Kristina Grifantini
Portfolio & BlogRise of the Personal Jetpacks
Ever since Ironman and Rocketman, generations have eagerly awaited jetpacks (particularly me!). There have been a number of jetpacks demoed in the last few decades, but these have been mainly messy, dangerous, and let a user fly for only a short while. TAM Rocket Belt for example, lasted for 30 seconds, costing $250,000, and Jetpack International’s H202 lasted 33 seconds at $155,000 (comparison by PopMech). The Go Fast Jet Pack is about the same time duration.
A new personal flying device I wrote about for the products section of the latest issue of Technology Review looks promising: it can fly for 30 minutes at up to 97 kilometers per hour, according to the company. While pricey ($100,000), it is slightly cheaper than other versions. See a 2009 video of it in action below:
For more info, go to my post at Technology Review’s May/June issue, and the company’s website for more recent videos of the Martin Pack in action. Check out other jetpacks below:
The TAM rocket pack:
JetPack International’s H202:
Augmented-Reality Floor Gives Physical, Visual and Audio Feedback
I saw a poster for this interactive, vibrating floor while I was at a haptics and virtual reality conference last month. I finally got a chance to follow up with the first author, and I must say this tech looks pretty cool, though it’s experimental and fairly specialized right now. The haptic floor tiles are made of deformable plates that give off different kinds of vibrations to simulate the feel of walking on textures (like ice, sand or grass).
Something like this could be really fun if it was integrated with a video game system. The researchers say it may be used for training, rehabilitation or virtual floor controllers.
See another video and read my full post, picked up today by Bruce Sterling’s blog and BoingBoing, at TechnologyReview.com: Augmented-Reality Floor Tiling.
Industry Robotic Arm Made From 3D Printing
European-based Festo demoed its new, animal-like Bionic Handling Assistant, a robotic arm able to handle delicate objects more effectively than typical, bulky industry arms. Because the arm is sensitive and flexible, the company envisions its use in specialized workshops dealing with food, plants or animals (think gentler automated milking).
The robotic arm, inspired by an elephant trunk (and vertebrae) is made via rapid manufacturing, where applied layers of plastic powder are fused together by a laser in a type of 3D printing. It has three flexible segments based on pneumatic lightweight structures. Actuators that extend and move from compressed air act like gentle springs.
Flying, Robotic “Pixels” Will Create Giant 3D Images
MIT’s SENSEable City Lab is working on Flyfire, tiny robotic flyers with different colored LEDs that will be able to make images while hovering in the air. The flyers will be able to self-organize, acting as “smart pixels” to form complex shapes in space.
“”The Flyfire canvas can transform itself from one shape to another or morph a two-dimensional photographic image into an articulated shape.”
The movie below shows a few of the flyers, as well as simulations of what a full flock of Flyfire robots might be capable of.
Robotic Penguin Pet Dances, Reports Facebook Updates
This cute little critter from MyDeskTop.com is being marketed as a robotic desktop pet. Unlike previous generations of robotic pets, like Furbys or those impossible-to-get-potentially-hazardous-for-kids robotic hamsters that are all the rage this holiday season, Pingo the Penguin wirelessly connects to your computer to speak your Facebook status updates and messages, as well as report weather and news from RSS feeds, even if your computer’s browser isn’t running. It also physically reacts to its user by displaying one of five moods when being picked up or petted, and obeying voice commands, like “dance.” Sensors let it whirl around your desk without falling off, though the deep computerized voice doesn’t quite match the look of Pingo:
While not the first robot to interface with Facebook, Pingo seems to suggest a growing trend of this kind of “social” interactivity in robotic toys that blend physical and virtual interactions (See “Stunning Interactive Virtual Pet for PS3” for the latest in an augmented reality pet). There have been other desktop robots can report Twitter updates, like the Guardian Robot, but this is the most buzz I’ve seen about a commercial social media bot.
Ping-Pong Playing Robot
This bot, on display at the iRex conference a few weeks ago, boasts that it can play table tennis against a human opponent. The fast-reacting robot, dubbed Topio (version 3) and created by the Vietnamese company Tosy, has 39 degrees of freedom. While very cool with its movie star-esque carved torso and sunglasses, how well does it actually play ping-pong?
To do it successfully, a robot would need fast-processing computer vision. The mechanics of a robotic hand swinging a paddle is fairly straightforward (one, unaltering hand position), as long as it can move fast enough. And with robots like these, it seems well within reach to design a robot that can react fast enough to an incoming ball.
You can see version 2 of Topio playing below, admittedly, a bit slow. (So far, no luck in finding a video of version 3 from iRex, unfortunately. I’ll update if I come across any.)
Robotic Singing Heads, a la Futurama
This art exhibit of singing animatronics heads by Nathaniel Mellor. While somewhat rubbery and not terribly advanced, they do evoke a bit of the uncanny valley reaction; see them below at Art Basel Miami Beach 2009:
Via EnGadget
Robots Do The Light Saber Dance at iREX
image via Pink Tentacle’s excellent slideshow
At the International Robot Exhibition (iREX) 2009 in Japan last week, dancing, rolling and talking robots and their creators mingled and played. I was enjoyed a stuffed poultry dish at home myself, but I did come across these cool videos of demos at the conference, including this one of robots doing a light saber dance:
Other exhibits included these dancing robots, balancing on one foot:
An adorable robot that seems much more fun than the mechanical claw in the prize box:
And finally, a good overview of a few different robotic technologies at iREX 2009 by NetworkWorld.TV:
Stunning Interactive Virtual Furry Pet on PS3
Sony’s new Eye Pet video game for PlayStation 3 incorporates the latest in augmented reality technology—particularly tracking and interactive software—to deliver an immersive, gaming experience.
While a kid’s game, the new tech in Eye Pet sounds cool enough to entertain adults as well. Game players raise and interactive with a virtual “pet,” who senses and reacts to a user’s motions in real-time. The PlayStation Eye camera, pointed in front of the TV, captures the movement of the user. The user watches his or herself onscreen, where the pet responds to hand gestures (such as a tickle).
The user can exchange virtual objects with the pet, as well as teach it songs, wash it, and play games like bowling or driving, according to the PlayStation blog Push Square. Because the game is done through a camcorder (which stores the footage), you will even see the pet dream about past moments, playing back footage of its “happy memories” in its dreamscape.
Robot Runs Like Humans Do
I’ve written about Big Dog’s eerily realistic and impressive gait before. Now, the company behind the dog, Boston Dynamics, has released a video of a new robot, Petman. Petman is a two-legged walker meant to test chemical warfare suits by imitating human motion, according to Mikell Taylor, who blogged on Petman at IEEE’s Automaton. What makes this impressive, like Big Dog, aside from its unnervingly realistic gait, is its sensing capabilities: it can recover from a pretty sustainable push.
