Hasta La Gadget!

The U.S. Navy’s Marine Mammal Program began in the ’60s. The idea was that dolphins and sea lions would help defend harbors, retrieve sunken equipment and, even identify mines for deactivation. Now they have changed their mind and they want robots to do the dirty work. This will leave many sea mammals without a job, having to collect fish treats on their own.


It’s an expensive program with its team of veterinarians and handlers. Robots can be repaired, whereas if a dolphin dies, it has to be replaced and retrained. Dolphins will be replaced by the Knifefish by Bluefin Robotics, which basically looks like a missile. It can operate continuously underwater for up to 16 hours – much better than a dolphin who needs to actually breathe, eat, poop and occasionally sleep.

The Knifefish will use sonar to hunt for mines and will be joined by other robots who will take over all of the mammal’s duties.

[via PopSci via Dvice]

Been keeping up to date with the quirky robotic ball named Sphero? We’ve been wondering when its Augmented Reality Engine would finalize into a full-fledged app since we first witnessed it as E3 as a simple 2D tech demo. Well, Today is the day that this Android and iOS-controlled ball makes it first official-release steps into the world of AR — the engine has grown up, powering Orbotix’s latest free app, Sharky the Beaver. While the game itself is still admittedly silly and demo-like since we saw an early adaptation in August, there’s no question that the AGR is now is a polished state.

As a refresher, unlike other implementations that require a stationary marker, Sphero serves as one that can move around your area, while also relaying information about its position. The 3D character on screen rotates its directions as you spin Sphero, and, as you can see above, it even allows you to pick the ball up while it’s being tracked. The frame-rate of tracking in the app itself looked very smooth, and it does an admirable job keeping track of the ball, even if it ends up off-screen. At the point, gameplay is limited to flicking cupcakes on the ground that Sharky goes to automatically, and there’s no word on if and when we’ll see the features shown off in the early version (namely, the part where the Sharky part of the name was actually a key element, as you chased people on-screen to get their cupcakes). All in all, we’re more curious than anything to see what else the folks at Orbotix will come up with in the realm of AR — for more in the meantime, check out the our video hands-on after the break.

Continue reading Sphero’s Augmented Reality Engine gets fully realized in Sharky the Beaver (video)

Filed under: Misc, Robots, Software

Sphero’s Augmented Reality Engine gets fully realized in Sharky the Beaver (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Foxconn does not have a shining record when it comes to the kind of treatment that their workers get, despite being one of the contractors that Apple has employed to churn out numerous devices, mainly for the iPhone and iPad. Well, since the company has not shown a sterling track record for treating their works well, the CEO decided to replace the human workers with a droid army, dubbed “Foxbots” by some. These robot workers were said to take over a number of factory positions which are considered as dangerous, and Foxconn hopes that the Foxbots will also trim company expenditures in the long run.

Perhaps another reason for having Foxbots all over the factory is to avoid issues such as worker riots that have happened more than once in the past, in addition to the controversy surrounding underaged workers, low pay issues as well as worker suicides. So far, around 10,000 of these robots have been deployed in China’s Shanxi Province, and there are plans penciled in for another 20,000 of these robots to enter the Foxconn workforce in due time.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Foxconn’s Head Honcho Offers to School America on Manufacturing , Foxconn reportedly struggling to meet huge iPhone demand,

Those of us who watched Avatar would definitely be able to identify with the kind of technology seen in the movie, especially when a disabled human is able to plug in into an alien body, controlling it remotely via the power of mind. Researchers over at the CRNS-AIST Joint Robotics Laboratory have come across something which is somewhat similar, where they intend humans to one day control robots using the power of thought alone.

The research group said, “Basically we would like to create devices which would allow people to feel embodied, in the body of a humanoid robot. To do so we are trying to develop techniques from Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) so that we can read the peoples thoughts and then try to see how far we can go from interpreting brain waves signals, to transform them into actions to be done by the robot.”

(more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: CIROS Salad Bot, Autonomous wearable robot arms turn you into a Doc Ock, sort of,

Halt, citizen! Put the goldfish down. You cannot take care of it, and it will not fill the hole in your heart that your ex punched through when she left. But if you already bought an aquarium, consider filling it with Robo Fish. Lifelike swimming is its prime directive.

Made by Takara Tomy, Robo Fish can move up and down randomly and at times even act like it’s foraging for food. It uses two LR44 watch batteries to power its waggling tail. Here’s a video uploaded by YouTuber Brandon Avery:

They’re not as lifelike as this one, but they’re good enough as toys. Or not. Some of the customer reviews on Amazon Japan – where Robo Fish can be ordered for￥2,980 (~$38 USD) each – say that the toy drains its batteries in just 2 hours. So maybe it really is looking for sustenance.

[via Boing Boing]