Building Robots Like Termites

Inflatable jungle gyms, action images from Sochi stitched together and predictions for the next big art cities in this week's look at the web

In nature, termites build complex structures with amazingly little mental and physiological capabilities. This is what inspired Dr Justin Werfel of Harvard University to create unsupervised, autonomous robots capable of building structures. With lofty longterm goals, and some more manageable applications in sight, the worker-bots display a fascinating ability to carry out tasks.

Noisli

Inflatable jungle gyms, action images from Sochi stitched together and predictions for the next big art cities in this week's look at the web

With the large number of open tabs we all operate with, stressing out at work is more of a matter of when than if. To help keep you centered, Noisli is a background noise and color generator designed for working and relaxing. It also has Text Editor for distraction-free writing, to pair with a handful of extremely convincing sounds—rain, thunder, wind and even coffee shop.

SELFIECITY

Inflatable jungle gyms, action images from Sochi stitched together and predictions for the next big art cities in this week's look at the web

By trimming roughly 20,000 selfies (each drawn from five prominent cities across four continents) into a representative 3,200, researchers at Selfiecity have amassed findings about mood, frequency, gender and geography—building a profile of the internet users of each area. Using theoretical, artistic and quantitative methods, they’ve constructive captivating visualizations, an interactive photo-board and even an essay on the relationship between selfie and society. Do angry …