Robotic Wii

Game consoles popularity rose back in the 1980s when Nintendo introduce their game console system. I can still remember the day when I got mine. I was but a child then, but the joy and endless hour of pleasure are still with me today.

I evolved quickly as new game systems came out, all the way until Sony PS1, that's where I lost all my gaming abilities, the graphics were complex and required too many maneuvering. It wasn't until last year where I rekindled my passion with the gaming system, this time back in love with Nintendo and its Wii game console system.

The popular game console has taken the nation by storm and have brought interactivity with robotics to a whole new level. So much so, that the military is now incorporating the Wiimote into their tactics as a way to controlled the warfare robots.

David Bruemmer and Douglas Few, from the US Department of Energy centre in Idaho, have adopted a mine-clearing robot to be directed by the Wii controller. The scientists found traditional controllers took up too much of the operator's attention, while the Wii controllers' movement simulate three dimensions and natural human movement using wireless technology.

The Guitar Tuning Robot

Ever since I was a boy I wanted to learn to play the guitar. I think it extents from when my older sister was taking guitar lessons and I was forced to take Karate lessons instead. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed those Karate lessons, I learn discipline, defensive tactics, and overall received a great boost to my self-esteem after rising through the ranks and earning numerous trophies and medals.

However, after all the rewards I still never learned to play guitar. Over the years, I have tried many "teach yourself..." books, cds, dvd, but I think nothing is better for learning than human interaction. Having a mentor teach you is the best way to learn.

On Nov. 12 Gibson Guitar announced the limited availability of the world's first guitar with robotic technology, the Gibson Robot Guitar. Gibson, in its press release announcement claims that it will make music industry history with its guitar robot. This is based on several claims:

1. The Gibson Robot Guitar eliminates tuning problems for guitarists. It automatically tunes to standard A440 tuning.

2. It also allows players to access six commonly used altered tuning presets at the push of a button. These tunings were used on many well know hit songs, giving players easy access for the very first time.

3. The Gibson Robot Guitar allows the guitar to be intonated in seconds after string changes, truss rod adjustments or change in weather conditions.

4. Finally, with the locking tuner, single string changes or changing the entire set of strings are an automated breeze.

The world's 1st run limited edition version of Gibson Les Paul Robot Guitars will go on sale at 5 PM on December 7, 2007 at 400 dealers throughout the world. Each store will only have 10 instruments. This highly collectible piece of history will be available in an exclusive Blue Silverburst Les Paul model.
To find the list of exclusive Robot Guitar dealers visit http://www.gibson.com/robotguitar. The limited edition run of Robot Guitars are set to sell at an MSRP of $2499.

The bottom line is that since the dawn of the instrument, musicians have come to accept the guitar's imperfections and lack of tonal precision as necessary evils. Guitar players without guitar techs have shied away from the use of alternate tuning due to the time and difficulty require to tune and re-tune the guitar. Maybe I should go get one of these, at least it will give me a head start on my quest to learn to play the instrument, but at $2500 is not likely that I will be buying one anytime soon.

DARPA: Results Are In

The grand challenges is now over and the DARPA Urban Challenge winners have been announced! The results rolled in on November 4, 2007 as DARPA director Tony Tether revealed the names of the winning teams of his agency's robot car race, the Urban Challenge.

First Place goes to the Tartan Racing team of Pittsburgh, PA. Second Place goes to Stanford Racing Team of Stanford, CA. Rounding out the 3rd Place was the Victor Tango team from Blacksburg, VA.




As Tether announced the third and then second place, he finished off by telling the audience and candidates an anecdote about his college and graduate school days at Stanford University. This done to delay the announcement of the first place winner, but there was only one obvious team left; Carnegie Mellon was the only other team among the finalist who where in the top three finishers that hadn't been announced.

