All right, everybody, got a new and interesting gadget for you today, so brace yourselves–the logical successor to the Roomba has reared its suctiony head, and it’s called the XV11 from Neato Robotics.
Okay, with a name like that, admittedly this sounds like it’d be a real credibility strainer. Thing sounds like a droid from Star Wars produced by a company that should’ve been featured in Fallout 3. But anyway, Neato took technology gained through the various automated driving competitions that DARPA’s been engaging in for years now and added them to the XV11. It uses a combination of lasers and Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) technology to first make a map of the room, complete with obstruction data.
Then, once it has this map, it follows the map. Where the Roomba has to bump into things to figure out where obstructions are, the XV11 will figure out where they are BEFORE setting out.
They’ll demo at the Consumer Electronics Show this January, and should hit stores late February for a cost of $399 a unit.
DARPA, Household, Lasers, Military, Neato Robotics, Roomba, SLAM, Services, XV11, autodrive, robots
Maybe, just maybe, we spoil our pets a bit too much.
Oh, sure, we don’t think twice about the occasional chew bone or some such, but some dogs today eat better than some people do. Plus there’s the add-ons–clothing lines for pets, Xbox Live subscriptions (when do they PLAY??), dog houses made of crystal, even health insurance for pets! It’s crazy! And it only gets weirder when I start talking about the electronic dog door.
Dubbed the Plexidor Pet Door, it’s an electronic dog door with a vertical sliding door that slides up when your pet, who’s wearing an RFID chip in his or her collar, gets sufficiently close to it.
It’s a great measure for folks concerned about burglars using the pet door as a means of entry (a la Home Alone), but still wanting your pet to have the maximum amount of freedom. They cost a whopping eight hundred bucks a pop, and that’s before you add on the cost of professional installment. This thing has to be HARDWIRED into your house’s electrical system.
Still, it’s terribly awesome, and if you like even having the latest gadgets for your dog, then this one should be on your list.
Plexidor Pet Door, RFID, Remote, Science, Wacky, collar tab, pet door, robots, security
Admittedly, the Amio is a pretty awesome robot, but it takes the Japanese to make something truly creepy with their robot and blow the Amio clean out of the water.
The Japanese, you see, built a fully functional robot…that simulates SWINE FLU.
Unveiled at the recent gathering of the Security and Safety Trade Expo in Tokyo, the Swine Flu Robot simulates fully a patient experiencing swine flu. Everything. That includes sweating, moaning, and convulsing. Plus, if the symptoms aren’t properly treated, they start to diminish until eventually the robot stops “breathing”.
For a society that gave us games about doctors, this isn’t terribly surprising. Perhaps one of the greatest illness simulators ever devised, this robot is bound to help someone with their swine flu training.
H1N1, Science, Swine Flu, japan, japanese, medical trainer, robot, robots, training