the thought of switching to Big Red for a Droid makes you physically ill, take heart that there might yet be hope.
[Via MobileCrunch]
Filed under: Cellphones
Motorola Sholes / Droid comes in US HSPA flavor, probably not US-bound originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Lighters are more often than not outside the scope of our coverage here at
Engadget, and while we don’t condone smoking or lighting
anything on fire… well, these are just awesome. Banpresto’s launched a pre-order of these two beautiful Zippo-style lighters, a Sega Mega Drive and a
Sega Saturn which runs through November 6th, with a shipping date sometime in December. Each lighter runs ¥10,500 (around $115). We’ll definitely keep our eyes peeled for more of these smokers.
[Via Joystiq]
Filed under: Gaming
Sega lighters: smoking will never be cool again originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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