technabob » dance

breakdancing r/c car arrives just in time for nobody to care about breakdancing

technabob — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:31:33 +0000

I’ve been waiting all my life for the day that somebody came up with a gadget that would finally combine my passions for radio-controlled race cars and breakdancing. That day has finally arrived.

You can certainly drive this R/C car around the floor just like any other, but the real fun kicks in when you kick it into Breakin’ II Electric Boogaloo mode. While the Twister Edition Stunt R/C car can’t pop-and-lock or do The Robot, it definitely can do head spins, windmills and even The Worm. A unique spinning joint system lets the car perform all sorts of crazy stunts using the included wireless remote-control.

As it spins and rolls along your floor, the car offers up an LED lightshow that’s nothing short of a nighttime drive down the Vegas strip and downtown Osaka rolled into one. The car works on just about any surface, and can even handle itself on bumpy outdoor roads when it’s not doing a dance routine.

The pictures above give you a pretty good sense of how flexible this vehicle is, but to really understand its B-Boy moves, you’ll need to watch this video of the car in action:

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If your name happens to be Boogaloo Shrimp or Shabba-Doo, you can pick one of these up over at Chinavasion for just $10.09 (USD) – cheaper than a breakdance mat unless you happen to make yours out of cardboard refrigerator boxes.

led hula hoops: you know, for kids.

technabob — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:25:55 +0000

Here’s something that’s sure to draw crowds the next time you feel the need to draw attention to yourself. This dizzying show of colored light is produced by a rapidly spinning Hula Hoop, packed with LED lighting.

Handcrafted by Etsy contributor Schablien, the LED Hula Hoop works its magic with 18 super-bright LEDs embedded into the hoop. Half of the lights change colors, while the other half are fixed tones, producing a rainbow of hues as you swing your hips to-and-fro.

The hoop is powered by a rechargeable battery pack which should give you 8 to 10 hours of illumination before it needs a charge. You can find the light-up hoop over on Schlabein’s Etsy shop for $195.

In the words of Alvin (of Chipmunk fame), “Me, I want a Hula Hoop.”

[$195 too pricey for you? If you're feeling more adventurous, you can build your own basic version of the LED Hula Hoop with about $15 in parts by following this step-by-step tutorial over on Instructables.]

robothespian masters the classics

technabob — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:45:08 +0000

Back in the day, I did my stint designing lighting and sets for community theater companies, so I’ve seen more than my share of wooden acting. But this is the first time I’ve ever seen metal acting.

The RoboThespian is a life-sized robotic puppet, designed with one mission in mind — to entertain. Created by UK interactive exhibit builder Engineered Arts, the robot can do spoken parts, singing, story telling, and even some dance maneuvers. Now sit back and enjoy as RoboSapien performs some classic movie moments.

Here he is doing his DeNiro:

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And no robot act would be complete without some Aaahnold:

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How about a little salty old Robert Shaw from Jaws:

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RoboThespian does his best C3P0:

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I like to think this is a scene from A Clockwork Orange:

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While RoboThespian won’t be winning an Oscar anytime soon, he’s might be good enough to pull off a People’s Choice or a Golden Globe.

If you happen to live in the UK, you should be able to check out some of these guys performing at The Eden Project in Cornwall. Otherwise, Engineered Arts rents and sells these robots for use in special events, museums and entertainment facilities, so you might run into one the next time you head out to get some some culture.

robots do the limbo and dance the hula

technabob — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 03:23:25 +0000

What happens when a couple of robots have one to many Mai Tais? They do the Limbo and Hula, of course.

Designed and choreographed by custom robot builder Sumy Family, the bots were clad in grass skirts and native garb, and programmed to do some traditional Hawaiian dance as part of the final round of the 2007 ROBO-ONE competition at a Hawaiian-themed resort in Japan.

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My knees hurt just looking at that Limbo.

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Mahalo very much, Mr. Roboto.

[via ROBOTS DREAMS]

sony rolly mp3 player: wtf is this thing?

technabob — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:26:05 +0000

In the wee hours of the morning today, Sony Japan rolled out (literally) the Rolly Sound Entertainment Player (model SEP-10BT). The egg-shaped device isn’t just an odd-looking media player, it’s a little robotic gadget that can roll around and do a little “dance” on your tabletop while it plays your tunes.

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It does have an interesting user interface, in which you turn a band at the top end of the “egg” to change tracks, or the one at the bottom to change volume. A motion sensor automatically detects which end is up. To shuffle tracks, you shake the player. There are some good videos of how that all works over on Akihabara News.

The player has built in speaker “ears” which flap along to the music too. It’s also got Bluetooth on board so you can download custom movement sequences from your PC. It can play MP3, ATRAC and AAC tracks, but not WMA files. But most important is its ability to pull of some cute little dance moves.

With a retail price around $350, this isn’t exactly a kids toy. Just 1GB of memory means it’s not going to store your entire music collection either. It’s also just too big and cumbersome to put in your pocket, so it’s not particularly portable. I know that it’s supposed to be cute, but when I can pick up an iPhone or an Xbox 360 for about the same price, I’m just baffled.

video of the day: trs-80 dancing demon

technabob — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 19:37:31 +0000

Here’s a blast from the past that I stumbled upon earlier today. I don’t know why I found it so entertaining, but I guess it just reminded me of when I was just a geektot. There’s something about the simplicity of computer graphics back in the day that just makes me all gooey. So with that said, I give you the TRS-80 Dancing Demon.

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Dance demon, dance! You go! You can reminisce about Leo Christopherson’s Dancing Demon BASIC game for the old Radio Shack Trash-80 here. If you’re feeling really nostalgic (and ambitious) you can grab a TRS-80 emulator and try it out for yourself.