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CHRIS Project Aims to Put a Robot in the Kitchen

by Nilay Patel, posted May 17th 2008 at 10:11AM

We're not certain what's up with the sudden rash of news about EU- and EC-funded robotics research, but we're not going to turn down robotic kitchen assistance either, so say hello to the Cooperative Human Robot Interaction System (CHRIS) project, which aims to build a service robot capable of working safely with humans.

According to the researchers, the plan is to "to develop the rules we need to introduce this level of sophistication into service robots who are working closely with people," and to that end they've already built several prototypes and started testing specific scenarios, like how a bot should react to accidentally splashing a human worker with hot soup, or how to read facial expressions and tones of voice. That's fine by us -- we're pretty certain an army of deathbots can't do too much damage with soup -- but let's make sure we leave the chopping to the people, k? [Source: University of Bristol via Primidi]

BlackBerry Bold Out In July for $300?

by Nilay Patel, posted May 16th 2008 at 12:47PMBreaking News


Those of you dying to get your QWERTY on with RIM's hot new Blackberry Bold can start marking your calendars and stashing cash under the cushions -- release dates and pricing info have hit the tubes this morning. As expected, AT&T will get the Bold first in July for $300, while Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile customers will have to wait until September. Oddly, T-Mo subs will have to cough up an extra $50, which seems a little unfair. Of course, these aren't official dates and prices, so things are likely to change, but we'd say everything seems in the ballpark, wouldn't you?

Update: We got in touch with InfoSync World, where these numbers were published, and they told us that they were making estimates based on pre-release info. So nope, these aren't close to official -- but it's always fun to dream, right?

Chicago's City-Wide Security Cameras to Be Monitored By Computers

by Nilay Patel, posted May 16th 2008 at 9:44AMBreaking News


Chicago residents are no strangers to the city's many CCTV cameras by this point -- if anyone knows exactly how long to stop at Roosevelt and State to avoid the red-light cam there, you let us know, okay? -- but it looks like this summer is going to bring a new twist to the city's surveillance racket: automated camera monitoring. Video from the several thousand cameras in Chicago's Operation Virtual Shield project currently comes into the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communication's ops center, but starting this summer, it'll also be watched by an IBM-developed autonomous system that can be programmed to watch for specific activities or objects, like certain cars or unattended backpacks. Since the video is stored on a 60 terabyte storage array for 30 days, law enforcement can also do retroactive searches using the tech. That's a huge step up from San Francisco's useless CCTV system, sure, but we've never really believed any of this stuff is actually effective at deterring crime -- hopefully we'll be proven wrong. Check out the the full news vid at the read link. [Source: ABC7 via Boing Boing]

Houston Overrun By Electronics-Killing Ants

by Nilay Patel, posted May 15th 2008 at 9:40AMBreaking News


We'll let you read the hed again -- nope, it's not a joke. Apparently millions of tiny swarming ants called "crazy raspberry ants" are causing quite a ruckus down in Houston after they accidentally arrived on board a cargo ship and started busily invading homes and offices, where they are attracted to electrical equipment. So far they've messed up sewage pumps, cause fire alarms to go haywire, destroyed computers, and taken out at least one gas meter -- and since they're resistant to over-the-counter ant killers and each colony has multiple queens, they're nearly impossible to kill. Worse, those that do die are used by the remaining ants as bridges over pesticide-treated areas. Yep -- that's insanely creepy. Anyone in Houston got any horror stories to share? [Source: WRAL]

[Thanks, David]

Superpowerful Small Wind Turbines Light Up the Night

by Nilay Patel, posted May 14th 2008 at 3:11PM


We've seem some impressive wind power tech, but a new breed of small, high-power wind turbines could potentially bring efficient wind power home. Developed by an inventor named Doug Selsam, the new turbines have rotors just 14-18 inches in diameter, but can produce 200 watts in a 20MPH wind, and much more than that at higher wind speeds. The trick is using high-strength carbon-fiber materials that allow several rotors to be hooked up as one -- in strong winds a thirteen-rotor system can produce enough juice to blow out a bank of car headlights "like flashbulbs." That's pretty impressive -- especially since the system is light and balanced enough to be held up with one hand. No word on when or how we might see these hit the public, but we can see some pretty sweet applications -- laptops in the park, anyone? [Source: Speaker Factory]

