Oct 14 2009 Pop It Like A Beach Ball!: Shape Shifting Bot
iRobot, a diabolical company best known for convincing millions of housewives to allow rug-munching robots into their homes, has now developed an air-filled shape-shifting robot that will climb into your bed and smother you while you sleep.
Unveiled at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) yesterday, this palm-sized troublemaker is being billed as "the first demonstration of a completely soft, mobile robot using jamming as an enabling technology." The "jamming" in question is something called "jamming skin enabled locomotion," which traps air and a collection of loosely packed particles in a package made of silicon rubber. When air is removed from the pocket, the silicon restricts and seems to solidify. The robot consists of several of these pockets, which can be inflated or deflated separately, giving the device the ability to perform simple actions.
The first part of the video explains how the technology works, but the actual bot-test begins around 1:50. Sure, it may look like a harmless beach ball, but do you know how many people drown each year trying to retrieve beach balls that have been swept out to sea? Now multiply that by every single person on earth and you have an idea of this thing's killing potential.
iRobot shape-shifting ChemBot is back, and it's bad [engadget]
Thanks to JKirchartz, hayden, NF, Michael, Tuggis, matt and We'llmissyoujehudah, who vow to pop every last one of these things with fiery arrows. Good looking, guys, but you might wanna brush up on your archery.
Mar 10 2009 Control Your iPod With Facial Gestures
That's right, thanks to Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Osaka University, soon stopping the music on your iPod will be as simple as sticking out your ass-shaped tongue.
The Ear Switch looks like a normal set of headphones, according to an Agence France Press report, but includes a set of sensors that allows its on-board computer to measure tiny ear-canal movements.
The result, Taniguchi claimed, is that "an iPod can start or stop music when the wearer sticks his or her tongue out".He added that the user can also skip to the next track by widely opening their eyes or skip back by winking. Other facial expressions could also be programmed to control other features.
Well that's a relief. I mean seriously, my fingers get tired of pushing all those little buttons anyways. I can see the bus now: wait, did you just wink at me? I said, STOP THE WINKING! That's it buddy, fisticuffs -- you asked for them!
Boffin unveils facial expression-controlled iPod [reghardware]
Thanks to Rick and krabivana, who control their iPods the way God intended: with child laborers.
Mar 10 2009 Hamster Jackets Harness Piezoelectricity
Finally. I say it's about damn time we fit our hamsters with little jackets that harness all the energy they're wasting when running incessantly in their little wheels. Also, we're harnessing the power of the wheel too, right?
To harness hamster power, the scientists sewed electricity-generating threads one-fiftieth the width of a human hair into a yellow jacket worn by the hamsters as they ran. A human-sized jacket, capable of powering an iPod, could be ready in as little as three years.
"This can totally be scaled up," said Zhong Lin 'ZL' Wang, who co-authored a paper describing the research in this month's issue of Nano Letters. "This is just the first step. The idea is that we would harvest energy from any body movement, from walking, breathing, from any kind of vibration."
Well shit, let's scale it up to dinosaurs then. I could design a hell of a piezo-electric jacket for a T-Rex. And, while I'm at it, maybe some intimates. I'm thinking something lacy with a few silk accents. Did somebody just say crotchless? I like the way you think!
Hamster jackets harness wheel-running power [msnbc]
Thanks to I Won't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking My Juice on the Geekologie, who can run in his wheel for hours.
Jan 4 2009 Sexy Pole-Dancing LEGO Minifig Works For Tips In The Everfrost Mountain Brewery
High atop the snow-covered peak of Everfrost Mountain the elves brew a wicked batch of grog -- a grog so powerful it can etch diamonds and make a Goron's pee burn. I'm telling you, that stuff will even put hair on an infant's chest. It's true, look at my newborn. Just kidding, that's a Furby. Anyway, this is a LEGO brewpub built by a guy named Andrew. And what brewpub is complete without a pole-dancing LEGO minifig? None. And this particular dancer is powered by a 9v motor, so she spins about the pole like a champ -- in both directions (video after the jump)! Which is a lot more than I can say for the last stripper I saw -- she tried to slide down the pole upside down and fell on her neck! Needless to say, I took my dollar back while she was dazed.
Hit the jump for a short video of Plastica doing her thing on the pole.
Continue Reading " Sexy Pole-Dancing LEGO Minifig Works For Tips In The Everfrost Mountain Brewery "
Dec 29 2008 Sexy Kinetic Dresses Respond To Stimuli
Walking City is a fashion collection by designer Ying Gao that includes three dresses that respond to different stimuli. The one in this video has a proximity detector. So when you get near it starts opening its little flower-looking accouterments. Pretty freaky looking. There's another video after the jump of a dress that blows itself up whenever a wind sensor is set off. The third one sucks so I'm not going to mention it. Sadly, none are as cool as the dress that turns into a naked woman. Which, as far as fashion goes, is the boner.
