In Brief

By Lev Grossman

LOOK WHO'S WALKING After 15 years of research, Honda reports that it has created a robot that walks on two legs in a lifelike, humanoid fashion. Its name is ASIMO, and it can walk forward and backward and even up and down stairs. There are no plans to market ASIMO just yet, but Honda engineers hope that one day ASIMO will help humans with household tasks. Don't worry: at only 4 ft. tall and 95 lbs., ASIMO is less Terminator and more Robby the Robot.

PASS THE KEY If you share a car with Shaquille O'Neal or Verne Troyer, this is the invention you've been waiting for. Mercedes-Benz is introducing a high-tech SmartKey with its 2001 models that remembers exactly how you like to set up your car's interior: where you position the seat, at what angle you like the mirrors, your preferred air-conditioning setting. The second you turn on the ignition, the car rearranges itself for your pleasure. Of course, you could change the settings yourself, but that would be too much like work.

POINT AND BOOT If you like the instant-preview aspect of digital cameras but find the rest just too newfangled, Kodak may have the camera for you. When you shoot a picture with the new Kodak Advantix Preview ($299), it takes a regular old picture on film and captures a digital image at the same time, so you get a sneak peek at the shot you just snapped. That way, if you make that goofy face again, you won't have to wait for the prints to find out.

--By Lev Grossman