Tether couldn't have been more pleased with the race, calling it a "fantastic accomplishment," and saying that the technology for robotic vehicles was now just about ready for other companies and organizations to pick up the work in honing it further. "DARPA is an interesting organization," he said. "We really never finish anything. All we really do is show that it can be done.

I believe that we have come a long way in the last two decades in the technology front and DARPA has put up these challenges to show that not only it can be done, but that it will get done.

Robotic Massage

Facials, Spas, Massages, and health products are all the rage. The human pampering industry is a 2 billion dollar industry. It is no wonder that many are looking for an entrance into this market.

The robotics industry has been in this area for a while now, but not very widely recognize. Simply walk into Brookstone at your local mall and you will be faced by a massaging robot in the form of a lounge chair. These robotic massage therapist can run in the upwards of $5,000.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting some folks whose whole focus is massage chairs. Their chairs far exceeded the quality and massage style of Brookstone's and ran in the $1 to $2 thousand range.

However, if you have more money to burn and are looking for the ultimate robot to massage you then wait no more. A new $70K robot has been premiere in Japan and it is ready for facial massages. Researchers at Tokyo's Waseda University hope the contraption will soon be deployed to hospitals and spas across Japan to give therapeutic facial massages. The WAO-1 (Waseda Asahi Oral Rehabilitation Robot 1) robot, is being developed initially for patients with jaw-related medical problems, but will make a penetration into Massage Therapist Offices in the near future. The robotics driving the unit have been refined to account for the softness and bone structure of the face. Learn more on this from the AP.

Next Goal: Unmanned Vehicles

With the Iraqi War costing in the upwards of $134.5B and increases at a rate of $177M per day, $7.4M per hour and $122,820 per minute, it is no wonder that Congress has set out a new challenge for the creation of self-driving vehicles.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, whose scientists are credited with the creation of the Internet, is organizing its third Urban Challenge, designed to encourage the best minds in the world to meet Congress' requirement that one-third of all military vehicles be unmanned by 2015.

This program has been on its way for a while now, but as of 2004 not one robot has finished the race. That is all about to change in 2007 as this year’s challenge has raised the requirements. Instead of simply being able to navigate a curvy desert road, the robot cars must be able to drive in traffic.

Dr. Tony Tether, Director, DARPA, states "Vehicles competing in the Urban Challenge will be judged not just based on how fast they navigate the course, but also on how well they perform. The complexity of the Urban Challenge places a premium on vehicle performance, and our judging criteria will reflect this. It may turn out that vehicles complete the 60-mile course in less than the required 6 hours, but no one wins the prize."

To draw upon the national scientific and consumer community the third Urban Challenge has recruited ADAM SAVAGE and JAMIE HYNEMAN, hosts of Discovery Channel's Mythbusters, to host the event.

DARPA has already selected thirty-five teams as Urban Challenge semifinalists to participate in the National Qualification Event. The webcast of the announcement may be viewed here.

All DARPA Urban Challenge events are open to the public and free of charge. Spectator information including a schedule of events can be found here.

Fall Cleaning

Fall is upon us and one of the things I really don't enjoy is picking up leaves. Lucky for me, I have now relocated to the sunshine state and I don't have to go through the fall exercise, not yet anyways.

But for those of you in the northern part of the country, iRobot has heard your cries of pain and has invented a Gutter Cleaning Robot. The robot, fondly named Looj, is capable of cleaning up to 60ft in just under 10 minutes.

The robot requires that you still break out the ladder, which is a major undertaking for some folks. I know I always had trouble in trying to get to the top most gutter in my three story home. iRobot promises that it is a simple setup:

• Set your ladder in one secure position and place the robot in the gutter


• Attach the robot to your belt and climb the ladder using both hands


• Place the robot in the gutter and remove the detachable handle/remote

For a video on this click here.

There are three models available, the 120, 130, and 150, ranging in cost from $99 to $170. The difference in the models vary from having a Belt clip, 3-stage gutter cleaning auger, Looj holster, and a High power battery pack. To see the exact difference, visit the iRobot site.

