Trash Can Chases After Garbage, Renders an Office Game Obsolete

If you thought the remote-controlled trash can was neat, wait ’til you see this ingenious invention. It actually catches anything you throw in its vicinity, aim be damned. It wasn’t made in Soviet Russia though – this one’s a Japanese hack.

robot kinect trash can

You can skip to about 2:24 in the video below to see the trash can in action, but I suggest you watch the entire video to see how it “works.” Apparently the trash can is equipped with three wheels that can be wirelessly controlled or activated. A custom program uses a Kinect to detect the path of a thrown object in order to activate and direct the wheels. I have to say that this is all conjecture on my part. For all we know this could be just like the Wipeout toy video, which was awesome but fake.

That looks sooo much fun to play with. I hope this is legit and someone makes a retail version of it. It did make me realize one more thing – robot athletes will be boring, because they’ll be perfect. Imagine a game of baseball with accuracy like this.

[via Hack A Day]


Robot helps disarm suspect’s booby-trapped apartment

Robots do make plenty of difference on the battlefield in terms of defusing bombs, helping save lives in the process since no one needs to endanger one’s life unnecessarily. I guess the same can be said for other dangerous assignments off the battlefield as well, as police and FBI agents relied on a robot to help disarm a tripwire as well as clear bombs from the apartment of James Holmes, the 24-year old suspect in the recent shocking Denver, Colorado shooting. According to the relevant authorities, all hazardous items from the unit has been cleared thanks to the help of a robot, and residents around the area are now able to return to their respective abodes.

It was reported that the “skillfully driven” robot managed to successfully neutralize an oxidizing agent as well as fuel that is located just inside the door, in addition to the improvised explosive device (IED), not to mention triggering mechanisms, wires and fuses. Good job guys – hopefully there will not be a single bit of the apartment that is overlooked.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Swumanoid robot is the most advanced ever – for now, iRobot Packbot defuses bombs ,

A Look At the Awesome Camera Gear the Associated Press Will Use To Photograph the Olympics [Video]

If you don’t want to feel inadequate about the camera gear you tote around all day, you might want to skip this behind-the-scenes look at the gear the Associated Press will be using to capture the 2012 Olympic games. More »

Shinjuku Kabukicho Robot Restaurant features dancing robots and girls

Looking for a place to unwind this weekend? Well, there’s one place in Kabukicho, an entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo that you might want to check out. It is called the Shinjuku Kabukicho Robot Restaurant. As the name suggests, the restaurant that’s more like a cabaret club features giant-sized robots and dancing women. Yes, the robot restaurant has real scantily clad women that will drive the giant robots while dancing along.

The restaurant has musical shows as well, and girls playing taiko drums together with a marching band. You’ll also see girls riding on motorbikes and a tank. According to CrunchyRoll, the Shinjuku Kabukicho Robot Restaurant reportedly costs 10 billion yen to build. If you’re interested, you’ll have to pay $37 to enjoy what the restaurant has to offer – from drinks to robots, and from food to anything else. Of course, this isn’t a place for kids to wander. So you pretty much get the idea, hopefully.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Restaurant in New York completely replaces menus with iPad 2, Restaurant Uses Projector To Project Image Of Food On To Diners’ Plates,

SAMI robot has motion detection from the company behind Kinect’s 3D sensors, washboard abs (video)

SAMI robot has motion detection from the company behind Kinect's 3D sensors, washboard abs (video)

PrimeSense, the Israeli company whose 3D sensors helped make the Kinect such a massive hit for gamers and hackers alike, has been dipping its feet in the robotic waters a bit as of late. The company offered up its sensors for use in iRobot’s telecommunication ‘bot, Ava, and now they’ve made their way into SAMI, a robot platform created by France’s CRIIF. PrimeSense sensors are found in the robot’s torso (for detecting people) and base (to help it avoid bumping into objects). SAMI’s got a pretty broad spectrum of potential applications, including manufacturing and healthcare — of course, before it goes mainstream in the latter field, we’d recommend a few aesthetic changes to the creepy robot, which took around $100,000 and six people to make. Still we’ve got to give SAMI some credit for keeping so darn fit. Check out video of the ‘bot after the break.

