DAR-1 is one of the many social robots with facial recognition abilities on display for the robot petting zoo at the South by Southwest interactive festival. Jack Plunkett/AP hide caption

MindMaze Software Engineer Nicolas Bourdaud demonstrates a virtual reality system at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

Operators at a Bell System telephone switchboard, as photographed by the Department of Labor Women's Bureau. U.S. National Archives hide caption

A staff member from DJI Technology Co. demonstrates a drone in Shenzhen, in southern China's Guangdong province. A new website lets people request that drones stay away from their property. Kin Cheung/AP hide caption

In a project called "Natural Frequencies," the bells in the Campanile on the University of California, Berkeley campus were recently programmed to play a score composed in real time by the seismic shifts taking place along the Hayward fault. Eric Risberg/AP hide caption

Zarine Khan (right) and Shafi Khan, parents of Mohammed Hamzah Khan, speak to reporters in Chicago Oct. 9 after a federal hearing for their 19-year-old son, accused of trying to join Islamic State militants in Syria. Charles Rex Arbogast/AP hide caption

Barbara Beskind, 90, is a designer at IDEO who works with engineers on products that improve the quality of life for older people. Nicolas Zurcher/Courtesy of IDEO hide caption

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs stands in front of a projection of iTunes at a presentation in 2004. Ian Waldie/Getty Images hide caption

Ride-hailing services like Uber have changed ground transportation for both passengers and drivers. As Uber rapidly grows, it becomes more difficult for its drivers to keep up with the hustle. David Ramos/Getty Images hide caption

Interactive touch screens at the newly redesigned Cooper Hewitt museum let visitors sort through the catalog and create their own designs. Cooper Hewitt hide caption