The German word for cellphone is "handy." After a demonstration I recently
saw, the name seems less silly. A Canadian company called Gesturetek has invented a technology that lets any
cameraphone act like a joystick. That's right, your hand controls the
movement of a cursor on the screen. The software, Eyemobile, compares successive
views from the camera lens to judge the movement of your hand. That movement
can propel a ball through a maze, as in its TiltaWorld demo, and more may
come soon. It's like an old-fashioned handheld game, only electronic. Now
that's handy. —Lauren Aaronson

A cross between a tank and a soldier, the latest feat of military husbandry makes Robocop look like Officer Friendly. Combining a lightweight robot built by military contractor Foster-Miller for reconnaissance in Bosnia with a remote-control machine-gun mount invented by Northern California engineer Graham Hawkes [see interview], this is the world's first land-based telepresent combat weapona deadly-accurate surrogate gunner that needs no sleep and will never come home in a casket.