Technabob » fraunhofer

Spider Robot is Creepy, But Helpful

Shane McGlaun — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:00:55 +0000

The disaster in Japan early this year showed people that robots are often needed in the wake of a massive catastrophe like the tsunami and earthquake. When the nuclear plant started to meltdown and radiation leaked out, humans couldn’t get to the plant to help, so robots were brought in. This shined light on the fact that highly mobile and small bots were needed to assist in emergencies.

The Fraunhofer Institute has unveiled a new design for a robot that looks like a spider. The ‘bot is highly mobile and uses hydraulics for powering its legs. Each leg has a bellows system that forces fluid into the legs to make the robot scurry about.

Some versions of the spider ‘bot can even jump. The robot is intended to be used to help locate gas leaks or to check areas where humans can’t venture due to tight spaces or dangers like radiation. The researchers think the robots will be relatively cheap to produce as well, making it easy to use in situations where the robot might not be able to return.

World’s Smallest Video Camera Can Fit In Your Nose

Range — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:05:03 +0000

This is the world’s tiniest camera and it’s been designed to shoot video inside your body. It’s supposed to replace the fiber optic endoscope despite the fact that I saw it used in the last episode of House, it’s not science fiction.

The camera is about 1 mm³ in size – about “the size of a coarsely ground grain of salt,” and that’s pretty small. It’s got 62,500 pixel resolution, so the images it captures inside your body should be pretty sharp. The developer is the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany and they say that the camera should be cheap enough to be disposable by 2012.

There could be a lot of uses for this type of tiny camera, from a Big Brother-like surveillance scenario, to better rear view mirrors for your SUV. Fraunhofer expects these cameras to become available next year. I wonder when they will make a wireless version.

[via Gizmag]

Miniature HDTV Camera for Tight Spaces

Technabob — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:16:26 +0000

Developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany, this tiny little camera can capture full HDTV 1920×1080 resolution video at up to 60 frames per second.

The MicroHDTV camera measures just about 1.5″ x 1.5″ x 3″ and can easily fit in confined spaces like the inside of a race car or even on a helmet. The camera features IP-based connectivity and all settings (color, white balance, frame rate, etc…) can be controlled via a remote web browser.

This miniaturization could mean that we’ll see really high-quality first person perspective coverage of sporting events in the very near future.

[via Bloggingit]