Hasta La Gadget!

Don’t you just hate it when you really need to go and there’s still someone in the bathroom? You wait five minutes… ten minutes… twenty minutes until you just give up and take a leak behind some bushes because you just can’t take it anymore. It’s more bearable for guys, but imagine when a girl has to do it. I know I wouldn’t want to.

So here’s a solution for those who find themselves with a full bladder at the most inopportune of times: the remote-controlled Japanese-style toilet.

It’s basically a urinal-shaped toilet that you can wheel around using the remote.

The idea of peeing (or worse, pooping) into this is obviously not very appealing. Because while you might have already relieved yourself, you’ll be relieving no one when you walk past them with this loaded toilet beside you.

It’s more of a novelty, though, where you’re supposed to use the space in the urinal to transport items like soda cans, water bottles, phones, and whatever else you’re too lazy to hand over to your friend across the room.

If you really must have the remote-controlled toilet, you can grab it over at Strapya World for about $16(USD).

[via 7gadgets]

There was some uproar about the possibility of using unarmed drones over US soil to locate that cop turned killer fugitive, but maybe that’s because drones have a bad rap because of all of the bombs they’ve been known to drop. Now, engineers at FliteTest are trying to make a kinder, gentler drone, the kind that captures artsy images.

The Lomo-Copter is a remote-controlled tricopter, outfitted with a medium-format Diana F+ Lomography camera with an instant back and remote-triggering mechanism. This brings fuzzy, light-leaky, and vignette stylized imagery to secret spy footage.

The Lomo-Copter also has another camera mounted to the Lomo-cam’s viewfinder, which transmits real-time footage to the operator’s stylish goggles for first-person-view operation of the drone, so they can snap pictures remotely with the old-school analog camera. Here’s a comparison of the FPV goggles and a Lomo print:

So if you’re worried about drones flying over your neighborhood, don’t be because some of them are actually pretty nice, and they might just Instagram you some photos of your garden gnomes.

If you’ve been following Technabob for a while, you might remember the Blockcar – a LEGO-style remote-controlled car from Japan. Well here we are a couple of years older and wiser, another brick-building car has surfaced – this time with iOS R/C capabilities.

These UTICO vehicle kits come with all of the bricks you need to assemble a pre-designed car or minibus. While they’re not official LEGO blocks, these snap-together R/C toys still look like they could be fun to play with.

Just because they come in specific kits for each vehicle doesn’t mean you couldn’t build something else with them – like a hot dog or a chicken on wheels or something.

Each kit comes with a USB-rechargeable motorized base platform, along with an infrared dongle you can plug into iPhones or iPads with the 30-pin docking connector. It looks like later-model iDevices won’t be able to control these at this point.

The R/C Brick Car is available from Japan’s JTT for ¥3,980 (~$43 USD).

Oh, how I love wacky Japanese gadgets. And how I hate cleaning. So when Francesco over at Hobby Media[IT] tipped me off to these Japanese cleaning robots, I was just about in heaven.

These inexpensive robots from Kyosho don’t aim to be as sophisticated as something like a Roomba or Wall-E, but then they don’t cost hundreds of dollars either. The Sugoi remote control vehicles come in two versions – one that’s a dust mop, and the other is a trash bin on wheels. Both can be driven around using an included RF remote control, so you can clean without getting your lazy behind up off the couch. In case you need a visual explanation, check them out in the video below:

What’s not to like? I can imagine sitting on the sofa during the big game, and with a push of the button, in pops my R/C garbage can, ready to receive my empties. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get these in time to clean up my mess after this year’s Super Bowl, since they’re currently only for sale in Japan.

You can find the garbage can here, and the dust mop here. They each sell for ¥2079 (~$21 USD), and you can try and see if someone like White Rabbit Express can import them for you. While you’re at it, you might want to pick up one of these.

[via Hobby Media]

Mad Lab Industries stays true to its name by frankensteining a hexacopter with a hexapod, driving 12 nails into humanity’s coffin in the process. Meet Hexa², a remote-controlled flying robot spider. Kill it with water!

As you’ll see in the video below, the two parts of Hexa² are currently controlled separately. Watch it fly, walk, walk while flying and bully a plastic container:

Mad Lab Industries are planning to launch a Kickstarter to produce and sell Hexa² kits. So now we’re funding our own doom? Seriously though I want one. I hope they can make one that can walk, fly and swim as a stretch goal.

[Mad Lab Industries via Geekologie]