[From Design TAXI, where the story includes additional images a 3:51 minute video] Japanese Developer Creates Robotic Butt That Expresses Emotions 16 May 2012 Tokyo-based interactive developer Nobuhiro Takahashi has created a robotic butt that represents emotions in the form of visual and tactile responses. Called ‘SHIRI’, the human-like robotic butt expresses various emotions through organic movements of artificial muscles. SHIRI can twitch, protrude, and be tense—as reactions to a user’s touch, stroke, or slap.…

[From DigInfo TV, where the story includes many more images and a 3:39 minute video] Cocorobo intelligent vacuum cleaner robot communicates with its owner 8 May 2012 Sharp has developed a vacuum cleaning robot called Cocorobo, which uses the Cocoro Engine artificial intelligence capability. This product is the first in a planned series of robot appliances which can communicate with people. Cocorobo features a speech recognition engine developed by Raytron, so it can be controlled by voice, as well as using its buttons or the remote control. It has also been given the ability to say simple greetings, with the…

[From Fast Co.CREATE] Make Any Web Page 3-D With 3-D It! Developer Edan Kwan created a program that, when bookmarked, uses CSS to convert any website to glorious 3-D. Glasses optional. By Joe Berkowitz May 9, 2012 It started as a fun little experiment, in three dimensions. Edan Kwan, a developer at New York-based digital agency, Firstborn, had the thought that others might share his fascination with what websites would look like with a 3-D makeover. Lo and behold, pretty soon he’d created a program that uses CSS to do just that, turning 3-D into a verb in the process.…

[From Wired’s Gadget Lab blog; see also the related story at GigaOM] Beyond Smart TV: ‘Surfaces’ Prototype Reveals the Television of Tomorrow By Christina Bonnington May 8, 2012 We’ve seen the future of television, and we want it now. NDS, a company that develops DRM security and DVR technology for pay-TV providers like Cox and DirecTV, has developed a proof-of-concept called Surfaces that shows how television could become the center of a much more compelling, immersive living room experience. The prototype jettisons the single, static screen that’s been a hardware mainstay since the golden age of television. In its place…

[From Gintime; more information about the first film to be featured is available here] This Sunday Bombay Sapphire Presents the Edible Cinema Posted on May 11, 2012 Wow! we’ve had Secret Cinema, scratch and sniff cinema, film scores re-imagined by DJs and musicians. But as yet, no-one has truly enhanced a cinematic experience with food… until now! On Sunday 13 May, the Electric Cinema in Portobello Road and Bombay Sapphire Gin are proud to present ‘Edible Cinema’; a collaboration between the team at Soho House, renowned experience organiser Polly Betton, experimental food designer Andrew Stellitano and Bombay Sapphire’s brand ambassador…

[From CNET, where the story includes a 1:15 minute video] [Image: A new look combining the depth camera of Kinect gaming console and a video from a digital SLR. Credit: Screen capture by Martin LaMonica/CNET] ‘Point cloud portraits’ bring ghostly 3D images to movies by Martin LaMonica May 2, 201 Carnegie Mellon University’s Studio for Creative Inquiry creates distinctive 3D video effect by hacking together the depth camera of the Kinect gaming console with video from digital SLRs. In yet another example of the amazing things possible with the Kinect gaming console, filmmakers have combined the depth camera of Kinect…