SHOAL’s robotic fish can also help with underwater security, diver monitoring, and search and rescue efforts. Each of the fish is about 5 feet long and has a fin on the back that moves back and forth to propel it just as a natural fish would move. Each of the robot fish costs $31,600(USD) and packs in numerous sensors to pick up common pollutants.

The fish are able to swim without any input and send data back to the shore station up to half a mile away. The fish use artificial intelligence software to avoid obstacles, map their location, and return to base when the battery packs run low. The battery packs are good for about eight hours per charge. The reason the robot is designed to look like a fish is so it will blend into the environment, and can also maintain a small turning radius.

[via MSNBC]

OMG. He was right. This really was a trap. An April Fools trap. He should be saying, “It’s a prank!” However, many people would gladly buy this if it were real – and just like Big Mouth Billy Bass, they’d get sick of it after about 2 minutes.

What Tristan did was create a wax mold from actual sardines, which he then used that to cast aluminum versions of the fishes. It was produced in Eindhoven, NL, at Beeldenstorm foundry in 2011.

The story behind Tristan’s career is pretty interesting: he worked for over ten years in the fishing industry before studying cabinet making and furniture design at Bucks University near London. His resume certainly explains how he ended up making such a chair.

Aside from being extremely unique, this sardine rocking chair is also expensive: its asking price is $19,500(USD). You can contact Saatchi Online, which represents Tristan, if you’re interested in sitting on some fish.

And don’t forget to pick up some lamps to go with your new chair.

[via Chair Blog]

Each lamp is handmade by Fanney Antonsdóttir and Dögg Guðmundsdóttir, who were inspired by the Icelandic tradition of drying fish, which is done by sticking bulbs inside the creatures. Just kidding. The two designers skin cod fish and let them dry on molds, and after 3 weeks the lamps are ready to freak people out. Although they would be right at home in a seafood restaurant or island resort.

The Uggi Lights have been seen in exhibitions worldwide, although Antonsdóttir and Guðmundsdóttir have only sold a few of these lamps. If you’d like to have one of these rare creations, prepare €670 (~$880 USD) and send them an email. If it wasn’t so wrong, I’d like to have a bearskin lamp. Or one of these.

[Uggi Lights via Dude I Want That]

The dumb fish doesn’t care of course. He just doesn’t want a cap popped in his fin – or he thinks it’s some sort of glowing worm he can eat. As soon as he starts playing, he probably forgets about the gun anyway, because fish are (don’t hate me for saying this marine biologists)… kinda stupid.

[via VVV via Geekosystem]

You don’t have to feed the electronic goldfish, but you’ll need to install three AA batteries to power the mechanism that makes it zip around like real fish don’t.

Wow. That is one distractingly lively fish. Swim to ThinkGeek and pay $20(USD) to order your own Electronic Goldfish in a Bowl.

The mod was made by Spencer Shepard. Those of you who are ready to pounce on the comments section incensed at the waste of a good gaming console, take it easy. Shepard purchased a broken Xbox 360 for the mod, which he then gutted and fitted with a 6″ x 8″ x 2.5″ tank. He also used the console’s external power supply and power cable for the wiring of the color-changing LEDs inside the aquarium.

One clever trick he also did was to glue the live corals on a piece of acrylic instead of simply piling them up on the floor of the tank, which as you can see is quite narrow. With the aquarium complete, Shepard placed fish, crabs, snails and shrimp inside.

This was made by Spencer Shepard, and this is the best aquarium in the Citadel. Swim to Blue World Aquariums’ blog for more details on the mod.

[via TechCrunch via Nerd Approved]

These light-up jellyfish from Swim Ways have LEDs inside and glow as they float across the surface of your swimming pool with their legs dangling beneath the water. I suppose you could also put them in your bathtub or whirlpool if you so desire. Keep in mind that they’re not going to throw off a huge amount of light, but they still look cool. They sell for about $43 (USD) each over at Amazon.

While distance swimmer Diana Nyad probably wouldn’t want these light-up jellyfish in her lap pool, I rather like the way they look. And it’s certainly way better than having actual jellies in your pool, right?

