Monday, January 31, 2011

Robonaut 2- The first Humanoid Space Robot!

Robonaut 2 or R2 will be the first humanoid robot to venture into space this month flying aboard the Space shuttle Discovery. R2 will be accompanied by 6 astronauts on their way to the International Space Station on what will be Discovery’s last ever trip into space. R2 (currently legless) will be placed on a fixed pedestal on board the space station to complete lessons on a task board. The board has switches, knobs, and connectors like the ones astronauts operate, and the crew will mock up chores for R2 to master. Once the legs are added, the trainee will be able to move around inside the station, wiping handrails, vacuuming air filters, and doing other mundane tasks for the crew. In development by NASA and GM, R2’s potential is still unknown. "There are so many possibilities for the future," says Rob Ambrose of NASA's Johnson Space Center. "For instance, we could add wheels so R2 could scout a potential landing site on a planet or an asteroid or set up a workstation or habitat there. Someday R2 may even get a jetpack! But we have to crawl before we can fly."


Sunday, January 30, 2011

Volkswagen XL1: sub-1L/100km efficiency


The all new VW XL1 is to be shown off at the upcomming Qatar motor show. Its' powered by a two-cylinder 800cc TDI diesel producing 35kW, and linked to a 20kW electric motor, equalling a total of 55kW. The power is sent to the rear wheels via a seven-speed DSG gearbox with an automatic clutch fitted between each unit. This means the electric motor can work independently of the diesel or with it when accelerating. The total range of the XL1 is around 550km from only a 10 litre tank. In electric only mode the XL1 has a more modest range of 35km. The use of carbon fibre and other advanced construction methods helps keep the kerb weight of the XL1 to 795kg. Performance is not blistering, but it’s not too shabby, either, with 100km/h able to be reached in 11.9 seconds. Top speed is limited at 160km/h. A version of this car is likely to be built on mass production in the very near future.

SEGA Toylet (Boys Only!)

Sega is testing a new gamming format in toilets around Tokyo from January this year. Users are to strategically vary the strength and location of his urine stream to play a series of games.Each urinal is installed with a pressure sensor An LCD screen is mounted on the wall above, letting the gamer select from and play four different minigames.

Games included:
  • Mannekin Pis, which simply measures how hard you can pee.
  • Graffiti Eraser which lets you remove paint by pointing a hose in different directions.
  • The Northern Wind, The Sun and Me,” where you play as the wind trying to blow a girl’s skirt up, and the harder you pee, the harder the wind blows.
  • Battle! Milk From Nose is a multiplayer game where you compete against the person who last used the urinal. The strength of your urine streams are compared, and translated into milk spraying out of your nose. If your stream is stronger, your milk-stream knocks your opponent out of the ring.

Holocube - HC70 holographic projector (video)

So it’s not quite holographic technology though this new projection method give a pretty awesome impression of what larger scale holographic images will look like and an example of how they may be implemented in the future.

Specs: Holocube HC70
70-inch transparent screen
40GB of SSD for storing more than 18 hours of uncompressed videos of 4 Mb/s or eight hours of compressed video at 9 Mb/s.
600cd/m2 brightness
1080×1920 pixel resolution.
Besides that, Holocube HC70 is using the Inter Dual Core 2.8 GHz processor and Windows 7 Embedded as its operating system.