Featured Stories
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DOMK Receives Confirmation That 1st “SolaPad” Units Are Being Prepared for Shipment
25 May 2012 12:30 PM | No Commentsvar AdBrite_Title_Color = '0000FF'; var AdBrite_Text_Color = '000000'; var AdBrite_Background_Color = 'FFFFFF'; var AdBrite_Border_Color = 'CCCCCC'; var AdBrite_URL_Color = '008000'; try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==''?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe='';var AdBrite_Referrer='';} document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(' src="http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=2053203&zs=3436385f3630&ifr='+AdBrite_Iframe+'&ref='+AdBrite_Referrer+'" type="text/javascript">');document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62)); LONGWOOD, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–DoMark International Inc. (OTCBB: DOMK) announced today that management of its wholly-owned subsidiary, SolaWerks, has...
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New Autodesk SketchBook Ink App Delivers Stunning Creative Tools for iPad
24 May 2012 12:59 PM | No CommentsSAN RAFAEL, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) launched Autodesk SketchBook Ink for iPad paint and drawing app, the latest release from the company’s popular SketchBook...
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Vegas Tech Start Up Questionable LLC Launches Questionable Friends iPhone App
23 May 2012 4:53 PM | No CommentsLAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Questionable™ today introduced Questionable Friends™ for iPhone®. Questionable Friends lets you send questions to your contacts and provides instant feedback as questions are answered. Answers can be ...
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Sidecar Revolutionizes Phone Calls by Bringing “Smart Calling” to Smartphones
22 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsSAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Launching today, Sidecar (www.sidecar.me) is a new mobile app that brings Smart Calling to smartphones. Smart Calling allows people to share live See What I See video, brilliant ...
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TransCore Launches Mobile iPad App for TransSuite Traffic Management System
21 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsWASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intelligent Transportation Society of America Annual Meeting – TransCore brings the ease of mobile computing to its TransSuite® advanced traffic management system (ATMS), launching its iPad® ...
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Robotics Archive
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Video gallery: Chiba Institute Of Technology’s awesome robots
Posted on June 15, 2010 | No Comments
Like many Japanese institutions of higher education, the Chiba Institute Of Technology boasts a faculty or laboratory, which conducts research on nothing but robots. This particular institute's Department of Advanced Robotics [JP] has been pretty much flying under the radar in recent years, but the department opened a very interesting YouTube channel recently.
And some of the robots the researchers in Chiba (just outside Tokyo) have manufactured so far are pretty impressive. Here are four of them.
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Videos: Toyota’s amazing violin-playing robot
Posted on May 14, 2010 | No Comments
Toyota has never been known as an auto maker that's really active in the robotics area (as opposed to Honda, for example), at least when it comes to producing robots with high show value. There are two exceptions though: one is Winglet, the Segway-like robotic vehicle Toyota showed in 2008, and the other is a violin-playing humanoid that made its debut back in 2007.
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Maido-kun: Japan plans to send humanoid to the moon by 2015
Posted on April 28, 2010 | No Comments
Japan loves robots, we know that much. Last year, the Japanese government announced it plans to to send a robot to the moon by 2020 (that was to be joined by a human astronaut 10 years later). Today, the Osaka-based "Space Oriented Higashiosaka Leading Association" (SOHLA) announced [JP, PDF] a quite similar undertaking: putting a robot on the moon by 2015.
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Video: Meet AILA, a fembot made in Germany
Posted on April 23, 2010 | No Comments
It seems not only Japan, but also Germany is capable of producing super-advanced humanoids. Case in point: AILA, a fembot [GER] developed at the Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI/German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence).
AILA, in her current form, stands 170cm tall. There are 22 joints in her body, a 3D camera, two laser range finders, six wheels shes moves on and an RFID reader. The DFKI says the main purpose is to put a semantic product memory system the research center developed to practical use. The DFKI doesn't view AILA as an isolated product, but as a platform for further research in robotics.
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Japanese researchers develop mini brain wave measuring device
Posted on April 6, 2010 | No CommentsJapan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba (just outside Tokyo) is well-known for its work in robotics, but the institute is active in other fields as well. It has now announced [JP] a mini brain wave measuring device that can help handicapped people convey up to 512 "messages" just with the power of their brains.