[via Fancy]

Currently, Air Swimmers come in two varieties – a clownfish and a shark. Both versions are 57″ long and 36″ high. An infra-red remote control lets you control the height and direction of its flight, but since it’s also a balloon it will float lazily on its own. Make sure you stay within 40 feet, so it’ll still respond to your whims.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The Air Swimmers seem to be such a hit that the manufacturer’s main store has been overloaded. Fortunately if you can’t get through there, you can order Air Swimmers at another store. M&M Toy Store is selling them for $40 (USD) apiece, or $72 for a combo pack. Unfortunately the shark version is out of stock. No surprise there. Here’s a tip to MWC: yes, customers want a billion varieties of Air Swimmers. All of which should be sharks. A life-sized blue whale would also be a hit.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[via Metafilter]

Made by Fascinations, the thing has a fish tank on one side that has a filtered powered by the USB port. The place where the water is returned to the tank looks like a faucet and it has gravel, and multicolored lights inside. The right side of the aquarium has a bin for holding stuff like pens and even your iPhone. The front of the holder section has a display.

That display has a clock, calendar, and a temperature gauge. The tank capacity is 1.5 quarts and you will need to add your own gold fish. The downside is that you will have to clean the tank on a regular basis, or have a stinky desk. You should be able to buy one soon for about $40 (USD).

[via Chipchick]

From what I can tell, Sedensha Co. made this electric fish (link translated from Japanese), which can wriggle its way through the water just like the real deal. Its movements are controlled through electrostatic actuators which replicate the movements of fish muscles. The whole contraption is placed inside a silicon rubber fish, filled with silicone oil. Yum, silicone oil. I guess they were all out of cod liver oil. So without further ado, check out the amazing Japanese Robo-Fish in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I like how they even went the extra mile and stuck some googly eyes on it. I don’t know why, but it reminds me of that Dreamcast game Seaman. While the fish definitely has realistic moves, if I were a fish in that tank and saw Robo-Fish coming my way, I’d wet my little fish pants. Of course, I’d be underwater, so nobody would know. Whew.

[via Switched]

It really is the perfect gift for bears. Or for people who love fishing. Or for bears. I think we should have bear friends for a change.

The Humminbird RF35 sells for $80 USD and can be ordered at Humminbird’s online shop. Buy one for your fisherman friend and he’ll surely give you a bear hug. Buy one for your bear friend and he might, I don’t know, growl in gratitude.

[via techchee]

The eye! It follows me! But creepy fish eye is part of the realism, and the sea bream robot was built to exacting specifications based on the movement of real fish. The robot, which was built by the Yamamoto Laboratory, will be used for research.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The crowd is clearly impressed with the fishbot, and for good reason–there’s no easy way to tell the difference between the fishbot and the real thing. Well, until you try to have it for dinner, anyway.

[Robot Watch via 2dayBlog]

Spotted on the streets of Lyon, France, where artists Benoit Deseille and Benedetto Bufalino transformed an old phone booth into an aquarium – complete with fish. Unfortunately, all of the calls just sound like blurble-blurble-blurble.

[via DesignZen]

Thanks to this weird, wacky mouse pad from Japan’s Thanko, you can keep your chilly hand nice and warm while you crank out spreadsheets and surf the web. Just stick your hand inside the “mouth” of this oversize blue googley-eyed fish and an integral heating element keeps your fingers fiery hot (or maybe that’s its stomach acid dissolving your skin into a gelatinous goo).

Just plug the blue monster into a spare USB port, and it’ll reach a fiery 42° C (107.6° F) in about 10 minutes. I suppose it beats wearing ski gloves when you’re working on your PC.

You can get your hands on (or inside) one of these from USBGeek for $22.

Thanks to a built in digital camera, Liquid Image’s new Underwater Camera Mask will let you capture photos or video of whatever you see while you swim. Just look through the view port, and press the capture button to snap your pix. A crosshair inside the mask indicates the center of the frame you’ll be capturing, and easy-to-see LEDs tell you the camera’s current mode. While you won’t be able to go deep-sea diving with the mask on, it will hold up for depths up to 15 feet of water, so it’s perfect for casual snorkeling.

The company plans on rolling out the camera at the upcoming 2008 CES show in January, and plans on releasing both 3.1 and 5.0 megapixel versions, with prices starting at $99 USD.

[via Krunker]

HOOKED! claims to offer a totally realistic fishing experience (let’s hope it’s better than the silly fishing exercises in Zelda) including photorealistic bodies of water with lots of aquatic life to pluck. The game will include online multi-player, and three single player modes as well (Practice, Time Attack and Tournament.)

It’ll cost about $59 when it comes out this September, which is $10 more than most Wii games, presumably to cover the cost of the controller add on. Bait not included.

[via WiiFanboy]