Gadgety News

Looking like the result of a love-triangle between a Segway, Rolly and a Miuro this is the new A.M.P. (Automated Music Personality or Ampbot) from Sega-Hasbro.

Ampbot stands 2.4-feet tall and features an MP3 player / iPod cradle on its back, stereo speakers, and the ability to follow, chase and interact with its owner.

Sound comes out via a 5-inch mid-range speaker in the chest and a pair of smaller tweeters in the shoulders for a total of 12 watts tunage.

Osamu Takeuchi of Sega Toys says,

“The owner can also enjoy being chased around the house by the robot.”

That’s a selling point? Sounds a tad ominous to me!

The Ampbot and controller requires 9 batteries (6x D and 3x AAA) for about 10-hours of continuous music.

Wouldn’t it have been better to have added a charging station? If a robotic hoover can have one why can’t a music-bot?

Ampbot will be out by the end of the year for around $500 in the US and Japan.

Awwwwwwwwwww…………….the iDog is on it’s third generation.

Hang on? Third? Was generation two no good? Don’t we get to speak of him/her round the dinner table at family gatherings? Did they go off the rails and hang around with the wrong crowd? Is the bad dawg in the pound?

I digress.

The new dogbot will move its ears, wag its tail and tap its plastic paws in time to the phat beats provided by your iPod/iPhone.

The bionic pooch will apparently synch very nicely with the beautiful 3G iPhone when it arrives.

How much is that iPuppy in the window? £20

Brando.

If you want to build your own robot there are a few kits out there but I’m liking the look of this one.

The ROBO Builder set does exactly what it says on the box and it allows you to build 3 different bots named DINO, HUNO and DOGY.

Each new ROBO buddy can be programmed to perform different tasks or be controlled by your puter or a remote control.

You also get choose from a black or transparent kit. The write-up for the transparent version seems to boast significantly more advanced break-dancing skills - but you have to pay for those skills as it’s also a tad more expensive.

The prices are 660,000 won (or £330) for the transparent kit and 450,000 (£230) for the basic black version.

The Gadgets Weblog

Kokoro Dreams, you know- they made the Actroid Der 2 Fembot, are back with another droid.

She’s called ’Phorone’, stands 175 cms tall and is a secretary.

Granted, a secretary on an anime show aired on Nippon network.

Phorone is powered by pressurised air and is able to deliver human like expressions and can even talk!

Unfortunately, as with the Actroid, there are no plans of putting up the Phorone for rent or mass production………………yet.

Newlaunches

Sony is going to release a black Rolly music player into the wild.

Their big surprise was usurped by the FCC just last week. 

You’ll also be able to customise your Rolly with a selection of colourful end-caps at a cost of ¥1,500 (about £8) per set.

If you’re still confused about the need for a roving speaker, then the Japanese release date of April 19th for the new ¥40,000 (about £200) dancing-speaker bot isn’t really going to do anything for you either.

Via Impress

Honeywell is hoping that their new drones will soon be employed by the Miami-Dade police department.

The plan is to use them in ”urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting.”

Apparently the department is going to use it in “tactical situations as an extra set of eyes.”

So, next time you go for a stroll along South Beach and see hovering, flashing lights……….

If you’re in the market for a gadget learning help-bot then Toshiba in Japan may have the very thing for you.

They’re in the process of putting together a talking bot that can be used as a voice-activated universal remote.

The android, called ApriPoko, stands at just under a foot tall and is capable of learning how to control electronics by watching you and asking questions about your behavior.

~Here comes the scary bit~

When you use an infrared device, the robot will sense the signal and ask you “What did you just do?” If you say something like “I turned on the TV,” it will remember this and next time round you’ll be able operate that function by asking the friendly mite; he will then raise an arm and carry out your request via its IR mittens!!

The little fella is still in the R&D stages bless him, but there are plans to turn this technology into a real thing to buy, teach and nurture………………..

