Thursday, January 14, 2010

POB-Bot Lite II



The POB-Bot Lite is a complete robot assembling all the POB-Technology’s know-how.

It provides a mechanical base on which an intelligent color camera, a screen, and I/O management board are mounted.

A CD-Rom with examples and development tools, a serial cable for your PC are also provided.

The POB-Bot has been designed with an open architecture allowing any kind of customization (electronics, mechanical and software).

Modules communicate via the very fast POB Bus. An I2C Bus is also available.

Except the the graphical screen, all POB robot parts can be used in other robots than ours.

You program the POB-Eye (colour camera) which pilot the other robot parts.


For example, you can add to the POB-Bot Lite :

Sensors on the front of the robot

Integrate servomotors to create an arm or motorize sensors

Add robot parts

Or add...your imagination !!!
Applications

The POB-Bot is the first robot totally open for users, as well for mechanical, electronics as software.

The softwares, RISBEE for starters and the POB-Tools for higher skilled users, make POB-Bot an excellent pedagogical support for different teaching levels from high schools to engineering schools.

You can use your robot with given examples or let your imagination go freely by developing new behaviors or adding electronics to increase capabilities and give new horizons to your robot.

Includes

1x POB-Eye II
1x POB-LCD128
1x POB-Proto
1x Tank Kit
The POB's Mechanical base
1 serial cable and 1 CD-ROM including compilors, softwares, examples and documentation.
USB/Serial Adapter

Next Generation Dashboard



Intel Atom processors, capacitive touchscreens, NVIDIA Tegra 2 graphics, Moblin installs... sounds like a suite of hot next-gen ultra-portables, right? Think again. Those are just some of the technologies used in the dashboards of cars that will be appearing on showrooms in the coming months and years, dashes that were largely on display at CES -- minus the cars themselves, usually. There we were treated to mobile glimpses of Google Earth, Pandora, and Slacker Radio on the go, plus the ability to lock and unlock your car via Ye Olde Internets. It's the future, and it's coming soon, so click on through already and get a sneak peek. more

Inbrics Android Based SoIP S1



The SoIP S1 from Inbrics is running Android, of course, but it's under that same fine UI skin that Inbrics has coated its M1 Android slider in. The result is a finger-friendly device with nice software for making calls and sending messages -- though it could really benefit from an external text-input device of some sort, and luckily there's Bluetooth onboard to make that a possibility. There's HDMI, Ethernet, USB and an SD slot around back, and the device is designed to sling video calls and media playback to a TV over the HDMI plug or DLNA (there's also WiFi onboard, natch). For VoIP there's a wireless handset embedded in the base of the unit. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see a demo of the video calling in action, and the big hangup with most of these video calling stations is still here: there's no mention of the big standards in video calling like Skype, Google Talk or iChat, so it's hard to see this catching fire with people who actually video chat. Still, at least Inbrics has roughly half of the software problem solved. Check out a video walkthrough after the break.(http://www.engadget.com)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Transform iPhone Into a Universal Remote


OK, so we know a thing or two about the "convenience" of using your iPhone as a remote control. For instance, using it to control Boxee was alright -- until we needed to make a call. Or we received a call. Not to rain on anyone's parade, but the idea of re-purposing your phone to act as a universal remote seems a little silly. But what do we know? Maybe you hold all calls while Jersey Shore is on anyways. In that case, Re could be your next favorite gadget. This bad boy lets your handset communicate with all your AV equipment via infrared, contains an extensive database of devices, and can learn from any IR remote. If that weren't enough, New Kinetix promises regular updates to the app -- and your typical remote can't do that! Compatible with the iPod Touch as well, there's no word yet on a price or release date, but we're expecting that we'll be getting plenty more details come CES time...more

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Cooky Robots


Cooking robots aren't exactly anything new (even if they haven't yet been perfected), but they generally come in the form of humanoid robots or, at the very least, robotic arms in order to be more adept in the kitchen. JST's ERATO research division has taken a decidedly different approach with these so-called Cooky robots, however, which are tiny, wheeled bots that scurry about your countertop and work as a team to make miso soup for you. As you might have guessed from the image above though, they aren't quite entirely autonomous, and require that you both label all the necessary ingredients with special cards, and pre-program things like cooking time and temperature. They'll take things over from there on out though and, as you can see in the video after the break, the results do at least appear to be edible.