MIT app turns your Android phone into a supercomputer… of sorts

Oh, sure — a few people have called Google’s Nexus One a “superphone,” but suddenly, that nickname has taken on a whole new level of meaning. A team of talent from MIT has put its head down in order to concoct a new Android application that can come darn close to solving complex computational problems in just a fraction of the time that it’d take a bona fide supercomputer . The goal here is to let researchers and scientists convert to Google’s mobile OS, but if you aren’t falling for that one, it’s also designed to “let engineers perform complicated calculations in the field, and to better control systems for vehicles or robotic systems.” Of course, the models that are hosted on the phone do require a supercomputer to create, but once certain formulas are embedded, the app can then compute approximations in mere seconds rather than hours.

MIT Seaswarm autonomous robots coming soon to an oil spill near you (video)

Think of it as an autonomous, swarming, photovoltaic legion of seagoing Roombas (or don’t, if you’re easily upset). The Seaswarm project at MIT takes a thin, hydrophobic material and drags it behind a robot outfitted with GPS and WiFi for determining its location and communicating within a swarm. When deployed, the group finds the outer edges of an oil spill, and works its way into the center, coordinating the cleanup with minimal human interference

LiminAR robot finally shows us what pico projectors were meant for (video)

Still looking for an excuse to buy a pico projector ? We might just have the perfect thing

MIT researchers develop the most fabulous gesture control technique yet

When looking for a cheap, reliable way to track gestures , Robert Wang and Jovan Popovic of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory came upon this notion: why not paint the operator’s hands (or better yet, his Lycra gloves) in a manner that will allow the computer to differentiate between different parts of the hand, and differentiate between the hand and the background? Starting with something that Howie Mandel might have worn in the 80s, the researchers are able to use a simple webcam to track the hands’ locations and gestures — with relatively little lag

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: salad spinners, diapers, and solutions to the Deepwater catastrophe

The Week in Green is a new item from our friends at Inhabitat , recapping the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us. This week renewable energy received a giant jolt forward as Google unveiled plans to invest $40 million in North Dakota wind farms

MIT Media Lab’s Surround Vision brings virtual reality to a tablet (video)

Sure, 3D adds a little more dimensionality to your couch-bound viewing experience, but it’s far from the truly immersive virtual reality people have promising for decades. Surround Vision isn’t quite VR either, but it’s an interesting way of breaking the perception barrier, allowing a viewer to pan around a scene outside the perspective offered by one display.

Magnetic waves distort the brain’s ability to make moral judgments, tell which way is north

Morality isn’t a topic discussed ’round these parts too often, but you mix in the geniuses at MIT and a boatload of magnets , and well — you’ve got us interested. According to research conducted by neuroscientists at the institution, people’s views on morality can actually be swayed by interfering with activity in a specific brain region.

The Engadget Show Live with Nicholas Negroponte, PlayStation Move, and Joystiq’s Chris Grant

Keep your eyes tuned to this post — because at 5:00 PM ET , we’ll be starting The Engadget Show live, with Nicholas Negroponte of the MIT Media Lab and OLPC Project, Dr. Richard Marks showing off Sony’s PlayStation Move, commentary from Joystiq editor Chris Grant , plus much, much , more! You seriously don’t want to miss it! Of course, if you’re in NY we’d love to have you attend the show in person at the Times Center

MIT’s MeBot makes telerobotics fun again

We know how you feel. Sure, telerobotics has changed your life for the better, allowing to interact with people as if you’re really there , coasting through the halls of an institution of higher learning, dropping knowledge on anyone within shouting distance.

MIT jumps straight to wirelessly powering multiple devices

Ah, wireless power . One of those mythical mysteries that are far more likely to remain “something to strive for” rather than “the next big thing.” Oh sure, we’ve got Palm’s Touchstone and the Powermat , but until we can hang a 50-inch plasma from our bedroom ceiling and power it up without a single wire, we’ll remain firmly unsatisfied. Thankfully for those of us in that camp, MIT exists, and a few of the school’s best and brightest are toiling around the clock in order to develop a technology that would power not one, but multiple devices sans cabling

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