Hasta La Gadget!

It might take them a good 92 hours longer than the fastest human runners, but a group of five pint-sized humanoids have officially embarked on the world’s first full-length robot marathon. The Robo Mara Full, put on by Japanese robotics company Vstone, kicked off this week in Osaka, Japan, and will see the mechanized competitors through a 42 kilometer (26 mile) race, estimated to last several days. During the marathon, entrants will circle a 100-meter indoor track a total of 422 times with little help from their human coaches — contact is only permitted during battery and servo replacement. Vstone’s Robovie-PC led the pack at the outset, but with three days left to go, it’s still any robot’s game. You can check out a live feed of all the, uh, slow and furious action at the coverage link below, and get a full overview of the race, complete with embarrassing translation, by following the source link.

World’s first robot marathon gets off to a slow start, will likely stay that way originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There are some activities that you’ll simply never be able to get your friends to come along for, and for most groups of social cohorts running 26 miles certainly falls into the “you have fun with that” category. Some try to regale their friends with tales of burning lungs and fiery quads, but Joseph Tame has another solution. He’s created the iRig, a curious contraption containing four iPhones, an Android device of unknown provenance, an iPad, three wireless routers, a weather station, a heart rate monitor, and a silly mock satellite dish up on his head. With all this he plans on livestreaming his entire race using Skype, FaceTime, Runkeeper, and a custom Android app that will send out atmospheric conditions — according to Joseph doing “all this while looking incredibly cool.” We can’t argue with that, but we also can’t help worrying about the chafing that contraption will induce. See for yourself in the video below.

Continue reading Man will run Tokyo Marathon with dizzying array of gadgetry, amazing lack of shame (video)

Man will run Tokyo Marathon with dizzying array of gadgetry, amazing lack of shame (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic’s HV200 portable TV is controlled with a wave of the hand originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 03:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Impress  |  Panasonic Japan  | Email this | Comments

NEC has debuted its first Android netbook, the humbly-named LifeTouch Note, in Japan. Spec-wise, the Note runs Android 2.2, has an NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU, up to 8GB of memory, a 7-inch backlit (800 x 480 resolution) resistive touchscreen LCD, GPS, WiFi, SD and SDHC slots, and a 2 megapixel webcam. There will also be a 3G variety for a little extra cash, of course. Other than that, there’s no word of when this will be available in Japan, but we do know that it start at around ¥45,000 (that’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $540). Video demo is after the break, hit up the source for a huge, attractive gallery.

Continue reading NEC busts out an Android Netbook, the LifeTouch Note

NEC busts out an Android Netbook, the LifeTouch Note originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Uncanny valley, heard of it? No worries, you’re knee-deep in it right now. It’s the revulsion you feel to robots, prostheses, or zombies that try, but don’t quite duplicate their human models. As the robot becomes more humanlike, however, our emotional response becomes increasingly positive and empathetic. Unfortunately, the goal of Osaka University’s AFFETTO was to create a robot modeled after a young child that could produce realistic facial expressions in order to endear it to a human caregiver in a more natural way. Impressive, sure, but we’re not ready to let it suckle from our teat just yet.

Continue reading Fake robot baby provokes real screams (video)

Fake robot baby provokes real screams (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 06:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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