Exoskeletons for army very real
Exoskeletons are but a pipe dream to date, but the Sarcos Military Exoskeleton has made that dream come true. This suit aims to let soldiers “run faster, leap further and carry more” without taxing them more than they already are at the moment. Comprised of many servo motors, it uses hydraulic fluid via high pressure lines to servo valves on each joint in order to lift heavy weights in an agile manner without breaking a sweat. This suit has been in development for half a dozen years, and Sarcos is also working on a parallel timeline an autonomous model that can operate by itself as the owner gets out to do something else. Sounds like such technology could benefit ordinary civilians as well, especially those who are disabled.
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Add comment November 26th, 2007
Hitachi has released a worker robot known as EMIEW 2 (Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate), an improvement over its predecessor that was developed way back in March 2005. This robot is capable of responding to spoken commands, travel along its two wheels at a top speed of 4 mph, and safely navigate its way through crowds of humans without bumping into them every few seconds. EMIEW 2 stands proud at 80cm tall and weighs 13kg, making it easy to carry around. A pair of Transformer-style legs have been included to allow the EMIEW 2 crouch on its knees, while an extra set of wheels has been included for greater stability.
The upcoming BlackBerry Pearl 8120 that has just been approved by the FCC will not come with GPS connectivity, but at the very least it will have WiFi to keep you connected wherever there is a hotspot. You can, however, connect a Bluetooth GPS receiver to the 8120 if you happen to need directions. The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is tipped to be available on AT&T’s network way before T-Mobile.
Motorola will have a new RIZR Z6c waiting in its wings that targets Verizon customers, featuring a CDMA connection for calls and EV-DO data in addition to dual band 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM for those who frequently travel around the globe. All you need to do then whenever you travel to Asian and European countries would be to pop in the right SIM card and you’re good to go. Pre-paid services are pretty big in some parts of Asia after all as they are relatively affordable and do not require any monthly fees. The RIZR Z6c will come with a 2 megapixel camera, a microSD memory card slot and Bluetooth connectivity. There is no word on a launch date nor pricing though.
Engineers at Hokuto System in Japan have found a way to recycle old cellphones to turn them into fully functional computers. This is made possible by cramming a simple PC on a business card-sized circuit board known as DVIEW. It will go on sale in Japan for an unspecified price, although the specifications are nothing to shout about. Some of the more cannibalized parts include a 2.2″ QVGA LCD display and an 81MHz ARM CPU in addition to the 16-bit stereo soundcard and 40Kb SRAM. Pre-orders are taken by the volume as well as customization, so expect to fork out more for USB and WiFi connectivity. This microPC does have its uses as a home-control computer or a simple PDA.
Japan is extremely big on robots, and a group of companies have already released an autonomous ladybug-shaped robot that is meant to clean public restrooms at highway rest areas. Measuring 1 meter tall and 1.35 meters long, the Lady Bird robot (as it has been dubbed) will come with water tanks, brushes as well as other tools required for heavy duty scrubbing. The inclusion of obstacle detectors make it capable of keeping restrooms clean without bumping into folks all the time. Heck, it can even use its microphones, speech recognition capabilities and a voice synthesizer to converse with restroom users, although don’t expect to pour out your life story to the Lady Bird and expect it to come up with gems of advice. This unique robot has a target release date of March 2009 and is tipped to retail for $30,000 each.
Mtron of South Korea has just released its SSD MOBI 32GB SSD that comes with a transfer rate of 100MB/sec. This SSD MOBI was launched in order to replace the standard 2.5″ hard drive in the near future, as flash memory prices have been dropping tremendously all the time. How much longer do you think the standard hard drives will be in existence before SSDs take over computers as the common storage solution of choice? Do you think both of them can co-exist peacefully for people with different budgets? The 32GB model will go for $650, while there will be a 16GB version as well. No word on the release date, but they ought to arrive sometime next year. More SSD stories here.
Scientist Masano Koeda of Ritsumeikan University has developed a 50cm tall robot who is able to turn 90 degress by simply shuffling its feet while staying stationary - this simple movement might sound extremely easy to us humans, but the implications for tasks ahead of future machines are huge. The Koeda shuffle, as it is known, will enable robots to balance easier while carrying a load in its arms compared to robots that lift their feet while carrying a load. Koeda is currently working on enhancing his robot with the ability to turn on slopes as well as rough surfaces. Hopefully the final product will come out soon enough in order for the robot world to advance further.