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DIY: Control your Hexapod robot with your iPhone
Posted on March 8, 2010 | No CommentsCheck out this custom made iPhone app that robotics student Robert Stephenson created. Robert wrote this app to control his Hexapod robot using the the user inputs on the iPhone. Roberst control method includes the touchscreen and accelerometers to manipulate the forward and reverse controls. Robert has done several videos about his project, it’s definitely [...] -
RoboCar G: Japanese venture to sell electric robot car (videos)
Posted on February 26, 2010 | No Comments
We covered various products from Tokyo-based robotics venture ZMP in the past, including a mini robo car, but we never had the chance to blog about an actual robot car (from any company actually). Granted, it's just a one-seater and not really "robotic", but the so-called RoboCar G [JP], which is an electric vehicle, doesn't look too bad and might be the beginning of a new trend.
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Power Loader: Panasonic venture accepts orders for mecha robot suits (video)
Posted on January 28, 2010 | No CommentsWalking vehicles, also known as mecha, don't play a big role in today's robotics industry, but that might soon change. (You might remember one of the protagonists in Avatar sitting in a mecha, called AMP in the movie, during the final fight.) Now Tokyo-based robot venture Activelink, a Panasonic spin-off company, says it can make one for you, too. The startup has begun accepting orders for their aptly named Power Loader, a power-amplifying robotic suit that enables humans to carry loads of up to 100kg. Users need to strap their feet to the mecha's legs and hold the grips to control the two utility arms. They are then able to lift heavy loads as high as 2m and carry them around.
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New technology helps to remotely monitor the health of the elderly around the clock
Posted on January 15, 2010 | No Comments
Remote monitoring systems for the elderly are nothing new, but Japanese conglomerate Marubeni's technology seems to be particularly advanced. And unlike you might think, it's not based on robotics, but on a sensor system. It enables families and medical institutions to remotely check the health of older people around the clock - as long as the person in question keeps wearing a small sensor on the chest.
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Meet Nippon Institute of Technology’s cool humanoid (video)
Posted on December 22, 2009 | No Comments
It's another humanoid from Japan, it doesn't have an official name yet, but it's pretty cool: This new robot [JP] is the result of a collaboration between various Japanese companies and institutions, namely the Nippon Institute of Technology, Harada Vehicle Design [JP], ZMP and ZNUG Design. Based technically on ZMP's Nuvo robot, it stands 1.26m tall and weighs 15kg.
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PaPeRo: NEC’s cute helper robot
Posted on November 26, 2009 | No Comments
As a huge conglomerate, NEC is active in a lot of areas. But unknown to many people outside Japan, the company is quite aggressive in the robotics field, too. Their PaPeRo, a cute helper robot, for example, has been around since 1997 already. And now, just in time for a robot exhibition that currently takes place in Tokyo, the company shows an updated version of the little guy.
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Lock, Unlock: An Arduino-powered robotic lock
Posted on November 24, 2009 | No Comments
This kit uses a CD-ROM drive and an Arduino board to build a clever robotic lock. This dude used a bolt to create the project and it's voice activated.
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Honda’s take on the future of personal mobility: The U3-X (yes, the u stands for unicycle)
Posted on September 24, 2009 | No CommentsThis, according to Honda, is the future of personal mobility. (In the future, walking will be seen as passe and uncool.) It's called the U3-X, and it just debuted in Tokyo. It's sorta like a Segway, but a little less cumbersome (but just as unusual looking to the layman).
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Video: The iida Polaris is a cool mix between robot and phone
Posted on September 9, 2009 | No Comments
Japan is the nation of robots. Everybody knows that. It's also the nation of cell phones. So why not mix robots and cell phones? That's what the country's second biggest mobile phone provider KDDI au thought and today presents the iida Polaris, a robotic cell phone [link in English], for the first time (click here for my iida concept photo report from April).
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Regina: New healthcare robot lifts very heavy people
Posted on September 8, 2009 | No Comments
One of the fields in which robotics really makes sense is healthcare, where Japan is certainly the most productive country. And now we get another healthcare robot, created by a company called Japan Logic Machine.