Hasta La Gadget!

There’s a long history of robots modeled on animals, and some researchers from Tufts University have now taken things in a particularly creepy-crawly direction. They’ve built a robot that’s able to mimic the way a caterpillar balls itself up to bounce away from predators. As you can see in the video above, while the robot (dubbed GoQBot) is quite a bit bigger than the actual bug, is does indeed do a pretty good caterpillar imitation. What might such a bot be used for? Well, the researchers say that the so-called “ballistic rolling” behavior could be used to improve on some of the many existing robots that are modeled on worms or snakes — which could let them fling themselves into a disaster area, for instance, and then wiggle around to aid in search and rescue operations. Head on past the break to see the bot in slow-motion.

Continue reading Researchers build a robot inspired by caterpillars, nightmares (video)

Researchers build a robot inspired by caterpillars, nightmares (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola’s just finished giving the news and the numbers on its quarterly financial report, and there was one bit of badness that we just had to share: the Xoom LTE upgrade has been delayed. We won’t be seeing it until summer according to Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha, which is also when we’ll be seeing the Bionic, a delay that we were already sulking about. Jha was a little vague about what the “issue” was that is causing the delay, only that whatever quality concern there is applies to both devices, and it could simply be that the company is waiting for its LTE rollout to get a little further along. Net result: one less G for Xoom owners until the summer, and no Bionic at all until then. Bummer.

In terms of the numbers: Motorola says that it shipped over 250,000 Xooms in the first quarter of the year, and managed net revenues of $3 billion. That’s up 22 percent from this time last year, which brought losses down to $.27 per share — much nicer than the $.72 in Q1 2010. Mobile device revenues were up 30 percent and 9.1 million total mobile devices were sold, of those almost half (4.1 million) were smartphones.

Motorola Xoom LTE update delayed until summer, same time as Bionic launch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer says the system can recognize gestures from up to about 9.8 feet away, so it could make a good replacement for the old-fashioned remote control.

The first round of the 2011 NFL Draft kicks off around 8 p.m. at Radio City Music Hall but if you’re not one of the players collecting racks on racks of cash (assuming there is a 2011 season of course) you can still get live updates via the NFL’s apps for iOS and Android devices. The NFL GameCenter apps that have been kicking around for iPhone/iPod touch and Android phones have been updated for the 2011 season in Lite (free) and Premium ($1.99) forms, and should be able to ply on the go users with live updates and information on each pick. The couch companion intended iPad app (pictured above, no Honeycomb love this go-round) is making its NFL Draft debut and adds on to the smaller format versions by including live NFL.com video streams both from within the auditorium and from the studio, video highlights and interactive features. Check out the screens for a better look at the UI or just click the source links below to download the free app of your choice — you’ll have to find the apps for tomorrow morning’s Royal Wedding on your own.

NFL Mobile apps bring the draft to you live tonight on iPhone, iPad and Android originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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