With such an item available just in time for fall, there is no reason why your gutters should be clean. A clean gutter means proper drainage for the winter months to come.

Google's New headquarters: The Moon

The search engine giant is setting its sight on the moon. Google recently announced a contest with $30 million dollars on price money for robot experts to develop units that can go to the moon and send back high definition pictures.

Google launched a Google moon site simultaneously designed to showcase the Apollo landing series with important dates and facts. The site, which is Google map base, provides such features as geological and topographical charts and lunar elevation mapping.

The contest offers a 20 million dollar top prize for a robotic vehicle that is able to travel around the moon while sending data back to Earth. A $5 million dollar second prize for a stationary robotic unit that sends data. Another $5 million dollar bonus prize for any robotic vehicle that is able to discover water or ice, that is able to travel a distance over 5 kilometers, or is able to captures images of abandoned space vehicles from past missions.

The contest comes about because of lack of government funds to start new exploration missions, although NASA has a planned mission for 2020. The prizes are offered until December 31, 2012, after which a lowered grand prize of 12 million dollars can be won.

Letting the Robot Go Where Few Are Allow To Go

I recently relocated to Florida as such any news coming out of the area typically catches my eye. There is not much for news coming out of the JAX area, but in nearby Gainesville, FL a couple is making headlines.

It appears that a robot has been put where surgeons can only approach with a microscope. A local DJ just recently married is seeking to continue expanding his family members. He had a vasectomy done a few years back after a couple of kids with his first wife. Now recently married for the second time, the disc jockey is looking to start a new family alongside his new bride.

As such, he turned to da Vinci Type S robotic surgery system at the University of Florida. The $1.4 million system is designed for the most complex, minimally invasive surgeries. With this system, the patient is placed on the operating room table surrounded by four interactive robotic arms, an endoscopic camera and video system that transmitted high-resolution, 3-D images from inside the patient's body. The system simply marries all the skills of a surgeon with the exacting precision of a robot.

The robot makes the reversal more precise and aids in cases where scar tissue build up could render the male genitalia useless in the fertility arena. For more on the story go local to Gainesville.com

A New Kind of Tour

First they were marrying people, now they are showing us around. Toyota, a leading car maker and manufacturer, has once again leap ahead of its competition; this time, however is not in its automobile division, instead it has succedded with the introduction of a robot guide that conducts tour and escorts visitors in its Kaikan Exhibition Hall in Toyota City, Japan.

The robot, which lacks legs, is equipped with autonomous movement capabilities for avoiding obstacles and with jointed fingers, allowing it to sign autographs using the Roman alphabet. In addition, the robot interacts with visitors through a combination of verbal communication and gestures.

The new robot is a result of Toyota's continuous efforts to develop robots, focusing on four areas where they can be most useful to humans — domestic duties, nursing and medical care, manufacturing, and short-distance personal transport.

Pentagon to Decide on Candidates

Three dozen semifinalists have been selected by the Pentagon to build self-driven vehicles. The robot challenge aim is to test how well cars can be robot driven safely on city streets.

This is a step towards the likes of I, Robot a film in which Will Smith portrays a futuristic cop at a time where car drives themselves. In the movie there is a nice car chasing scene where he is being hunted down and he switches to manual drive to save the day.

As long as these young scientist remember that robots are great, but the human mind is far more brilliant we shall have a cruise control switch that will drive us around like Miss Daisy, but we should be able to still maintain control of the vehicle.

Similar challenges have been done in the past, with Stanford University taking the throphy last year with their VW. This year there is a new breed of new comers who may have better technology or innovative ideas. TO learn more about the competition visit the DARPA Urban Challenge site.

In Search of Life, Once Again

Since before we hit outer space or the first lunar landing, we have always asked ourselves, are we alone? Space and its final frontier are too wide and large for live to exists but on Earth.

