MIT student develops self-balancing unicycle with the Bullet » Reviews

MIT student develops self-balancing unicycle with the Bullet

You remember all that hype that came with the Segway about a decade ago? I believe that it was supposed to revolutionize pedestrian travel in the big city, but the city streets are still full of walkers with only the occasional Segway.

An MIT student named Stephan Boyer created this homemade self-balancing unicycle which he calls the “Bullet”. Yes, if you have problems balancing on a unicycle, the Bullet could be your solution.

Of course, the Bullet cannot steer, at least at this present time. It does go backwards and forwards, though. You can watch a video of this after the jump if you want to see it in motion, just a little warning though, there is no sound.

So, I guess if you want to take some shortcuts on that clown school, the Bullet isn’t quite ready for your unicycle act as yet.

I’m starting to realize that I went to the wrong school. If MIT students have the spare time to create self-balancing unicycles in their spare time, then I should have gone there. Do other students walk around with other experimental tech? By the way, I like the paintings on the doors on what looks like a dorm room here.

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Review » BlueSeed’s Floating City is made for business

When I first saw this, I thought that someone was trying to build some sort of floating country. Personally, I think we need more of them before the Earth gets into Soylent Green territory.

The purpose of this boat isn’t to alleviate overpopulation, but to help businesses. This boat is under development by a startup company known as Blueseed, and its purpose is to house businesses off the coast of California (near Silicon Valley, to be exact). The boat would be docked 12 miles southwest of San Francisco Bay, in international waters.

It can house about 1,000 people, who can start their businesses there, and then, when the time is right, they can move their businesses right into Silicon Valley. There is a news report after the jump if you want to hear more about it.

By the way, this giant boat will be accessible by ferry and helicopter. It looks like it has all the comforts of home, including some serious greenery.

Blueseed is currently looking for investors for this boat, and they intend to start construction on it sometime next year. I wonder how long it will actually take to actually build this beautiful boat, and how much it would cost to live on it?

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Review » The spnKiX Electric Motorized Skates

Just so we can get this out of the way, this is one of those KickStarter projects. You know, the type that require your funding in order to get it on the market, and you might be guaranteed the first one if you pledge enough money?

This is the spnKiX, and it is a pair of electric roller skates. I guess those Segways were not enough for us, and we had to come up with some form of single human transportation.

The spnKiX are capable of about ten miles per hour, and they can only travel about two or three miles before the battery runs out. Want to go further? Well, you will have to wait about two hours as the lithium ion battery charges.

So I guess what we are looking at is way to get around for short distances. For example, if you only have a few miles to go to work, you can charge them up while you are on the job and electro-skate home.

If you pledge about $375 at the Kickstarter site, you will find that you can get yourself a pair after the Kickstarter member raises $25,000 for production. If you are willing to pledge about $950, then you can get a special edition with matte black wheels.

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Review » Hajime Research Institute working on a real 13-foot robot

You know those pictures of Before and After? What you are seeing here is the After and Before.

The “before” is the photo of Hajime Sakamoto, and he is working on a genuine 13-foot robot like you see in science-fiction films like Real Steel. Sakamoto is gesturing to what will be the legs of this robot, and you can see the pastel-colored head, arms, and torso in the “after” shot.

The Hajime Research Institute is looking for contributors and sponsors to make this robo-giant, and there is even going to be room for a human pilot. I suppose that what he is wanting is some sort of robot that can be operated for heavy lifting, maybe?

If the 13 foot tall robot is successful, then he plans to follow it up with a 26 foot robot. Then he wants to do a 59 foot robot, and so on. You can see where this is going: a giant robot that will stomp through Japan. Someone better call the Power Rangers.

Okay, that is getting into some science-fiction imagination territory, but I guess Sakamoto really wants to develop a giant robot. Perhaps he really wants to see science fiction come to life. He is not alone.

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Review » Anti-Theft Car Seat uses your backside for ID

I have to admit that it was difficult to come up with a headline for this posting. How else can you describe that your butt (or some even more vulgar word) can be used as an identifier.

