ball

Nanotech golf ball delayed

News On its first shot, the nanotechnology golf ball has landed in the rough. The NDMX, a golf ball designed by material science specialist NanoDynamics that will correct for a slight slice or a hook, was supposed to be on store shelves this past spring.

6 October 2005, 10:15

News.blog: Ball-cam takes odd snaps

News The little satuGO camera has been bopping around the blogosphere for the last couple of weeks, and it's a pretty unusual concept: a 3-megapixel bouncing-ball camera that yields surprising shots by taking a picture whenever it hits a surface.

31 January 2006, 9:27

Bots play ball

News Instead of bot fights, the robots try to throw the Nerfs through round holes in translucent walls at each end of the field, and electronic scoreboards on the wall record when a ball makes it through. If you want a glimpse of the future of...

20 March 2006, 10:32

Photos: Robots make like Crouch and score

News A competitor at the RoboCup 2006 games (more photos here) takes aim to send a ball past an opposition player. But this diminutive robot could still get the ball in the goal -- with a touch of Beckham-like bend.

19 June 2006, 10:34

Photos: The World Cup runs on tech

News Each match will be played with a new Adidas 'Teamgeist' ball with a 14-panel configuration that forms an almost perfectly smooth exterior. The new ball construction promises to give players increased accuracy and control, and has already been the...

12 June 2006, 11:58

Apple's Mighty Mouse loses its tail

News A scroll ball allows for left-right, up-down and diagonal scrolling. It's possible to enable single-button use -- potentially of interest to Apple purists who want the scroll ball but still insist on the Mac mantra of single-button clicking -- and...

26 July 2006, 10:53

Football-playing robots stage own World Cup

News Germany's FU-Fighters, from Freie University in Berlin, turned around and beat Cornell University's Big Red from New York in the small-size league, in which robots are no more than 180mm in diameter and play with an orange golf ball on a field the...

20 July 2005, 11:07

News.blog: Vacuum cleaner whiz Dyson to branch out

News In Japan, for instance, the company makes a small one that looks like a ball with a telescopic handle. Before getting into vacuums, he designed a Sea Truck, a boat for transporting cargo, and the Ball Barrow, a wheelbarrow with a ball for the front...

28 April 2006, 10:25

News.blog: Physical sciences will change society

News Nordan showed off a ping pong ball covered in a nano-nickel material engineered by Integran Defense Systems. He smashed the ball between two pieces of wood with a hammer and wasn't able to dent it. CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

Tags: engineering, technologies, scale, material

16 October 2007, 9:41

Photos: Famous films, Lego style

News In fact, this is a slightly bastardised version of the original in which Indy, after avoiding the giant ball, shouts out a giant cheer. It may be one of the most famous scenes in movie history: Indiana Jones running away from the giant stone ball...

Tags: credit, scenes, film, youtube

24 September 2007, 11:49

Ref-helping tech not ready for World Cup

News The latest and most promising prospect has been a 'smartball' loaded with an RFID chip, jointly developed by German companies Cairos Technologies and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, an engineering research and software...

20 June 2006, 11:31

'Madagascar' pushes tech limits

News To illustrate the technique, in one drawing a red ball appears perfectly round, and as it is thrown into the air in the next drawing, it appears oval or stretched out. Master animators used to sketch what's called a key frame -- for example, a boy...

25 May 2005, 10:07

Photos: Robots catch World Cup fever at RoboCup 2006

News In these games, the robot dogs -- and other robotic competitors -- have to demonstrate both individual skills, such as dribbling the ball and locating themselves on the field of play, and co-operative actions such as passing.

14 June 2006, 10:45

News.blog: The man-sized rolling robot

News Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, a well-known hub for breakthroughs in robotics, said on Wednesday that they've built a new type of mobile robot that can balance and move in any direction on a ball, instead of with mechanical legs or...

10 August 2006, 9:55

News.blog: NASA 'earbots' keep robots well balanced

News The earbot is a Styrofoam golf ball-like structure containing clusters of micro electro-mechanical sensors used to sense direction of motion, acceleration and rotation, much like the cochlea measures head movement.

3 October 2006, 10:26