Archive for February, 2012

(Credit:
mbed)

By now, you’re probably a little bored of playing Angry Birds, but here’s a new way to make it fun and challenging again.

Simon Ford over at Mbed has an awesome hack that lets you hurl your favorite fighting birds using a real slingshot. Inspired by a demo on how easy it is to build your own USB devices, the idea behind this DIY project is to turn the slingshot into a mouse.

The slingshot was actually handmade by Chris Jarratt using a branch he found in Epping Forest, London. Ford then hollowed out parts of the branch, so he could integrate an accelerometer, a microcontroller, stretch sensors, and a USB connector into the shooting apparatus.

The microcontroller acts as the brains of the device, while the accelerometer tracks the tilt and angle of the slingshot and the stretch sensor measures the amount of tension in the rubber band. Finally, the USB connector, which is embedded at the base of the handle, enables you to connect the slingshot to your computer.

Ford then wrote some code to translate all that data into mouse movements, so you can go about flinging those angry birds at those meddlesome pigs. If you’re up for the challenge, Mbed has a full set of instructions on how to make a slingshot of your own on … [Read more]

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(Credit:
Robot American Football)

Every year, between the months of February and August, there’s a feeling of emptiness that falls over me, and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. American football fans know this to be the period of time when there is no college or NFL games, and when we turn into sad lots, feeling cold and alone on weekends and Monday nights.

So imagine my delight when I stumbled across this story about robots playing American football–two of my favorite things combined into one. Score, right? Well, sort of. Unfortunately, the game barely resembles American football, and the robots suck at it.

Related stories

• Hockey-playing robot can stick it to you
• Robot can bowl a perfect strike every time
• Baseball robot lets you work on your swing

Sponsored by IT solution provider Fujisoft and held in Yokohama, Japan, the Robot American Football Tournament pits teams of five … [Read more]

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(Credit:
Thomas Tenery/Playboy Enterprises)

Space is already full of heavenly bodies, but apparently not enough of the kind to satisfy those at Playboy, which is taking matters into its own hands.

The adult magazine company has come up with a concept for a Playboy Club in space that includes a zero-gravity dance club and Playboy bunnies with jet packs. The “intergalactic entertainment destination” is featured in the March issue of Playboy, which is out on newsstands now, and is described as a cruise ship in space by the article’s writers, A.J. Baime and Jason Harper.

Baime and Harper collaborated with various individuals on the project, including artist Thomas Tenery, Virgin Galactic head designer Adam Wells, and former NASA scientist Stan Kent, to figure out the design and features of the Playboy space club. Together, they dreamed up a wheel-shaped space station that has everything from a casino to a restaurant to “orbital pleasure domes.”

(Credit:
Thomas Tenery/Playboy Enterprises)

The restaurant would be located in a spinning section of the station, where centrifugal force would create an artificial gravity, so you, your food and drink don’t go floating away. However, if you’re looking for some zero-gravity fun, you can have that, too.

The dance club is a gravity-free zone and also features Playboy bunnies zooming around in jet p… [Read more]

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Glenn worries the U.S. is ceding its space leadership

Harvard’s Mobee robot bee assembles with 20 origami folds.

(Credit:
Pratheev Sreetharan/ Harvard University)

Army-funded researchers at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory are popping out Harvard Monolithic Bees (“Mobees”) from multi-layered, laser-cut blocks about the size of a quarter.

Inspired by pop-up books, the manufacturing process could allow for rapid production of dozens of flying robots and other electromechanical devices. The research is being published in the March edition of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

In the RoboBees project, Pratheev Sreetharan and colleagues want to build bee-size robots that can fly and act autonomously as a colony. Until recently, it used a painstaking manual assembly method.

The prototype sheets consist of 18 layers of carbon fiber, titanium, brass, ceramic, adhesive sheets, and the plastic film Kapton. As seen in the vid below, the bee snaps together as it pops out of the laminate.

The assembly is dipped in a liquid-metal solder to lock its joints in place, and is finally laser-cut to release it from the scaffold. Applying a voltage to the Mobee causes the wings to flap at various frequencies. Sensors and actuators can be added to its body.

Since the manufacturing process is based on circuit board production methods, it would be … [Read more]

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Tuesday was Zelda Day, so we understand if you spent most of the week celebrating the 26th anniversary of this storied franchise. Rising out of the fog of a Zelda hangover can be tough, but we’re here to ease the pain with a dose of this week’s top stories from Crave.

• Want to travel to space? Japan wants to take you there…in an elevator.

Next stop: space!

(Credit:
Obayashi)

• Maybe Mattel should call up this guy to figure out how to make its “Back to the Future” hoverboard actually, you know, hover.

• First, fear-inducing robo-dogs, and now, robot soldiers. To quote Crave commenter Instigator-Jones, “DARPA – you so crazy!”

• Buzz kill: It would take 80… [Read more]

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Artist Sean Avery breathes new life into CDs by turning them into animal sculptures.

