Join In the future, you can walk on a Passing Cloud
At some point in time, I think we all thought the sky would be full of airships, sort of like the alternate reality seen on the television show Fringe.
This is concept known as Passing Cloud, and it is a stainless steel structure that can support spherical nylon balloons that link together to form a bubble cluster cloud. It floats up, and people take a literal walk on the clouds.
From the CG picture that I see here, it looks like there is some sort of wall to make certain the passengers don’t fall off. I’m guessing that it is similar to the wall around heaven.
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Raytheon-Sarcos prototype is for heavy lifting
What you are seeing here is a modified Ditch Witch from Raytheon-Sarcos, and it is essentially the top half of a Power Loader from Aliens.
As you might have guessed, it gives a user’s upper arms superhuman strength. In case you think you might need crane operator training to operate this, you are wrong. All you need to do is use your own arms, and the metallic arms match.
You can watch the video after the jump, and it shows how easy it is to use. I have no idea how heavy those sheets of metal are, but I’m guessing that you don’t want to haul them without some machinery. I have to admit that I didn’t see the comparison between the movie Real Steel and this, but I would pay to see two of these robot arms fighting it out in real life.
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Could someone please get me a working Portico, please?
When it comes to applications on tablets, developers really have to think outside the box in order to create the next addictive thing. Right now, Microsoft Research, Intel, and the University of Washington are working on the Portico, which allows the user to interact with the world outside of the tablet.
You can watch a video after the jump if you want to see a demonstration, and I highly suggest that you will. You will notice how two simple webcams can allow a stencil of a spaceship to blast asteroids on the screen. In addition to this game, Portico can also allow the player to roll a real soccer ball the size of a golf bar in order to try and get it past a virtual goalie.
Continue reading » Could someone please get me a working Portico, please?
New software helps the visually impaired with their touchscreen
The past half-decade has seen a real touchscreen revolution, as far as mobile phones and tablet PCs are concerned. However, what good is this revolution to the visually impaired?
Fortunately, Adam Duran (a senior at New Mexico State University), Adrian Lew (a Standford mechanical engineering assistant professor), and Sohan Dharmaraja (a doctoral candidate) have created an astounding interface designed specifically for the visually impaired.
You can watch how it works after the jump, and you will see how the user’s fingers set up the keyboard, instead of a user having to find the right keys. You will note in the video how each letter is stated aloud, and how programs can be found audibly.
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I Want SCANDY! To scan my documents with my smartphone!
In case you missed the joke in the title of this posting, it is an allusion to a song called “I Want Candy” by 80′s band Bow Wow Wow.
The SCANDY is a very cool device that allows you to scan a document with a smartphone. This is something that I have done before at libraries. I find that when I do this, I can’t help but feel like a cold war spy snapping pictures of secret documents with my spy camera. Of course, I do it with my smartphone, and it does slide together like those old spy cameras from movies.
It is difficult to hold a smartphone camera steady when taking pictures of documents this way, which is why SCANDY can literally screw in to the side of the table. There is a video of it at my Source if you want to see it in action.
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SMELLIT could bring odors to your favorite games
Is there anything that could be more appropriate to bring back than smell-o-vision? Considering that 3D is helping bringing people back into the theaters, why not this fad?
Right now, there is a French company called Olf-Action (“Olf” for olfactory) which makes Odorvision, which can somehow emit scents through these jet engines.
Olf-Action wants to target these SMELLIT devices not for theaters but for home theaters and video games. As you can see in the picture, God of War is going to look pretty spectacular when you can sniff it.
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Boston Dynamics AlphaDog is great robotic mule
The people at Boston Dynamics have created the AlphaDog, a robotic mule that is capable of carrying 400 pounds. Not surprisingly, this project has been developed by DARPA.
I’m guessing that the purpose of the Alpha Dog is to be a robotic beast of burden when the troops are deployed. Now you won’t have to have the soldiers who carry the heavy equipment, as this robo-mule will do it for them.
You should definitely hit the jump to see this Alpha Dog in action, as it is able to manage some pretty rough terrain. Granted, it is being held up by something, but it is enough to show that it could work. DARPA hopes to get a working one of these by 2012.
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Origo, the toy 3D printer that makes more toys
In the future, every household will have a 3D printer like they have a 2D printer. You will note that I didn’t put a year on this, because I’m not stupid. Every time I read a sentence that starts with “by the year” it hardly ever comes true.
However, this Origo 3D printer could bring 3D printers into households sooner than later. The Origo is currently a concept from designers Artur Tchoukanov and Joris Peels, and it can turn any drawing into a 3D object.
I have no idea how it can translate a 2D drawing into a 3D figure, but here is the real cool feature of the Origo. After a child has created his or her toy, he or she can recycle the material and make another toy.
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