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Israel has come up with its own portable robot, who doesn’t just act as a sentry like the The Red Owl, but is capable of utilizing an Uzi and grenades. Developed by Elbit Systems, in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Directorate of Defense R&D (DDR&D), the VIPeR’s small size of 18 x 18 x 9-inches and weight of 25 lbs. enables it to move in dark alleys, caves, and narrow tunnels. It also features an observation day/night zoom camera and explosives sniffer. So our question is, if two warbots meet in a dark alley to knock each other out, is there still a war going on?
Read More 
| AUVSI
Gallery: My WarBot is Bigger Than Your WarBot
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In an effort to find how we evolved from swimmers to crawlers, European scientists have teamed up to create a bot that they feel mimics change in motion. By combining a primitive nervous system of a lamprey eel with with nine plastic segments, each with its own micro-controller and battery, the Salamander swims in water and then crawls up to dry land.
The work, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the French Ministry for Research and Technology, is referred to as “a demonstration of how robots can be used to test biological models, and in return, how biology can help in designing robot locomotion controllers.” We’re just excited that we can finally have a bot that can come to the beach with us and dive right in.
Read More | CNN
Gallery: Salamander Robot Teaches Evolution
Purdue Scientists Create Portable Tricorder
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Science,
It won’t be long before you go to a Star Trek convention and your gadgets will be more authentic than those of the Enterprise crew. We located Mr. Spock’s watch in December, and now we have discovered his tricorder. University researchers at Purdue have created the battery-powered substance-detecting miniaturized spectrometer that sprays the object with ionized water.
“The detection is done in an ion trap — an RF device that traps ions, then lets them out on the basis of their masses, enabling you to be exactly sure what compound you are sensing,” says the College of Science’s R. Graham Cooks.
Mass spectrometers weighing 300 lbs. are already in use in airports, but this portable Mini 10, at only 20 lbs., makes it possible to seek out new civilizations if you can afford the $1,200. Props to the late Gene Roddenberry for allowing the name to be utilized when the real one finally came about.
Read More | EE Times
Gallery: Purdue Scientists Create Portable Tricorder
Try Teleconferencing With a Giraffe
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Misc. Tech, Science,
Conference calls will soon be easily and more personably obtained with the Giraffe Video Robot. Created by HeadThere Inc., the company claims that anyone that has ever used a computer and a telephone can handle its technology. The Giraffe is a fully mobile camera and video screen mounted on an adjustable height robotic base. When enabled, the odd-looking gadget has auto-answer mode so that the caller can connect at any time.
The Giraffe will be available somewhere between $1800 and $3000 in 2008. They will also be offering a discount for those who pre-order, so we are thinking that’s where the “between” comes in. We might go for it if they promise to paint ours orange and throw in a few spots.
Read More | HeadThere
Gallery: Try Teleconferencing With a Giraffe
Internet Overflow Approaching
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Science, Storage,
International Data Corporation’s John Gantz has recently done a study on data amassed by corporate computer systems and consumers. He included e-mail, spreadsheets, even security and cell phone cameras. The result was that about 161 exabytes (161 billion GBs) were generated in 2006. His conclusion was that there may not be enough space to store data this year.
Today, extra storage only costs about $1.00 per GB as opposed to the $20,000 price tag in 1990. To give you an idea of the enormity of the that 161 EB, IDC figures that it is the equivalent of 36 billion digital movies, 43 trillion song tracks, and 1 million copies of every book in the Library of Congress. Excuse us while we quietly go clean our cache of our last vacation photos.
Read More | USA Today
Gallery: Internet Overflow Approaching
These Microbes Won’t Cause Illness
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smart Home, Misc. Tech, Science, Toys,
Generally we choose mechanical objects over the furrier, stuffed kind, but we just couldn’t resist these microbes that have been recreated 1,000,000 times their real size and transformed into plush. Choose from 25 bugs which include mad cow, malaria, ebola, flu, rabies, mange, and our own personal fave, e. coli. The 5 to 7-inch microbes would be a great addition to any desktop and a great reminder why you don’t want to have lunch at Taco Bell today. They’re available at ThinkGeek for $5.99 each and come with informational cards about their true life counterparts’ natural environments.
Read More | ThinkGeek
Gallery: These Microbes Won’t Cause Illness
It would seem that Massachusetts patrolman Brian Johnson has seen the wanted poster on MySpace and carried the idea one step further. After studying a surveillance video with two men using possibly stolen credit cards, he posted a clip of it on YouTube. He then sent it to about 300 organizations and people to see if they had seen the alleged suspects.
“You don’t have to be a technology wizard to figure out how to watch a video on YouTube,” Johnson said.
Other police departments have also used the service, thinking that Internet users may identify suspects and aid in their capture, although it is too early to tell if this will have the positive results that other media sources such as “America’s Most Wanted” have. Johnson’s criminal was eventually caught, although he attributes the score to good old-fashioned police work.
Read More | Mercury News
Gallery: Cop Seeks Robbers ID With YouTube
Scientists in Japan have created a car seat that can determine your drowsiness level by utilizing physiological data. Reading respiration rate and pulse, the problem is that at this point, it cannot warn you about it or wake you up if you do fall asleep. The good news is that it is still under development, so within the next five years it will have time to install a nagging voice to tell you to pull over or douse you with a cup of water to awaken you.
Read More | Pink Tentacle
Gallery: Car Seat Detects Sleepiness
Anybots has announced the arrival of Dexter, a bot who actually learns to walk by himself. In development since 2001, the 5-foot, 10-inch robot weighs 135 pounds and learns 20,000 new positions each second. When prodded by fellow bot Monty’s articulated hand, Dexter learns balance and adjusts accordingly. The company says that he learns to do this in the same way that humans do, as opposed to the way that current robots do with use of the algorithm ZMP (Zero Moment Point.) Anybots believes that “its learning software will eventually lead to a much wider range of walking abilities than could ever have been programmed.”
Read More | Anybots
Gallery: Dexter Teaches Himself to Walk
We dig odd gadgets. We dig cool watches. This oddly cool RM011 watch was created by Richard Mille, a true artist in the jewelry world. Somehow Mr. Mille has studied and adopted the concept of an F1 racer and applied it to his timepieces. This “annual calendar-flyback-chrono with an extra 60 minute countdown at nine o’clock” is not made out of standard watch parts, but rather designed with what Mille considers the maximum in function, construction, and reliability. Stress and shock resistant, we cannot help admire the ingenuity. Due out at the end of this month, the RM011 carries the extraordinary price of 80,000 euros (~$105,000.)
Read More | Richard Mille RM011 via Kronos Blog
