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• Japan robot lab readies second prototype for work at crippled nuclear reactor

  A Japanese robotics lab has developed a new emergency response prototype that will soon be put to work at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northern Japan.

• FujiFilm camera design to withstand water, shock, dust, freezing temperatures

  FujiFilm said Wednesday it will begin sales of a digital camera in June that is waterproof, shockproof, sealed against dust and sand, and works at temperatures below freezing.

• Microsoft beats data-sorting record with new approach

  Besting a record set by Yahoo in 2009, the research arm of Microsoft have deployed a new technique for quickly sorting large amounts of data, called Flat Datacenter Storage (FDS).

• Sony demos wireless media hub for its computers, smartphones, game consoles

  Sony on Tuesday showed a digital media hub that uses Wi-Fi to connect its PCs, tablets, smartphones and PlayStation game consoles, a product that it hopes will be part of its comeback.

• Researcher runs IP network over xylophones

  Vint Cerf once wore a shirt that read "IP on Everything," a wry comment on the versatility of the Internet Protocol he helped invent, a protocol that underlies all Internet communication. Now a University of California Berkeley researcher has put Cerf's maxim to the test, running an IP network over a set of xylophones, played by human participants.

• Japan's Softbank testing blimp-based emergency mobile phone system

  Softbank, which runs Japan's third-largest mobile phone network, is experimenting with using blimps as temporary cell towers for use during natural disasters.

• UC Berkeley tests floating robot sensors to track water flow, environmental concerns

  It's been a couple of years and a couple of million dollars. Finally, researchers and graduate students who have spent years developing intelligent water sensors released them into the Sacramento River on Wednesday, about 80 miles east of San Francisco.

• Gesture sensing alternatives use radio interference, Doppler Effect

  Two Microsoft Research projects presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems used unique methods, completely absent of any cameras, to sense gestures.

• Twitter success thrives on narrow focus

  Those looking to build a substantial following on Twitter would do well to stick to one particular topic, rather than use Twitter to discuss a wide range of subjects, a Carnegie Mellon University researcher has advised.

• The rhythm method: temporal taps a novel user input

  Issuing commands to tomorrow's computational devices could be as simple as tapping out a few beats on a touchscreen or trackpad, French researchers suggest.

• Electric lemonade zaps taste buds

  A research project at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Austin experimented with adding electricity to food to change its taste.

• Sharp to sell moody robotic vacuum with video streaming, remote control by phone

  Sharp's new robot vacuum isn't always happy to do your housework.

• ACM user conference seeks the magic in user interfaces

  Echoing the words of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, former YouTube user experience director Margaret Gould Stewart advised an audience of design researchers to think about creating magical experiences for their users.

• Casio releases app that can encode and send data using colors

  Japan's Casio has released an experimental app for the iPhone and iPad that encodes and sends data using colors.

• Panasonic team to lug solar-charged batteries up Mt. Fuji, live-stream eclipse

  Panasonic will broadcast live a solar eclipse next month over Japan from the top of Mount Fuji, using batteries that are charged at the base using solar power and then carried up to the peak.