Read More: New Scientist
Archive for the 'Technology' Category
Who can argue with this awesomeness??
Giant Robot Spider in Liverpool
From WASEDA University Sugano Laboratory, the research organization that brought you the robot that could handle and crack an egg, comes “Twendy-One” the uniquely dexterous robot that can gently make toast, carry your stuff, and even pick you up and hold you.
Seven years and several million dollars has produced one of the most complex robots ever constructed. Twendy-One has 241 pressure sensors in each hand, can speak Japanese, and has voice recognition. Like most awesome electronic systems, battery-life kills the buzz with a max charge of only 15 minutes (when the pack doesn’t overheat).
While it’s still in the concept phase, you can see from these videos that Twendy-One represents remarkable progress in multiple systems integration. The videos show Twendy making toast, getting ketchup, carrying a tray, helping a man out of bed, and having some terse conversation.
Based on their current success, researchers hope to have a commercially viable robot by 2015.
Source: ABC News
I bought my first HDTV (I’m up to 3 now) at one of the big retailers. I probably didn’t get the best price but they did offer a lot of extras like installation, no-interest financing, etc. I suspected that I needed to buy cables separately but the sales person never mentioned it and in the whirlwind of purchasing an HD DVR, a wall mount, and maybe something else, I promptly forgot.
It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The store price for an HDMI cable was around $150 bucks! A component cable was $125 (at least those have come down in price at the stores to a mere $70)!
When the installer showed up and asked me if I had cables I could only shrug and ask me if he could provide them. Of course he happily sold them to me for the aforementioned outrageous prices and then ran them through the wall.
I stewed about the cable prices for a few days…especially the component one since I already knew that component cable is little more than an RCA cable with different colored sheathing. I figured that since the signal is digital, this extra expense was not worth it!
Finally, and with steadfast determination, I yanked all the cables from the wall, cleaned the drywall off of them and took them back to the store for a full refund which I happily received. I then went onto eBay and bought similar cables for about $30 each.
The big chains are counting on people being stupid. It seems logical that if you just bought an expensive HDTV it requires a likewise expensive cable. “I just paid 2 grand for my television of course I want the best cable there is…” It’s all baloney!
Since the narrowly-averted gouging, I have been sharing my story of inexpensive cable purchasing with anyone who will listen. Anytime someone mentions they are going to buy a flat screen I can’t help but burst out with my story.
So, to help people out, I decided to make a website which sorts through eBay and finds the best priced HDMI, Component, and DV cables them lists them automatically. You can check it out at http://cheapvidcables.com
Now I can just point people at my site and I don’t have to bore them with my long-winded story…though it’s much more animated and expletive-filled in-person.
All I can say is “Wow!” Check out this blender…it’s much better than your blender.
James Andrew Smith is a biomechanics researcher whose work on robot locomotion takes robotic cuteness to the next level. The excited gallop of his Scout II robot and his puppy-like PAW robot convey a happiness and sheer joy that other robots can’t compete with. Just look at how adorable they are!
Excited robot puppies are not far now.
Scout II: Look at that happy gallop!
PAW: It’s bounding! The leash is a nice touch.
Read More: James’ Research: Galloping Robots
CoinOpVideogames.com has a large assortment of live audio recorded at arcades from the period of 1982-1988. The sound quality is what you would expect from a couple of kids in an arcade with a cassette recorder but it’s charming nonetheless.
It’s a fairly comprehensive collection and very impressive considering that while most kids were busy wasting their allowance without any future benefits, two young friends had the forethought to meticulously preserve the audio from almost every game of the era.
Listen up: CoinOpVideogames.com
Continued from: The Robot Menagerie (part 1)
Mowgli is a robot being developed by The School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo and the Intelligent Systems Research Institute (AIST) in Japan. This interesting “frogbot” (if you will) uses a pneumatic muscular system to make incredibly smooth jumps and landings. See for yourself:
The BBC reports that various cities are installing robotic falcons to scare off pigeons. These devices called “Robops” are made by a company named likewise.
Robops’ company website has a strange look and feel. Rather than learning about robotic pigeon-terrorizing systems, it seems more like you are reading a mystery novel. Check it out: Robops.co.uk
Boston Dynamics, maker of “BigDog” (aka the Robot Mule), has a prototype of an exploration robot that they call “Little Dog.” Check out the video:
The same company is also working on a bug-like climbing robot called Rise:
Ryomei Engineering Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. develops a variety of engineering and environmental control machinery and, in their spare time develop robot fish. Check out their robotic koi:
Stanford is working on a line of roach-inspired locomotion systems called Sprawl Robots” . Their website hasn’t been updated since 2006 but they did note that they last had a Sprawl running at 15 body-lengths a second!
This isn’t an animal but it is the undercarriage of a JPL Mars Rover platform…and in this video it is driving over XEAI regular Miss Jennifer!
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