Tag: Prototype

The past year has put video conferencing tools in the limelight, and in my opinion, they are sorely lacking. But technology marches onward. Just check out this mind-blowing prototype that Google claims is already in use in a few of its offices.

Back in February, we heard about the Wooting One, a mechanical keyboard that can take analog input like the buttons on modern gamepads. Wooting recently launched the keyboard on Kickstarter, and it’s revealed that all of the peripheral’s keys will be analog, as well as a general idea of how they’re able to pull that off.

One of the dream – or nightmare – scenarios involving robots are ones that would automatically replicate or create other bots. One of the biggest hurdles for such a system is putting a robots’ parts together. 

RFID tags are most often used for tracking or identification. But scientists from Disney Research, University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon University have figured out a way to use them to create buttons, knobs and other input devices out of paper.

In 2013, MIT’s Tangible Media Group unveiled inFORM, a form of interaction that uses a series of actuated pins to change the shape of its surface. The group’s researchers are building on inFORM with what they’re calling Materiable, which can not only change its shape but also simulate varying degrees of flexibility, elasticity and viscosity.

You can find guides online for building small vacuum formers, and you can also get cheap ones that need both an oven and a vacuum cleaner to work. But if you’re willing to pay a bit more for convenience, Mayku’s FormBox may fit your needs.

We’ve seen projection mapping applied to pool tables for decorative or instructional purposes. This one’s a sleek version for table tennis. Made by Thomas Mayer for his thesis in Interaction Design, the Table Tennis Trainer will turn you into the Ivan Drago of ping pong.

Consumer drones equipped for photography or videography often have automatic tracking or path-finding so you can shoot with them even when you’re alone. Zero Zero Robotics’ Hover Camera might be the smallest and most durable of its kind to pack those features.

It’s becoming increasingly clear to makers that single board computers and the DIY devices based on them need control interfaces that are simpler and faster to use than desktop peripherals or even full-on PCs. Pičugins Arsenijs believes he’s come up with a much simpler alternative.

3D printers are prone to a problem called layer shifting, which is when the printer’s x- or y-axis stepper motor skips, causing layers from that point onward to be misaligned with the previously printed layers. That of course leads to a useless object and wasted time and materials.

We have robotic bartenders, why not robotic cooks as well? Actually, Spyce Kitchen is not just a cook but an entire restaurant that works on its own, from measuring ingredients to washing its pots. MIT mechanical and electrical engineering students Kale Rogers, Michael Farid, Braden Knight, and Luke Schlueter are the wizards behind the robo resto.

Today’s wearable devices often mimic the forms of analog devices such as sunglasses and watches. But that won’t be the case forever, in the same way that today’s smartphones look very different from their predecessors. Researchers at the University of Tokyo’s Someya Group give us a glimpse at the future of wearables with a series of electronics that are thin and flexible enough to be laminated onto skin.

The quest for wearable devices and embedded electronics might be completed with the help of a centuries-old handicraft. Ohio State University researchers John Volakis and Asimina Kiourti have been working on circuits that can be embroidered at 0.1mm precision, which they say is “the perfect size to integrate electronic components such as sensors and computer memory devices into clothing.”

Birds are like deer. They symbolize nature, freedom and all those heartwarming concepts, but in truth they can be annoying and cause a lot of damage. They eat crops, interfere at airports, hang out at harbors etc. 

With the arrival of the Oculus Rift and other virtual reality headsets, we’re going to get more and more experiences that fool us visually and aurally. But motion remains unconquered. A company called vMocion claims it got its hands on the technology that will bring the rest of our body to virtual reality.

Like most electronic devices, drones and multicopters are plagued by poor battery life. Intelligent Energy hopes to change that within the next few years with its hydrogen fuel cells, which can power a drone for up to 2 hours and can be refilled within minutes.