Brett Zarda

A New Robotic Frontier: Air Hockey

Designed as a technology demonstration, a puck-whacking robot may soon challenge you on your home turf


Stroll by a strip mall arcade or the local Dave & Buster's, look behind the noisy kids playing Dance Dance Revolution, and you'll likely spot an air hockey table. Like Pac-Man and the maddening claw game, air hockey remains unchanged and everlasting. Two facts seem to endear us to the floating puck: 1) everyone thinks they're good at the game but 2) nobody knows for sure. Nowhere in the sports landscape are so many goals scored upon oneself. A 6-0 victory in one game is reversed in the next battle, thanks entirely to Lady Luck. But when you compete against the Air Hockey Bot 1000 (AHB-1000), a career once dictated by fickle fortune can finally be tested against formulaic consistency.

[ Read Full Story ]
READ MORE ABOUT > , , , ,
The Score

A Table-Sized Weight Bench for a Shoebox Sized Apartment

Weightlifters trapped in small spaces may soon get more room to swing their guns

A 450 square foot shoebox apartment was once a valid exemption from owning fitness equipment (and merely one component of your preemptive exercise avoidance plan). But you soon may have one less excuse for that gut.  The Otto-Bench, a concept created by Gabriel Prero, presents the first chink in your oversized armor. The aesthetically pleasing ottoman or coffee table, transforms seamlessly into a weight bench and houses all the required hardware needed to get buff.

[ Read Full Story ]

PPX: The PopSci Predictions Exchange

RSS Link

New IPO

  • Inflight Wi-Fi

    Will American and Virgin Airlines outfit all of their planes with Wi-Fi by the holiday travel season?

Hot Stocks

Ready to bet on the future? Start here!

Subscribe for 2 free issues!

may2008_cover.jpg