The glasses communicate with your smartphone via Bluetooth. Once the infrared sensors on the glasses detect somebody else wearing a pair of Sound Perfume goggles nearby, a message containing your name, contact number and your unique sound and smell signatures is sent to that person. In response, the recipient’s phone communicates with his or her glasses, which in turn emit your signature sound and odor.

The system can also be paired with a mobile phone’s camera to save not only the location and time an image was taken, but also the sound and smell information of the person in the photo. So when viewing the photo later or walking past the location, the sound and smell of the person you shared the experience with is triggered. What is the point of all that? The additional stimulation is to assist in building a fond multi-sensory memory of your encounter.

A small scent emitter located behind the ears contains eight kinds of solid state perfume. Once a selected piece is heated to 46°C (115°F) with a wire, the right smell is released. A test performed on 52 people by a group of researchers from the National University of Singapore showed that Sound Perfume helped people make a positive impression on first encounter. The researchers, lead by Yongsoon Choi, presented the findings last month at the Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

Their appearance alone means the chances of the Sound Perfume glasses going mainstream anytime soon are rather slim. However, the concept of employing a wider-than-usual set of senses to generate emotional response is already being developed commercially and merits some attention. Take, for example, the Smell-o-Vision device designed to sit at the back of your TV set ready to emit ten thousand different smells to go in unison with whatever you are currently watching. The Project Sense concept goes even further, promising a "more emotional connection between users and experiences" thanks to a device providing haptic, thermal and olfactory sensations for gamers, movie watchers and online shoppers.

While using music to make face-to-face encounters more pleasurable is well documented, using artificially generated smells for eliciting an emotional response is not yet a common practice. Despite the already mentioned attempts at commercializing the idea, the area of social olfaction remains an almost untouched scientific ground. A serious investigation is called for, especially in the light of recent findings published in the Nature Communications journal.

A group of researchers associated with the Spanish Natural Science Museum found that the sense of smell may have been much more important in the history of our species than previously believed. So much so, that it may have played a vital role in giving us an evolutionary advantage over other related species, such as Neanderthals.

Until recently, it has been commonly believed that our olfactory capabilities were gradually dampened in the course of evolution. However, new data seems to suggest the sense of smell in Homo sapiens is developed better than in earlier humans. Our olfactory abilities may have contributed to such factors as kinship recognition, better family relations, group cohesion and social learning. Each of these contributed to the fact that we are now the only surviving human species. A species that may not be fully aware of all the blessings it received from mother nature.

No matter how silly the Sound Perfume glasses concept may look at first glance, the people behind this project deserve some credit for trying to bring us a tiny step closer to a better understanding of ourselves. Do they succeed? Watch the video below and decide for yourselves.

Robot guards are coming to a South Korean jail next spring, according to the Yonhap news agency. The guards are 5 feet tall and equipped with four wheels, a friendly face and who knows what sorts of pain rays and other implements. They are designed to look friendly to inmates, according to the designers.

The machines will monitor inmates for abnormal behavior, according to the BBC. They’ll be able to detect prisoner violence and even notice attempts at suicide, which researchers say will help reduce human guards’ workload. The robots will mostly work at night, patrolling correctional facilities and helping prisoners connect with officers, according to Yonhap. They come equipped with a “remote conversation function,” via the cameras mounted on their torsos.

Three prototype guard ‘bots will spend a month in a jail in the city of Pohang. The Asian Forum for Corrections, a South Korean research group, developed the robots in concert with Kyonggi University. The project will cost about $864,000.

Robots are already a mainstay in factories, surgical bays and disaster areas, so it’s reasonable to see them in prisons, too. But what happens when the prisoners take them over?

The system analyzes a total of 60 acoustic parameters of users’ voices, including tone, speed of speech, duration of pauses and energy of voice signal. The scientists designed the system to look for negative emotions in particular, that would indicate anger, boredom, or doubt.

Not only does the system draw its conclusions from what users’ voices sound like, but also from how their conversation with it progresses. If the system is repeatedly not recognizing what a person is saying, for instance, or has to ask them to repeat information previously given, it’s a likely bet that the person is getting angry and/or bored. Based on a statistical method gleaned from previous conversations, the system can also guess where a conversation with a user is heading, and what actions they’re likely to take.

After having identified a person’s mood and intentions, the system could then adapt the dialogue accordingly. If a user sounded doubtful of the system, for instance, it could offer them more help. If they sounded bored or angry, however, that offer might just irk them further.

The Madrid/Granada scientists tested a prototype system on human test subjects, and found that it resulted in shorter, more successful conversations. Down the road, perhaps it might someday be combined with a system being developed at Binghamton University, that identifies computer users’ emotional states by looking at their faces.

