Toyota Partner Robots Heading To The Moon

It started off innocently enough. Personal transporters, they told us, just robots to make life easier. Now look at them -- Toyota's Partner Robots are set for upgrades that include back-mounted solar chargers, spring-loaded jumping mechanisms, and a design hardy enough to withstand lunar temperature drops. Intended for the performance of exploratory missions on the moon -- alongside a four-wheeled robotic rover -- the new designs were introduced by Toyota in a presentation titled "Realization of Moon Exploration Using Advanced Robots by 2020." So, if the world doesn't actually end in 2012, by 2020 we'll have extraterrestrial robots plotting our demise anyway. More pictures of lunar colonization can be found after the break.(http://www.engadget.com)

Google Chrome OS

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

Night Vision Plus From Bosch

Bosch’s enhanced night vision system “Night Vision plus” makes driving in the dark even safer for drivers and other road users.
Like its predecessor, this active safety system provides a high-contrast image of the area immediately ahead of the vehicle. Now, however, this image is also analysed. Pedestrians are identified and highlighted on the screen.

This allows the driver to take appropriate action at an early stage, considerably reducing the risk of accidents involving pedestrians. Analysis of accident data in Germany compiled in 2005 show, for example, that the danger of a fatal accident is twice as high at night as during the day.

“Night Vision plus” helps prevent night-time accidents involving pedestrians. The first production car to feature this system was the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class in 2009. The technology, known within Mercedes-Benz as “Night View Assist Plus” is also available on the new generation S-Class.

The Bosch active night vision system uses four main components to provide an accurate reproduction of the area immediately ahead of the vehicle. Infrared headlights, whose beams are invisible to the human eye, illuminate the road. The illuminated area is recorded by a camera which is installed behind the windscreen.

The images created then are processed by a control unit and shown on a high-resolution display in the cockpit. The infrared headlights have a range of 150 meters, three times more than common low-beam headlights. At the same time, however, they do not dazzle oncoming road users.

A separate control unit analyses the camera image pixel by pixel to pick up the infra red light reflected. Innovative analysis strategies then allow the system to distinguish between stationary and moving objects – when a moving object, for example a pedestrian is detected, it is highlighted on the screen display allowing early reaction by the driver. (www.hgvuk.com)

Dell's Ultrathin Adamo XPS

Dell has been teasing its ultrathin Adamo XPS for weeks now, but all that goofing off will come to a solemn end next Thursday. On the same day that we sit down with Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer (and a little OS by the name of Windows 7 hits store shelves), Dell will also fully reveal the planet's slimmest laptop. The 0.39-inch Adamo XPS will cost $2,000, and while the nitty-gritty details are still under wraps, a new Business Week article notes that it'll boast a "heat-sensing strip on the lip that, when swiped with a finger, glows white and automatically opens the aluminum lid." The glamorous machine is part of a larger effort within the Round Rock powerhouse to revitalize itself and get people talking once again, and while this particular slab will obviously not be a high volume product, it could very well get a few more eyes pointed in its direction. Call us crazy, but we're guessing next week is going to be a wee bit zany. (http://www.engadget.com/)

Garmin's nuvi 1450 GPS

It's not that Garmin doesn't love the nuvi 1450 -- we're sure it loves each and every one one of its GPS units equally in their own special way or somesuch -- but it did release the device without so much as a press release or other typical fanfare. Bummer, but the 5-inch, 480 x 272 resolution touchscreen has now been unearthed and doesn't look too bad for its $449.99 price tag. Battery lasts up to three hours without charge and includes optional cityXplorer software for public transit listings and ecoRoute for fuel-conscious drivers. Available now if you're itching to take it with you on the next road trip. (http://www.engadget.com)

This May Be Your Next Mouse!

Today at the User Interface Software and Technology Conference, Microsoft will show five new mouse prototypes that combine normal mousing with multitouch controls. Here is a video that gives you a brief introduction to each of the controls. I'll be meeting with this team when they get back, what questions do you have about these new mice? Which one is your most/least favorite? (www.on10.com)

Mubi's Home Rover

It has been a while and there was a lot of dust on my robot.
Zain and me decided to add camera to our robot and explore home.
If you have seen my elarier post you must be familiar with a little bit intellgience of my robot.

-It has a programmable Microcontroller.
-Variouse sensors for controlling the movement ie. light, distance, range, collision etc .

