Hasta La Gadget!

Marathons are not just for humans. A robot has decided to take on the challenge of walking 300 miles from Tokyo to Kyoto. The tour is part of a publicity tour organized for Panasonic’s Evolta batteries.

The 7-inch tall very cute humanoid robot that take on this project will be pulling a two-wheeled cart behind it. It’s a tiny machine but hopes to get to the finish line successfully.

The robot originally comes from the stable of Japanese company Robo Garage. It has been constructed using lightweight plastic, carbon fiber and titanium and weighs about 2.2 lbs. The entire machine will be powered using 12 AA batteries and operated using remote control, according to the Pink Tentacle site.

The robot will travel from sunrise to sunset, say the organizers, who will be tweeting its progress (@evoltatoukaidou) and livestreaming the event.

The robot can travel at a rate of about two to three miles an hour. So without any breakdowns or problems, the robot is expected to complete the journey in about 49 days.

It’s not the first time that this robot has undertaken adventure sports. In May 2008, it climed a 1740-ft rope suspended from a cliff at the Grand Canyon and a year later drove for a day around the Le Mans race circuit. All of this has already earned the robot a place in the Guinness World Records book.

For its current adventure, the robot has a wheel circling it so it can move over uneven surfaces. The handcart behind the robot is expected to hold extra batteries. The batteries will have to be recharged at least once every day.

Head over to the Pink Tentacle site to see photos of the very cute Evolta Panasonic robot as it gets ready to head out on its latest project.

Check out some photos of the Evolta from its earlier adventures:

The Evolta covered 14.8 miles at the Le Mans race circuit. Photo Courtesy Panasonic

Evolta robot's creator looks on proudly. Photo courtesy Panasonic

The Evolta robot has already set two records. Photo courtesy Panasonic

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Computer servers in data centers could do more than respond to requests from millions of internet users.

IBM researchers have patented a technique using vibration sensors inside server hard drives to analyze information about earthquakes and predict tsunamis.

“Almost all hard drives have an accelerometer built into them, and all of that data is network-accessible,” says Bob Friedlander, master inventor at IBM. “If we can reach in, grab the data, clean it, network it and analyze it, we can provide very fine-grained pictures of what’s happening in an earthquake.”

The aim is to accurately predict the location and timing of catastrophic events and improve the natural-disaster warning system. Seismographs that are widely used currently do not provide fine-grained data about where emergency response is needed, say the researchers.

IBM’s research is not the first time scientists have tried to use the sensors in computers to detect earthquakes. Seismologists at the University of California at Riverside and Stanford University created the Quake Catcher Network in 2008. The idea was to use the accelerometers in laptops to detect movement.

But wading through mounds of data from laptops to accurately point to information that might indicate seismic activity is not easy. For instance, how do you tell if the vibrations in a laptop accelerometer are the result of seismic activity and not a big-rig truck rolling by?

That’s why IBM researchers Friedlander and James Kraemer decided to focus on using rack-mounted servers.

“When you are looking at data from a rack that’s bolted to the floor, it’s not the same as what you get from a laptop,” says Kraemer. “Laptops produce too much data and it’s liable to have a lot of noise.”

Servers in data centers can help researchers get detailed information because they know the machine’s orientation, its environmental conditions are much better controlled, and the noise generated by the device tends to be predictable.

“The servers in data centers are the best place you can have these machines for our software,” says Friedlander. “We know their location, they are on 24/7,” he says. “You know what floor they are in the building, what their orientation is. In case of an earthquake, you can calculate the shape of the motion, so it tells you about the force the structure is going to be subjected to.”

To generate reliable data, the servers have to be spread across an area. And the number of computers participating can be anywhere from 100 to a few thousand.

The servers would have to run a small piece of software that the researchers say is “incredibly light.”

The hard-drive sensor data collected from a grid of servers is transmitted via high-speed networking to a data-processing center, which can help classify the events in real time.

With the data, researchers say they can tell exactly when an earthquake started, as well as how long it lasted, its intensity, frequency of motion and direction of motion.