After all, every car thief has to sit in the driver’s seat and drive away. However, what if there was some theft-deterrent in place so the car will only drive when only certain butts are programmed in.

Yeah, this is one of those things that is really fun to write about because it’s really easy to make a joke about. However, this is a device under development. In fact, the lower section is lined with 360 pressure sensors that measures the force of the backside across the seat. Then, after all that pressure is analyzed in central laptop, the system will determine whether this butt belongs to you.

Believe it or not, the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo says that this butt-scan is 98 percent accurate. I’m not certain how it measures against a fingerprint or eye-dentifier scan, but the tech certainly looks promising.

Who knows? In a few years, all of our cars will have our…yeah, I guess you can see where this is going. But forget it, it is too easy of a joke to make.

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Review » Texting Glove for the hearing impaired

What you see here in the picture is exactly what you think it is. The Texting Glove is essentially a device where you can use sign language to create a text message.

This device was introduced at Google’s Developers Day in Tel Aviv, by designers Oleg Imanilov, Zvika Markfield, and Tomer Daniel. It uses a gyroscope, an ADK Board, Lilypad Arduino, finger sensors, and an accelerometer.

There is a a video after the jump so you can see how it works. It looks like it has to be calibrated to work with individual hands.

When I first saw this, I thought it was a good idea, but then I thought: can’t the hearing impaired just send a text message with their hands? Then I had to think: I would love to use speech-to-text software.

As it is, speech to text isn’t quite as good as I want it to be. I would imagine that one day, speech to text will be just as good as real speech. Shouldn’t the hearing impaired have this same right? With the Texting Glove, that can happen.

Besides, the texting glove is good for texting and signing words, not just the tapping of letters. I wouldn’t be surprised if the hearing impaired could sign a text message faster than typing it. If so, then I see a good future for the Texting Glove.

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Review » Stratolaunch could change launches into space

For those who really like the idea of launching a passenger-carrying rocket into space like an airplane should hear about Stratolaunch.

There is a video of it after the jump, but as you will soon see, it is a CG mock-up, no more real than what you see in a Pixar film. This because it is a concept for now, and you can see how it works. The plan takes off from a runway, and launches its huge payload (490,000 lbs).

If Stratolaunch is ever built, it would be the largest plane ever constructed. It has a massive wingspan of 380 feet, larger than a football field. It reminds me of Howard Hughes Hercules, but this one has six 747 engines and not eight propellers.

Stratolaunch is the design of Paul Allen and Burt Rutan. I’m pretty certain that you have heard of that first name, but the second guy designed Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip One and Two.

I suppose that if it is ever built, it will be the way we put satellites and even manned spacecraft into orbit. No more will there be giant rockets full of fuel that have to be launched into space. I wonder if it will possible to put many objects into space per day, as if they were FedEx deliveries.

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Review » MorpHex is both ball and robot, rolling and creepy

This is the MorpHex, and I would highly suggest that you hit the jump so you can see what it can do in the video.

You will notice that has six feet so it can walk along on the floor in a creepy fashion like a weird spider, but it can also curl up into a ball and roll once its feet are retracted.

You can watch as it does some interesting movements like some funky dancing, and you can see that it is quite large. I thought from the picture you see here that it was the size of a tennis ball, but it actually is the size of a globe.

The MorpHex is designed by Norwegian engineer Kare Halvorsen, and he used a globe from Toys “R” Us. He also used 25 servos, a Basicmicro ARC-32 board, an XBee radio, a 2S 5000mAh LiPo battery pack, and a Turnigy 8 amp regulator.

So far, the designer can make the MorpHex crawl, but he can’t make it roll in a controlled direction. This reminds me of something from a science fiction movie, like the rolling robots from Star Wars Episode I. I’m not looking forward to the day these creepy ball robots chase after me like those spider robots from Minority Report.

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Review » Game Strap makes a standing commute more fun

I don’t live in a situation where I take the morning train to work, but I am sure that if I did, I might have trouble finding a seat. Then I will discover the world of one arm on the handle.

