Robots and Physical Science
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11 cheap gifts guaranteed to impress science geeks | DVICE
Science comes up with a lot of awesome stuff, and you don't need a Ph.D, a secret lab, or government funding to get your hands on some of the coolest discoveries. We've got a list of 11 mostly affordable gifts that are guaranteed to blow your mind, whether or not you're a science geek. 1. Aerogel Also known as frozen smoke, Aerogel is the world's lowest density solid, clocking in at 96% air.
Into the abyss: The diving suit that turns men into fish - Science, News - The Independent
The invention of scuba diving has allowed us to breathe underwater but only at very shallow depths. Thanks to our inability to conquer the bends, diving below 70m still remains astonishingly dangerous to anyone but a handful of experts. Ultra-deep diving is so lethal that more people have walked on the moon than descended below 240m using scuba gear. Now an inventor in the United States believes he has solved the riddle of how to get humans down to serious depths – by getting us to breathe liquid like fish.Kinect hack creates world's greatest shadow puppet (video) -- Engadget
Hey Xbox 360 Kinect owners, want to spice up those family shadow puppet shows? Then check out the installation prototype created by Emily Gobeille and Theo Watson using an Xbox Kinect connected to a laptop using the libfreenect Kinect drivers and ofxKinect. The openFrameworks system tracks the elbow, wrist, thumb, and tips of the fingers to map a skeleton onto the movement and posture of an animated puppet.
N-Control Avenger gives your Xbox 360 controller hair triggers (video) -- Engadget
We happen to like our existing Xbox 360 controller, squeaky triggers and all, and though we're eagerly awaiting an improved D-pad it hadn't really occurred to us that some might prefer an overhaul. N-Control, however, has done just that with this insane lever-filled shell, which wraps around the gamepad to provide simultaneous control over a host of inputs at once. The idea is that you'll never need to take your thumbs off the analog sticks to swap weapons or reload, because you'll just flick one of those weighted levers instead. You'll also apparently gain a split-second advantage over opponents on the draw since the contraption constantly applies tension to each of the controller's triggers, making them easier to press. For $60, the Avenger even comes with a tripod, which could be a good move on the company's part -- it looks like you might need one to hold the beast up. Video after the break.Robots learning our pain threshold by punching humans and seeing if they cry -- Engadget
The first rule of robotics is you do not talk about robotics that a robot should not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. But how does a robot know when its acts or omissions are causing nearby fleshies discomfort? The obvious way is to scan for the same signals of distress that we humans do -- facial, physical, and aural -- but another, more fun, way is to just hit people over and over again and ask them how much each blow hurt. That's what professor Borut Povse over in Slovenia is doing, in a research project he describes as "impact emulation," where six test subjects are punched by a robotic arm until they can't take it anymore.
Behold The Chipophone, The Amazing Chiptune Organ
When a friend asked Swedish software engineer Linus Åkesson to take an old electric organ off his hands, Linus agreed, as long as he could do anything he wanted to it, and what he did is incredibly impressive. Linus took that electric organ and reverse-engineered it, transforming it into the Chipophone, the ultimate instrument for a live-action chiptune performance. Just watch Linus performing the theme from 1985's ZX Spectrum game Spellbound. You can check out Linus' page for a full rundown of what he did to turn a run-down electric organ into the ultimate chiptune performance instrument. It really is a gorgeous piece of machinery.Overview: Magnetic Thinking Putty takes regular "silly" putty and turns its awesomeness up to 11. Like any other putty, it can be stretched, bounced, molded, popped, and torn. However, when this putty is in the presence of a magnetic field, it exhibits fascinating properties.
Magnetic Thinking Putty: Bouncing Putty infused with magnetic properties
Work It As its brother the HRP-2 looks on in the background, Japan's new humanoid robot, HRP-4, shows off its moves. Kawada Industries via YouTube Japan’s newest RoboCop-looking humanoid robot practices yoga, tracks faces and objects and, in what seems to be a robo-requirement these days, pours drinks. The industrial HRP-4 robot was designed to coexist with people, and its “thin athlete” frame is meant to be more appealing, according to Kawada Industries, which built the robot with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.
Graceful, Slim HRP-4 Humanoid Robot Unveiled; Destined for Menial Labor | Popular Science
Manel Torres joined forces with scientists at Imperial College London to invent the spray, which forms a seamless fabric on contact with the body. Torres took 15 minutes to spray a T-shirt onto a male model in a demonstration today, ahead of his spring/summer collection at the Science in Style fashion show in London next week. The spray consists of short fibres that are mixed into a solvent, allowing it to be sprayed from a can or high-pressure spray gun. The fibres are mixed with polymers that bind them together to form a fabric.
Spray-on clothing becomes a reality | Science | guardian.co.uk
Sony Ericsson FH Mobile Phone Concept by Du Jun » Yanko Design
I love covering concept phones that may not have substance to them (tech-backing), but nevertheless are fun to read about. Featured here is a concept Sony Ericsson FH Mobile Phone that has a pivotal point to it. It flips vertical on a pivot to mimic a phone and rotates sideways to become a viewing screen for the media functions and web browsing. The phone even becomes an intercom of sorts when split into two, allowing easy communication between the two parties holding each end. What a high-tech walkie-talkie this would make!Google Goggles - Visual Search: Google Real Time Search Without Typing | Blogoncherry
Today Google demoed a brand new product set to launch in Google Labs: Google Goggles. Google Goggles is now live in Labs. It will be Android-only for now, and it’s available in the Android market. The example that Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra showed on stage involved taking a picture of a particular bottle of wine. When he ran it through Google Goggles, the result showed that the particular bottle has a hint of apricots.Research scientists at Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science have achieved a breakthrough by proving that the carbon material graphene is the strongest material ever measured. Graphene holds great promise for the development of nano-scale devices and equipment. It consists of a single layer of graphite atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, similar to a honeycomb.
News ::: Columbia Engineers Prove Graphene is Strongest Material
If you’ve owned any of Sony’s PlayStation consoles then there’s a good chance you’ve also played one of the Wipeout , games. It’s a high-speed racing game that helped make the PSOne popular, and it’s now been recreated using a remote control car. The project is the idea of Malte Jehmlich. He decided to create a track out of cardboard reminiscent of the Wipeout tracks. He then hooked up a wireless camera to a remote control car, and modified the controller to be an arcade cabinet with a wheel and forward/reverse selector.