Tokyo Toy Show 2008 - CScoutJapan.com
Sega rolled out creepy insect-dog “Mio”:
Archive for the 'Technology' Category
New video from Boston Dynamics:
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!
I was digging around the forums for posts on robot animals and I found that we’ve had quite a few. After all, who can resist the winning combination of machines that move, look, even eat in rudimentary facsimile to their inexpensive, fully functional counterparts?
Let’s visit the Robot Menagerie!
Necoro (left) is a freaky looking robot cat from Japan. It looks like it’s programmed to kill you then assume control of your appliances and await further instruction.
Here is a promotional video that does little to assuage my suspicions…it is downright spooky! http://www.necoro.com/theater/broad/vp.mov
Also on the creepy side are a variety of insect-powered robots that literally eat bugs for power. This is obviously an early scale test for giant, backhoe-sized robots that will certainly be powered by human meat.
Behold, SlugBot! He isn’t much to look at but he can track down, capture, and eat slugs!! According to the research website, SlugBot can also eat sausages which vaguely resemble slugs.
Visit the SlugBot home page. It hasn’t been updated since 2001 when SlugBot went berserk and ate the researchers.
The University of South Florida is also in on the robots-that-eat craze and have introduced us to the term “gastrobot.” They even scored themselves gastrobots.com where you can learn about Chew-Chew the cute little train that eats sugar cubes. Eating sugar cubes is cute! It’s not scary like eating slugs! I’m guessing they chose sugar cubes because no one would question the development of such a cute robot… awwww it eats sugar cubes!!! Of course it isn’t a big leap to go from sugar cubes to human meat. Chew-Chew doesn’t look too cute either. Despite the kid-friendly colors and the wagons, there is something sinister about that collection of tubes and processing equipment.
For vegan roboticists, here is a related and interesting article about a solid state “spinach sandwich” power chip that may someday power our mobile devices: http://www.physorg.com/news1181.html
The Boston Dynamics BigDog (aka Robot Mule) is really an engineering marvel. They have a four-legged walking robot that has an uncanny, realistic gait. Watch as catches itself from falling!!
Everyone’s heard of AIBO (and if not, you’ve already missed the party). Sony, if only you hadn’t squandered your money on the overpriced and overly complicated PS3…you wouldn’t have had to cancel AIBO!!!! I do have one question: What was with the evil, Terminator AIBO model?
Because Sony abandoned AIBO, the Robocup Soccer Initiative has had to switch from cute robo-dogs to less cute, bipedal robots.
Anyway, back to robot animals. I recently saw Salamandra Robotica (Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne) at the Wired Nextfest. I took some video of the little critter in action:
At Stanford University, scientists are working on a gecko robot that can climb walls. 
Stickybot uses tiny polymer threads and the principles van der Waals force (intermolecular attraction) to climb up flat surfaces.
Watch a video of the action: Stickybot 24MB mov
NASA is working on Snakebot to explore and to do some digging in space. Engineers are obviously coming up with these names. (No offense engineers, you know it’s true) This is a good quote from one of the developers:
A snakebot is not as good at some jobs as other robots, but you get a lot more robot for the weight and the money…
Snakebot will apparently be sold by the pound (or by the kilo in the metricness of space).
Carnegie Mellon University is working on their own snakebots with names like “Breadstick” and “Pepperoni.” Their snakebots are being developed for emergency rescue operations and in off hours, drain snaking.
Read more: Snakebots Slither to the Rescue
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