Pink Tentacle

New Launches - Star Trek for real

There’s a rather fabby article (click the link above) about the Star Trek technology that has actually happened.

Most Trekkies/Trekers know how the series has predicted future tech.  So, have a gander at these little beauties :0) 

• Communicator
• Medical Tricorder
• Translator
• QUIDS
• GPS
• Engineering Tricorder
• Ultrasound Surgery
• Transparent Armour (force field)
• Military Phasr
• Life Detectors - “but not as we know it”

If you love Alienware’s iconic cases then prepare to require new under-garments after seeing the new Asus gaming desktop - the ARES CG6150.

This evil robotic head looks like it’ll start barking orders at you at any moment - and you will comply!

It’s brain is a liquid cooled Core 2 Extreme processor, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, three-way NVIDIA SLI, and up to four terabytes of storage all powered by dual power supplies.

As you can see, it’s no slouch and personally I think Alienware and Voodoo should be looking over their shoulders……………

Engadget via Gadget Lab

Although it looks like the stuff of techno-nightmares this baby bot, called iCub, is to be taught to communicate with humans by scientists in Devon.

The big baby which stands 1 metre tall is the centre of a 4-year project which is to look into how parents teach their babies to talk.

The staff at the University of Plymouth will work with language development specialists and it is hoped that the project may lead to the developing of humanoid robots which learn, think and talk. ~gulp!~

iCub is to be delivered by a giant robot stork to the University of Plymouth next year. It will be given simple tasks as a child would - such as putting shapes through holes and will also be asked to name objects and actions. No doubt all the non-relatives will be called auntie and uncle. It is hoped that iCub will then acquire basic phrases such as “robot puts stick on cube” and “robot wants to watch cartoons!”.

The BBC reports that the University of Plymouth beat 31 other teams to win the £4.7m grant for the Italk - Integration and Transfer of Action and Language Knowledge in Robots - project.

The university’s partners in the project include the University of Hertfordshire and others from across Europe.

Via - BBC News

Engadget have spotted these things looming in the distance!

They are a couple of Toshiba 815T PB on Softbank, developed to coincide with a new show featuring (you guessed it) robo-phones called Ketai Sousakan 7.

Kinda makes the QVGA, 3G and 3.2 megapixel camera redundant when they can turn into robots!!

From the makers of Dream DX dog comes the Dream Cat. A pretty realistic catbot until you discover that it doesn’t purr or meow - it talks!

Yup, the feline droid is preloaded with 333 words (all Japanese at the moment). It has sensors over its body and depending where you touch it responds accordingly. A gentle pat on the head will give a very cute response and if you interact with it after a long time it gets angry - just like a real cat, but I’m guessing this one wont take a swipe at you with claws drawn.

The Dream cat is powered by 2 x AAA batteries and will be available in Japan soon for 10,290 Yen (about £50).

Watch the pussy in action here: You Tube Dream Cat

Here’s something straight out of Red Dwarf - remember in Better Than Life when it was down to the talking toaster to save them all? -No?  Oh;  just me then.

Anyhoooo………..yup - here’s a talking toaster made by Utmost - although life-saving has not been mentioned.

New from the guys who brought you the R2-D2 projector which appeared in my crimbo wish-list, is the R2-D2 skype phone and remote controllable webcam!

The blinged out chrome-look lightsabre makes sounds like it should and opens up to reveal the dial pad.  As well as being a skype phone it will also control the little R2-D2 which is a fully functioning, remote controllable Skype webcam.

The included software allows you to overlay different cockpits, such as the X-wing and the Millennium Falcon, over your webcam images for the ultimate Star Wars geek fan.

Via T3

WowWee, the people who brought you RoboSapien have a few more to add to their stable.

Tri-bot (pictured left) is the “a born entertainer” of the new pair while the Wi-Fi enabled Rovio is a more focused guardbot.

