A little robot named Hina (meaning young chick) has become very popular through the Japanese video sharing community, Nico Nico Douga. The video shows a 36 centimeter tall robot modeled after a young girl, grinding beans and pouring ingredients to make coffee. Created by mujaki, she was built largely out of modified parts from KHR-2HV, a robot kit made by KONDO.
robot.com
Cute Japanese Robot Makes Coffee
Robots: Celebrity Robots Brought to Life
Science fiction movie and television icon Robby the Robot from the 1956 movieThe Forbidden Planet has entered many hearts (and Top 10 lists). The latest episode of the Robots podcast interviews Fred "Robotman" Barton, who restored the original Robby, and whose company is the exclusive manufacturer and licensee for Robby and many other well known movie robots. Barton specializes on life-size computerized replicas, including those of the original Star Wars Trilogy droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, Robot Model B9 from Lost in Space, Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, Maria from Metropolis, the Target Earth robot, or the T2-Endoskeleton. In the interview he describes his work with Robby and other robot collectibles and shares his experience with robots and Hollywood - tune in, or participate in the contest to win a DVD or bluray of your favorite movie robot. robot.net
Human vs Robot Space Exploration
The debate over human vs robot space exploration continues. The last time this issue made news was in 2006 with the death of long time opponent of human space exploration, James Van Allen. Opponents argue that the only purpose of space exploration is to return data to Earth, something they argue can be done by robots more cost effectively than by humans. No one seriously argues that robots should not explore space and there is a long history of successful robotic space exploration. Proponents of human exploration simply disagree that robots alone are sufficient. The latest dust up occurred recently with Stephen Hawking's call for Human colonies on the Moon and Mars. The point Hawking makes is that robotic exploration doesn't expand the human race beyond the planet Earth: Hawking points out that if we devote only one quarter of one percent of the world's GDP toward space exploration and colonization, it would give us a budget 20 times that currently allocated to the International Space Station. One problem may be NASA itself. Scientists within the agency itself have argued that NASA's current human space flight program is an expensive, misguided boondoggle. Now the Obama administration has intervened and may force them to drop Ares to work on a more sensible alternative to get humans back into space. Meanwhile, space robots soldier on. The Japanese Kaguya probe recorded it's final approach to a Lunar impact and the NASA LRO, pictured above, was successfully launched days ago and started it journey towards the Moon. robot.net
"Robotic missions are much cheaper and may provide more scientific information, but they don't catch the public imagination in the same way, and they don't spread the human race into space, which I'm arguing should be our long-term strategy. If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."
NASA Tests Linux For Spacecraft Control
According to LinuxDevices.com, Linux was selected for a NASA experiment aimed at proving the feasibility of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) hardware and software for scientific space missions. A key requirement was for application development and runtime environments familiar to scientists, to facilitate porting applications from the lab to the spacecraft. NASA’s “Dependable Multiprocessor” (DM) experiment is among four scientific payloads scheduled for launch in November of 2009, in the “New Millennium Program Space Technology 8 (ST8) mission. Honeywell Aerospace was chosen to be the lead contractor for the DM experiment, while Orbital Sciences was selected to build ST8’s “Spacecraft bus.” In order to attain success, Honeywell will have to overcome several obstacles — primarily through enhancements to Linux via custom high-availability middleware, it appears. Embedded Linux vendor Wind River says it was selected to “support the development of NASA’s New Millennium Program Space Technology 8 (ST8) Dependable Multiprocessor.” As part of its role in supporting the project, the company will supply its Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition (PNE-LE) for use on the DM system. Wind River said that as a whole, the DM system’s Linux-based software would enable the ST8 to “process and analyze its own data to make instant decisions about what is observed without having to send the information to Earth and wait for a reply.” The environment will also be able to dynamically adjust the level of fault tolerance for various subsystems, according to their criticality, the software vendor said. Hope Linux passes this test!NASA Tests Linux For Spacecraft Control
July 22nd, 2007 | by Anil |
Japan: New Internet By 2020!
Japan is planning to start research and development on technology for a new generation of network that would replace the Internet, eyeing bringing the technology into commercial use in 2020.
Japanese Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga said an organization will be set up as early as this fall with cooperation from businesses, academia and government offices for promoting the technology when the Internet is seen to be faced with increasing constraints in achieving higher throughputs of data as well as ensuring data security.
The envisaged network is expected to ensure faster and more reliable data transmission, and have more resilience against computer virus attacks and breakdowns.
The ministry is hoping Japan will take a lead in development of post-Internet technology and setting global standards, a move that ministry officials believe would help make Japanese companies competitive in the global market for hardware and software using such technology.
India Unveils World’s Cheapest $10 Laptop
The ‘world’s cheapest laptop’, developed in India, was unveiled by Union Minister for Human Resources Development Arjun Singh at the Tirupati temple on Tuesday evening.
The laptop, jointly developed by several organisations, such as the University Grants Commission, the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will be priced at around $10 to $20 (about Rs 500 to Rs 1,000), officials said. This laptop is expected to reach the market in about six months.
The project has already created a buzz in the laptop industry across the world.
The laptop has 2 GB onboard memory with wireless Internet connectivity. To make it useful for the students, especially in the rural areas, the scientists have made it low power consuming gadget.
The $10 laptop is being seen as India’s reply to One Laptop per Child’s XO and Classmate of Intel. The XO, created by scientist Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Lab was originally targeted to cost only $100 but by the time it was ready to enter the market its cost went up to $188. The Classmate notebook PC from Intel was priced at $ 300 a piece.
In contrast, the Indian government’s effort to market lap top at only $10 has caused a flutter in the international laptop market and many players are curious to know the details of the costing and how Indians managed to keep the cost so low.
source:http://www.techpark.net/2009/02/04/india-unveils-world’s-cheapest-10-laptop/
Dive Into The Ocean With New Google Earth 5.0
ontinuing the trend of online search, Google launched a new service that allows Internet users to explore the depths of the oceans from the comfort of their homes.
Google Ocean expands this map to include large swathes of the ocean floor and abyssal plain.
Users can dive beneath a dynamic water surface to explore the 3D sea floor terrain.
The map also includes 20 content layers, containing information from the world’s leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers.
With ocean in Google Earth, you can:
Dive beneath the surface and visit the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench
Explore the ocean with top marine experts including National Geographic and BBC
Learn about ocean observations, climate change, and endangered species
Discover new places including surf, dive, and travel hot spots and shipwrecks
In addition to Ocean, Google also introduced new features will enhance the way people interact with Google Earth and use it to communicate with the world.
Historical Imagery: Until today, Google Earth displayed only one image of a given place at a given time. With this new feature, you can now move back and forth in time to reveal imagery from years and even decades past, revealing changes over time. Try flying south of San Francisco in Google Earth and turning on the new time slider (click the “clock” icon in the toolbar) to witness the transformation of Silicon Valley from a farming community to the tech capital of the world over the past 50 years or so.
Touring: One of the key challenges we have faced in developing Google Earth has been making it easier for people to tell stories. People have created wonderful layers to share with the world, but they have often asked for a way to guide others through them. The Touring feature makes it simple to create an easily sharable, narrated, fly-through tour just by clicking the record button and navigating through your tour destinations.
3D Mars: This is the latest stop in our virtual tour of the galaxies, made possible by a collaboration with NASA. By selecting “Mars” from the toolbar in Google Earth, you can access a 3D map of the Red Planet featuring the latest high-resolution imagery, 3D terrain, and annotations showing landing sites and lots of other interesting featuresCheck out the video tour below:
source:http://www.techpark.net/2009/02/11/dive-into-the-ocean-with-new-google-earth-50/
