Hasta La Gadget!

One of the weak points of virtual reality and 3D video technologies is that the many people won’t be excited about them unless they get to test it themselves. But a group of developers have figured out a way to use that weakness as the crux of their game. It’s called Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and it looks like a lot of fun.

In Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, you play a group of bomb disposal experts trying to defuse a time bomb. The catch is that only one of you can see and handle the bomb. That player will wear the Oculus Rift headset. The current build of the game also requires the Razer Hydra motion controllers.

The rest of you will then help by reading from a multiple page guide that provides general clues for defusing the game’s many bombs. You’ll talk with the player wearing the Rift to find out the exact bomb you’re dealing with, then relay the clues from the guide on how to defuse that exact type of bomb. The demo video below has salty language. Because they’re dealing with a freakin’ time bomb.

How considerate of the bomber to add serial numbers to his wares. The developers behind the game said they will demo it at the 2014 PAX East. You can also check out the game’s files on GitHub.

[via TechCrunch]

After creating a robot bird and dragonfly, automation company Festo shows off with another impressive animal replica. Like real kangaroos, Festo’s BionicKangaroo is not only great at jumping and keeping its balance, it can also store the energy generated from landing and use it for the next jump.

BionicKangaroo uses a combination of pneumatic actuators and electric servos to move and keep its balance.

According to Festo, the robot has an rubber elastic spring element that acts like an Achilles tendon: “It is fastened at the back of the foot and parallel to the pneumatic cylinder on the knee joint. The artificial tendon cushions the jump, simultaneously absorbs the kinetic energy and releases it for the next jump.”

To make the robot even fancier, Festo also made it so it can be controlled with gestures. The company uses the Myo armband to make BionicKangaroo move, stay or rotate in place. Watch BionicKangaroo hip hip hop and not stop:

It would’ve been way cooler if they made a BionicTigger instead. Check out Festo’s report (pdf) if you want to learn more about BionicKangaroo.

[via Ubergizmo]

Hackers Bunnie Huang and Sean “xobs” Cross have launched a fundraiser for their open source laptop, the Novena. It looks very different from its prototype, but the idea behind it remains the same: a computer with transparent and easily modifiable hardware and software.

The Novena comes in four platforms. There’s a barebones board…

a compact desktop version with an easy access case, a 13.3″ 1080p TFT LCD screen, internal accessory connectors and an LVDS to eDP adapter board…

a laptop version which mainly adds a battery pack and a 240GB SSD to the desktop version…

and a high-end Heirloom version put together by custom gadget and furniture maker Kurt Mottweiler. It’s based on the laptop version but has a handcrafted wood and aluminum case, a Lenovo Trackpoint Bluetooth keyboard, a 480GB Intel 730 SSD.

As you can see the standard desktop and laptop versions don’t have a keyboard included and have a reverse clamshell design. This makes it easier to access the Novena’s internals and keeps them well-ventilated. The cases of the laptop and desktop also have what Bunnie and xobs call Peek Arrays, which are M2.5 mounting holes for installing additional circuit boards and other parts.

Finally, the panel with matching port holes is replaceable. If you reconfigured the Novena board and ended up with a different arrangement or lineup of ports, you can replace the vanilla panel with one that matches your rig.

Head to Crowd Supply to pledge or learn more about Novena. Pledge $500 (USD) and you get the board as a reward, pledge $1,195 for the desktop, pledge $1,995 for the laptop and finally pledge $5,000 for the Heirloom laptop.

[via MAKE]

What do you do when you just want to get off of this big blue marble we call Earth? Well, you can call NASA and try to hitch a ride to the International Space Station. Or you could build yourself a replica of the Space Shuttle on your roof. One man in China did the latter.

According to Chinese site Xinhuanet, a 60-something year-old farmer in Guangdong province built this space shuttle replica. Naturally he put it on top of his house. I guess the idea is that if he ever takes off, that house will burn up and erase all traces that he was ever here. Good plan.

This replica makes the house stand out for sure. I wonder if the neighbors love it or hate it. I’m sure it does wonders for his property value.

[via Kotaku]

Because most of us will never take the literal leap of jumping off a damn plane, here’s POV footage from the Leap Frogs aka the Navy’s parachute team. For the San Diego Padre’s home opener, the jumpers took off in a plane and landed right smack inside Petco Park. You can hear the roar of the crowd grow louder as they get closer.

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