As an aside; RoboSapien also gets a girlfriend, called FemiSapien (they must’ve spent ages on that one!).

Tri-bot is a red robot with animated eyebrows (think Roger Moore)  and likes nothing better than to pootle around telling jokes or playing games. Tri-bot is available to you for a reasonable £50.

On a more serious note - Rovio.

Armed with a webcam on an extending arm and three-wheel go-anywhere drive it is controlled from within your Web browser.  This means that you can remotely operate it from any location.

Saying that, you can also program paths for the Rovio to follow so it can perform circuits looking for potential ne’er do wells.  The webcam arm allows you to see things from a perspective other than floor level.

The next trick up Rovio’s extended sleeve is how it charges.  If you have  guard it would be pointless for it to only be available when you were around; so this clever character has a charging base station that gives out two points of light, so that the Rovio can always detect where it is and automatically return to base for a much-needed rest. 

All in all, Rovio seems to be quite a groovy guard and at £150 it is not overpriced.

This 18” radio control interactive DALEK responds to spoken commands as well as having traditional radio control functions.

With independent head, body and eye movement as well as multiple sensory inputs including touch, it actually lives up to it’s self-tagged title of ‘supreme being in the universe’.

The DALEK has several modes including voice programmable movement, ‘Seek Locate!’ mode and ‘Follow me!’ mode where the little fella will follow you around and protect your…….area - as long as you don’t use the stairs!  A cute DALEK?

In addition it has static and roving room guard modes, remembers and reacts to Doctor Who characters and will even play a game to find the Doctor if he’s hiding.   I wonder if it shouts “BOO!” when it finds the Doctor.

£100 will get you one at Charcter Online

Meet Tux Droid, a Linux only critter similar to the Nabaztag (but not as cute in my opinion).  It is of course wireless fed (2.4GHz), text to speech enabled and programmable. It flaps, reads your email to you, tells the time, streams Internet radio, is a motion sensing alarm, provides VoIP phone services and generally does everything that the Nab’ rabbit will do. How much for this open source coded critter?  £89.95 from Firebox

Via Red Ferret

If you don’t fancy queuing up for an iPhone/Pod/Mac, hunting for that ellusive Wii or bored of waiting for that XBox 360 limited edition thingy - why not try something different for crimbo?

My cousin mentioned this stuff last night and I’m really tempted to try some of it out so thought I’d share the wealth and point you folks in the direction of MakeZine.

They sell open source hardware - that’s various circuitboards, kits, etc.

They offer an open source MP3 player called Daisy or the fabby Mouse Bots as shown in the pic - It’s quite easy to add a few $100 into the basket without trying so be warned!! :0)

Straight out of Japan comes the latest robot to ease our daily lives whilst threatening our jobs.  Yasukawa Electric Corporation’s SmartPal V is a 1.3-meter tall rolling bot loaded with all the proximity, speech recognition, and object-detecting sensors we’ve come to expect from today’s modern mech; along with improved dexterity thanks to additional joints and lumbar units as compared to previous models.  This latest SmartPal, which was introduced at the 2007 International Robot Exhibition, also rocks its own accessories, such as a head-mounted projector to push the world’s last remaining tour guides into early retirement.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

As some of you know, I’m a little bit gothy so I was quite delighted to find a remote controlled flyer that most GothGeeks would adore.

The selling material promises ”unparalleled level of control and stability both indoors and out”. The VAMP differs from other RC fliers because it’s a state-of-the-art ornithopter (apparently).  Dictionary.com says that means it flies by flapping its wings, why couldn’t they just say that!?! Its eyes glow red, it has a 12-inch wingspan and ten-inch body makes it the world’s smallest (and probably scariest looking) RC ornithopter (flapping thingy). 

The lithium polymer battery gives it around ten minutes of flight time from a 20-30 minute charge and it comes ready to fly straight out of the box.  I wonder how many of these will be flapping around Whitby Abby in April? 

Gadget from Thumbs Up