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This robot is called "WinBoni" and like its namesake, actually cleans your windows the way a
Zamboni would clean your favorite ice rink. The project won first prize in the International
Student Design Competition held by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers so it wins for a
feat of anti-gravitational genius. Watch the video to see it in action.
a
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Et oui, dans ce grand vaisseau de l'espace que nous avons vu dans le film
Wall-E, il y avait plein de monde, plein de robots, dont un qui se nomme Burn-E.
Trouvée chez Gamaniak, voici un court métrage bien rigolo, sur ce personnage !
Societe : COMPUTER FUTURES - Lieu de travail : Paris 75 - Type de contrat : CDI - Salaire :
Negotiable - Detail : Ce poste est à pourvoir en CDI directement au sein d'une
société finale. La société est un hébergeur internet crée
il y à environ 10 ans et appartenant à un grand groupe international. Dans le cadre
d'une croissance à deux chiffres depuis plus de 5 ans, il recherche un ingénieur
système Microsoft. Vous êtes confirmé sur les domaines de compétence
suivants: - 2 ans d’expérience minimum - Sécurité : firewall CheckPoint,
ISA, IIS, relai SMTP, Antivirus, GPO environnement Microsoft : o système
d’exploitation : Windows XP/VISTA/Windows 2000/2003 o Application : IIS 5/6/7, Framework .Net
o Active Directory - Base de données : MSSQL 2000/2005, Oracle 9i/10g, Clustering - Outil de
monitoring (exemple : MOM, Nagios, MRTG...) - Connaissance des environnements
hébergés (surveillance, plan de reprise, plan de continuité, Architecture
réseau) - Outils de sauvegarde (exemple : BackUp Exec, robot de sauvegarde) - Messagerie :
Exchange/serveur de type POP3 - MCSA/MCSE apprécié Vous êtes Ingénieur
Informatique avec une expérience de trois ans au sein d'une SSII, d'un éditeur de
logiciel ou d'un hebergeur. Vous cherchez à donner une nouvelle dimension à votre
carrière. Ce poste offre une rémunération entre 35 et 40KE sur 12 mois +
avantages en nature et intéressement. Vous avez ce profil alors faite moi parvenir votre CV
actualisé et contactez moi au 01 42 99 83 33, j'attends votre appel.
Jusqu'à présent, Google permettait au webmaster de choisir entre 2 niveaux de vitesse
de crawl (parfois un 3ème niveau était accessible). L'objectif est de demander au
robot Googlebot de venir plus ou moins souvent sur le site, en fonction de la charge du serveur.
Google vient d'annoncer que le réglage de la vitesse d'exploration est désormais plus
fin.
div class="imajorta"img src='http://www.bildirgec.org/imaj/hoodly/jquery.gif' alt=""""
border="0"br/divstronga href="http://JavaScript.com"javaScript/a/strong kütüphanelerinden
birisi olan a href="http://jquery.com/"strongjquery/strong/a
programcıların kod yazma yüklerini azaltarak onlara büyük
bir katkıda bulunmaya devam ediyor ve bazı programcılarda
boÅŸ durmayarak bu kütüphanenin hakkını vererek
sahip olduÄŸu özellikleri kullanarak deÄŸiÅŸik amaçlarla
kullanılan yeni değerler ortaya
çıkarıyorlar. iÅŸte onlardan bir taneside a
href="http://www.anthonycalzadilla.com/"Anthony Calzadilla/a tarafından
yapılan bir a href="http://www.bildirgec.org/ara/animasyon-filmi"animasyon filmi/a.div
class="imajorta"img src='http://www.bildirgec.org/imaj/hoodly/jquery-robot.jpg' alt=""""
border="0"br/divbra href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/jquery"jquery/a a
href="http://www.jquery.com"web sitesinde/a "strongwrite less, do more/strong" sloganı
var ve gerçekten haklılar bunu yazmakta. animasyon filmine a
href="http://robot.anthonycalzadilla.com/"buradan/a ulaÅŸabilirsiniz ve a
href="http://codingcyb.org/main/index.php?pv=robot"buradan da/a 3 farklı
şekilde yapılmış gene aynı filme
göz atabilirsiniz.brdiv class="imajorta"img
src='http://www.bildirgec.org/imaj/hoodly/image-architecture.jpg' alt="""" border="0"br/divbra
href="http://css-tricks.com/"css-tricks/a web sitesinde aÅŸama aÅŸama
