3-D printers launch small businesses

Andreas, an IT guy in Austria who didn’t want his last name used for this article, started out as a hobbyist. He customizes Lego ”minifigs” — the plastic characters that come with a Lego toy set — to create historically accurate dioramas, or three-dimensional models.

Lego had stopped making a specific hat that made his Napoleonic figures accurate. With no experience in product design and no access to a factory, he designed a new hat and had it 3-D printed.

5 Great Gadgets For Small Business

You can save time, money and a bit of your sanity with these tech devices designed for entrepreneurs. #1: Square Businesses that accept plastic have an easier time getting customers to pay up — and pay on time. But many small businesses don’t have the infrastructure to take credit cards, which usually require signing up … Continue Reading

Five Forerunners of NASA’s Robot Astronaut

These days, plenty of robots have landed on other planets and been put to work. Still, building a machine that can operate in microgravity around humans but without human control was a unique challenge. The mature, responsible R2 owes its shot at glory in space to a host of robotic “ancestors,” earlier androids that never left Earth as well as less human-like machines that are already hard at work on the ISS.

RoboCup 2010: Could Robot versus Human Be Far Behind?

As the World Cup races forward in South Africa a different kind of soccer tournament recently kicked off in Asia. And whereas debates in Cape Town and Johannesburg may center on the Jabulani ball’s aerodynamics or the vuvuzela’s “unique” sound, in Singapore coaches are more likely to worry whether their favorite player has blown a fuse.