Hasta La Gadget!

Look closely. No, closer. See that slab of pink meat in the middle of Waseda University’s surgical robot? That’s a heart… now imagine it’s your heart. Don’t worry, if you ever do pit flesh-to-servo against this device, it’ll likely be saving your life during a coronary bypass. After making a small incision, the robot compensates for the natural shake and movement of the organ caused by heartbeats so that surgery can proceed as if the organ is still. That little trick could enable minimally invasive, endoscopic heart surgeries in the future — no need to crack open the chest cavity. Amazing stuff. See a close-up after the break. You: it’s what’s for dinner.

Continue reading Waseda University’s heartbeat compensation robot be stills our hearts

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Waseda University’s heartbeat compensation robot be stills our hearts originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Imagine a smart phone that, when you pull it out of your pocket, converts to a netbook. According to a report in Information Week, this futuristic technology is closer than you think.

When people talk about shape-shifting technology, most imagine amorphous, gel-like products that smoothly glide from razors to full-sized cars. As Information Week’s story and accompanying video prove, however, the reality is both more mundane and, potentially, more exciting.

Scouting a computer that’s “attentive to one’s desires?” Good news, friends! Frédéric Kaplan’s QB1, which was unveiled at the LIFT Conference in Geneva this past week, aims to be just that. Reportedly, the machine was designed in order to “alter the fundamentals of human-machine interaction,” and rather than relying on the traditional mouse and keyboard approach, this one works entirely via gestures. QB1 is capable of recognizing inputs from both hands at once, with one example having a human select a record and adjust the volume by simply flicking their fingers through an on-screen album collection. We’re told that the related patents behind the sophisticated 3D gesture interaction technology have been filed, but there’s no word yet on when we’ll be able to actually buy one. ‘Til then, it’s up to you to handle those “desires” yourself.

[Via The Inquirer]

Filed under: Robots

Gesture recognizing QB1 computer attends to your every desire originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA commissioned a study on the feasibility of using little smallish tractor bots to prep a lunar outpost before the humans show up, and the research seems to show it as a good idea. The theoretical plan is for 330 pound mower-sized bots to show up on the moon and prep the surface for actual buildings, landing sites, roads and so forth. The robots are basically glorified tractors (or perhaps simplified tractors) so lunarnauts shouldn’t expect a palace by the time they show up — just a bunch of displaced dirt. Berms seem to be a big theme of construction, since a sort of “blast shield” is needed to make sure debris from takeoff and landing don’t damage the actual settlement.

[Via ComputerWorld; warning: PDF read link]

Filed under: Robots

NASA ruminating a robot-built lunar outpost to make way for manned missions originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Mar 2009 03:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Mapping robots equipped with visual vocab filters for more accurate mapping

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Mapping robots equipped with visual vocab filters for more accurate mapping originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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