ilerleyerek sonuca nasıl
ulaşıldığı a
href="http://css-tricks.com/jquery-robot/"bu makalede/a çok güzel bir
şekilde anlatılmış. ayrıca jquery
ile ilgili türkçe kaynak ihtiyacınız varsa a
href="http://www.eburhan.com"eburhan.com/a'da yer alan a
href="http://www.eburhan.com/jquery-dunyasina-adim-atiyoruz/"bu makale/a size
yardımcı olacaktır.pstrongilgili
yazılar/strongullia href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/ajax-uygulamalari-1"Ajax
Uygulamaları 1/a (8)/lilia
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/jquery-1-1-3-cikti"JQuery 1.1.3
çıktı. Åžimdi %800 daha
hızlı./a (3)/lilia
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/jquery-uygulamalari"Jquery Uygulamaları/a
(0)/lilia href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/jquery-kopya-kagidi"jQuery Kopya
Kağıdı/a (0)/lilia
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/jquery-1-1-4-hazir"jquery 1.1.4 hazır/a (4)/lilia
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/70-den-fazla-javascript-kaynagi"70'den fazla JavaScript
kaynağı/a (1)/lilia
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/aptana-studio-1-0"Aptana Studio 1.0/a (8)/lilia
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/jquery-eklentileri"jquery eklentileri/a (2)/lilia
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/yazi/resim-ve-videolar-icin-shadowbox"resim ve videolar için
shadowbox/a (5)/li/ul/ppbu yazı a href="http://www.bildirgec.org/uye/hoodly"hoodly/a
tarafından bildirgec.org adresli sitede yayımlanmak üzere
yazılmıştır. kaynak gösterilmeksizin
kopyalanamaz./ppetiketler: a href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/jquery" rel="tag"
target="_self"jquery/a, a href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/javascript" rel="tag"
target="_self"javascript/a, a
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/javascript%20k%C3%BCt%C3%BCphanesi" rel="tag"
target="_self"javascript kütüphanesi/a, a
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/programc%C4%B1" rel="tag"
target="_self"programcı/a, a
href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/anthony%20calzadilla" rel="tag" target="_self"anthony
calzadilla/a, a href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/animasyon%20filmi" rel="tag"
target="_self"animasyon filmi/a, a href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/jquery%20robot" rel="tag"
target="_self"jquery robot/a, a href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/css%20tricks" rel="tag"
target="_self"css tricks/a, a href="http://www.bildirgec.org/etiket/eburhan" rel="tag"
target="_self"eburhan/a/p pa href="http://rss.bildirgec.org/~a/bildirgec?a=unfk9E"img
src="http://rss.bildirgec.org/~a/bildirgec?i=unfk9E" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a
href="http://rss.bildirgec.org/~f/bildirgec?a=DkB5O"img
src="http://rss.bildirgec.org/~f/bildirgec?i=DkB5O" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://rss.bildirgec.org/~f/bildirgec?a=yDTKO"img
src="http://rss.bildirgec.org/~f/bildirgec?i=yDTKO" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://rss.bildirgec.org/~r/bildirgec/~4/475530288" height="1" width="1"/
In the last few years, the world of hobby robotics has exploded. Driven by the plummeting prices
and ubiquity of microcontrollers, servomotors, and other electronic and mechanical components,
the growth in personal fabrication technologies, and the success of such commercial toy, hobby,
and domestic robots as Lego Mindstorms, the Robosapien line, Japanese mini humanoids, and
iRobot's cleaning machines, robots are finally becoming rather commonplace (if still only in
niche domains). And, of course, the robot growth being seeded by these new technologies is
watered by the Big Muddy of the Internet, with its rapid information and idea exchange. The next
generation of engineers and industrial designers who'll build tomorrow's robots are growing up
with Vex kits and Arduino microcontrollers in their hands today.