I would imagine that travel this way could be quite tedious. Since one hand has to be holding the strap at all times, it makes activities rather limited. Sure, I could be doing apps on my smartphone, but only if they are one-handed.

This means that I can’t play games on portable gaming stations like Nintendo and the PSP, but I can play on the Game Strap. The Game Strap is essentially a gaming platform for these holding straps, and it looks like a great way to pass away boring time.

This is a concept for now, and suggested games for playing would be shooting types, pinball, and what looks like Tetris. There are buttons on the side for the controls, and I wonder if tilting controls are an option. I wonder if this will ever be actually on a train or bus, and if people will be fighting over these Game Straps instead of shuffling for a seat.

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Review » The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, played with a Kinect

Last summer at E3, Microsoft announced at they were putting out some very cool games for the Xbox 360 Kinect.

I will leave it up to you to decide whether or not the holiday games for the Kinect are up to par. One of the biggest games on the market for the Xbox 360 is Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and this man that you see in the upper corner of the image has figured out how to link the Kinect with this popular fantasy game.

You can watch a video after the jump, and I will have to say that it gives me hope for a more active video game future. You can see that sword slashes and spells are done with realistic pushes of the hand, but another hand is controlling the camera. Other commands are done with the power of voice.

My recent playing of The Legend of Zelda: Skyword Sword has resulted in arm strain due to the swinging of the titular blade. I would love to play this game with a Kinect interface, and the Wiimotes do somewhat of a good job. Someone needs to create some video game treadmill or something for the simulation of running and jumping.

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Review » Origo, the toy 3D printer that makes more toys

In the future, every household will have a 3D printer like they have a 2D printer. You will note that I didn’t put a year on this, because I’m not stupid. Every time I read a sentence that starts with “by the year” it hardly ever comes true.

However, this Origo 3D printer could bring 3D printers into households sooner than later. The Origo is currently a concept from designers Artur Tchoukanov and Joris Peels, and it can turn any drawing into a 3D object.

I have no idea how it can translate a 2D drawing into a 3D figure, but here is the real cool feature of the Origo. After a child has created his or her toy, he or she can recycle the material and make another toy.

This 3D printer will be very simple to use as the Nintendo Wii or the Xbox 360. While we are on the subject of the Xbox 360, you should know that this thing is “as big as three Xbox 360’s and as expensive as three Xbox 360’s”.

It is an odd size and price comparison, but I still believe that the Origo is the future. I can imagine that they will be available in many colors by the time they will be sitting on the shelves at Wal-Mart.

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Review » RePro3D system lets users play with and touch digital 3D characters

This is the RePro3D system, and it is under development by Keio University in Japan.

My Source calls it a miniature holodeck, but I don’t believe that this is an accurate description. You can see in the video after the jump what it actually is, and it combines several technologies.

The user looks into this box, and projectors create a naked-eye 3D fairy character. An infrared camera tracks the users hands, and that device that you see in the photo is for haptic feedback. It reminds me of those devices we discussed yesterday that could be used for virtual video game stabbings and shootings.

The video explains how the creators were inspired by video game characters, but they seemed “lonely” inside the video screens. The designers wanted to create more interactivity in the 3D world, and you can watch someone playing with a green fairy on a tiny seesaw in the video.

The designers also hope that they will make it possible for two users to interact with a virtual character in the future. If they perfect that process, then I would imagine that these designers are going to have something bigger and better than the 3DS. I think that Nintendo needs to invest in this, and let gamers interact with Pokemon.

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Review » Electrolux concept laptop is also a stove

Electrolux has a Design contest every year, and I take it that they just love concept designs. This laptop is one of the more unusual ones.

I don’t know how practical it is, and you can see how easy it is to describe. It is a laptop that has a stove on it, for crying out loud.

The first thing I could think of was “where is the keyboard”? I was guessing that it needed a separate keyboard, preferably wireless. Yet I have heard that it has touchscreen computer touch controls. You better make sure the burner is off before you start to type.

