One-finger exercise reveals unexpected limits to dexterity
"Push your finger as hard as you can against the surface. Now as hard as you can but move it slowly - follow the ticking clock. Now faster. Now faster."
View ArticleSuperstition proved to improve performance
(PhysOrg.com) -- Superstitions are often regarded as irrational and inconsequential, but researchers in Germany have been taking them seriously, trying to identify the benefits of superstitions, if...
View ArticleRobotics: Safety without protective barriers
The modern working world is no longer conceivable without robots. They assist humans in manufacturing, laboratories or medicine. In the future, a new projection and camera-based system will prevent...
View ArticleTapSense touchscreen technology distinguishes taps by parts of finger (w/ video)
Smartphone and tablet computer owners have become adept at using finger taps, flicks and drags to control their touchscreens. But Carnegie Mellon University researchers have found that this interaction...
View ArticleDextrous robotic hand gets thumbs up
European researchers said Thursday they had developed the world's first real-sized, five-fingered robotic hand able to grasp and manipulate objects with human-like dexterity.
View ArticleLifelike, cost-effective robotic hand can disable IEDs (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) -- Sandia National Laboratories has developed a cost-effective robotic hand that can be used in disarming improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
View ArticleBig NSF grant funds research into training robots to work with humans
What if robots and humans, working together, were able to perform tasks in surgery and manufacturing that neither can do alone?
View ArticleFine hands, fists of fury: Our hands evolved for punching, not just dexterity
(Phys.org)—Men whacked punching bags for a University of Utah study that suggests human hands evolved not only for the manual dexterity needed to use tools, play a violin or paint a work of art, but so...
View ArticleTeaching robots lateral thinking: New algorithms could help household robots...
Many commercial robotic arms perform what roboticists call "pick and place" tasks: The arm picks up an object in one location and places it in another. Usually, the objects—say, automobile components...
View ArticleNASA uses Leap Motion to move ATHLETE rover (w/ video)
(Phys.org) —NASA representatives were at the 2013 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco to show how the ATHLETE robot, a six-legged robot developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in...
View ArticleDARPA's two-armed robot handles tools at less cost
(Phys.org) —DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is getting closer to its goal of securing robotic hands that mimic the hand's finer movements, at an affordable cost. A research project...
View ArticleThe ascent of man: Why our early ancestors took to two feet
A new study by archaeologists at the University of York challenges evolutionary theories behind the development of our earliest ancestors from tree dwelling quadrupeds to upright bipeds capable of...
View ArticleWhat evolved first—a dexterous hand or an agile foot?
Resolving a long-standing mystery in human evolution, new research from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute indicates that early hominids developed finger dexterity and tool use ability before the...
View ArticleJoystick advances independent voting
A voting joystick created at Michigan State University could eventually enable people with dexterity impairments, senior citizens and others to exercise their right to cast ballots independently.
View ArticleEngineers use the environment to give simple robotic grippers more dexterity
Most robots on a factory floor are fairly ham-handed: Equipped with large pincers or claws, they are designed to perform simple maneuvers, such as grabbing an object, and placing it somewhere else in...
View ArticleDead men punching: Cadavers buoy idea our hands are for dexterity and fistfights
University of Utah biologists used cadaver arms to punch and slap padded dumbbells in experiments supporting a hotly debated theory that our hands evolved not only for manual dexterity, but also so...
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