Continue reading SAMI robot has motion detection from the company behind Kinect’s 3D sensors, washboard abs (video)

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SAMI robot has motion detection from the company behind Kinect’s 3D sensors, washboard abs (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Visualized: a look inside iRobot’s gadget-filled ‘cool stuff room’ (video)

Visualized a look inside iRobot's gadgetfilled 'cool stuff room'

We’ve all seen a Roomba at one point or another, be it picking up debris around our feet in a friend’s living room or chauffeuring a courageous kitty for an entertaining clip on YouTube. Likely far less familiar, however, is iRobot’s gadget-filled Massachusetts headquarters, including the museum-like “cool stuff room” in the lobby. There you’ll find a large variety of autonomous devices, ranging from an early Roomba prototype that subs in a removable cloth for the vacuum to the relatively creepy My Real Baby — an $89 doll that cries for food and offers realistic reactions to tickling. There’s also plenty of industrial and military gear on hand, including a long cylindrical bot used for repairing oil rigs as they continue to operate, a full-size self-driving vehicle and a wall-climbing robot that uses suction cup wheels to ascend vertically. Some of the exhibits are downright creepy, such as a crab-like prototype which an iRobot employee referenced as being “inspired by nature,” though the company’s familiar household gadgets help to balance out the eerie. Sadly, the collection doesn’t appear to be open to the public, though IEEE was granted a tour, which it graciously filmed for your enjoyment — you’ll find that video walkthrough just past the break.

Continue reading Visualized: a look inside iRobot’s gadget-filled ‘cool stuff room’ (video)

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Visualized: a look inside iRobot’s gadget-filled ‘cool stuff room’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Inside iRobot’s Vault of Failed Experimental Robots [Video]

The Roomba wasn’t the first machine iRobot had in the works. In fact, at the company’s headquarters in Massachusetts, all the flawed prototypes reside in a secret vault of old bots—mechanized ideas that never came to fruition. More »

When The Boss Is Gone, Rock Out With This Automatic Party Desk

Some folks we met in Charlotte had a mission: they wanted to win a contest (sponsored by Red Bull) for the coolest Arduino project in the land. I think they may have nailed it. The project, built by engineers and designers for Edison Nation, turns an ordinary desk into a booze-infused party zone when the clock hits five (or when you slap the Swingline stapler.)

The project has been submitted to the Red Bull website and the guys could use your help getting to the top so they can head out to the 2012 Maker Faire in NYC.

Sadly the Red Bull website is an absolute mess and there is no visible means of voting, but if you figure it out, give these guys a nod. It’s not every day that you see a system that can turn an office into a red-hot, robotic bar.


Two Kinect-Like Sensors Powers Vision for SAMI Robot

Image courtesy of Forbes

PrimeSense, the company which provides the main chip inside Kinect, has announced that two of its sensors would be utilized in a French robotic project called SAMI (Systeme Autonome Modulaire Interactif) which is being developed by CRIIF. SAMI is a humanoid robot that has been designed to work in many types of environments, ranging from healthcare to manufacturing, but before it can do any of that, it needs to be able to move around freely in an space designed “for humans” with many potential obstacles. One sensor is located near the ground to detect obstacles, and another one is on the torso to recognize humans.

And that’s where the PrimeSense technology comes into play: its sensors can perceive colors and depth, which is hugely important when it comes to computer vision. With depth perception, it is easier to “see” (or sense) obstacles in order to avoid them. As you may have seen with Kinect, the robot would also be able to recognize humans (by our typical shape/skeleton) and their gestures.

Of course, despite the optimism from researchers and the advances made by PrimeSense, computer vision remains a huge challenge when it comes to practical applications. It is fair to say that in order to have robots actually helping the baby-boomers, a breakthrough would need to happen… now. That said, we don’t need to hit iRobot-levels right away, there are many other things that semi-autonomous robots could do if they were much aware of their surroundings.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Delta robot is Kinect-controlled, Kinect as a visually impaired radar,

Swumanoid robot is the most advanced ever – for now

A swimming robot? Wait a minute, don’t we already have that in the form of Emily who recently saved a couple of lives? I guess there is more than meets the eye with the Swimming Human Model, where it is known as Swumanoid for short. His designers are real proud of him, and for good reason, too. After all, he is touted to be the “most advanced swimming robot ever made”, where he was created so that engineers are able to better study the fluid mechanics at work surrounding competitive swimmers in the pool. The whole idea of Swumanoid is to improve swimmers’ actions – and as a result, lap times. Measuring half the size of a human, all four limbs will move simultaneously courtesy of a combination of 20 independent motors that will control key joints.

According to Associate Professor Motomu Nakashima, Tokyo Institute of Technology, “I believe that this level of a realistically human-like swimming robot being perfected is a first in the world.” Swumanoid holds a huge advantage over human test subjects, as he can reproduce the same pre-programmed movements repeatedly without fail or having any variance for a more accurate analysis. Does this mean Speedo can slow down on their swimsuit research? No, but one thing’s for sure – expect even more world records to fall in the future as swimming strokes are perfected.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iRobot Packbot defuses bombs , Emily robot lifeguard finally saves lives,