[Thanks, Yocheved]

More Details Emerge on the Three-Wheeled Triac Electric Car

by Nilay Patel, posted May 8th 2008 at 8:02PM


We can't help but find Green Vehicles' Triac three-wheeled highway-capable electric car anything but stupidly adorable, and it looks like it's even better than we hoped. Our friends over at Autoblog Green scored some more info on the buggy, and found that the top speed it actually 80mph, and that range is just about 100 miles on a full charge, down from 120 miles as originally estimated. The Triac will also roll with a five-speed transmission, and charge from either a 120V or 240V power source.

On top of all that, Green Vehicles is apparently working on a truck called the Buckshot based on the same motor, but with a three-speed transmission that will enable it to be a "true work truck." Sure, sure -- but when can we have a Triac? Seriously, we want to hug it. [Source: Autoblog Green]

Recovered Shuttle Columbia Hard Drive Used In Science Experiment

by Nilay Patel, posted May 6th 2008 at 4:54PM


Although it's been several years since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, it looks like some of the data gathered during the orbiter's final mission will be put to good use. A hard drive salvaged from the wreckage contains the results of an experiment to study the way xenon gas flows in microgravity, and the results were published in the April edition of a journal called Physical Review E.

The 400MB Seagate drive was originally thought to be destroyed, but workers and engineers reconstructing the orbiter from the remaining debris found it during the process and sent it off for recovery, where 99 percent of the data was extracted. It then took several years for lead researcher Robert Berg and his team to analyze the findings, but they're happy with the results -- we only wish they hadn't come at so dear a price. [Source: Scientific American]

[Thanks, Laura]

"Smart" Shoe's Built-In Computer Adjusts to Your Foot Size, Syncs With PC

by Nilay Patel, posted May 6th 2008 at 1:01PMBreaking News


We've been hearing about MIT spinoff VectraSense's Verb for Shoe "smart shoe" since 2004, but the company is finally taking preorders, and if you've got an extra $700, you can now blow it on some of the most ridiculous kicks ever designed. Four years and several hundred melodramatic product renders later, the basic idea is the same: an embedded computer automatically adjusts the shoe to your feet, syncs with your PC, and communicates with the shoes of others to exchange contact information. We're not sure why you'd want to drop seven Bens on this functionality (we'd rather carry a cell phone and laptop and wear non-ridiculous shoes, you know?) but hey, if you're going to be a fashion disaster, you might as well do it with wireless capabilities. [Source: Verb for Shoe]

German Companies Developing Scented Text Messages

by Nilay Patel, posted May 5th 2008 at 1:05PMBreaking News

Virtually every smell-based tech that's come through the pipe has fizzled out in one way or another, but that checkered past isn't stopping Germany's ConVisual from partnering with the Institute of Sensory Analysis and Marketing to develop scent-delivery chips for cell phones.

The partnership has been running for eight years and just received a patent on the tech, and the goal now is to start building the chips into phones within the next two years. Initially, the chip is supposed to have 100 different smells on it, and ConVisual says bad smells are a possibility as users will be able to reject certain messages. That's certainly interesting, but we've got to say, we're not all that keen on the idea of people having even more ways to emit odors -- we'll stick with the non-smelly cellys, thanks much. [Source: The Local via EE TImes]

Qmotions Bringing Skate Controllers to the Xbox 360

by Nilay Patel, posted May 3rd 2008 at 11:07AM


Qmotions has been hawking various specialty sports controllers for a while now, but it looks like the company is about to take the next-gen plunge with an upcoming skateboard controller called the Qmotions Big Air for the Xbox 360 -- and best of all, Microsoft is going to let the company build official wireless peripherals. That's an honor Microsoft is pretty hesitant to dole out, but it seems like the ability to wirelessly rip up some Tony Hawk swayed J Allard and co. (We hear Ballmer is a monster in the pipe.)

