Nov 242011
 
Moving a Robot/With a Kinect/Over the Internets/Is a Revolution

Yasakawa Japan has retrofitted one of their robots with an off the shelf MS Kinect. And just like that, telepresence takes a huge leap forward.

Aug 272011
 
Handroid Remote Robot Hand is not for Pleasure.  Yet.

Japanese company ITK’s latest telepresence-like robot hand system is now in production. Among the numerous potential applications for materials science, medicine, military, and extreme-environment tasks, I’ll refrain from making any tele-romance jokes or references and I definitely won’t mention/introduce the word “teledildonics.“ Actually, the sex industry does deserve certain recognition as a formidable force in human technological development. Think VHS. DVD. Online video. Water-based lubricants. Birth control (not only as a wealthy nation’s luxury, but also as a tool for developing nations to reign in population growth). So, just saying. Long-distance love could send this technology into overdrive. [yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPpX8UApuxk&feature=player_embedded’] [read full post]

Feb 282011
 
Robonaut 2 Now in Space - This Guy Says Hype - One Disagrees...

Strongly. Mr. Saenz makes a decent point that Robonaut is far from the first complex robot we’ve sent to space.  However, referring to this accomplishment as merely “hype,” that it’s only special because of it’s shape kind of…  well, misses the point.  Because it, you know, is the point… [VIA SINGULARITY HUB]