Robot Gadgets

The Robot Lobster dubbed “Robo-Lobster”, was created with the task of detecting mines under water. It has 8 legs, can move around in any direction and weighs 7 lbs. It is built from industrial strength plastic and can sniff around the ocean by using it’s 2 antennas. The claws at the front and tail at the back are used to keep the robot lobster stable in turbulent water.

Building robots is all the rage for some people. They are trying to get them to do what humans cannot, while also trying to build them as human as possible. This lobster to be honest, is a little freaky looking and not something I would want walking my way as it measures 2 feet long. But, considering it’s main priority is to hunt out mines in the ocean surf I am more then happy to let it continue on with that dangerous job.

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What you see is what you get. Apparently, these Toshiba 815T PB phones have come in contact with the Allspark Cube from the Transformers movie and now have bodies of their own. Now all they need are guns and missiles like that one crazy Nokia phone.

Apparently, this is all part of promo for a new show called Ketai Sousakan 7. To be honest, I don’t know how anyone could make a show about transforming cell phones, but how can you not, really? Especially ones with faces like those. I wonder what the plot will be about. Maybe it’s about cell phones that want to be human. Very silly, really.

By the way, these Toshiba 815T PB phones are fully functional as they are 3G network enabled, and come with a 3.2 megapixel camera.

All right, those are the facts. Now here comes the part where I make fun of this concept. This time, it is just too easy. Do we need phones that can transform, even if their limbs did work? If so, they had better have more of an Autobot rather than Decepticon streak.

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London is the city that is hosting a Monster Mash, a giant collection of artwork mixed with robotronics. One such exhibit is the iC Hexapod hobby robot.

The iC Hexapod bears a strong resemblance to a certain probe droid that Han shot on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. The Hexapod appears to have the same mission, as it is programmed to walk around and take pictures.

In fact, it can take over 800 pictures and store them in its internal memory. The spidery robot can even download it to its personal website. It can operate for about 19 hours without recharging.

The iC Hexapod was designed by Matt Denton. Matt is the company manager of Micromagic Systems, which makes animatronics and puppet controls like the effects in the Harry Potter films. I wonder if he designed those spider thingys in Minority Report.

I’m not certain if there is any plan to mass-market the iC Hexapod, but I don’t see why. After all, it certainly sounds like something that could really liven up the party, and take a lot of pictures to remember the occasion. Unfortunately, the pictures would all be from a worm’s eyes point-of-view. Maybe someone better put longer legs on this guy. That, or make him hover. This could be scary, though.

Source

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I don’t know about you, but I just can’t stand to have someone stare at me. If you think being stared is bad, just imagine how art feels.

Well, designers Golan Levin and Greg Baltus are giving us a sample of the stare-glare with the Opto-Isolator. As you can see, the Opto-Isolator is a black box with an eye in the middle of it.

It is art that looks back at you. Not only that, it will respond like a real eye. It is programmed to look a viewer in the eye, then study what it is looking at like a real person. The bionic eye will then look away after a while, just like I do if I find that someone is staring at me. Not only that, but it has the power to blink, and blink loudly.

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I know it is extremely hard to swallow the 5-1 defeat to Spurs for an Arsenal fan, but hopefully future robotic football (soccer to the Americans) matches, should they actually come about, will see the Gunners top the table just like how their real life counterparts did earlier this season. But I digress though - the Robotic Football League Robot is one interesting robot that plays American Football, featuring special gripping arms that come in handy to throw the ball with a fair bit of momentum. In addition, other actions include block, tackle, throw and even receive a small Velcro football. Would be a pretty hefty sum if you want to build an entire team since each individual costs $139.95.

Product Page via Technabob

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Okay, if this picture doesn’t freak you out, then you are obviously too used to robots. Honestly, this is looks like a brand of Terminator robot that John Conner’s band of human rebels would open fire at. That, or the last thing you would see before the machines put you in the Matrix for the rest of your artificial life.

Yet the Robovie is a project under development by the Advance Telecommunications Research Instituted (ATR) in Japan, and it has the ability to spot people in a crowd who are lost. It is then programmed to go up to them, and give them directions to their location.

The Robovie uses 16 cameras, six laser-range finders, and nine RFID tag readers in order to watch 20 people at a time. All those sensors can somehow determine who is lost and who isn’t, and then does its mobile mall directory action.

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This company is an embedded systems research and development company and at CES 08 showcased some of it’s innovative and cool robotics. I was particularly impressed with “Flexo” as seen above, which has the abilitity to travel upright on 2 wheels, which showed some exemplary balance skills, and also recognising colours which it then follows like a little lost puppy. It was set up to recognise the colour red and therefore latched on to me quite quickly as I had made the mistake of wearing a red shirt! It was very friendly and didn’t want to leave my side (ahh, so cute) - it was only with the intervention of one of the stand’s staff armed with another red shirt to distract Flexo so he could tag someone else. His big brother, “Bender”, was also there, being a larger version with the ability to be controlled remotely.

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We wrote about the iRobot Looj back in September, at the time I thought it was pretty cool but a bit too much on the niche side to be be a real hit. However here at CES I’ve seen one in action and must admit after watching it and speaking to the sales guy (taken with a big pinch of salt) it could actually be worth buying.

To use the Looj you simply place it at one end of your guttering and set it off sweeping, it will then traverse the length of your guttering sweeping the leafs onto the floor below. Check out the video of it in action: Read the rest of this entry »

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