Hit it for the other one.
Continue Reading " Sexy Kinetic Dresses Respond To Stimuli "
Dec 24 2008 Best iPhone App To Date Rejected By Apple
iBoobs, undeniably the best iPhone application to date, has been denied the right to be sold in the iTunes store, because Apple claims the app is pornographic. Which, I think we can all agree, is utterly ridiculous. And by "utterly ridiculous" I mean I popped like 16 boners.
Youtube
Thanks to Dylan, who agrees that Apple wouldn't be where they are today if it weren't for pornography. Remember your roots.
Dec 23 2008 Do You Piss Liquid Gold?: A $400,000 Watch
The Cabestan Winch Tourbillion Vertical Watch is utterly ridiculous and has 1,352 parts (in comparison, my sundial has two). It's "driven by a 450 link chain and nickel silver drums" and looks like it'll break just putting it on. The base model will set you back $275,000, but if you want that shit to have platinum and diamonds and a set of grillz it'll be $400,000. I have no idea what makes the thing tell time, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's something to do with a winch. And speaking of which -- more beer you wretched beast!
Mad props in advance to everyone that's going to use their comment to tell me beer wench is spelled with an e.
Hit the jump for several more pictures of the awesomely constructed movement.
Continue Reading " Do You Piss Liquid Gold?: A $400,000 Watch "
Dec 12 2008 That's It, I'm Moving: Robotic Statistics
Africa -- who's coming with me?
Hit the jump for two more graphics I didn't bother looking at because I'm too busy throwing clothes in a suitcase.
Continue Reading " That's It, I'm Moving: Robotic Statistics "
Aug 11 2008 Sweet!: LEGO Donkey Kong Game
This is a video of a Donkey Kong game made with LEGO Mindstorms RCX. You push a button, the opening game audio plays, and then Kong starts throwing barrels. Mario jumps over them, but never makes any forward progress. And sometimes the barrels actual hit him, which, at least in the real game, results in a death, a thrown controller, and a barrage of profanity. But then your mommy says no more video games for the rest of the night and you, in a rage, call her a bad name. Unfortunately, your father hears so you take off running and lock yourself in your bedroom. Then, while he's punching through the door, you contemplate the best way to survive a three-story dive out the window.
Hit the jump to see another video from the back showing how it all works.
Jul 7 2008 Kinetic Ball Sculpture At The BMW Museum
Okay so I've been sitting here playing Bomberman on FireNES and pretending those sick, sick women were the enemies in the game. It wasn't working so I went outside and cut down one of my asshole neighbor's trees. Now I'm feeling a little better, but not much. I figured I'd try and post a nice soothing video to make up for that last one that undoubtedly left you permanently scarred.
This is a video of a kinetic ball sculpture in the recently reopened BMW museum in Munich. It has some elevator music playing in the background that'll either put you to sleep or make you want to kill those Star Wars murderers depending on how you feel about ultra-light jazz. Each of the sculpture's 714 metallic balls is held up by string and moves to create some pretty cool looking effects. The last fifteen seconds are the best though, when the balls come together to take the shape of a car. Way to go BMW. Now if you could just spend a little less time playing with your dangling marbles and a little more getting my driver's-side door to open, we'll be all set.
Hit the jump to see a picture of a car the sculpture sometimes makes.
Continue Reading " Kinetic Ball Sculpture At The BMW Museum "
Jun 16 2008 Wii Fit Balance Board Hack Uses Movement To Explore Google Earth, World Of Warcraft
Tired of only playing Wii Fit on the balance board? Want to use it for something else? Well look no further.
A couple of guys from DFKI (the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) took a Balance Board and connected it to a regular old laptop PC. A custom C# application communicates with the controller via Bluetooth, translating simple leaning movements on the board into 3D moves on the computer.
There's a video after the jump showing how they use the board to navigate Google Earth and World Of Warcraft. But if you can't watch videos at work the picture above gives you a pretty good idea of what it looks like: some geek humping an imaginary woman from behind.
Hit the jump for the demo video, and the slightly NSFW video of a chick playing the Wii Fit hula-hoop game in her underwear in case you've been Bin Ladening it up in a cave for the past month and haven't seen it yet. Note: Try your best to ignore the idiotic pantstain that's filming it, he's one ugly bastard.
Aug 15 2007 HypoSurface Moving Wall
Right when I thought my naked lady wallpaper was the peak of wall design, Hyposurface has to come out with a wall that can react to sound and movement (as well as spell out words, make pictures, etc.). It runs off of compressed air, and based on the video, I'd say that I need these for pretty much every room of the house. Except for the bedroom, in the bedroom I want to replace my bed with one. Because well, I'm a man that appreciates the motion of the ocean. And the ladies I've been bringing home lately have been prone to popping the waterbed.
UPDATE: A Shorter video has been added after the jump since the longer one was removed.