The Micro-Aviary will specialize in what the DoD has deemed the next generation of intelligence and military robot capabilities: tiny drones that are largely indistinguishable from insects or birds that can surreptitiously move about undetected, performing surveillance and intelligence gathering missions or even delivering payloads like tracking devices or even weapons. But first, the military has to build them.

At the Micro-Aviary, tiny helicopters will mix with robot dragonflies and hovering robo-hummingbirds in a space walled in by motion sensors that can track the drones that fly there to within about a tenth of an inch. Data from those sensors will not only evaluate the performance of the drones that are there but inform the design of future generations of flapping-wing drones and stealthy robot micro-helos. Tale an inside look at the lab below.

A consumer version of a system already in use at some U.S. animal shelters, iPet Companion Home Version lets computer users remotely control dog or cat toys located in their home, watching their pets reacting to those toys’ movements in real time. For some people, it could be the biggest workplace distraction since Facebook.

The in-home iPet hardware consists of a webcam, a control box, and two mechanisms that are capable of swinging and bobbing one pet toy each (which aren’t included). Remotely accessing a password-protected online portal, users utilize onscreen controls to operate the two mechanisms, making the toys move. The live webcam feed shows them the moving toys, along with their critters’ reactions – hopefully, the animals will respond by playing with the toys, as opposed to being freaked out by two inanimate objects that appear to be moving on their own.

If users don’t want to spend too much company time goofing off with Fido or Felix, they can spread the playtime around by giving their password to family and friends. In the commercial version of iPet Companion, anyone can access the portals, with users often having to wait several minutes in an online queue before they can interact with the shelter animals.

MelApp is an image-based risk assessment mobile app that assists in the early detection of melanoma

Despite years of health promotion campaigns advising us about the dangers of skin cancer, the incidence of the most dangerous type – melanoma – has been steadily rising since the 1970s with around 130,000 cases now diagnosed globally each year according to the World Health Organization. Even if we no longer spend hours sunning ourselves on the beach, extended time outdoors playing sport or socializing can still put us at risk of this deadly cancer. Developed by molecular diagnostics company Health Discovery Corporation (HDC), MelApp is an iPhone app designed help detect melanoma at an early – and likely curable – stage using mathematical algorithms and image based pattern recognition technology.

To use the app, you take a photo of an unusual mole or freckle with your iPhone’s camera using the zoom feature to ensure it fills the green box on the screen. The photo is then uploaded and evaluated against a database licensed from Johns Hopkins University Medical Center.

If the risk is significant MelApp recommends you seek medical advice and can refer you to a nearby specialist for proper follow up.

It can also store images in albums so you can track changes in your freckles and moles over time. Sliding indicators are used to note information such as size, color and how fast it has developed.

MelApp is available from the iTunes store and costs $1.99 – which seems like a small investment in your health. An Android version is on the way.

I’m Watch is a smartphone-compatible wristwatch, designed to work with iOS- and Android-based cell phones

First unveiled online a few months ago, I’m Watch is a smartphone-compatible wristwatch, designed to work with Android-based cell phones – although it’s reportedly also compatible with iOS devices. It is being developed by an Italian producer, and is currently available for pre-order. Initially the price tag was very high, but it is now being offered in a cheaper, colored version called I’m Color. The watch is scheduled to be released this October.

he I’m Watch website showcases two versions of the product. I’m Jewel is a luxury version, designed with precious materials (titanium, gold) and jewels (diamonds), with prices ranging from EUR599 to EUR11,999 (US$840 – $16,833). The I’m Color collection is priced at EUR249 (US$349), however, you’d need to pay 20 percent of the price in advance to have your order secured. The current offer will last until July 18, according to the website.

The company behind I’m Watch is Milan-based Blue Sky s.r.l. Some of the features of the device include the following:

• iPhone 4 and Android smartphone connectivity via Bluetooth
• It will allow users to make calls and receive calls, text messages, and e-mails
• Users will be able to use its speakerphone for hands-free phone calls
• Via its touchscreen, users will be able to view Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare notifications, as well as a photo gallery
• Exclusive apps will be available for download via the "I’m Store" and music via "I’music"
• Specs include: 1.54” 240×240 pixel color TFT display, 4GB of built-in storage, 64MB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR support, Li-Po 600 mAh battery

The I’m Watch seems to still be some distance from completion, and its description is rather brief at the moment. Shipping is nonetheless set to begin October 31.

You can’t buy love, but can you engineer it? A project at the National University of Singapore with all kinds of somewhat unsettling implications is trying to create the means for human-robot love by giving robots all the emotional and biological tools that human have.

