Hasta La Gadget!

As much as we love our Google homepage, computer search remains a pretty rudimentary affair. You punch in keywords and you get only indirect answers in the form of relevant web results. IBM doesn’t seem to be too happy with this situation and has been working for the past three years on perfecting its Watson supercomputer: an array of server racks that’s been endowed with linguistic algorithms allowing it to not only recognize oddly phrased or implicative questions, but to answer them in kind, with direct and accurate responses. Stuffed with encyclopedic knowledge of the world around it, it answers on the basis of information stored within its data banks, though obviously you won’t be able to tap into it any time soon for help with your homework. The latest word is that Watson’s lab tests have impressed the producers of Jeopardy! enough to have the bot participate in a televised episode of the show. That could happen as early as this fall, which fits right in line with our scheduled doom at robots’ hands by the end of 2012. Ah well, might as well get our popcorn and enjoy the show.

Continue reading IBM’s Watson is really smart, will try to prove it on Jeopardy! this fall (video)

IBM’s Watson is really smart, will try to prove it on Jeopardy! this fall (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio: for now on, it’s a free download originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 May 2010 09:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There have been robots that can balance themselves and even objects and people on top of them (think Segway and the Honda U3-X)–but the robot that can balance on top of a ball is a rarer species. Now there’s one that can do this and, adding a new wrinkle, rotate around its vertical axis.

Like a toy dog in a circus, BallIP (short for Ball Inverted Pendulum) can roll along atop a rubber-coated ball without falling over. It can even balance objects on top of itself while balancing on the ball–a trick even the circus dogs can’t duplicate.

According to a post on the IEEESpectrum blog, the robot is the brainchild of Dr. Masaaki Kumagai, director of the Robot Development Engineering Laboratory at Tohoku Gakuin University, in Tagajo City, Japan. He began building what’s known as “inverted pendulum” robots back in 2004 with the goal of creating a single ball-balancing bot. BalllP works to keep its inclination at zero degrees and to keep the rolling ball under it in the same spot.

What makes BalllP a standout is its ability to roll with the ball in virtually any direction. This is thanks to the three sets of omnidirectional rollers that drive the ball’s stability and direction from above. It can also manage to stay upright even if pushed.

[Image is from a video of a 2008 BalllP prototype]

Keep your eyes tuned to this post — because at 6:00 PM ET, we’ll be starting The Engadget Show live, with roboticist Dr. Dennis Hong of the RoMeLa Lab at Virginia Tech, investigative correspondent Rick Karr, GDGT founder Ryan Block, our own Ross Miller and Paul Miller, plus music from Neil Voss and visuals from NO CARRIER and much, much, more! You seriously don’t want to miss it!

Can’t make it? We forgive you, and there’s a live video stream that can be found after the break. In the spirit of awesome, we’ve enabled tweeting directly to the live stream! To be a part of The Engadget Show broadcast, just include the hashtag “#engadgetshow” and watch for your tweet on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. One thing to note, The Engadget Show is a family program, so any single instance of swearing or trolling will force us to turn off the ticker… and it won’t come back on. So, keep it clean and have fun!

Update: Well that’s another show done and thanks for joining us. Don’t worry if you missed it — we’ll be delivering the edited video (without the echo from earlier; sorry about that) to you within a day or two, so keep an eye out on iTunes, Zune Marketplace, and our RSS feed. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Continue reading The Engadget Show Live! With roboticist Dr. Dennis Hong, Ryan Block, Rick Karr, and more!

The Engadget Show Live! With roboticist Dr. Dennis Hong, Ryan Block, Rick Karr, and more! originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Apr 2010 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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See that blur in the image above? That’ll be the Adept Quattro, a machine claiming the title of being the world’s fastest industrial pick and place robot. On the evidence of today’s video, we’re not going to argue. Being demonstrated as part of the first National Robotics Week, the Quattro took on a WiiMote-controlled moving platform and still effortlessly conducted its job at a pace that would make even Usain Bolt feel inadequate. The person controlling the platform tries his best to confuse the machine with rapid changes of direction, but whatever he does, the chips are placed and removed from their repositories with unerring precision. Go past the break to see the Quattro in action.

Continue reading Adept Quattro shows off terrifying speed, robotic precision (video)

Adept Quattro shows off terrifying speed, robotic precision (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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