IBM researchers hope companies with big data centers will participate in the project. “It would give them an advantage,” says Friedlander. “It would tell them about their company, their machines, and help their people.”

Over the next few months, IBM hopes to start a pilot project using its own data centers and to invite other companies to join in.

See Also:

• Satellite Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake
• Chile Earthquake Moved Entire City 10 Feet to the West
• Gallery: How to Build an Earthquake-Resistant Bridge
• 5 Most Dangerous U.S. Earthquake Hot Spots Beyond California

Photo: Seismograph records a 2007 earthquake in Japan. (Macten/Flickr)

(Editor’s note: A link in this story that is not safe for work is marked NSFW.)

Tight-fitting T-shirts and hipster jeans would get even snugger if you could just spray them on.

That idea just got a little less far-fetched. A liquid mixture developed by Imperial College London and a company called Fabrican lets you spray clothes directly onto your body, using aerosol technology.

After the spray dries, it creates a thin layer of fabric that can be peeled off, washed and reworn.

“When I first began this project I really wanted to make a futuristic, seamless, quick and comfortable material,” says Manel Torres, a Spanish fashion designer and academic visitor at Imperial College in a statement. Torres worked with Paul Luckham, a professor of particle technology at the Imperial College to create the material.

“In my quest to produce this kind of fabric, I ended up returning to the principles of the earliest textiles such as felt, which were also produced by taking fibers and finding a way of binding them together without having to weave or stitch them,” says Torres.

Clothes designed using the spray-on fabric will be shown at the Science in Style fashion show next week at Imperial College.

Spray-painting the body has been around for a while, and you can even get spray-on latex body paint (NSFW). And who can forget the amazing spray-on hair, a staple of Ronco infomercials in the 1980s? But these are illusions, tricks to deceive the eye. The spray-on fabric, in contrast, is lightweight and can be stored in your closet with other clothes.

The spray-on fabric consists of short fibers that are combined with polymers to bind them together and a solvent that delivers the fabric in liquid form. The solvent evaporates when the spray touches the surface.

The fabric is formed by cross-linking fibers, which cling to one another to create the garment, says Fabrican.

The spray-on fabric is pretty versatile. It can be created in many colors and and use different types of fibers ranging from natural to the synthetic, says the company.

The spray can be applied using a high-pressure spray gun or an aerosol can. The texture of the fabric changes according to the type of material — such as wool, linen or acrylic — and how the spray is layered on the body.

Fabrican says the technology is not just for fashion but can have some innovative use in medicine to layer bandages on the skin without disturbing the wound.

The technology is still in prototype stage, and some kinks still need to be worked out, such as the strong smell of solvent around the fabric. The researchers estimate that it will be at least a few years before it can be ready for commercial use.

Another challenge is to find a way to use the spray to create clothes that aren’t very snug. After all, with all the obesity in America, the sprayed-on look for clothes might not work for everyone.

Check out the video below showing how to create a spray-on scarf.

See Also:

• Smart Textiles Blend LEDs, Circuits and Sensors
• To Charge your iPod, Plug in Your Jeans
• MIT Lecturer Develops Solar Textiles, Redefines Curtain Function
• Bulletproof Handkerchief Protects A Gentleman’s Heart
• Geek Art: Needlework Brings Together Programmers, Crafters

[Via The Daily Mail]

Video: Stanford University News Service

Making artificial limbs that can perform gross motor functions is relatively easy. Fine motor actions are harder, and wiring the limbs into the nervous system is harder still. But researchers at Berkeley and Stanford are crossing the real frontier: making artificial skin that can touch and feel.

Research teams at Berkeley and Stanford recently announced breakthroughs in producing highly touch-sensitive artificial skin. In both cases, an extremely thin layer of plastic or rubber is bonded to electronic elements arranged in micropatterns, so the skin can retain flexibility and elasticity while still transmitting a strong signal. The papers appear in an forthcoming issue of the journal Nature Materials.

