Join Voice controlled Quad-copter out of MIT
I loved seeing Parrot’s AR.Drone at CES, and I had just as much fun watching the video of this quad-copter, created by the Robust Robotics Group at MIT.
It would appear that this Robust Robotics Group took this thing a step further, but it still requires some sort of iPhone to maintain control. The AR.Drone wasn’t able to take vocal commands.
You can see from the vid that the operator speaks “fly past room 124, then face the windows and go up”. There must have been some speech to text on iPhone, and it would appear that the helicopter can transmit this text into actual commands.
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Berlin Brain Computer Interface lets you play pinball, with your mind
This is an odd way to play pinball, don’t you think? Shouldn’t this man be standing in front of the machine? And what’s with that wired bathing cap?
This is probably what I would have said if I was at CeBIT 2010 and passed by this display of the Berlin Brain-Computer Interface. As it turns out, this man is playing this game of pinball with his brain. I’m not saying that he’s really getting his head into the game, but his head is playing the game.
You can watch a video of the setup of this person in action after the jump. I really have no idea if this man is just some visitor to CeBIT or someone who works for the company, but you can watch him as they set him up to play pinball on this Addams Family themed pinball machine. Yeah, I would have chosen a different theme, but the multiple flippers does make it interesting.
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The Wearable Telecommunicator is like having a little friend on your shoulder
Imagine if Jiminy cricket in Pinocchio was a robot, and he would be on his shoulder like you see in this picture. Granted, Steven Spielberg sort of did that in A.I., but the Wearable Telecommunicator is a reality.
The Wearable Telecommunicator has been developing experimental technology for a robot that is operated by a remote user so he or she can see, hear, and even gesture through the shoulder-mounted robot.
There is a video after the jump, and you can see the user of the Wearable Telecommunicator with virtual reality goggles. You know, the type that we all thought would be wearing by now back in the early nineties.
So I guess this is some way for a person to be in two places at the same time. In other words, the human can talk to someone new at a party, and the robot can chime in any time.
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Interaxon allows visitors of the Vancouver Winter Games to control light displays with thoughts
We’ve discussed mind-controlled technology before, such as the Star Wars Force Trainer. A Toronto-based company named Interaxon has used mind control technology for how you really want to use it: to turn on the lights.
Interaxon (see video after the jump) is having a special display of this technology for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Their display allows visitors to control lights at Niagara Falls (seen above) as well as Ottawa’s Parliament building and the CN Tower.
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Hydrogen R/C Car Model Kit
Want to achieve a higher level of performance when it comes to R/C car model kits? The Hydrogen R/C Car Model Kit might just fit the bill then, where this latest prototype hydrogen fuel cell power kit was specially designed around Tamiya’s TRF 416 carbon fiber chassis. It is still in the prototype stage at point of publishing, so you won’t see it hit the stores anytime soon although we’re pretty sure that enthusiasts can’t wait for an official release. A couple of HydroSTIKs are able to carry around 15Wh of energy or 13L of hydrogen, where they are integrated to the fuel cell electric power-train on either side of the chassis which results in enhanced weight distribution for the car. Bear in mind the TRF-416 chassis is available as an assembly kit and will not ship with wheels, a brushless motor, a speed controller, a servo-motor, receiver and transmitter, as all of those can be purchased separately from your local hobby shop.
Source: Hobby Media
Tamiya R/c car replica
Check it out – a full sized, vintage Tamiya radio controlled car replica of the vintage Sand Sorcherer which was released by Tamiya a good three decades back. While the original remote controlled car was 10% the size of what could possibly be the best selling radio controlled car ever manufactured, this life sized model ought to make heads turn. Don’t bother with D batteries for this though, as you will definitely need a whole lot of juice to move something that size remotely. While Christmas is a far way off, that doesn’t mean that you can’t start saving up for this if you’re feeling particularly loaded and want to please the man-boy in your home.
Source: Hobby Media
Rē Accessory turns iPhone into a universal remote
Just when you thought that the iPhone is the bee’s knees, enter another accessory that further augments that line of thinking – the Rē Accessory which will transform your iPhone into a universal remote control. Makes us wonder whether the folks at Logitech and all the other companies that roll out super expensive universal remote controls will sit up and take notice of this though, since most people already have an iPhone and to purchase another accessory that offers similar or nearly all the performance of an actual universal remote at the faraction of a price is definitely a no-brainer. You will not need any Wi-Fi to run this, as it is capable of learning IR code from existing remotes while enabling you to customize button images to suit your fancy. To sweeten the deal, the Rē Accessory can definite unlimited rooms with an unlimited number of devices, making us wonder what else the iPhone cannot do.
Source: Chip Chick
SilverPAC offers evolution 5500 universal remote control
Remember back in the day where there were just a couple of channels on your black-and-white TV, and yet with just those few channels, you could spend endless hours glued to whatever programming that came your way? Also, there was no need to hook up some other peripherals like home theater systems and DVD players since those didn’t exist back then – heck, there wasn’t even a remote control to boot! Fast forward a few decades and you have a plethora of accessories and appliances that can hook up to your TV, not to mention each of them having their own remote controls. In order to make things more centralized and consolidated, SilverPAC has decided to reveal their evolution 5500 universal remote control to the masses by unveiling it at the upcoming CES 2010 in Las Vegas.
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