For our MAKE Robot Gift Guide, we've put together a sampling of robot-related offerings from the
Maker Shed, as well as some other robots we fancy. If you
give or get any of these bots for the holidays, or especially if you or your recipients, hack
them, we'd love to hear about it.
Fully-Assembled Robots
i-Sobot
I was given one of these last holiday season to review. At the time, I was pretty
impressed that TOMY was able to offer such a sophisticated mini-humanoid for the price (which was
then around $250 street). Now, sadly, after a year, TOMY has decided to discontinue the product.
But that means we can offer them in the Maker Shed for $106!. That's a very attractive price for
a very hackable little robot, making it the perfect gift for any techno-tinkerer on your list.
This 6 1/2"-tall humanoid uses 17 servomotors to somersault, stand on one leg, do push-ups,
perform martial arts. It has 180 pre-programmed movements, responds to verbal commands, and
performs up to 240 movements in sequence, allowing you to design countless routines, such as
programming the device to say "hello," introduce himself, play an air guitar, bow to his
audience, and say "good night." Using the included action chart as a guide, you simply enter the
alphanumeric codes into the remote control and i-SOBOT reacts in earnest with acrobatics, verbal
phrases, and greetings, or you can control his movements manually using the dual joysticks and
trigger buttons on the remote. In voice recognition mode, the robot moves in response to ten
verbal prompts, such as "Go forward" or "Back up," and acknowledges questions like "How are you?"
with appropriate retorts. Ages 10+.
Price: $105.95.
Robots-Dreams.com has some links to i-SOBOT hacking-related resources here.
Rovio Mobile Webcam
We've been fans of WowWee and their growing line of robots since the first Robosapien. Along with
iRobot, WowWee has been pioneers in making robot technology commercially viable. To date, most of
WowWee's product line has been robotic toys. So we were excited to see them offering a more
practical robotic system -- Rovio, a Wifi-enabled mobile webcam you can control from any
Web-enabled device over the internet. One of the first commercially-viable robot applications
iRobot looked into was basically the same sort of webcam on a robot which would allow remote
tele-presence. So, WowWee comes along with a really killer-looking three- (omni)wheeled,
semi-autonomous bot you can control over the Web for under $300. It's a start, but Rovio is
definitely still in beta. We've only had a day to mess with ours, but we've already encountered
many of the problems early users have cited: poor camera performance, especially in middle-to-low
lighting, poor audio on the mic, docking station problems, unreliable waypoint navigation, and
other annoyances. Also, in an ironic turn-about, the Windows network set-up is pretty much plug
'n play, while the Mac set-up is a little gnarlier. So, we can't recommend Rovio if you're
looking for a home/office mobile sentry (what the device is basically marketed as), but it has
all sorts of great hacks potential and there's already an enthusiastic hacking community that's
started figuring out how to extend capabilities, control it with the Wiimote, and other promising
improvements. And we have to mention the design -- it's seriously cool and the glowing blue LED
running lights make it look like something, well from that 21st century that hasn't actually
happened yet. In the hands of a robot hacker, this is a really fun system with lots of potential.
For everyone else, wait for the next version when WowWee will hopefully fix some of the
significant problems. Price: $299.99
Wrex the
Dawg
Meet Wrex, the first commercial "junkbot," or so he's been made to look. A dog that only Dr.
Frankenstein could love, Wrex appears to have been cobbled together from discarded electronic and
mechanical parts. He's a literal junkyard dog. His personality is also stitched together. He has
various moods and needs, he can become incorrigible, and he will even go haywire and break down
on occasion. His rolling jackpots eyes spin around and have symbols on them that display his
moods and desires. He's a cross between Astro from The Jetsons, Scooby Doo, and codeHound (codeHound, you
say? It's an early Net-culture thing. I'm old). Like a lot of these highly motorized toys, this
thing eats batteries like they were Scooby snacks. The bot requires four Cs and two AAs, the
remote takes three AAAs. And be careful getting Wrex out of the big, impressive box he comes in.
