There are so many robotic parts already developed – fingers, hands, legs – that one would think that a humanoid could be assembled already. Here come the robotic mouth.

From the Tokyo University of Science a report that they have created a robot capable of reproducing tongue and lower jaw movements associated with speech — basically, a mouth. Reportedly, it can copy the movements a human mouth needs to produce vowel sounds. It even has a silicon tongue (how creepy is that?).

The war in Iraq is serving to highlight traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and now the U.S. Army awarded Simbex, of Lebanon, NH, a million-dollar contract to develop sensor-studded helmets for combat soldiers. They could reach our soldiers as early as December.

They are designed to "measure the shock from explosive devices." The most common cause of TBI is improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which emit shock waves–waves of air pressure–that travel at around 1,000 feet per second, or close to the speed of sound. While such blasts can cause devastating wounds, and even death, they can also rattle the brain’s soft tissue, causing invisible, permanent damage.

Simbex has equipped the combat helmets with sensors that measure the magnitude, location, and direction of blasts and the pressure changes that occur because of the resulting shock wave.

"There are lots of different types of injuries that can be caused by blast events," says Jeff Chu, the vice president of engineering at Simbex, "and we are only measuring two of the parameters that are most associated with shock waves and blast events: the acceleration of the body and pressure."

We had the dress that becomes an inflated chair and now we have the sound-activated inflatable shirt that blows a balloon for one second.

Designed by Tomoko Ueyama, this Watashi-chan inflatable shirt responds to six frequency bands of sound, even one human ears can’t hear.

Watch out for those dog whistles.