Hasta La Gadget!

Fast food is designed to be served quickly, but it could always be faster. Aimed at expediting service, the world’s first iPad-controlled flying food serving tray is here to help. It can be found at YO! Sushi in Soho, London, where it’s serving meals to customers.

The iTray is a serving tray that can fly at 25mph for a distance of 50 meters to deliver your food.

On-board cameras provide live video feed to waiters and kitchen staff to make sure all is well. The iTray is lightweight, and made of carbon fiber. So they should be safe if they get involved in food delivery crashes. Just order your food and it will be flown to your table.

This awesomely ridiculous food delivery method will be introduced in 64 UK branches by 2014 if the pilot phase is successful. And how can it not be? Unless iTrays start dropping food on customers or smacking them in the head, of course.

[via Damn Geeky]

The company that became known for its humble robots for cleaning homes will soon be selling a fancy robot for offices. Coming in 2014, iRobot’s Ava 500 will let you work both remotely and on site. It has a 21.5″ HD screen, a webcam, a microphone and its predecessor’s ability to find its way around on its own. Depending on your office dynamics, the Ava 500 will either be a hilarious or a creepy sight.

According to iRobot, the Ava 500 can explore and map its assigned area on its own. The idea is for its user to direct it remotely using an iPad app. You just have to pick the robot’s destination and it will figure out how to get there on its own. So no, you won’t be able to “drive’ it and yes, it’s still pretty impressive.

Aside from the iPad app, iRobot says it will provide users with Cisco TelePresence EX60 monitors. The Ava 500 can also adjust its body’s height so that its monitor will be at the appropriate level at all times. When you’re done using the Ava 500, it will return to its charging station on its own. It’ll probably chat with the other ‘bots about that cute copier and how annoying that security cam dude is.

I wonder how many takes that meeting scene took. If I was there I wouldn’t be able to stop laughing when the robot rolls in the room. He looks constipated. And can you imagine a future where the only “employees” in the office are all Ava 500s? The Ava 500s will be so busy they’ll have to use other Ava 500s to do their job.

[iRobot via The Boston Globe]

YO! Sushi to use drones to deliver sushi.

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What DARPA does with animal test subjects behind closed doors is one thing, but here we have something else entirely: mad-scientist kits that allow anyone at home to control the movement of a real-life cockroach. Backyard Brains, the crew behind Twitter Roach, have been selling RoboRoach sets for creating cyborg insects for some time. But today, after getting as far as they can on their own, they’re seeking Kickstarter funding to improve their design and develop “educational materials” to go with it. The project will go live in the next 30 minutes or so, and pledges of $100 or more will get you a surgery kit consisting of a PCB “backpack,” battery and three sets of electrodes. The PCB pairs with mobile devices via the Bluetooth LE profile and a companion app delivers commands to the ‘roach, allowing you to steer the creature by swiping across your screen. Cough up $150 or more and they’ll send you a dozen ‘roaches to get you started.

The electrodes we mention need to be implanted into the cockroach’s antennae so directional triggers can be sent to the nerves within — effectively fooling the creature into thinking it’s hit an obstacle and needs to change course. This is where it starts to get uncomfortable. Backyard Brains are touting the RoboRoach as an educational tool, specifically stating that “this product is not a toy.” Something that’s glossed over on the Kickstarter page, however, is the allegedly painless surgery step: how you attach the electrodes to the insect. People can make their own minds up regarding the ethics of the campaign, and can start by heading to the Kickstarter source link once it goes live at 9am ET. We’ve also embedded an old tutorial video below we found on the company’s site, which demonstrates the surgery process. Be warned: there’s antenna-clipping and other mutilations involved, which make our skin crawl even more than the thought of handling the cockroaches in the first place.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Robots, Wireless, Science, Alt

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Source: Kickstarter, Backyard Brains (1), (2)

We fully expected to see iRobot offer up further applications for its Ava development platform after *ahem* rolling out the RP-VITA, a medically-themed team up with In-Touch Health. The company’s second partner is a biggie: it’ll be working with Cisco on the Ava 500 telepresence bot. The system looks quite similar to the VITA, sporting what appears to be a nearly identical base. As with its predecessor, Ava’s controlled by a fairly simple iPad program — you can either pick a destination on a map or choose from a list of employee names and rooms you’d like to visit. Once inputted, the robot is autonomous in navigation, getting to the destination, while avoiding people and obstacles. When the meeting’s over, it’ll return to its base for charging.

On the top, however, you’ll find Cisco’s TelePresence EX60 end-point, bringing the company’s widely adopted platform to the mobile base, courtesy of a 21.5-inch HD display. The user’s face will show up on the screen as the ‘bot navigates through the halls, allowing you to talk about last night’s Mad Men, should you (figuratively) run into anyone around the water cooler. You can also switch to private mode, if telepresence small talk isn’t your thing. iRobot and Cisco will be showing off Ava at Infocomm later this month. If you can’t wait for that, however, you’ll find out a bit more in the press release after the break.

Filed under: Robots

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