Device Can Read Emotions By Bouncing Wireless Signals Off Your Body

Emotions can be tricky enough for humans to read, let alone machines, but a new system can predict people's feelings with 87 percent accuracy by bouncing wireless signals off them, researchers say.

The setup, dubbed EQ-Radio, analyzes the signal reflected off a subject's body to monitor both breathing and heartbeat. These physiological cues are commonly used to detect a person's emotions, but it typically requires hooking up the subject to a host of sensors.

Using a device smaller than a Wi-Fi router, researchers at MIT were able to monitor a person's breathing and heartbeat wirelessly. These measurements were then fed into a machine-learning algorithm that classified the subject’s emotion as excited, happy, angry or sad. The accuracy was similar to state-of-the-art wired approaches, the scientists said. [5 Ways Your Emotions Influence Your World (and Vice Versa)]

3 Scientists Win Nobel in Chemistry for Creating World's Smallest Machines

A trio of scientists — Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa  — has won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing and creating the world's smallest machines, turning linked-up molecules into contraptions that could do work, the Royal Academy of Swedish Sciences announced this morning (Oct. 5). These include a tiny lift, artificial muscles and a mini motor.

The molecular machines, which are 1,000 times thinner than a strand of hair, have "taken chemistry to a new dimension," according to a Nobel Prize statement.

The story begins in 1983, when Sauvage, who is now at the University of Strasbourg, France, linked two ring-shaped molecules into a chain; but rather than connecting the molecules by having them share electrons, Sauvage used a freer mechanical bond. "For a machine to be able to perform a task it must consist of parts that can move relative to each other. The two interlocked rings fulfilled exactly this requirement," according to the statement. [Nobel Prize 2016: Here Are the Winners (and What They Achieved)]

Great Scott! How to Get the 'Back to the Future' Self-Lacing Shoes

"Power laces — all right!" In "Back to the Future Part II," teenage time traveler Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) was understandably impressed by a pair of sneakers that conformed to his feet and laced themselves automatically.

It only took 27 years, but Nike has produced those science-fiction kicks and is putting them up for grabs. But there's a catch: Only 89 pairs are available. ['Star Wars' Tech: 8 Sci-Fi Inventions and Their Real-Life Counterparts]

The limited-edition release of the 2016 Nike Mag offers the self-lacing sneakers through an online lottery in collaboration with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Lottery entries can be purchased with a $10 donation to the foundation; 100 percent of all the proceeds will go toward research for a Parkinson's cure, according to a statement released by Nike.