You can write programs in logo language and donwload in robot.

As we decided to have a Live camera view from robot. So we added a Wifi camera mobile to it for video streaming. Which is connected to PC to show realtime video.

MAEMO 5 Reviewed - Nokia N900

It's one thing to read a product preview here and there, but if you really want the Maemo 5 experience before you're even able to set foot in a store and buy an N900, look no further than mobile-review's characteristically exhaustive look at the platform. From the endless array of screenshots, you quickly get the impression that this is an attractive shell -- evolutionary and familiar for owners of the 770, N800, or N810, yes, but significantly freshened nonetheless. Here are a few big takeaways from the War & Peace-esque compendium:
There's apparently an N920 in the works that lacks a QWERTY keyboard. We've heard rumors in the past that the N900 will remain Nokia's sole Maemo 5 phone for at least a few months, so we might look to see this in 2010.
Process management invokes a curiously webOS-like card view which looks great. Helps when you have a beefy OMAP3 in there, doesn't it?
The call log effortlessly aggregates GSM and VoIP calls -- a neat trick, and a tip of the hat to Maemo's roots as a VoIP-friendly platform.
MMS isn't supported, strangely, though the platform's SMS support handles both threaded and traditional views.
While chatting up Maemo's calendar services, Eldar specifically says that he "Palm's WebOS-powered organizer much more enticing and promising." Lack of Google Calendar synchronization sucks, but we're not sure what that's all about -- Maemo does support Exchange ActiveSync, after all.
Eldar his the nail on the head regarding Maemo's Mozilla-based browser: it's always been good, just way too slow. The N900 cures those ails on better hardware, though "it hasn't caught up with the rest of the pack yet." Flash support seems wonky and performance isn't always great -- it depends on how many apps are running.
The music player is pretty bare-bones (typical Nokia), though anyone happy with the N97's sound quality will feel right at home here -- it's the same hardware.
The integrated Maps app apparently lags way behind the bar that Ovi Maps has set over on S60 -- super slow and "resource-hungry."Of course, the beauty of Maemo is its wide-open philosophy, so many of the niggles here that aren't corrected by Nokia proper will hopefully be handled by the community at large -- and the good news is that by the time you get done reading this review, the N900 should be on store shelves for you to try yourself. (http://www.engadget.com/)

Windows Mobile, Sign Up for the Waze Alpha

Waze is a new mobile social application which provides maps, real-time traffic updates, and turn-by-turn navigation directions for mobile phone users. What’s interesting about this application is that it uses crowdsourcing to deliver both the map and traffic updates.
When launching the app, you’ll see an onscreen map which looks very much like any map in any other application. However, Waze’s dynamic map is created and constantly updated by its users who leave the application open while they drive. Using the phone’s GPS, the service learns where the roads are and this information is uploaded to the Waze.com website. There, members of the Waze community can make improvements to the map, adding in street names, fixing errors, and more.
Waze users can also add information to the Waze application about congestion, accidents, road construction, and other hazards or issues that are causing traffic delays. This info can be added while the app is open, but thankfully, Waze has had the foresight to disable typing while the car is in motion. Users can report map problems with a report button and even take photos of road hazards to share with other users. (Although hopefully they won’t do this while driving.)
Right now, the Waze app is only available on certain mobile platforms, but Windows Mobile users are encouraged to sign up for the Waze alpha program to help test the upcoming version of the Windows Mobile app. (http://www.on10.net/)

Nokia Location-Aware Windows 7 Netbook

At this week’s Nokia World 09 event, the mobile technology company introduced a new netbook computer called the “Nokia Booklet 3G.” As its name implies, this small form-factor laptop comes with built-in 3G/HSPA technology for easy mobile access in addition to Wi-Fi. Plus, it supports hot-swappable SIM card slots which makes it very appealing to world travelers who often carry multiple phones and cards around. However, the coolest feature of the netbook has to be its A-GPS functionality. With this, it can take advantage of theWindows Sensor and Location Platform for “location-aware computing.” What that means is that both your computer and your applications know where they are.

The computer also includes other great features like a 12-hour battery life, an HDMI port, 3 USB ports, a headphone/microphone jack, a front facing camera, a 10.1-inch HD glass display, Bluetooth, and an SD card reader, all within its small 2 cm thick aluminum shell. No word on pricing yet, but the netbook will become available in the 4th quarter of 2009.(www.on10.net)