A car that can walk up steps is being patented by the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan (). The car has just one large central wheel, and is kept balanced by shifting weights controlled by gyroscopes. When the driver wants to climb steps to reach another street level, or enter a building forecourt, robotic legs projecting from either side of the car spring out and it becomes bipedal.
You might think DVDs that come with advertisements would be horribly unpopular, but what if they were cheaper? IBM has applied for a patent () on a DVD that, when inserted, checks what kind of 鈥渃ertificate鈥� the user has bought. With a more expensive certificate there would be no ads, but with cheaper ones the DVD player would insert ads 鈥� possibly prompting the user to upgrade to ad-free viewing.
