Commentary: Latest Reports from The Washington Posts ‘Innovation’

Apple waves the civil liberties flag – but for how long?

Here’s a quiz I often give my business and engineering graduate students:  If a website limits the topics that can be discussed, or decides who is allowed to post, or even censors comments it doesn’t like, has it violated the First Amendment? The answer is no.  But it’s a trick question.  Tech companies can’t violate […]

Domino’s has a robot delivering pizzas in Australia

Domino’s latest “deliveryman” stands three feet tall and doesn’t need to be tipped. It has ferried pizzas in Brisbane at a top speed of 12 mph, and the company’s Australian master franchise said it’s excited for what could come next. “We have a relentless passion to push the boundaries of what’s possible with pizza delivery,” said Michael Gillespie, chief […]

There may soon be another self-driving vehicle on the road, and it’s not a car

There may soon be another self-driving vehicle on the road, and it’s not a car. A team of engineering students in India have come up with a driverless bicycle. Developed at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, the bike, called i-Bike, was designed with disabled riders in mind. But the bike’s hybrid configuration, which can easily […]

Thanks to Nike, children may never have to learn to tie their shoes

What’s the best thing about slip-on shoes? For many of us, it’s never having to tie your shoes. Of course, this luxury doesn’t extend to all types of shoes. If you’re playing a sport or being active, tying a pair of laces is almost always required. (Unless Velcro is your type of thing.) But that […]

Why this dream workplace for bike lovers should be the norm, not the exception

It’s easy to see why 60 percent of employees at SRAM in Chicago bike to work. Its office overwhelmingly caters to bike commuters needs — offering 400 spots for their 150 employees to park bikes, a place to wash and repair bicycles and locker rooms for sweaty riders to shower in. “It’s removing any barriers for […]

What AlphaGo’s sly move says about machine creativity

AlphaGo, the computer system Google engineers trained to master the ancient game of Go, needed only one move to make it abundantly clear that it has left humans in its dust. The move came Thursday, in the second game of AlphaGo’s 4-1 landmark victory over South Korean Lee Sedol, one of the world’s best Go players. About […]

‘You got a little cricket leg in your teeth’: What it’s like to eat alternative protein bars

We asked our staff to try protein bars made with an unusual ingredient– crickets. So what did everyone think? Check out the video above. Related: Gateway bug: How crickets could hook America on eating insects

What New Delhi’s free clinics can teach America about fixing its broken health care system

Rupandeep Kaur, 20 weeks pregnant, arrived at a medical clinic looking fatigued and ready to collapse. After being asked her name and address, she was taken to see a physician who reviewed her medical history, asked several questions, and ordered a series of tests including blood and urine. These tests revealed that her fetus was healthy […]

Google’s psychedelic ‘paint brush’ raises the oldest question in art

A recent San Francisco art show hosted by Google included the typical trappings — a big crowd, striking pieces of art and expensive price tags. But there was one noteworthy distinction of this particular art show — all of the pieces were created with the help of a Google computer program. The artwork relies on software that remakes an image to […]

The latest policing tool to monitor rowdy spring breakers: Drones

Before a police department purchases a drone, officials are often forced to confront questions about privacy, public safety and the legal limits of government intrusion. In South Padre Island, Tex., law enforcement officials faced an additional question before the department bought two drones ahead of this year’s influx of spring break revelers: “How high can […]

Who said it, Donald Trump or a bot? An MIT researcher made it tough to tell.
Right now, think of this: We owe China $1.3 trillion. We owe Japan more than that. We have gun laws. I’ll bring back our money. — DeepDrumpf (@DeepDrumpf) March 5, 2016 Donald Trump has earned a reputation as an unpredictable guy. He doesn’t use a teleprompter. He speaks off the cuff and we never quite […]

3 ways in which a 3D printer may one day save your life

When four-month-old Lucy Boucher needed a kidney transplant, her 35-year-old father donated her a kidney. The transplant surgeons’ challenge was figuring out how to fit an adult kidney in an infant, connecting it with Lucy’s tiny blood vessels, making a complex procedure even more complicated and risky. It was recently revealed that Lucy was the […]

Goodyear’s radical idea of what driverless car tires will look like

Amid a whirlwind of interest around self-driving cars, companies are sharing flashy videos and prototypes of what they believe the car of the future will look like. Some are small and podlike. Others are sleek sedans covered in chrome. The interiors of these vehicles generally look drastically different than what we’re seeing today. But one thing generally has […]

Apple vs. FBI: The tip of the iceberg as laws can’t keep up with tech

The battle between the FBI and Apple over the unlocking of a terrorist’s iPhone will likely require Congress to create new legislation. That’s because there really aren’t any existing laws which encompass technologies such as these. The battle is between security and privacy, with Silicon Valley fighting for privacy. The debates in Congress will be […]

9 of the most absurdly extravagant new cars

There are the cars that you and I drive, and then there are super cars. They boast gaudy features, such as a eye-popping amounts of horsepower, and the luxurious comforts you’d find in a five-star hotel’s penthouse suite. The Geneva International Motor Show, which opens to the public Thursday, will offer us a chance to see […]

Watch this remarkable machine use 2,000 marbles to make beautiful music

If Rube Goldberg had a band, we now know what the musicians would likely have played. A Swedish musician has created a incredibly complex musical instrument that uses an intricate web of gears, funnels and handcrafted wood to carry 2,000 marbles. It’s fittingly dubbed “the marble machine” and has 3,000 parts. The elaborate contraption includes several […]

Drones are now smart enough to follow our every footstep

The world’s leading drone company announced a new version of its flagship drone Tuesday, including a feature that allows it to trace the path of a moving object. DJI’s Phantom 4 is smart enough to recognize three-dimensional shapes — be it a person, animal or car — and keep the subject in its sight no […]

NASA wants to build a jet so fast you can fly to any city in six hours
Sitting cramped in coach on a long flight can be unbearable. And NASA feels your pain. The agency is funding early efforts to build a plane so fast it could whisk you to any city on the planet in six hours or less. NASA is giving Lockheed Martin about $20 million in a preliminary design contract […]

For the first time, Google’s self-driving car takes some blame for a crash

A Google self-driving car sideswiped a bus this month, the first blemish on the otherwise spotless driving record of the company’s vehicles. Google’s 53 vehicles have driven more than 1.4 million miles autonomously and been in 17 crashes, but never been at fault before. The crash took place at 3:20 p.m. Feb. 14, about three miles from […]

Behold, the $1M electric super car no one asked for and no one needs

Move over Tesla. A new option has emerged for the driver who craves an absurdly fast electric car — the Concept_One from Croatian automaker Rimac Automobili. The Concept_One accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 2.6 seconds. It reaches 120 mph in 6.2 seconds and has a top speed of 221 mph. Quite simply, it will leave a […]

What’s blocking smart beds from helping you get a great night’s rest

What can your mattress tell you about how to get a better night’s sleep?  Apparently, quite a bit. At January’s Consumer Electronics Show, maverick bedding company Sleep Number demonstrated a new product called the It bed that has built-in sensors, sending a constant stream of data and analytics to your smartphone or tablet. Over time, […]