I have to admit that I like the idea of a stove laptop. I have gone to many conferences, and I wouldn’t mind cooking my own meals instead of eating the high-priced meals around the conferences. The designer, Dagan Trenchevski, has stated that this is exactly what this is supposed to do, and it is good for campers as well.

I don’t know how the battery can work with the burner on. Also, if you shut this thing while the burner is on, will the screen melt? I’m not looking forward to 911 calls where someone says: “I burnt my hand on my laptop!”

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Review » Levitatr Portable Bluetooth Keyboard

I must admit that I could not do this post without a physical keyboard with keys. I tried to do a post from my Droid X before, and it just didn’t work.

Apparently, James Stumpf has had the same problem when he was typing on his iPad, and he was on a an airplane when he had a funny yet inspirational thought. What if the keys could just grow up out of the glass?

This is the idea of the Levitatr, a Bluetooth keyboard that can retract its keys when not in use. The idea is to prevent accidental key presses, and keep dirt and crumbs out. You can watch a video of it after the jump, and they really try and make retractable keys as dramatic as possible.

The Levitatr is about 12.5mm thick, and made from an aluminum chassis. As an added bonus, the keys are backlit, and it has a kickstand that will prop up the tablet or the smartphone. It is powered by 4 AA batteries.

Sadly, this is not out now. This is one of the Kickstarter products that needs funding. It needs about $60,000, and a pledge of $79 will get you one for pre-order.

I would love it if every tablet PC has this type of keyboard on it. Perhaps this is the future: keyboards that grow out of touchscreens.

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Review » Razer courts Xbox 360 community with ultimate arcade stick

Razer is an old hand when it comes to rolling out gaming peripherals, and you know by their pedigree that they do follow a no-nonsense procedure when churning out quality products. Well, this time around, it would be the Xbox 360 community who is set to benefit from what Razer has in mind – the company recently introduced a major closed beta program that intends to encourage community feedback on the design of a highly-customizable arcade stick for the Xbox 360.

Yes sir, it sounds as though Razer wants to endow Xbox 360 owners with an arcade stick that is set to stand the test of time – design-wise as well as in terms of build. This arcade stick will be developed with pro-gamer feedback, where it currently resides at the prototype stage.

Before the product is ready for commercial release, however, there will be more than 200 specially selected top-seed Street Fighter IV pro-gamers, influential modders, and members of the arcade enthusiast community to test out this arcade stick, sharing their feedback with Razer so that perfection can be achieved in the end. You know the drill – if it is good enough for them, it should be more than good enough for the average layman on the street.

If you think that you’re definitely part of the worldwide arcade community and want to participate in this beta program, then you are more than welcome to send your ideas Razer’s way. While a picture is worth a thousand words, I think that the team over at Razer would prefer you to include a short description as to why you should be considered to be part of the prototype testing process.

You can also do a favor for a friend by nominating him or her to the program, and all successful applicants around the world will see an arcade stick prototype arrive at their doorsteps in due time. No idea on whether these will make their way to eBay or not in the future, but do expect them to be of some value sometime down the road.

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Review » This concept aircraft carrier is mostly made of ice

During World War II, there were a lot of technologies proposed that seem outlandish by today’s standards.

One of them was by a British inventor named Geoffrey Pike, who wanted to build an aircraft carrier that was mostly composed of ice. He wanted to build it using Pykrete, a material that is 86 percent ice and 14 percent sawdust.

You might be thinking that the only place to build a carrier made of ice would be in Arctic regions. There might not be a reason to defend this cold area, but this ice carrier is actually made for warmer waters, too. Yes, it would begin to melt, but it can be repaired while at sea using the waters around it. Don’t ask me how it is supposed to do that.

If Pyke’s HMS Habbakuk was ever constructed, it would have been one of the largest crafts at sea. It would be 2,000 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 200 feet tall. It could hold 200 fighter planes or 100 bombers, with a crew of about 3,700. It would have been pretty impressive, but only a 60-foot prototype was made. I’m guessing that it didn’t go off very well.

Anyone want to try and actually make another Pykrete vessel? According to my Source, only the Mythbusters guys have tried it.