There the reason why NASA has once again send out a space probe on to a 10 month journey to Mars. As we can all remember, NASA has experience many failures from many probes in the past. Most recently, the robot which damage the proof that there was life on the planet.

NASA is looking to redeem themselves by sending out a new probe which will dig through Martian soil in a search of life in a frigid region of the Red Planet.

The unit, named Phoenix, is powered by solar panels and will travel 680 million kilometers (422 million miles) through space to arrive at its final destination. During its three-month mission, the lander will pierce through soil in the planet’s arctic region amid freezing temperatures ranging from minus 73 degrees Celsius (minus 99 degrees Fahrenheit) to minus 33 C (minus 27 F).

Further, the robotic arm will lift samples onto its deck to check for water and other carbon based chemicals that are essential to life. It will also analyze the soil in hopes to find traces of past or present life.

Soon we will know whether Gene Roddenberry federation will need to be formed.

Collectible Robot Sells for Over 100K

It's official, the world has gone crazy, for robots that is. Transformers dominated in the box office. Transformers opened to $152.6 million in its first 6½ days in the U.S. and Canada, Paramount Pictures estimated.

In addition, a vintage 1980's set of the legendary toy robots just sold on eBay for over $100k. The furious bidding could very well make this the most expensive toy in history. The collection, composed of over 275 Transformers and Transformers related items, included Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Part of the proceeds from the auction are set to be donated to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The auction is being conducted by the collector's widow, Phoenix Lindgren.

For more on the auction and Lindgren's story, search ebay for "Ultimate Transformers Collection."

Thief Causes Major Robotic Pain to University

I recently had the opportunity to travel and rent a car, something I haven't done for quite a while as I don't like to drive cars that belong to others. Since I had no other choice, I felt compelled to also rent a GPS unit, a Garmin. Garmin became our trusty little friend as my wife and I got to sight see and enjoy our little vacation spot. We felt in love with Garmin and miss it terribly.

But this entry is not about our trusted little friend, but more about an Underwater robotics unit which was stolen last week from some one's car at the Dallas' Southern Methodist University. My thought is who in their right mind would leave such a valuable piece in their car to begin with. One of the first things the rental car lady adviced me to do was not to leave Garmin behind in the parked car. Garmin, although priceless to us, retails for $500 or $600. This Underwater Robot cost many, many more ducats.

The robot, created by the University's Robotics Club, was set to be entered into an international competition taking place in San Diego this week, as reported by the Dallas Morning News.

This robot was an almost priceless possession for the Club and was to become the first time the University would have been able to the Underwater category, what could have become a huge success. Instead, the robot was stolen as left behind in one of the club members vehicles.

The Club is offering a $500, no questions asks, reward for the safe return of the robot in time for entrance into the competition.

Sports on a Whole New Level

I been receiving alerts all day about RoboCup 2007. At first I thought it had something to do with a robotic coffee cup until I saw the homepage of Planet Robo telling me otherwise.

The Japanese have taking sports to new height by introducing 1 foot tall robots with full mobility and flexibility allowing them to have full control of the little guys on a table top soccer field. The teams consisting of three robots per team all control by individual humans follow all the standard soccer rules. For a video clip of the live action click here.

I believe this to be a great step in the robotics arena, but I see it as yet another reason to have the teenagers stay home and work out their thumbs instead of their bodies. No wonder this society is heavier than ever. Don't get me wrong, I'm all up for automation and technology, but when it comes to sports and outdoor fun, I prefer to make mine physical. It is the one thing I admired by the latest Nintendo Console, the WII, it truly gets the kids back into becoming more physical while still enjoying the best of technology.

Danger Kennedy Space Center, Danger!

I grew up watching Irwin Allen's hit TV series, "Lost in Space." The most famous phrase to come out of the show was "Danger Will Robinson!" That's why today's news of Sheila Allen donating the B9 robot to the Kennedy Space Center' Visitors Complex caught my eye.

