What an awesome display of swarm robotics. These self-organizing micro-bots organize themselves and emit the correct colors to form a free-floating image in the sky.
With a few hundred thousand of these you can create a fully immersive visual environment. Imagine watching a 3D 1080P movie with a few million of these surrounding you!
3D Images From Firefly Free Floating Helicopter Display
The Flyfire canvas can transform itself from one shape to another or morph a two-dimensional photographic image into an articulated shape. The pixels are physically engaged in transitioning images from one state to another, which allows the Flyfire canvas to demonstrate a spatially animated viewing experience. Flyfire serves as an initial step to explore and imagine the possibilities of this free-form display: a swarm of pixels in a space.
I stumbled across an old but awesome video of a self healing chair which falls apart then reassembles itself. This chair explodes then puts itself back together again!
Japanese researchers have taught two robots how to play musical instruments. One plays flute, the other saxophone. The robots reproduce, play sounds and musical tunes they hear another player perform.
A robot and human are playing music together. Waseda University
The robots have a sort of catalog of their instrument’s various sounds, which they use to learn and reproduce what a live person or another robot might play to them.
Even more, the robot has a CCD camera which it uses to take ques from other players.
Here is a diagram from the project’s website:
Robots learn to play musical instruments (saxophone and flute) at Waseda University in Japan
Here is one of the robots learning to improve its rhythm by listening to a human player.
Here is the video of the two robots playing a pre-programmed duet.
These cyborg insects can be remotely controlled via a radio transmitter attached to the bug’s back. The insect is powered by Nickel-63, a radioactive isotope which is able to supply power for a small amount of electronics for up about 100 years. Too bad that bug won’t live that long!
Cyborg Insect Spy Robot
These… insects…or are they robots?… cyborgs, can fly around and could possibly transmit whatever sensor information it obtains back to the remote controller.
Maybe this technology could be applied to other typed of insect robots, like this water strider.
The primary objective of the Insect Cyborg Sentinels Project is to develop cybernetic insects for the purposes of living surveillance and reconnaissance micro-air vehicles, MAVs. By eliminating the energy needed for flight and focusing energy efforts on controller and sensor packages, a cybernetic MAV, or CMAV, can be harnessed for the purpose of long endurance stealth missions.
These animatronic heads move their mouth with the sounds which appear to be produced by a speaker behind them. Watch the eyes, they go looking off in separate directions! Cool, but I think I’ll hold off on dropping the $75,000 the artist who made these wants to sell them for.
These three animatronic heads are part of an art piece being sold at Art Basel Miami Beach 2009 for $75,000. The heads are connected to servos behind the mold of the artist’s face that are controlled by a computer. The movements and sound are on a 15 minute loop and both sing together and uncomfortably look around the room individually.
Doctors can remotely interact with patients through a person-size, mobile robotic platform made by InTouch Technologies, Inc. InTouch’s robots, the RP-7 and RP-7i allow doctors to communicate via video and audio from anywhere in the world.
The platform can even link directly to medical devices, allowing the doctor to remotely view real time patient data.
Both the RP-7 and RP-7i are the first and only FDA-cleared Remote Presence devices, which allow direct connection to Class II medical devices. Devices such as electronic stethoscopes, otoscopes and ultrasound can be connected to the Expansion Bay of the Robot, to transmit medical data to the remote physician.
The RP-7i also includes enhanced audio capabilities, which allow the user to focus in on a specific conversation, similar to using a person’s own two ears.
According to a study published in Pediatrics, using robots for surgery is safe, but provides no better outcomes for child patients.
Robotic surgery systems, such as the da Vinci allow surgeons to more easily do less invasive surgeries, as well as reduce human error like shaking hands. A major hurdle for the da Vinci to overcome is the several million dollar price tag which accompanies it. News that child patient outcomes from robot assisted surgery may not be greater than outcomes from conventional surgery could mean less hospitals will choose to purchase such expensive equipment.
da Vinci Robot Performs Mock Surgery Image:Flickr/karmalaundry
Robotic surgery systems are commonly praised for reducing hospital stays for patients undergoing hysterectomies and prostate procedures. It is unlikely these procedures were the ones used in the medical studies, since such surgeries are generally only needed with older patients.
To illustrate the power and accuracy of robotic surgery systems, take a look at this video of a Japanese surgeon folding origami which is smaller than a penny.
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