It's autonomous, GPS guided, has a complete snow-munching digestive tract, and poops ice bricks with a smile.

Submitted by jason - 2008-01-06 19:42:41
Channels - futuretech mechamojo
Tags - robot snow snowblower autonomous

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Google maps has a collaborate feature now that will let you make a map layer that you can share with a group or even the world. It works like a wiki, so anyone in the share list can edit, edd or remove any data point.

I'm monkeying around with it and trying to kick off a worldwide map of hackers. If you code--or just pretend to--click on this link and add yourself and your hacker friends to the map:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?i... ;amp;hl=en&msa=0&msid=108480887738389422212.000440310dcdec9d1c93a

Submitted by jason - 2007-11-30 20:37:35
Channels - hackszine futuretech
Tags - hack google mashup maps

2 comments

Craig from the Twin Cities Robotics Group demonstrated his homemade R2-D2 droid at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry.

Here's a link to the video. Check out how it's able to transform to and from biped and 3 wheel mode.

Submitted by jason - 2007-11-07 12:16:38
Channels - blogcadre futuretech mechamojo
Tags - robot starwars robotics r2 droid

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Here's a video of a small robot Humvee that transforms into a biped. I've seen a couple of these types of robots before, but this one's auto and robot modes are quite convincing.

Oh.. and it's got some sick dance moves.

Submitted by jason - 2007-10-11 13:33:24
Channels - blogcadre futuretech mechamojo
Tags - video robot hummer transformer

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This is a cool interactive hexapod robot made by Matt Denton. Using facial recognition, it's able to track you around and take a photo of your face if you hold it's gaze for too long. In all, its responses are pretty lifelike and worth checking out.

Submitted by jason - 2007-09-26 13:10:33
Channels - video futuretech mechamojo
Tags - video robot hexapod spider

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I've become addicted to Scott Aaronson's Schtetl-Optimized blog. He's taken the time to delve into a lot of the details about quantum computing that's often glossed over. The bonus is that he's able to put a lot of the physics into language that the non-quantum scientist can grasp.

Most of his posts are on the topic of what quantum computers _can't_ do. So it's interesting to read about the actual physical limits of computing and get a more realistic glimpse of what's in store for our info-driven future.

Submitted by jason - 2007-09-17 09:50:30
Channels - science futuretech programming
Tags - search computers quantum physics cryptography

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"Google will award $20 million to the first private team to put a robot on the moon, the company and the X Prize Foundation announced at Wired NextFest in Los Angeles Thursday. Members of the public will also get the chance to send digital mementos to the moon."

See also, "How to Win $20 Million":
http://www.wired.com/special_mul...

Submitted by jason - 2007-09-13 12:03:05
Channels - blogcadre futuretech mechamojo
Tags - google robots space robotics nasa moon lunar x-prize

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"Collecting urine, that magical yellow liquid we excrete from our bodies several times a day, is a key step in recycling human nutrients. Urine contains most of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium we release. These nutrients are the major components of chemical fertilizers, and urine is an amazing plant fertilizer! It is typically sterile, and, if separated from feces, can be easily and safely reused. Urine collection can be as simple as peeing in a jar or installing a urinal or urine-diverting dry or composting toilet. Although female urinals haven't caught on yet, there are some designs and models available."

All you need is a five gallon jug! Boy, I can't wait for female urinals to catch on.

Submitted by jason - 2007-09-06 19:58:26
Channels - blogcadre futuretech
Tags - green plants greywater fertilizer

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The term "fuck-you money" is used to describe the amount of money a person would need to accumulate in order to walk out on their job permanently and live free of responsibilities.

I put together a spreadsheet last night which describes how an average person can achieve fuck-you money realistically. Assuming you can be happy living on 1/2 of your income, investing the rest, your investment returns will exceed your expenses in 10 years, and within 20 you'll be making more off your investments than your entire salary.

This is also an experiment with a Wiki-style spreadsheet using Google Docs. Everyone has access to edit the sheet to plug in their own hypothetical numbers, or even create whole other simulation models.

Submitted by jason - 2007-08-03 21:03:47
Channels - blogcadre hackszine futuretech
Tags - hack money finance retirement

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One more example of how everything in tech is bound to get incredibly small. Tiny, cheap, smart and expendable -- what's not to love?

"A life-size, robotic fly has taken flight at Harvard University. Weighing only 60 milligrams, with a wingspan of three centimeters, the tiny robot's movements are modeled on those of a real fly. While much work remains to be done on the mechanical insect, the researchers say that such small flying machines could one day be used as spies, or for detecting harmful chemicals."

Submitted by jason - 2007-07-20 13:30:46
Channels - futuretech
Tags - technology robot micro robotics fly insect

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Denmark programmers have created interactive floors as learning tools for those children who have a hard time sitting still.

Submitted by stella - 2007-06-20 16:38:16
Channels - blogcadre hackszine futuretech
Tags - cool interactive tech education school children learning

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Mr. Woo makes incredible walking robots from recycled junk parts. Incredibly, he's doing this in rural China, with no formal education or training.

Submitted by jason - 2007-05-31 13:05:20
Channels - blogcadre makezine futuretech mechamojo
Tags - video china robot robotics walking junk junkbot

1 comment

Interesting article on Wired about the design of a new Chinese metropolis, built from scratch as a model for a green city.

From the article:
Dongtan's master plan — hundreds of pages of maps, schematics, and data — has almost nothing to say about architectural style. Instead, it outlines the world's first green city, every block engineered in response to China's environmental crisis. It's like the source code for an urban operating system. "We're not focused on the form," Gutierrez explains. "We're focused on the performance of the form." He and his team imagine a city powered by local, renewable energy, with superefficient buildings clustered in dense, walkable neighborhoods; a recycling scheme that repurposes 90 percent of all waste; a network of high tech organic farms; and a ban on any vehicle that emits CO2.

Submitted by jason - 2007-05-09 15:50:42
Channels - futuretech
Tags - green city china architecture pilot development

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There's a new project starting with the objective of cataloguing all known species of life in a single, online database. It's sort of a biological Wikipedia:

"Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity."

Am I the only one who immediately thinks of Tron's Master Control Program saying "End of Line"? It would be appropriate if this served as an archive of life after some horrible apocalyptic event - but let's not think about that.

Submitted by jason - 2007-05-09 09:47:45
Channels - blogcadre web2.0 futuretech
Tags - science life biology encyclopedia

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The Compact Low Emission VEhicle for uRban transport is a new vehicle prototype from BMW and the University of Bath. It's a three wheeled, semi-motorcycle that runs on compressed natural gas, gets 108mpg and can cruise at 80mph.

This was one of Time's best inventions of 2006: http://www.time.com/time/2006/te...

Submitted by jason - 2007-05-08 10:56:23
Channels - blogcadre tech futuretech
Tags - green transportation vehicle prototype

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