Hasta La Gadget!

The Tooth Fairy is one busy lady! She flies from house to house every night, collecting teeth that kids have left under their pillows and leaving a dollar or two (or a special surprise) in exchange for it.

So that’s the story our parents told us, and I’m sticking with it.

But with the growing population, the Tooth Fairy is probably having a hard time keeping up. Awesome dad Jeff Highsmith wanted to make sure his kid’s teeth are received in a timely manner, so he built a vacuum-powered pneumatic tube system that’ll “send” them straight to the Tooth Fairy. An adult can hang out at the receiving station to return some cash or gifts back to the child waiting on the other end of the line.

Jeff built an easy-to-navigate interface using Hype and used Raspberry Pi to power the whole thing. Aside from the Tooth Fairy, other recipients to choose from include Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, so just think of all the wish lists and letters your kid will be sending when those holidays roll around.

[Make: via Hack a Day via Neatorama]

We’ve seen plenty of robots based on animal designs. Nature knows what it is doing after all. Researchers, much like leopards, don’t change their spots. They are still working on robot designs that will run us down and devour us. Like the Pneupard, a robotic leopard from Osaka University.


This robot is driven by compressed air. It is still a prototype, which is why this thing doesn’t seem very fast or certain on it’s feet. Plus, its front legs and spine are incomplete right now. Regardless, the artificial muscles that it sports are impressive and when this robot gets further along, it will be more nimble, I’m sure.

It’s movements were based on the movements of a cat walking on a treadmill. I’m guessing they’re not talking about these cats.

They are hoping that capturing movements this way instead of programming the system by hand will lead to a more authentic movements.

[via IEEE Spectrum via Geekosystem]

What can one do with a robot suit? Well, it’s certainly not limited to just lifting sacks of rice, but that was exactly what we got to do at CEATEC courtesy of Koba Lab from Tokyo University of Science. First seen in 2009, the magic behind this 9kg kit are the pair of pneumatic artificial muscles (aka McKibben artificial muscles) on the back, which are made by industrial equipment manufacturer Kanda Tsushin. When pressurized with air using electrical components from KOA Corporation, the lightweight, loosely-woven PET tubes contract and consequently provide support to the user’s back, shoulders and elbows. As such, our arms were able to easily hold two more sacks of rice (making it a total of 50kg) until the demonstrator deflated the muscles. Check out our jolly hands-on video after the break.

Continue reading Tokyo University of Science shows off robotic suit powered by pneumatic artificial muscles (video)

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Tokyo University of Science shows off robotic suit powered by pneumatic artificial muscles (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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