Ahoyhoy,
On my eveningly scoot around the internet last night, I happened across this slightly exciting post on the New Scientist website.
As far as I can tell, they've taken the robot, 'Weebo' from the film, 'Flubber' (that can play you a clip of the tv show you're thinking of), and made it real. (I'm pretty sure that was the research brief at the University of California to start with).
But in all seriousness, this really is a bit of a big step forward, it'll be exciting (or worrying) to see how this technique and the clarity of the results develops