It's a major undertaking, and cheap, easily-stripped screws are involved. All-in-all, this is an
adorable, slightly screw-loose robo-pet that kids will definitely love (and your inebriated adult
friends at holiday parties). I can't wait to see how he might get hacked. Price: $119.99
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/Digg this!/a
a href="http://www.tiltedtwister.com/"A robot made out of Lego bricks that solves a Rubik's cube./a
Video of the a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fAn5A0HbhU"robot in action/a. Includes a
href="http://www.tiltedtwister.com/download.html"full blueprints for building and source code/a. br
/
When you’re prototyping a new project, sometimes all you need is a switch. The folks at
oomlout were tired of constantly having to rewire things, so they built a universal
switch box for the Arduino. It has five potentiometers plus three switches. They’ve put
together a software package that monitors the switches and can show you a live view of the knob
positions. Have a look at the video below for a demo.
The writeup actually hints at what we can only assume is the next kit they’re releasing:
a robot arm.
pThis Christmas you can choose between two roaming sentinel robots featuring camera and wi-fi
connectivity. The WowWee Rovio challenges the Erector Spykee, which was supposed to be already
available a year ago, but was delayed. A robot fan with a hand fo.../pdiv class="feedflare" a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?a=xixmKG8A"img
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href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?a=evRQGlUK"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/I4UNews?i=evRQGlUK" border="0"/img/a /div
This is the one-hundred and eighty-fourth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and
whether they are true or false. Click here
for an archive of the previous one-hundred and eighty-three.
Let’s begin!
COMIC LEGEND: Neil Gaiman was inspired by the Bob Dylan song “Mr. Tambourine
Man” to create the main character in Sandman.
STATUS: False
Reader Rob wrote in the other day to ask:
Some people at my comic shop were discussing how Neil Gaiman said he got the idea to do the
Morpheus incarnation of Sandman after listening to the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s “Mr.
Tambourine Man”. Is this true?
Well, Bob Dylan IS pretty awesome, so I would not be surprised if he influenced the creation of
pretty much every comic character, but in this particular case, it is a fairly reasonable story
that Gaiman might have taken some inspiration from the lyrics to Mr. Tambourine Man…
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you.
Though I know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand,
Vanished from my hand,
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming.
That’s not hard to believe that it could be an influence for Sandman, the Master of Dreams,
no?
However believable, it is not, in fact, true.
For the truth, I went to no other than Neil Gaiman himself, creator of The Sandman, who was
gracious enough to give this reply when I asked if it was real or bogus:
Bogus, I’m afraid.
The Golden/Wagner/Bissette book “Prince of Stories” mentions the influence of the Lou
Reed/ Velvet Underground song “I’m Set Free”, and you can find many songs
referred to in the online annotations and the Hy Bender Sandman Companion, but there’s no
Dylan in the mix.
The book Neil is referring to, by the way…
Well, there you go, Rob!
Thanks to Rob for the question and thanks so much to Neil for the quick reply!
COMIC LEGEND: The Fantastic Four’s mailman was featured in comics over a year before
the Fantastic Four were!
STATUS: True
Reader Tony wrote in to ask:
Is it true that Willie Lumpkin was created before the Fantastic Four?
The answer to that, Tony, is basically yes.
For the sake of avoiding the qualifier, I phrased the legend differently (I’m sneaky that
way).
Willie Lumpkin was definitely appearing in comics before the Fantastic Four were around, but it
was not necessarily the same character who appeared later in the Fantastic Four.
Willie Lumpkin, the mailman for the Fantastic Four, first appeared in Fantastic Four #11, by Stan
Lee and Jack Kirby.
He has a funny bit about how he has the “special power” to wiggle his ears.
He soon became a popular background character in the book, and you’ll still see him in the
comics today (he was just recently a major character in Paul Cornell’s interesting
mini-series Fantastic Four: True Story).