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Review » MIT Media Lab City Car could be our automobile future

MIT Media Lab showed off this particular CityCar at a conference lately, and it is very good. Just to let you know, it is still a concept, but it should be full-sized and in production in about 2013.

You can watch a video of it after the jump, and you can see that it has a very unusual folding ability. The folding is perfect for city parking places, where space is an issue. Just think how much less room these cars would take up in comparison to full size cars of today!

The folding also serves a secondary purpose as it allows the driver to get into the car standing instead of that acute or obtuse angle that one does when getting in the driver’s seat of ordinary vehicles.

In addition to these amazing abilities, the CityCar can turn its wheels at extremely odd angles. You can see in the video that the wheels can turn inward so the vehicle can make “O-turns”.

Oh man, I can just see a future where big cities are full of cars like these! It would be like everyone owning a SmartCar, but smaller. This would make a mini-van seem like a semi with these kinds of standards. Right now, my mind is filling with images of science-fiction future cities, without the dystopian shadows.

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Review » Nsquared Seamless Computing lives up to its name

What you are about to see in the video after the jump is known as Seamless Computing, and it really is where we are headed, as far as technology is concerned.

The demonstration is courtesy of a company known as Nsquared, and it shows how a Windows 7 Mobile Phone, Kinect, and Surface can work together. As far as I know, Microsoft did not sponsor this in any way.

You can see the demonstrator realizing that certain door handles are not right for a home that he is designing. He then must open up the plans on his Surface, and he can use a tablet PC to view the house in 3D. He can also use a Kinect for a virtual walkthrough.

He then orders up new door handles on his tablet PC, and the image of the old door handles are magically replaced. He then takes it a step further and takes a picture of a lamp in his home and incorporates it in the virtual houseplan.

After he updates the house, he manages to update the original bill of sale for the old door handles and updates it on the Surface. Then he “magically” emails the updated bill to his friend on the phone.

This is really what we want, right? All of mobile and video devices working together. I hope this is our future, honestly. But everyone needs a Surface.

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Review » OggBoard could spell the end for “bored” games

This is the Oggboard, and the “Ogg” is short for augmented reality. The Oggboard combines traditional turn-based strategy games with augmented reality, a nifty piece of technology that I have reported on more than once, for sure.

The board has a simplistic yet unusual design where each user places his or her smartphone to view the specially made tiles. This board folds up easily for compact storage.

You can watch the video after the jump to see that the phone’s view creates lifelike game avatars that battle each other out.

The video shows chessman looking like something out of the movie 300, and I can’t wait to see what Stratego looks like. Just think what Dungeons and Dragons or other pencil-and-paper Role Playing Games would look like. The same goes for card based games.

This is definitely another advancement in gaming that could change the gaming field as we know it. Having just returned from the PAX Prime gaming convention last week, I would not be surprised if something like this showed up next year.

As of right now, this is another Kickstarter project, which means it needs funding to get it off the ground. They need about $45,000, and they estimate that the board itself costs about $30.

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Review » Automotive Gadgets, Conceptual Gadgets, Vehicle Gadgets

MIT Media Lab showed off this particular CityCar at a conference lately, and it is very good. Just to let you know, it is still a concept, but it should be full-sized and in production in about 2013.

You can watch a video of it after the jump, and you can see that it has a very unusual folding ability. The folding is perfect for city parking places, where space is an issue. Just think how much less room these cars would take up in comparison to full size cars of today!

The folding also serves a secondary purpose as it allows the driver to get into the car standing instead of that acute or obtuse angle that one does when getting in the driver’s seat of ordinary vehicles.

In addition to these amazing abilities, the CityCar can turn its wheels at extremely odd angles. You can see in the video that the wheels can turn inward so the vehicle can make “O-turns”.

Oh man, I can just see a future where big cities are full of cars like these! It would be like everyone owning a SmartCar, but smaller. This would make a mini-van seem like a semi with these kinds of standards. Right now, my mind is filling with images of science-fiction future cities, without the dystopian shadows.

Read rest of entry