It may not be going so far as to chip every soldier with an implant, but it looks like DARPA is now moving ahead with plans to give soldiers a slightly less invasive electronic tag. Apparently, the so-called Individual Force Protection System (or IFPS) will measure about three inches long, and it'll communicate with an array of vehicle-borne and portable receivers, which DARPA says will be able to pick up the tag's signal and pinpoint the soldier's location even in the most electronically-crowded battlefield. That's apparently also all done without GPS, which has the added side benefit of greatly increasing the tag's battery life. Of course, there's no word as to when the tags might actually be deployed, but the system itself is apparently already pretty far along in development, and the agency has now tapped Science Applications International Corporation to bring it to fruition.

FED technology may not have exactly caught on for use with TVs just yet, but Japan's Anodos looks set to bring it into living rooms in its own little way in the form of an internet-connected set-top box. Dubbed the "Anobar", it'll give you a 640 x 94 resolution with which to view the headlines and low res images of your choice, along with a more than capable VIA C7-M under the hood, and Windows XP Embedded running the show. You'll even apparently be able to get real-time comments about the show you're watching courtesy of 2channel's discussion forums. Unfortunately, in its current prototype form, all of that added up to hefty ¥200,000 (or $1,900), and the researchers say that they're going to have to get it down to ¥30,000 ($280) or less before they make a go at selling it to the general public, which could take a little while. For now, you can get a taste of what might be in store courtesy of the video after the break.

[Via Engadget Japanese]

Believe it or not, this actually isn't the first power-generating dance floor to harness some of the pent up energy of club-goers, but it is apparently the first one to hit the UK, and hopefully a sign of more to come. As you can see above, the dance floor makes use of a piezoelectric system that produces electricity as the dancers jump up and down, which charges some batteries that are used to power parts of the club. While that's certainly a practical application for the technology, we're guessing it's only a matter of time before some enterprising club owner combines one of these with an LED dance floor to create a dance floor that powers itself, and thumbs its nose at other do-gooder clubs.

Read - Dancefloor generates electricity at London's first eco-disco!
Read - London Eco-Club to Get Its Power From Dancers on the Dancefloor

There's plenty of devices out there designed to keep folks from falling over, but this so-called iShoe developed by some MIT researchers takes a slightly different tact, with it promising to detect balance problems long before a person actually falls. That's apparently possible thanks to some sensor-laden insoles that measure the pressure distribution across as person's feet, which can be offloaded onto a computer and analyzed with the aid of a special algorithm the researchers have created. Eventually, they say the system could let doctors catch balance problems in their early stages and take the appropriate action, or even notify family members if a person falls, although that latter bit doesn't exactly seem very optimistic of them. No word on a commercial release just yet, but the team is apparently moving steadily towards one, with it currently conducting trials and recently having snapped up a $50,000 grant to help cover start-up costs.