In fact, Stan Lee even portrayed Willie himself in the first Fantastic Four movie…
However, Willie Lumpkin was ALSO the name of the titular star of a syndicated newspaper comic
strip that Stan Lee did with the late, great Dan DeCarlo. It only lasted about a year in 1960.
Thanks to Ger Apeldoorn, of the amazing website, Those Fabuleous 50s, we can read a bunch of the Willie
Lumpkin strips!
Apeldoorn even includes this interesting ad boasting about the popularity of the strip!
Here is a Sunday strip from November of 1960 (click to enlarge)…
Here is a week’s worth of strips from December of 1960 (click to enlarge)…
In one of the great interviews you’ll ever see, Roy Thomas talked to Stan Lee about many
different topics back in 1998, and the strip came up…
Roy: In the early ’60s you had done that Willie Lumpkin newspaper strip.
You used that name again for the mailman in Fantastic Four.
Stan: That was just for fun. Mel Lazarus had done a strip called Miss Peach,
which used not panels but one long panel instead. I liked that idea very much, so when Harold
Anderson, the head of Publishers Syndicate, asked me to do a strip, I came up with Barney’s
Beat, which was about a New York City cop and all the characters on his patrol who he’d
meet every day and there would be a gag. I did some samples with Dan DeCarlo, and I thought it
was wonderful.
Harold said it was too “big city-ish” and they’re not going to care for it in
the small towns because they don’t have cops on a beat out there. He wanted something that
would appeal to the hinterland, something bucolic. He said, “You know what I want, Stan? I
want a mailman! A friendly little mailman in a small town.” I don’t remember if I
came up with the name Lumpkin or he did, but I hated it. I think I came up with the name as a
joke and he said, “Yeah, that’s it! Good idea!”
It was the one strip in the world I didn’t think I was qualified to write, because I liked
things that were hip and cutting-edge, cool and big city. I always wrote Seinfeld and that kind
of thing. Here I’m writing about a mailman in a small town! Even though it was not my type
of thing, it lasted for a couple of years. Unlike today, when I do the Spider-Man daily strip and
never heard from the syndicate (I gotta call them a few times a year and say, “Are you guys
aware that we’re still doing this?”), in those days Harold Anderson passed on every
gag, looked at every panel, and I worked with him. He was a lovely man, but as an editor, he was
a nightmare! [laughs]
So there ya go!
Willie Lumpkin was around before the Fantastic Four, but you could argue that it is not really
the SAME Willie Lumpkin from the Fantastic Four comics.
Thanks to Tony for the question, Ger for the amazing web resource (again, The Fabuleous 50s), Roy Thomas for the great interview
(and heck, thanks to Roy Thomas for just generally being such an awesome historical resource -
he’s a comic historian’s national treasure) and thanks to Stan Lee for the info!
COMIC LEGEND: The Transformers character Circuit Breaker was introduced in the pages of
Secret Wars II so Marvel could gain the rights to the character.
STATUS: True
My good buddy John sent me a question a few weeks back:
Does Marvel own the character Circuit Breaker from the old Transformers comics, I think she also
appeared in Secret Wars.
Simply put, the way their licensing deal worked was that if Marvel introduced a new character in
the pages of Transformers, Hasbro would own the character. However, if Marvel introduced the
character in one of THEIR titles and THEN had said character appear in the licensed book, it
would still be owned by Marvel, which is what Marvel did with Death’s Head and it is also
what they did with Circuit Breaker.
Josie Beller was introduced in the pages of the Transformers, and slowly turned into Circuit
Breaker, the anti-robot cyborg. However, she did not turn up as Circuit Breaker until AFTER she
appeared in, all of all places, Secret Wars II.
The Beyonder and she had a little chat, and then it was off to the pages of Transformers where
she battled those crazy robots until Marvel’s series ended…
Her appearance in Secret Wars II follows her appearance in Transformers, continuity-wise, but
publication-wise, her Secret Wars II appearance came first, which is why Marvel was okay (and why
they had her cameo in another comic before appearing in Transformers - to show that they had
published Circuit Breaker in a comic BEFORE she appeared in a Transformers comic).
Since she is a Marvel character, she can’t be used in the Transformers comics or cartoons.
