It’s another robot with a cutesy name, SPYKE the WiFi Spy Robot. It’s due to be sold under the Meccano brand name which is pretty appropriate as you’ll have to make him your self.

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From the same people who brought you the R2D2 DVD projector comes a neat web cam. Again, it’s R2D2 styled and mobile, but it’s somewhat smaller being designed to fit on a desk.

The remote control for it is a full scale model of a light saber but also doubles up as a USB phone. Al saw it immediately coined the term “SkypeSaber” – I have no idea what they’re calling it officially but I like our term anyway!

The LucasArts franchise gains yet another prodcut with this R2D2 styled DVD projector from Nikko Electronics. It may not be able to project holograms but it is a DVD player, projector and remote controlled robot!

The feature list is:

• LCoS PRojector projecting up to 80″ wide
• iPod dock
• DVD Player (with remote styled after millenium falcon)
• Memory card slot for photo slideshows
• Movement and sound of the whole unit via remote control
• Built in speakers
• FM Transmitter broadcasts audio on up to 7 frequencies

Honestly, I don’t know if this isn’t a case of “form over function”. It’s certainly cool but I’m not sure how practical it is! Still, if you’re a Star Wars collector this is something you’re going to want.

Gizmodo have video of it in action – sweet!

You have to admire a company that can continue a research program over 20 years and countless millions of dollars. A research program with the far reaching aim of mimicing human motion in robotic form. It was science fiction when they started it and it’s getting closer to science fact with every new revision.

So what is Asimo? It’s a robot modelled after a human being. Unlike sony’s qrio, which was an excuse for technology research, Honda are giving every impression that they really want to develop Asimo into a viable product. Not this year of course and probably not for another ten, but Honda’s show was full of references as to how an Asimo type of design can help people in their daily lives.
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You may not have heard of the company iRobot, but you’ve probably heard of their two robot products, the Roomba, a vacuum cleaner, and the Scooba, a mop. Both of these products have gained a significant following in the hacking community, most notably the Roomba. People have gone so far as to have their MacBook Pro’s accelerometer control their Roomba (skip ahead 45 seconds for the good stuff) via Bluetooth. If that’s not a sweet hack, I don’t know what is. Thanks to all those crazy hacks, iRobot has figured out that there’s a market for a very customizable little robot, which is the basis of their new product: Create.
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This was just bizarre, a talking and singing robotic Elvis. As I had the camera shakes (I’m blaming it on sleep depravation rather than the DT’s) here’s a video courtesy of Gizmodo:

The Redmond house recently launched the first commercial version of its operating system dedicated to people that program robots. The software development kit is called “Microsoft Robotics Studio” and according to the company it is suitable both to people playing with robot toys and to people using industrial robots professionally.

Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group, commented that personal computers and robots are closer that what most people think: “I believe that robots represent the next era of PC technology. Today, is your PC a robot? You probably would say no. But PCs are starting to include cameras and microphones, primarily for person-to-person communication. Once they are on board, there’s no reason they can’t be used by other pieces of technology. If cameras can do visual recognition – so your PC knows when someone walks in the room whether it’s you or not and changes its behavior accordingly – is it a robot, then? Maybe. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists from the University of Washington are experimenting with a robot that is controlled through brain signals. The signals are captured using electrodes on the head of the user, and despite the fact that such technique is very complex they reported to have achieved 94% of accuracy when giving simple commands to the robot.

The coordinator of the project, Rajesh Rao, said that the commands being used are still as simple as moving forward or backward or picking up objects, but in the near future the technology should mature and allow the researchers to execute more complex routines. Read the rest of this entry »