That means artificial hormones–dopamine, seratonin, oxytocin, endorphin–that ebb and flow based on how the robot is “feeling.” It also means psychology, in this case using MRI brain scans to recreate artificial intelligence that creates affection–or a lack therof–towards a human counterpart.

Just as in human relationships, this human-robot love is based on interactions. The robot can become bored, jealous, angry, affectionate, or flat-out happy, all based on how the human object of its desire interacts with it. Most of this interaction takes place through touching–another analog to affectionate human interaction. The robot isn’t so cuddly, but give it some puppy love and it will love you back.

But spurn its advances at your own peril. If the chilling conclusion of episode one below is any indication, perhaps this isn’t such a great idea. It might just turn out that hell hath no fury like a lovebot scorned.

A London designer has created a sweating robotic armpit, intended to make it easier for humans to relate to robots

When we think of robots, we tend to think of clean, antiseptic automatons that don’t suffer from yucky things like halitosis, flatulence or body odor … unlike us humans. According to London designer Kevin Grennan, however, this difference alienates us from robots, and will keep us from ever fully accepting them as anything other than machines. His solution? Robots that secret human odors, in situations in which people would secrete those odors. While some of his odor-secreting devices are purely conceptual, he has produced a working model of at least one – a sweating robotic armpit.

Grennan was inspired to built the armpit by a research visit he made to the University of Hertfordshire, where he saw various half-finished robots made from re-appropriated everyday objects.

He envisions such synthetic sweat glands (not necessarily in an armpit format) being installed on at least three different types of industrial robots. On a bomb-disposal robot, it would release "the smell of human fear," which he says has been shown to enhance peoples’ cognitive performance.

Installed on a picker robot, it would release androstadienone, a chemical found in male sweat. Androstadienone reportedly affects women’s moods, so if it were dispersed on an assembly line, he believes that it could increase the productivity of female workers in the immediate vicinity.

On a surgical robot, the sweat gland would produce a mist of oxytocin, a chemical that is found in the human brain. When inhaled nasally, it is said to cause people to become more trusting. If a patient were to "meet" the robot prior to surgery, and get a whiff of its oxytocin, they might therefore feel better about the operation.

The armpit is currently on display as part of the Design Interactions graduate show, at London’s Royal College of Art. Grennan is currently in the process of obtaining a Masters of Art from the institution.

It’s hard to say exactly how much the sweat gland technology is intended for real-world use, and how much it’s an artistic statement. "Each [robot] uses a specific property of human subconscious behavior in response to a chemical stimulus," Grennan stated. "The contrast between the physical anti-anthropomorphic nature of the machines and the olfactory anthropomorphism highlights the absurd nature of the trickery at play in all anthropomorphism."

Multiferroic Material A new multiferroic material begins as a non-magnetic material then suddenly becomes strongly magnetic as the piece of copper below it is heated a small amount

A new alloy with unique properties can convert heat directly into electricity, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota. The alloy, a multiferroic composite of nickel, cobalt, manganese and tin, can be either non-magnetic and highly magnetic, depending on its temperature.

Multiferroic materials possess both magnetism and ferroelectricity, or a permanent electric polarization. Materials with both of these properties are very rare; check out this explainer from the National Institute of Standards and Technology if you’re interested in the electron orbital arrangements that cause these phenomena.

In this case, the new alloy — Ni45Co5Mn40Sn10 — undergoes a reversible phase transformation, in which one type of solid turns into another type of solid when the temperature changes, according to a news release from the University of Minnesota. Specifically, the alloy goes from being non-magnetic to highly magnetized. The temperature only needs to be raised a small amount for this to happen.

When the warmed alloy is placed near a permanent magnet, like a rare-earth magnet, the alloy’s magnetic force increases suddenly and dramatically. This produces a current in a surrounding coil, according to the researchers, led by aerospace engineering professor Richard James. Watch a piece of the alloy leap over to a permanent magnet in the video clip below.

A process called hysteresis causes some of the heat energy to be lost, but this new alloy has a low hysteresis, the researchers say. Because of this, it could be used to convert waste heat energy into large amounts of electricity.

One obvious use for this material would be in the exhaust pipes of vehicles. Several automakers are already working on heat transfer devices that can convert a car’s hot exhaust into usable electricity; General Motors is using alloys called skutterudites, which are cobalt-arsenide materials doped with rare earths.

Rare earth magnets are already a necessity in many hybrid car batteries, so heat-capture devices made of the new multiferroic compound could be placed near the magnets.

The material could also be used in power plants or even ocean thermal energy generators, the researchers said.