(Credit:
Sean E. Avery)

With the prevalence of iPods and MP3 players, CDs are starting to go the way of vinyl as people shun physical media in favor of digital downloads. Some people are simply throwing their CD collection in the trash, while others are using the discs as coasters. One artist, however, has found a way to let the CDs play on in a completely different form.

Sean Avery, a children’s book writer and illustrator from Perth, Australia, takes old CDs, as well as used circuit boards, and turns them into beautiful animal sculptures. Avery, who now lives in Ottawa, Canada, has been sculpting for nine years and finds old tech to be a great medium.

The artist, Sean Avery, with some of his friends from upcoming book, "All Monkeys Love Bananas."

(Credit:
Sean E. Avery)

“I just think that old tech looks cool,” Avery told Crave. “There’s also a ton of it around, and I think it’s great that I can turn unrecyclable crap into something interesting.”

Avery said office buildings are a great place to pick up CDs and old computer parts, and often, his friends and family bring him material. Avery then uses a pair of kitchen scissors to cut up the discs and o… [Read more]

Related Links:

Attendees stroll the grounds of the Fira de Barcelona at the 2011 Mobile World Congress.

(Credit:
Kent German/CNET)

Over the last month, CNET has written a lot about an upcoming trade show called Mobile World Congress. And over the next week, we’ll be writing even more about it.

If you’ve never heard of the event before, I don’t blame you. Indeed, Mobile World Congress doesn’t have the same name recognition that CES commands in the United States, but for the wireless world, it’s almost as big and just as significant. Each February, folks from all corners of the industry and around the world meet in Barcelona, Spain, to make deals, demonstrate the latest technologies, and show off the latest and greatest phones and tablets.

LG's Optimus 4X HD has a quad-core chip and Android 4.0.

(Credit:
LG)

This will be my fifth year at the show, which begins Monday in Catalonia’s Gaudi-obsessed capital city. Though a possible transit strike threatens to make getting around a little difficult, there’s guaranteed to be a (metric) ton of new devices, from the very fancy to the strictly functional. It will be a massive amount to cover, but CNET will have a large team on the ground, includin… [Read more]

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Pair of unknown LG Androids found ahead of Mobile World Congress

(Credit:
Obayashi)

Japanese construction company Obayashi wants to build an elevator to space and transport passengers to a station about a tenth the distance to the moon.

The elevator would use super-strong carbon nanotubes in its cables and could be ready as early as 2050, according to Tokyo-based Obayashi.

The cables would stretch some 60,000 miles, about a quarter the distance to the moon, and would be attached to Earth at a spaceport anchored to the ocean floor. The other end would dangle a counterweight in space.

The elevator would zip along at 125 mph, possibly powered by magnetic linear motors, but would take about a week to get to the station. It would carry up to 30 people.

Related stories

• Space Elevator one step closer to heaven?
• Winner declared in space elevator race
• Space elevator isn’t going anywhere yet

Up above, the space station would have living quarters and lab facilities. Solar panels connected to the station would generate electricity that would be transmitted to the ground.

NASA has also investigated space elevators, awarding $900,000 in 2009 to … [Read more]

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Whurley from Chaotic Moon Labs takes a ride on the Board of Imagination.

(Credit:
Chaotic Moon Labs)

Remember the Board of Awesomeness, the Kinect-controlled motorized skateboard from CES? Well, it just got more awesome.

The creator of this high-tech board, Chaotic Moon Labs, has come up with a new version called the Board of Imagination that works by reading your brain waves. That’s right, a mind-controlled skateboard. You simply imagine where you’d like to go and how fast you want to get there, and the Board of Imagination will take care of the rest.

It’s powered by the same 800-watt electric motor and Windows 8-enabled Samsung tablet as the Board of Awesomeness, but it adds an emotive headset to read your thoughts to set the board in motion.

To wrap our heads around how it all works, Crave talked with Whurley (like Prince and Cher, it’s just Whurley), general manager of Chaotic Moon Labs, to learn more about the technology behind the Board of Imagination. We also plan to go for a ride on the board soon (I’m going out to buy my crash helmet now), so definitely stay tuned for more.

Q: Can you explain how the emotive headset reads and translates your brainwaves? What’s the technology behind it?
Whurley: Simply put, the hea… [Read more]

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Gingrich: Space colony yay! Romney: Nay!

With a 4.7-inch display, the LG is anything but small

(Credit:
LG)

We haven’t even left for Mobile World Congress yet and LG just keeps the news coming.

On the heels of the LG Optimus Vu, Optimus 3D Max, and the three L-Style handsets, the company also has confirmed the Optimus 4X HD.

The press release was in Korean, but thanks to Google Translate we got a rough, but very promising, look at its specs. And even if something was lost in translation, it’s clear that the 4X HD should be at the head of LG’s Optimus pack.

On the outside, we’ll see a 4.7-inch display with an 1280×720-pixel resolution. That’s a massive display that knocks on … [Read more]

Related Links:
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LG goes big with 5-inch Optimus Vu
Quad-core smartphones: This is their year
LG Optimus LTE smartphone hits 1 million in sales
Plenty of new phones could land in Barcelona