No word on price or game compatibility other than "skateboard games currently on the market," but look for this one to ollie into your heart sometime later this year. Amazing 1992-style animated GIF of Qmotions' PS2 XBoard controller, pictured above, after the break. [Source I4U News via Engadget Spanish]

Continue reading Qmotions Bringing Skate Controllers to the Xbox 360

MIT Reinvents the Post-It Note... with Post-It Notes

by Nilay Patel, posted May 2nd 2008 at 3:37PM


We've seen countless attempts to re-invent the Post-It note, but no one's ever really managed to improve on the basic design -- which might be why MIT's "Quickies" concept doesn't even try. The electronic note system is instead based around a digital pen and special pad, which saves your notes as you jot them down on RFID-embedded Post-Its. Software on your PC then does some quick OCR and, according to the inventors, "uses its understanding of the user's intentions, content, and the context of the notes to provide the user with reminders, alerts, messages, and just-in-time information."

Since the database can also store location information, sticking the note on a book or other object allows you to locate it later using the RFID tag, and you can even have notes SMS'd to their recipients. Pretty wild -- but we're more impressed someone finally found a good use for all those digital pens out there. Check a video of the system in action after the break. [Source: TFOT]

Continue reading MIT Reinvents the Post-It Note... with Post-It Notes

English Towns Equipping Crossing Guards with Cameras

by Nilay Patel, posted May 1st 2008 at 2:55PM

England is already drowning in CCTV cameras, so it looks like Big Brother is starting to get creative in finding ways to deploy more: local councils are now outfitting crossing guards with camera-equipped stop signs. Yeah, crossing guards. With cameras in their stop signs. The cameras in the £890 ($1765) poles are fairly conspicuous, and the hope is that it'll curb aggressive driving around crossing zones, which resulted in 1,400 incidents last year.

There's no word on how anyone plans to measure the effectiveness of the program, but we're certain the crossing guards who get passed over for the poles and end up with the hat-mounted cameras also being deployed will have a few choice words about things. [Source: Daily Mail]

Wi-Fi Detecting Watch Finds Networks, Social Isolation

by Nilay Patel, posted Apr 30th 2008 at 3:51PM


Now that most smartphones worth having sport WiFi, the need for wireless finders has dwindled somewhat, but we'll still give credit to the designers of this WiFi-detecting watch for cleverness. That's not to say we'd ever recommend wearing this this fashion disaster -- check out that "WiFi" button on the bezel -- but if you're on a mission to consolidate your gear and you don't mind the mocking laughter of others, £20 ($39) is all it takes.

[Source: Thumbs Up (UK) via digital-lifestyles]

"Brain Pacemaker" Could Treat Depression, OCD

by Nilay Patel, posted Apr 29th 2008 at 4:04PMBreaking News


Sending electrical shocks into the brain via a "brain pacemaker" has already led to dramatic breakthroughs like the revival of a man trapped in a vegetative state for six years, but new research may mean that the technique is soon a common treatment for disorders like depression and OCD. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic, Mass General, Harvard Medical School and Brown Medical School implanted the Medtronics brain pacemaker into 17 people suffering from depression and tracked them for a year, finding significant improvements in mood as well as social and occupational functioning, while 26 patients suffering from OCD were followed for three years and also showed "marked improvement."

Findings will be presented to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons this week in Chicago, and clinical trials are scheduled for later this year -- in other news, sales of 'The Terminal Man' to neurosurgeons recently skyrocketed for unknown reasons. [Source: AOL News]

Blackberry 9000 Release Rumors Swirl

by Nilay Patel, posted Apr 27th 2008 at 2:12PM


Let's preface this by saying that we honestly have no idea what's going on with the hot BlackBerry 9000, but Fortune is reporting that it's delayed due to either a) AT&T concerns over call quality; b) AT&T concerns over launching a 3G BlackBerry and the 3G iPhone at the same time or; c) or something else entirely. That's news to our homeboy Boy Genius, who thinks Fortune needs to start double-checking its model numbers and code names before it starts rumor-mongering, and points out that he's been on top of power-management-related 9000 delays for a while now. Testy!

We're a little more inclined to trust BGR on this stuff -- the man's got a point when he says he's gotten pre-release versions of every RIM device since the Pearl 8100, and if the 9000's faster processor and 3G are indeed causing power problems, he's likely to notice. Let's just hope this all gets sorted soon -- we're ready to move on up.

Read - Fortune: "Delay seen for RIM's new Blackberry"
Read - BGR: "Cleaning up those BlackBerry rumors"


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