At Berkeley, the team used germanium-silicon nanowires, which they compare to microscopic “hairs” on the filmy plastic skin. The Stanford team paired electrodes in a pyramid pattern, which communicate through a thin rubber film (total thickness of the artificial skin, including the rubber layer and both electrodes: less than one millimeter). They also created a flexible transistor, again to retain elasticity.

The density and sensitivity of the electrical transmitters allows the skin to detect and transmit extremely precise patterns and delicate pressure — essential for activities such as typing, handling coins, cracking an egg, loading and unloading dishes, or anything that requires a gentle touch rather than sheer mechanical force.

The sensors could also be used in nonprosthetic applications. Benjamin Tee, a Stanford graduate student, notes that an automobile’s steering wheel could be fitted with pressure-sensitive sensors that could detect whether or not a drunk or sleeping driver’s hands had slipped from the wheel.

It’s difficult to tell at this point which team’s approach might be better suited to particular applications. The Berkeley teams touts its skin’s low energy use, the Stanford team its skin’s extreme sensitivity.

There’s also a sobering link between the two projects. Both Berkeley’s and Stanford’s research were indirectly supported by the Department of Defense — Berkeley’s by Darpa, and Stanford’s by the Office of Naval Research. The past decade has seen tremendous advances in artificial limb technology, due in no small part to the number of veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan after losing arms or legs, or with major burns.

This in turn is partly a function of the previous decade’s advances in body armor, which have saved lives at the costs of limbs. Let’s hope that as these wars finally end, our desire to continue to improve the lives of everyone with limb differences continues.

Sources:

• “Engineers make artificial skin out of nanowires,” Berkeley News
• “Stanford researchers’ new high-sensitivity electronic skin can feel a fly’s footsteps,” Stanford Report

See Also:

• New Bionic Arms Are Strong, Sensitive, Human-Friendly
• Prosthetic Limb Research Could Lead To Bionic Athletes, Gadgets
• Pentagon Plan to Regrow Limbs: Phase One, Complete
• Salamander Discovery Could Lead to Human Limb Regeneration
• Army Aims for New Six Million Dollar Man
• Wired 13.02: The Painful Truth
• Dean Kamen's Robot Arm Grabs More Publicity

Graphic by Christine Daniloff, via MIT News Office

Sometimes when one of my remotes is missing, I interrogate the others: “Where’s your friend? I know you know something!” In the future, with wireless positioning systems, a version of that method might actually almost work.

Researchers at MIT’s Wireless Communications and Network Sciences Group think networks of devices that communicate their positions to each other will work better than all of the devices transmitting to a single receiver. The latter is how GPS works, and if you’ve used it, you know it isn’t always very precise. In the lab, MIT’s robots can spot a wireless transmitter within a millimeter.

This seems almost intuitive: the more “eyes” you have on an object, the easier it is to triangulate — the robot version of “the wisdom of crowds.” But the key conceptual breakthrough here isn’t actually the number of transmitters or their network arrangement, but what they’re transmitting. MIT News’s Larry Hardesty writes:

Among [the research group’s] insights is that networks of wireless devices can improve the precision of their location estimates if they share information about their imprecision. Traditionally, a device broadcasting information about its location would simply offer up its best guess. But if, instead, it sent a probability distribution — a range of possible positions and their likelihood — the entire network would perform better as a whole. The problem is that sending the probability distribution requires more power and causes more interference than simply sending a guess, so it degrades the network’s performance. [The] group is currently working to understand the trade-off between broadcasting full-blown distributions and broadcasting sparser information about distributions.

Much of this research is still theoretical, or has only been deployed in lab settings. But Princeton’s H. Vincent Poor is optimistic about the MIT group’s approach: “I don’t see any major obstacles for transferring their basic research to practical applications. In fact, their research was motivated by the real-world need for high-accuracy location-awareness.” Like precisely which cushion my remote control is underneath.

Warning: Very Dry Flash Video Of Robots Finding Things Follows

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