A Ping-Pong-Playing Terminator

Meet TOPIO 3.0, the ping-pong-playing robot. Made by Vietnam’s first-ever robotics firm, TOSY, the bipedal humanoid uses two 200-fps cameras to detect the ball as it leaves the opponent’s paddle. TOPIO’s brain—processors and an artificial neural network—analyzes the ball’s path to choose the best return. Last fall, TOPIO 3.0 debuted at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. At six feet tall, 264 pounds and with 39 independent points capable of movement (such as rotation) throughout its body, the chiseled robot appears a formidable adversary, but it hasn’t beaten a human quite yet.

Hoang’s ultimate goal: a TOPIO in every home, not just to play ping-pong but to help with household chores and other tasks.
Source:popsci

Capstone's CMT-380 hybrid supercar does 150MPH with batteries and a jet engine

Capstone CMT-380 prototype is an automotive beast unlike anything we've ever seen. Rather than mixing batteries and a conventional engine, this whip combines the former with a diesel / biodiesel-powered microturbine, which is -- for all intents and purposes -- a jet engine. Reportedly, the car can reach 60MPH from a standstill in just 3.9 seconds, hit 150MPH before being cut off by the electronic limiter, cruise 80 miles on battery power alone and drive from Idaho Falls to Spokane on just a single tank of fuel. It's being bruited about that the company is considering flipping this bad boy into the production line, but with an estimated asking price north of $200,000, there's sufficient evidence to think that the volume here would remain relatively low.
Source:engadget