Marvel could use her themselves if they felt like it, but they do not appear to be inclined to do
so.
img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/gizmodo_t.jpg'/img: Photo:
Eliot Van Buskirk/Wired.compNEW YORK – Popular technology blog Gizmodo has set
up shop in a Manhattan art gallery to showcase some of the rarest and most intriguing gadgets from
the past hundred years or so, including never-released Apple prototypes, the first Sony Walkman, a
flying aerial surveillance camera and more./pp The Gizmodo Gallery opened Thursday at the Reed
Annex (151 Orchard St.), but we snuck in Wednesday night to photograph the most fascinating stuff
on display here. The show runs through Sunday afternoon, giving New Yorkers, tourists and gadget
freaks a chance to gaze upon important pieces of our technological history, and interact with some
more recent gadgets. /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/dragan_t.jpg'/img: Photo: Eliot
Van Buskirk/Wired.compNico Reyes of the Reed Annex sits blissfully unaware of the Draganflyer X6, a
flying surveillance device that "makes crane shots obsolete," according to its creators. That may
be the case, but we can't fight off our initial impression that this could be the last thing we
will ever see. /pp With an expert at the remote control, the aerial carbon-fiber shutterbug
navigates tight indoor spaces with ease according to Gizmodo editorial director Brian Lam, who said
the beast is capable of holding steady in winds of up to 18 mph. A "failed motor logic" system
keeps the system in operation even if two of the motors crap out. /pp Lam said the Draganflyer X6
accepts a night-vision camera or HD camera in addition to the vanilla flavor, and communicates its
location to the remote using a GPS. As great as this gadget is for filmmakers and photographers,
its potential application as a weapon is a bit worrying in a Terminator sort of way. /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/sony_walkman_t.jpg'/img: Photo:
Eliot Van Buskirk/Wired.compHere's the portable audio player that started it all: the original Sony
Walkman, on loan from Sony's archives in Tokyo. Initially panned by critics, the Walkman became a
worldwide sensation, eventually selling 340 million units. /pp Oddly, the device that kicked off
the portable-audio revolution includes two headphone jacks for sharing music mdash; surely,
unintentional prescience on the part of Sony, which could never have predicted the later connection
between portable music formats and music sharing. /pp Model Alyssa Miller holds the original-model
Walkman./p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/apple_tablet_t.jpg'/img: Photo:
Eliot Van Buskirk/Wired.compLegendary Silicon Valley design firm Frog Design lent Gizmodo a couple
of Apple prototypes to display, including this MacBook Tablet mock-up, modeled here by Paulo. /pp
Apple and Frog Design conceived this prototype using their Snow White design language, according to
Gizmodo's Brian Lam. Although this portable tablet computer never saw the light of day, echoes of
its design can be seen in the Apple IIc. /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/atari_t.jpg'/img: Photo: Eliot
Van Buskirk/Wired.compAtari never released a portable version of the Atari 2600 game console, but
if it did, it may have ended up looking a lot like this Atari 2600 VCSp, seen here in the hands of
writer Lisa Katayama. /pp The Atari 2600 VCSp is the work of hacker extraordinaire Benjamin
Heckendorn (better known online as Ben Heck). This model is the first Heck ever made; he went on to
build scores of vintage gaming mods that earned him a following among geeks and fans of vintage
gaming. /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/tenori_t.jpg'/img: Photo: Eliot
Van Buskirk/Wired.compThis double-sided MIDI controller allows musicians to build loops of sound by
pressing LED buttons arranged in a 16-by-16 grid. /pp This a href="
http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/10/tenori-on-lite-.html "video/a explains how it works, but the
gist is that you control which loops play, and when they start and stop, by activating and
deactivating the lights. /pp Unlike some of the other gear on display, the Tenori-On will be
playable by gallery-goers who can listen to their own performances through a pair of headphones. /p
img src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/dyson_level_t.jpg'/img:
Photo: Eliot Van Buskirk/Wired.compGizmodo’s Brian Lam told us that the original Dyson vacuum
cleaner was initially crippled in the U.S. market because manufacturers were worried it would
cannibalize the multimillion-dollar market for replacement vacuum bags. /pp Luckily for inventor
James Dyson, this version of his design was manufactured in Japan starting in 1983, giving Dyson
the financial wherewithal to start making them himself. Twenty five years later, the descendents of
the original Dyson are probably the world's most coveted model mdash; itself something of an
accomplishment. Who would have predicted that vacuum cleaners could become such a hot topic? /pp
Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan wields this original Dyson./p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/death_star_t.jpg'/img: Photo:
Eliot Van Buskirk/Wired.compOne of the largest Lego sets ever released, this Death Star was
destroyed on its way from Lego to the Gizmodo expo. Luckily, the company introduced Gizmodo to Lego
enthusiast Jonathan Lopes of Brooklyn. /pp The self-described "Lego nerd" arrived on the scene to
perform a reverse Luke Skywalker on the Death Star, rebuilding it in time for it to be displayed
Thursday morning mdash; no small feat, considering that it's made from 3,800 pieces and that he
worked only from a picture of the fully assembled version. /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/apple_phone_t.jpg'/img: Photo:
Eliot Van Buskirk/Wired.compAnother Apple prototype loaned to Gizmodo by Frog Design, this early
'80s conception of an Apple phone featured a handset and a monochromatic screen and stylus,
allowing the device's potential owner to sign checks electronically over phone lines. /pp When
Apple finally released its first phone in 2007, it didn't even come with a stylus, and the screen
was much smaller. /pp Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan picks up the handset. /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/thanko_t.jpg'/img: Photo: Eliot
Van Buskirk/Wired.compOne of the most useless pieces of electronics we have ever laid eyes on,
Thanko's USB tie and gloves provide you with heat or cool when they're connected to your computer's
USB port mdash; perfect for commuting and outdoor sports, assuming your USB cable is long enough.
/pp The gloves heat up, while a compact fan located in the necktie's knot generates a gentle breeze
mdash; worthwhile in theory, if not in practice. As Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan points out, "All USB
gadgets are awesome in some way." /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/picturephone_t.jpg'/img: Photo:
Eliot Van Buskirk/Wired.compWhen this Bell Labs Picturephone debuted at the 1964 World's Fair, many
of those who saw it in action, paired to an identical model in Disneyland, probably thought that
every phone would feature video by the year 2000. They were close; instead, nearly every modern
computer is capable of live videoconferencing, while home phones still largely resemble the models
of the past. /pp A 1956 version of the Picturephone was capable of transmitting one picture every
two seconds. This one apparently improved on that frame-rate by adding another two lines to the
connection. This (nonfunctional) unit was borrowed from the ATT Archives and History Center. /pp
Adam Lam uses the Picturephone pictured here to attempt contact with gadget freaks of the past, or
so we imagine. /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/zeiss_t.jpg'/img: Photo: Eliot
Van Buskirk/Wired.compGoggles that let you watch video on a little virtual screen have been around
for years, but many of them are plagued by poor image quality, low resolution and headache-inducing
optics. /pp This pair, from the widely respected camera-lens manufacturer Zeiss, is an exception,
with 640x480 resolution and an individual diopter for each eye that allows eyeglass-wearers to use
the goggles. Battery life is four hours mdash; enough for all but the longest films. /pp In this
shot, Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan watches a video stored on a video-capable iPod Nano. /p img
src='http://www.wired.com/images/slideshow/2008/12/gallery_gizmodo/brian_lam_stomping_clear_t.jpg'/img:
Photo: Eliot Van Buskirk/Wired.compWe wondered why two hunks of red foam and metal were included in
the gallery, until Gizmodo editorial director Brian Lam took a break from overseeing the
construction of displays to demonstrate them. /pp With each step, a thunderous, robot-stomp sound
emanated from his slippers, and by the end of his demonstration, we were convinced that they did in
fact belong in the gallery. Sometimes, technology is as much about whimsy as it is about scientific
progress. /pbr style="clear: both;"/ a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;'
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style="border: 0;" border="0"
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src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=7b501d3d90521f2989f5f32410ca9eda" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/ pa
href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=JhSVew"img
src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=JhSVew" border="0"/img/a/pimg
src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/475367649" height="1" width="1"/
We've covered a lot of different robocritters from the BEAM taxonomy in MAKE and here on Make:
Blog: rollers, walkers, spinners, pummers, poppers, crawlers. But one we haven't, and I hardly
ever see in the wild, is the robot ball/min-ball. Solarbotics even used to sell a Mini-Ball kit many moons ago
(PDF here). I love this gigantic
robo-hamster ball spotted on YouTube. I post this in honor of our very own John Edgar Park who
did the hamster physics for the new Disney film Bolt.
