Related topics: google · iphone · smartphone · ipad · research in motion

Turn your phone into a space monitoring tool

A newly released Android app will turn your smartphone into an instrument for crowdsourced science. Leave it by your window each night with your satnav positioning turned on and your phone will record small variations in ...

Eco search engine sees surge in downloads as Amazon burns

Can you save the rainforest from your desk? A spike in downloads for a search engine that's contributing profits to planting trees shows people are looking for ways to help as fires rage across the Brazilian Amazon.

Huawei calls on US to lift export restrictions

The chairman of Huawei said Friday the Chinese tech giant has yet to see any benefit from President Donald Trump's promise to allow U.S. companies to sell some components to the company and called on Washington to remove ...

New app aims to automate drones for good

Researchers at Cranfield University have developed a smartphone app which can connect with off-the-shelf drones and send them to autonomously inspect multiple locations using coordinates received by SMS text message.

Code in Chinese surveillance app analysed

Computer security researchers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), in collaboration with the association of investigative journalists from NDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), have analysed the Chinese surveillance app that travellers ...

Using AI technology to prevent cyberbullying

On Sept. 9, 2013, after enduring years of horrific cyberbullying at the hands of her Lakeland, Fla., classmates, 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick climbed to the top of a water tower and leapt to her death.

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Android

An android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human. The word derives from ανδρός, the genitive of the Greek ανήρ anēr, meaning "man", and the suffix -eides, used to mean "of the species; alike" (from eidos, "species"). Though the word derives from a gender-specific root, its usage in English is usually gender neutral. The term was first mentioned by St. Albertus Magnus in 1270 and was popularized by the French writer Villiers in his 1886 novel L'Ève future, although the term "android" appears in US patents as early as 1863 in reference to miniature humanlike toy automations.

Thus far, androids have largely remained within the domain of science fiction, frequently seen in film and television. However, some humanoid robots now exist.

The term "droid" - invented by George Lucas in Star Wars (1977) but now used widely within science fiction - although originally an abbreviation of "android", has been used (by Lucas and others) to mean any robot, including distinctly non-humaniform machines like R2-D2.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA