This story *is* as good as it sounds. First up, are the Invisible Computers ... Donald A. Norman, professor emeritus at the University of California and owner of the Nielson Norman Group, writes that the time for the information appliance has come.

Norman cites three main problems with PCs: a single device designed to perform too many tasks cannot do every task in a superior manner, a single machine cannot be well- suited to every person in the world, and the PC business model involving yearly upgrades results in an increasing level of complexity in the machines.

Information appliances are created to suit the needs of the user and to accomplish a specific task, which Norman says makes them more appropriate than PCs. Several information appliances are already being used, including cellular phones, fax machines, pagers, and electronic reference books. These products hide or minimize the technology visible to users, and Norman says, “This will be the generation where the technology disappears into the tool, serving valuable functions but keeping out of the way&√Ǭ£45;-the generation of the invisible computer.”

However, in order for information appliances to reach their full potential, Norman says they must be able to communicate with one another using a standardized, international protocol for sharing information.

Which leaves the fantastically titled Biobots. Scientists and researchers from the fields of biology and computing are exploring connections between the two sciences that could lead to a better understanding of living creatures and to advanced computers that handle information in a similar manner as animals and humans.

Download your daydreams into a passing dog ... maybe, but Shawn Lockery and researchers at the University of Oregon’s Institute of Neuroscience have created a worm robot, or “biobot” that is programmed to “think” and act like a round worm searching for food.

Instead of sniffing levels of chemical concentrations to find food as an actual round worm would do, the worm robot detects a range of light intensities. Round worms have neuron signaling far more powerful than the computing used by desktop computers, and the worm robot could lead to computers that better adapt to changing conditions and component failures. Meanwhile, a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland are working on a robotic hexapod, resembling a cockroach, and robots similar to crickets and ants have been developed at European universities.

(c) Financial Times & Popular Science resp