a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/beam_ballbots.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read
more/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/beam_ballbots.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890"
/ Permalink/a | a
href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/beam_ballbots.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890#comments"
/Comments/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/robotics/?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more
articles in Robotics/a | a
href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F12%2Fbeam_ballbots.htmltitle=BEAM%20ballbotsbodytext=%20We%26apos%3Bve%20covered%20a%20lot%20of%20different%20robocritters%20from%20the%20BEAM%20taxonomy%20in%20MAKE%20and%20here%20on%20Make%3A%20Blog%3A%20rollers%2C%20walkers%2C%20spinners%2C%20pummers%2C%20poppers%2C%20crawlers.%20But%20one%20we%20haven%26apos%3Bt%2C%20and%20I%20hardly%20ever%20see%20in%20the%20wild%2C%20is%20the%20robot...topic=tech_news"
/Digg this!/a
pScientists at Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Stockholm report that they were able to make people
perceive the bodies of mannequins and other people as their own. Their findings, published online
this week by PLoS ONE, could help people suffering from body image disorders and be a boon for
virtual reality developers to improve the control and realism of their systems and robot makers
eager to create appendages that can more easily be remotely controlled. a
href=http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=mind-games-researchers-trick-people-2008-12-04[More]/a
I no longer fear getting old now that researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed
Mamoru-Kunmdash;a robot that helps elderly people find lost objects and remember to take their
medication....
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/mamoru-kun.jpg" width="600"
height="800" align="left" hspace="4" vspace="2"/I no longer fear getting old now that researchers
at the University of Tokyo have developed Mamoru-Kunmdash;a robot that helps elderly people find
lost objects and remember to take their medication./p pOnce users register objects with Mamoru-Kun
or "little protector," the device will constantly monitor them in a specific area using several
cameras. If the object is misplaced, Mamoru-Kun will either point towards its location or give you
verbal directions. It can even instruct its big brother the “a
href="http://gizmodo.com/5069122/robot-does-chores-learns-not-to-put-socks-in-refrigerator"Home
Assistant Robot/a” to retrieve the object for you. The designers hope to have the device
commercialized by 2018, which is right about the time I will start to forget where I put my reading
glasses. Thanfully, Mamoru-Kun will be right there to tell me that the glasses are hanging from my
neck. Awesome. [a href="http://robot.watch.impress.co.jp/cda/news/2008/12/04/1482.html"Robot
Watch/a via a
href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/12/04/meet-mamoru-kun-the-little-robot-that-will-get-your-misplaced-glasses-and-slippers/"Crunchgear/a]/p
br style="clear: both;"/ a
href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=825e2b23779645868f9b2a20a1494916p=1"img alt=""
style="border: 0;" border="0"
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src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=825e2b23779645868f9b2a20a1494916" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=39yYT0uz"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=F5jLccx8"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=BAebhJs8" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=hTW4tlJK"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=hTW4tlJK" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/uapcniJ3zig" height="1" width="1"/
pTelemedicine has caught on over the past several years as an effective way to bring patients and
specialists together via the magic of video conferencing. Unfortunately, most telemedicine setups
require the patient to be in a room equipped with a computer, camera, microphone and monitor, so
that specialists can remotely assess his or her condition. Could robots be the answer, providing
both patient care and a view for specialists checking in from afar? a
href=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=robot-telemedicine[More]/a
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
