Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

ROBOLOBSTER
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
If not for the telltale wires and hefty Darpa funding, the RoboLobster could be mistaken for the real thing. It is amphibious, has claws, and can maintain traction in heavy surf. Real crustaceans, however, take little interest in espionage and detonating mines in war zones; RoboLobsters think of little else.

PHILIP K. DICK ROBOT
HANSON ROBOTICS
Do androids really dream of electric sheep? Now you can ask P. K. Dick himself. This bust relies on 36 servomotors to mimic the sci-fi legend's facial expressions, and features a polymer called Frubber that looks and moves like human skin. The bot uses motion-tracking machine vision to make eye contact with passersby, and best of all, artificial intelligence and speech software enable it to carry on complex conversations. "It invents new ideas using a mathematical model of Philip K. Dick's mind extracted from his vast body of writing," says David Hanson, founder of Hanson Robotics. The mechanized tribute to the author is a fitting one: Having grappled with the question "What is reality?" throughout his career, Dick would have delighted in Hanson's efforts to blur the boundaries between humans and their android imitations.

BRAINBALL
INTERACTIVE INSTITUTE
Relax, it's just a game - and in Brainball, the more passive person wins. Both players wear headbands that monitor the alpha and theta waves their brains generate when they're calm. A computer converts these signals into energy that moves a ball across the table. Stay mellow to get control and drive the ball into your opponent's goal.

HUMAN PAC-MAN
MIXED REALITY LAB SINGAPORE
Don VR goggles and a backpack equipped with wireless networking, motion sensors, and GPS to superimpose Pac-Man game elements on your physical surroundings. Fellow players are turned into enemy ghosts, and the area around you is lined with virtual pellets that you gobble up to score points.

SWEET VIRGIN ANGEL
INNESPACE
What do you get when you mash up Flipper with a Jet Ski? A prototype craft that can skip over, dive into, and cruise through open water the way dolphins do. The latest model, a two-seater, performs like a star at Sea World, maneuvering at 40 miles per hour on the surface and 20 mph below. The Angel grew out of Thomas Rowe's 1970s designs for speedy boat/sub combos that he calls variable altitude submersible hydrofoils. Working with Rowe, Innespace hopes the Angel will lead to a VASH on every dock. "We'd like to get other teams out there competing with their own designs," says company cofounder Rob Innes, who thinks DIY watercraft could be shipped and sold like kit-built airplanes. Those days might be a ways off. Though the craft isn't much harder to pilot than an SUV, it can submerge only briefly, and then just to snorkel depth, as its 175-horsepower engine is an air breather.

POWER ASSIST SUIT
KANAGAWA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Nurses in Japan dig the Power Assist. Its compressed-air lifting action helps them transfer patients from one bed to another. The suit, which calculates how much air to release based on sensors taped to the wearer's muscles, has other applications, too - like the heavy-lifting tasks performed by soldiers, construction workers, and longshoremen. Keg curls, anyone?

SELF-HEALING POLYMER
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Sure, your iPod is sleek - until you drop it and leave a scar on the case. Scientists imagine a future in which portable devices are housed in plastic that automatically repairs itself, like skin. When the self-healing polymer is cut, embedded microcapsules release a liquid agent called dicyclopentadiene. When the agent comes into contact with catalyst molecules in the plastic, it coagulates and hardens to repair the cracks. Tests of healed plastic show it's at least 90 percent as tough as its unscarred equivalent. Because the catalyst remains viable after self-repair, multiple healings are possible, offering repeated rescue for even the clumsiest geeks. And your best china could someday be just as invincible: The research team thinks a similar approach could be used to repair brittle materials like ceramic and glass.

OPTICAL CAMOUFLAGE
TOKYO UNIVERSITY
Want to blend in? In Optical Camouflage, a subject dons a coat covered with retroreflective material. A video camera records everything that's behind the person, while a projector beams the image onto the front of the jacket, making it - and the person - appear invisible. Could the trickery be any more transparent?