I have concerns about all the robots we're about to unload on the environment. The idea of drones flying overhead, autonomous cars on the freeway, and delivery bots moving nonchalantly past me on the sidewalk is sort of creepy. And what about all the workers these machines are replacing? The future of employment doesn't look good. But then when I see a robot solving a problem, I have to admit it's progress. Machines could allow us to live more convenient, seamless, and environmentally friendly lives. Take the Dispatch, a delivery bot developed by three MIT and UPenn alumni. It's looking to automate …

In a patent Apple filed and the Patent and Trademark Office published this week, we get a glimpse of yet another new product that could be launched under Tim Cook’s command. While the first such device was the Apple Watch, doing pretty well on the market, this second product that’s going to be entirely branded with Tim Cook innovation is unsurprisingly useless. The patent describes a new Apple device that is a wearable strap made of a woven fine fabric capable of acting as a display. This strap, because that’s all it is, is meant to either act as a tether to …

There is still a forest of cranes in Hudson Yards, a 26-acre development on Manhattan's west side. Skyscrapers have mushroomed, seemingly overnight. A new subway extension has made it more accessible to the thousands of people who are expected to populate the area. Even the existing structures are undergoing change. The Brutalist building at 450 W 33rd is shedding its austere concrete facade in favor of slick glass. There, the creative agency R/GA is gut-renovating 200,000 square feet of space to house its New York headquarters—what founder Bob Greenberg views as a new model for connected offices. R/GA is currently spread across four different buildings, which …

Retail's bizarre fascination with high-tech mirrors that shoppers show no interest in using at all continues. This time it's Ralph Lauren toying with RFID-enabled dressing-room mirrors. In the Ralph Lauren trial, RFID tags embedded in clothing are detected by the dressing-room mirror. Details about those items are displayed on the mirror (several languages are supported), and the system also appears to sync with inventory and point-of-sale systems. The best part, though, has nothing to do with RFID or database integration. It's the mirror's ability to mimic the lighting of various environments. According to the demo video, some of its lighting options are white, dusk, club and — …

American retail giant Target, a self-confessed long-time technology laggard, is now on a mission to catapult itself to the digital vanguard both inside and outside its shops. Top of its list: an in-store mobile phone navigation system that guides customers around cavernous floors using what could become the hottest information delivery vehicle in brick-and-mortar shopping since the barcode – lights. Lux has learned that a technology called visible light communication (VLC) is almost certainly a key component of what $73 billion Target is trumpeting as its new, customer friendly, transformative, 'mobile in-store experience'.

Manchester has been given a governmental handout of £10m, to help drive the development of the "Internet of Things" in the city. You can expect to see some talking bus stops rolled out, plus "sensors in parks" so app developers can award you with smiley faces when you bravely go out for a walk. The initiative is part of the CityVerve Project, an effort to see if there are actually any good real-world uses for the "Internet of Things" yet. Manchester's fund was announced by Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey, who said: "The UK’s tech sector is renowned for its creativity as …

A project to probe the viability of using low power Bluetooth Beacon technology as an aid for indoor navigation — with a special focus on helping blind and visually impaired people get around independently — has been awarded a $1 million grant from Google.org to broaden and accelerate its development. We last covered the joint venture back in August 2014 when the team discussed their concept and demoed a prototype working. Since then they’ve been testing the kit in real world stations, including in London Underground’s Pimlico station in February/March this year. And an on-going test at London’s Euston station which will wrap up by the end of this year.

HTC could be the latest tech giant to join the wearables race by launching its first Android Wear smartwatch in February 2016. The information was leaked by Evan Blass, freelance editor at Mashable. He wrote on Twitter: "HTC fans, you'll finally have One watch to call your own come February." The company has not yet revealed many details about the watch, with the market expecting it to be another device with a round design like the one adopted by Samsung, LG and Motorola.

The University of Oklahoma has created an app that students can use to navigate to group meeting rooms and other locations on campus using Aruba beacons and sensors. The University of Oklahoma has begun rolling out beacon technology to help students find study rooms and class information in its central library and other buildings by using their smartphones as they move about the vast campus in Norman, Okla. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon hardware and new analytics software from Aruba, accompanied by GPS and new sensors working over Wi-Fi, can put the power of smartphones, carried by virtually all 29,000 students, in …

A smart dress created with open source hardware and software is the latest wearable to have become a reality. Developed by researchers at the University of Vigo, Spain, the first prototype of the Environment Dress can accurately capture information about surrounding elements and analyse how it affects people's emotions. Through machine learning it will continuously learn from the measurements it takes and associate those with the wearer's emotions and moods. The wearable collects data sets including temperature, infra-red and ultraviolet radiation, carbon monoxide and noise. It then determines what environmental and behavioural patterns the wearer is experiencing. The dress will then sent out alerts …