IEEE Spectrum

Floating equipment in the stratosphere prevents the need for extensive infrastructure on the ground

Patients at a Florida clinic are the only ones in the United States with access to Cyberdyne’s HAL exoskeleton, but that will change in 2019

A simple robot that does almost nothing

The VX1000 digital camcorder combined professional features with a price tag amateurs could afford

Waymo and GM Cruise will unveil them in limited areas, but a U.S. national rollout will need new road regulations

This was the first product that let you reach a doctor when you absolutely, positively needed one

This was the machine that finally let us play Space Invaders at home

The first commercially available Blu-ray disc player received mixed reviews, but it triumphed by heading off a potentially devastating format war

Here are some of the technologies you’ll be reading about this year

The cryptocurrency is going on an energy diet to compete with more efficient blockchains

Real programming chops lay behind the Furby’s cuddly, creepy facade

Sarcos Robotics’ full-body suits will let factory workers lift 90 kilograms without breaking a sweat

The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project is the first large offshore wind farm in the U.S. It won’t be the last

SpaceX and Blue Origin compete to commercialize Earth orbit and beyond

UL 1203 certified epoxy for explosion-proof and dust-ignition-proof electrical equipment for use in hazardous locations

Messenger's 1.3 billion users send more messages on New Year’s Eve than on any other day of the year

Apple, Google, and Amazon aren’t the only tech companies embracing geographic diversity

In a new book, veteran programmer Adam Barr explains why it happens and how to fix it

Dozens of companies vied to build the first commercially successful recreational drone; the competition was won by a Chinese engineer barely out of adolescence

Technical mishaps occurred in trains, planes, automobiles, and many more places

The road to the first automotive radar detector began when a radar engineer was stopped by traffic police for speeding

Credit cards largely funded the development of a gadget that now saves thousands of lives every year all over the world

After a long struggle, audiophiles finally managed to persuade the famously “closed” Apple to open up its iPods

The device that launched the fish-finder category traces its origins to a couple of tinkerers who began modifying Heathkit depth sounders

Cars and planes make sense for short and long distances, but for intercity travel, they don’t even come close to fast trains

Can a layer of cheap, widely-available mystery material prevent thermal runaway?

A wearable device for detecting possible opioid overdoses is one of many technological tools that aim to address the U.S. public health crisis

Is the reputation of elite universities just a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Fujitsu has developed a judging system that can objectively score a routine based on the angles of a gymnast's joints

Supply-chain problems forced a premium camcorder to mutate into a game-friendly kit

Microsoft’s challenge requires AI agents to cooperate in a virtual universe

Your weekly selection of awesome (holiday themed) robot videos

Martin Ford's new book, 'Architects of Intelligence,' explores the reality of AI through interviews with the people actually working on it

A new survey points to a “serious rift” between the expectations of physicians and AI experts.

The Garmin StreetPilot helped destroy the market for street atlases, but it might have saved a few marriages in the process

The $10,000 gold Apple Watch was an extreme indication of Apple’s ability to command premium prices; too bad the company stopped making updates for that model after three years

The Technics SL-1200, a pioneering direct-drive turntable, earned the distinction of being a musical-playback device that was also used as a musical-performance device

The Cobra 138XLR was the most legendary CB radio during the brief but glorious golden age of CB radios

We talk to Ken Bazydola at iRobot about the world's fanciest robotic vacuuming system

iRobot's newest flagship robot vacuum is the best there is, if you can afford it

Factory machines will use time-sensitive networking to coordinate their work

Novel repeater units and a clever layout of ferrite plates helps this new wireless-power-transfer system simultaneously deliver power to 10 devices

Stanford’s DeepSolar neural network analyzed satellite images to count U.S. solar installations—and there are a lot more than anybody thought

Crop scientists hope to replace traditional, painstaking monitoring methods with automation

Manhole antenna solution offers glimpse into 5G strategies for signal propagation

A popular chat service, 3615 SM, has been resurrected from the original code

A new modeling tool aims to capture the butterfly effect that occurs across a city when unexpected events occur

Hardware-based motion planning that operates in under a millisecond makes robots both safer and more versatile

The FCC says hundreds of fragments from the Starlink constellation could reach the Earth’s surface every day

CHAdeMO and the China Electricity Council invite other countries to join them in creating an open charging standard for electric vehicles