Hasta La Gadget!

Continue reading Editorial: Engadget on Nokia’s Friday announcement

Editorial: Engadget on Nokia’s Friday announcement originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Perhaps you weren’t sold on the concept of urban mobility in your car of tomorrow when Audi started researching the subject, but maybe BMW’s new documentary film series will persuade you. Chapter one of Wherever You Want to Go made its debut today and features interviews with visionaries from both in and outside the automotive community — from astronaut Buzz Aldrin to co-founder of ZipCar Robin Chase — speaking about how cars can and will adapt to meet the needs of future metropolitan denizens. This first movie is pretty much an extended trailer, so we’ll be interested to see the full conversations in the coming installments — and we can only hope these chats with forward-thinkers convince BMW to re-evaluate its ridiculous car of tomorrow concepts. Chapter two drops on February 8th, so stay tuned. Vid’s after the break.

Continue reading BMW’s Wherever You Want To Go explores the future of mobility

BMW’s Wherever You Want To Go explores the future of mobility originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota wants to take your range anxiety out for a walk behind the woodshed and obliterate it from the known world. The means for doing this, the Japanese giant has revealed, might very well be contained in its new magnesium-sulfur batteries, which promise to double the energy density of the current industry-best lithium ion cells. Of course, the catch here is that the new magnesium goodness is nowhere near ready and is projected to come in 2020 at the earliest, but we’re gladdened to see a long-term view being taken by car manufacturers with regard to powering vehicles electrically. Alternative methodologies currently under review in Toyota’s labs also include aluminum and calcium materials, showing that there is indeed no lack of ambition for making plug-ins respectable road warriors.

Toyota working on magnesium batteries for PHEVs of the not so near future originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Word Lens, an app that translates English text to and from Spanish on the fly, is a reminder of just how powerful apps can be. But how’s it really work? It ain’t perfect, but it’s still pretty damn amazing. More »

Robots are among our most polarizing technological innovations. Some of us love and openly embrace bots, while others live in near constant fear of an android coup. When I hear, “robot learns to run like humans,” I imagine robot races and bipedal bots bounding over hills to help save us. The fearful, however, see their worst fears realized: “Now robots can actually chase and catch us.”

Robot researchers like Ryuma Niiyama (currently working in MIT’s Robot Locomotion Group) couldn’t care less about your fears. According to a report in IEEE Spectrum, Niiyama is building a biped robot called “Athlete” that uses artificial muscles and prosthetic feet to run at speeds and in a style more akin to human locomotion. Previous humanoid robots like the Honda Asimo use a complex array of motors, sensor and actuators to walk and even, in the case of Asimo, “run.” However, anyone who has seen Asimo dash around a stage knows that the bot’s motion doesn’t look entirely natural.

Niiyama’s robot mimics some aspects of human running to achieve a more natural gait. The robot’s artificial muscles reside entirely above the “knees”. Below that it’s all prosthetic elastic blades that some double amputees use for running. As a result, the robot springs forward with each step–as humans do– and uses its muscles and sensors to maintain balance as it races forward; again, pretty much as people do when they’re running.

So far, Niiyama and his team have only been partially successful. Athlete runs a few unaided steps but then falls over. Watch the video below, which charts Athlete’s development from an early 2007 model to today’s elastic-blade-fitted Athlete.

Video after the jump.