As a young boy I dreamed of having my own B9, but at last I grew older and came to find out that the robot was but an empty shell with an actor driving it. More accurately, there were two different robots on the hit series, one fully detailed shell and one prop use as part of the scenery of the show. The later sold on eBay in 2003 for $230,000 to a collector. Although I dreamed of owning a nice unit like this one, I cannot imagine paying a sum of cash like this for basically a hunk of metal with shiny leds. After all it is the functionality which made the B9 Robot attractive.

However, fear not, if you are looking to purchase a B9 robot, you don't have to locate the aforementioned collector, simply login to lostinspacerobot.com where you can purchase your very own replica of the B9 Robot for the discounted price of $24,500 a 900% savings over the eBay item. Alternatively, you can log onto eBay and pick up a miniature replica for about $150.

Robot Education

I'm a teacher by trade and find that teaching is generics more than an acquired skill. The reason being that a lot of patience is required. I'm typically not the most patient individual, but when I step foot in the classroom somehow it all works out.

Interestingly enough, the Brits are training a robot to teach autistic kids. Kaspar, as the robot has been named which stands for Kinesics and Synchronization in Personal Assistant Robotics, is part of the Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions (IROMEC) project, which is funded by the European Union.

According to Ben Robins, a researchers at the University of Hertfordshire's School of Computer Science who is part of the robotics development team, the project is currently investigating how robotic toys can become social "mediators" for human contact, helping autistic children interact with other children and adults. The project studies not only human verbal communication, but body movement and gestures which are all part of human behavior and communications.

Autistic children enjoy Kaspar because it performs basic actions like smiling or waving, which appeal to them since the actions are simple and predictable. Autistic individuals like familiarity and repetional behavior, as explained by Robins.

In a world where folks like Neil Postman, who believed that Technology was evil and that it represents the end of human interaction, it is nice to see that technology is being tested and put to good use and education; providing interaction for those who would typically be left by a corner or let go to waste. Now they have the ability to learn and perform things that they previously could not bringing a human side that they had lost to the disease. For more information regarding Kaspar, please refer to this article.

Meet the new nanny

It's Friday night and you're wife has been looking to rekindle the marriage and heat up the relationship. You want to go back to the days when you first met, you are looking to take her for the traditional date, dinner and a movie; the problem, you have kids.

The problem is not completely solved just yet, but steps are now been taken towards developing a solution. Rogun, a 3 foot unit, developed by KornTech has been trained to recognized faces and is intended to be use as a nanny/security guard.

The robot contains a wireless unit and a small LCD screen that allows the unit to be used as an Internet connection terminal that can serve as a Web terminal or mobile connectivity station allowing telephone calls to be placed, as well as a video conferencing unit.

The Korean company will be mass producing Rogun at an estimated retail price of $5000.

That could be a very expensive date, but it can save your marriage and be consider cheaper than most divorces.

Will you? We do!

I recently got married in Newport, RI at a beautiful sunset setting. The ceremony is now but a blur, however, some of the most memorable moments are those of my MC handing out a tissue to my gorgeous bride as tears of happiness came rolling down her cheeks.

There are just some things Robots are not meant for. Even though a robot can be programmed to do just about any task given the time and dedication, no machine can be programmed to feel. This was the exact dilemma Data suffered in episodes of Star Trek.

Why do I bring all this up, simple, I just finished reading a story where Hanool Robotics, a manufacturer and creator of robots in Korea, has recently announced that they have created a robot which is to become the Master of Ceremonies at one of the designers wedding in a town approximately 75 miles south of Korea's capital, Seoul.

The engineers declared this performance as the first time a robot has been granted such a privilege. This however is not the first time this company has been ahead of the curve. Hanool Robotics were also the first to create a robot to serve as a bouncer and security guard. The company has also announce that once Tiro, valued in the upwards of $215,000, has serve it's marital duties it will also be programmed to perform other tasks.