How close are we to giving personalities to robots and computers? Prof. Nick Campbell is SFI Stokes Professor of Speech & Communication Technology at TCD. His work focuses on developing an intelligent user interface to infuse robots with social verbal and non-verbal communication skills. The user interface provides a multimodal dialogue system for recognising social communication skills like laughter, humour, empathy, compassion and charm. Prof. Campbell...

Athletes today run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. And as nutritionists, physicians, trainers, and sports psychologists push the boundaries of human ability, engineers and scientists are making sure the equipment they use keeps pace. This episode of Modern Marvels examines the contributions of engineering to the world of sports. Go into the labs where today's equipment companies develop their new products, and see how they are tested and brought...

Three blue-collar geniuses challenge each other with various puzzles and problems to determine who is The Smartest Guy in the Room. Terry and Guy must build self-propelling boats made of materials found on an ice cream truck. Randy competes head to head with them in a weights and measurements challenge.

Recent decades have seen an explosion in the field of materials science, with the advent of new substances and newly found uses for known substances, intriguing scientists and industrial manufacturers alike. Using footage from the Horizon television series archives, this program reviews the advances that have shaped the modern materials age, with a look at uranium, manganese nodules, helium-3, superplastic metals, the discovery of superconductivity,...

By the year 2050, cops and robbers won’t look anything like it did in the past. Host Joe Penna talks to designers who’ve created a robotic security guard. He’ll work with a Harvard scientist who has developed a softball sized set of eyes and ears that allow crime fighters to see danger long before it can hurt them. And polygraphs could become a thing of the past if we can scan brain waves to see if people are telling the truth, or not.

Get ready for the most incredible machines! Make reading your superpower with DK s beautiful, leveled nonfiction. Use your reading superpowers to learn all about machines that go to extremes - a high-quality, fun, nonfiction reader - carefully leveled to help children progress. Extreme Machines is a beautifully designed reader all about all kinds of incredible machines that can go fast, deep into the ocean and high into the skies and even into space...

The integration of man with machine is common currency in science fiction, but at the dawn of the 21st century the cyborg is becoming a practical reality. This video looks at how the technology of robotics is being utilized to improve the lives of people with disabilities. It examines how systems and controls are being used to create articulate prosthesis and discusses the potential of sensor technology for use in living organisms.

Miles O'Brien reports from a gathering in California on a growing movement that embraces the art of making cool things and a quirky do-it-yourself spirit. Supporters see "making" as one way to overcome a crisis in American science and math education.

This episode of Newton describes recent innovations to drone technology. Topics include usage, benefits, and drawbacks.

This program looks at the human body in motion, studying the interaction of the skeleton and muscles and the ways in which engineers and designers imitate these systems. Demonstrating how bones allow mobility while also providing protection, the program examines skeletal strength, calcium's importance, the internal structure of bones, and their dependence on muscles for cohesion and power. Linking architecture, machine design, computer science, and...