The SETI Institute's optical and radio searches can only detect life capable of technology more advanced than ours.

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Whenever you turn on the Xbox 360, Kinect will do what it can to detect human life, and in doing so will use its motorized vertical tilt to get said individuals into the frame as much as possible.

ENGADGET: Kinect for Xbox 360 review

Indeed, all fraud, including straightforward overcharging, will be harder to detect during the early life of the euro, since people's instincts for what prices ought to be will not have adjusted.

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For warfighters operating in the field, the ability to detect threats from standoff distances can be life-saving.

ENGADGET: DARPA threat detection technology uses a camera to see targets, software and soldier brains to identify them

Moreover, the Curiosity rover, which is equipped with 11 scientific instruments to probe for conditions suitable for life, isn't designed to detect the signs of microbial activity or any traces of fossilized bacteria.

WSJ: Scientists Say Microbial Life Was Possible on Mars

They hope to detect hundreds of such exoplanets and, in so doing, learn more about how new worlds and even life itself might emerge from dust and debris.

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