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Students make hippotherapy more accessible with robotic horse
Mechanical engineering students at Rice University have designed a robotic horse that can mimic the movements of the real thing. The device, dubbed Stewie, is geared towards individuals requiring equine-assisted therapy, also known as hippotherapy, who may not be able to travel to or afford a facility that offers it. Hippotherapy is believed to be able to help patients develop coordination, balance and posture while also fostering a relaxed state during which other beneficial therapies can be administered. And Stewie could provide a way for more people to benefit from hippotherapy.
ICYMI: Robot running buddy, mechanical sea life and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-97080{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-97080, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-97080{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-97080").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A horse-sized, standing CT scanner has been invented to keep your equine pals from being tranquilized before images are taken; a sea urchin mouth was used as inspiration for a robot that could be sent to Mars to collect samples; and NASA engineers and MIT students created a robot for Puma that can be programmed to 'race' training runners. If you're less of a runner, more of an observer, the Kung Fu art of Tobias Gremmier may be more your speed. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Equine CT scanner can peek inside standing, conscious horses
Horses are majestic creatures, but one thing they are not is tiny. Well, not for long, anyway. That creates a problem for equine medicine. When an animal weighs just under an imperial ton and is six-foot tall at the shoulders, there's only so much a veterinarian can do while the animal is still conscious. To that end, the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (phew) is partnering with imaging outfit 4DDI to make free-standing CT scans a reality. Dubbed "Equimagine," the setup uses a pair of robotic arms that can gather internal images of a horse while it's awake and standing on all fours.
Riding High might be the horse-riding MMO you've been waiting for
So how would you rate the horse situation in the games that you've played to date? Abysmal? Deplorable? Have you longed for the day when you could finally have your dream game that allowed you to take on the role of a horse in a third-person cover-based online experience? Riding High promises to let you do just that. Except for the third-person cover-based part. You won't be shooting anything here; you'll just be owning a virtual horse. While the official site is a little bare, the game's Facebook page has recently posted answers to a number of questions, confirming, for example, that the game will feature distinct personalities for each horse and that players will be able to engage in PvP activities. (Probably not horse fights.) If this really is all you ever wanted from online gaming, you can register for the future beta test on the official site. [Thanks to Zenaphex for the tip!]
Albion Online's mounts are for riding, not fighting
A new dev diary regarding Albion Online's mounts reveals that the beasts will be strictly for transportation only. "The player is unable to fight, gather or interact with any buildings while on horseback. Mounts will provide a number of buffs to the character, which are effective immediately when they mount, and deactivate when they dismount," the team posted. While mounts won't be trampling over enemy's corpses, they will come in armored versions that can shrug off more damage if a player is attacked. Mounts are not only represented by horses, but oxen as well, with the latter being more suited to transporting goods over long distances. You can see a quick video of Albion's mounts in action after the break! [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Flickr Find: Just horsing around with a MacBook Pro
See folks, you really can make an ass of yourself when you spend too much time on your MacBook Pro. Of course, we should probably ask reader Ken Fager if he was just horsing around on Halloween in this gem of a photo taken a few years ago.
Daily Roundup: Xperia Z1 review, JetBlue's 12Mbps Fly-Fi, iMessage briefly appears on Android, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Minecraft clocks in 10 million PC purchases, dev hints at horses in 1.6
Minecraft (PC) has hit 10M! As promised, a subtle hint on the main 1.6 feature (thanks @ebbakier): imgur.com/qAuCLex :D - Jens Bergensten (@jeb_) April 4, 2013Minecraft has sold 10 million copies on PC, Mac and Linux. That puts the world-builder's total sales across PC, XBLA and mobile well over 24 million, and makes it the seventh best-selling PC game ever, says Mojang Customer Support Manager Marc Watson.To celebrate, developer Jens Bergensten teased a major update coming to version 1.6.(Spoilers: it's a horse.) Minecraft's Redstone Update, 1.5, hit on March 13, and now it seems Mojang has version 1.6 champing at the bit.
The Art of Wushu: Paying doesn't mean winning
Age of Wushu has come under a lot of fire as a pay-to-win game. There are ways to get in-game power for out-of-game money, so there are a lot of reasons to assume that real cash can turn you into one of the top fighters in Jianghu. Fortunately for the dedicated players (and to the chagrin of cash shop whales), the truth is a bit more skewed. There are varying degrees of pay-to-win cash shops, but Age of Wushu's cash shop provides very few outlets to directly buy power. The main culprit is the simple fact that spending real money can give a player silver to spend on anything he or she wants. Silver is king in Age of Wushu. The entire player market revolves around silver, and the largest source of it comes from the cash shop. Does this mean you need to pay to have a chance?
Daily iPad App: Gasketball horses around on iOS
Gasketball is the latest title from Greg Wohlwend and Mike Boxleiter, better known as Mikengreg. They had a hit on Flash and iOS previously with the great Solipskier, and Greg helped another programmer out quite a bit on a big release called Puzzlejuice. Just like both of those games, Gasketball is nearly technically flawless, and gorgeously designed. It's a 2D basketball game, similar to StarDunk, although it's much more tactile. Instead of aiming the ball, you flick it around the screen, trying to bounce it off of various objects, and land it in the basket in as few shots as possible. Gasketball has a singleplayer mode, in which you play against a cute little robot who pulls off some great shots. But the real draw is the online H.O.R.S.E mode. You set up shots, pull them off perfectly (after a few tries), and then send them to others who must duplicate your perfection. It's an old game, but the 2D movement and touchscreen really bring the game into its own. The game has been downloaded 200,000 times, but it hasn't been a big moneymaker for Mikengreg. H.O.R.S.E mode is free, and you can unlock other items via in-app purchase. The full game unlock is US$2.99, and maybe Mike and Greg made a mistake, as the free gameplay is worth at least that much. At any rate, if you like the game, maybe you'll be convinced to spend extra money and buy more of the items to use. Even if not, Gasketball is a solid title that really shines when you've got friends to play the H.O.R.S.E mode with. Hopefully, Mike and Greg will get their business model figured out in a way that adequately compensates them for their hard work.
The Road to Mordor: Hands-on with Riders of Rohan's mounted combat
I remember the very first thought I had when Turbine announced Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan: If the mounted combat isn't very, very good, this expansion's going to be a big dud. I don't think we've ever had an expansion that leaned so heavily on a core system for not only the bulk of its gameplay but also its style. Crude my thought may have been, it felt like the truth. I don't know any other successful MMO that utilized mounted combat as anything but a sideshow curiosity. The LotRO team was putting too much emphasis on mounted combat for it to fizzle. I think I can breathe easier now that I've had a chance to spend an hour fiddling with mounted combat while talking to Senior Producer Aaron Campbell. What I saw was an alpha build of the expansion (the beta is scheduled to start soon, perhaps as soon as next week), but once I got used to careening over the plains at 88 miles per hour, it felt just right. It felt like LotRO.
LotRO devs show off its mounted combat system
While the upcoming Riders of Rohan expansion for Lord of the Rings Online promises a great wealth of content for players, undoubtedly its keystone feature is mounted combat. This system became the centerpiece of a filmed discussion between CM Rick Heaton and Producer Aaron Campbell. One of the concerns that Heaton addresses is how player classes will translate once on horseback. Campbell says that the team has created ways for those roles to continue, albeit in a slightly different form. One example given was how Guardians can taunt, except that on horseback, it means that the enemy will then start riding alongside of you. "You can bring them in and control the battlefield," Campbell says. Other points of discussion include how Fellowships work while mounted, the different stances (aggressive, utility, and defensive), the speed of combat, and situational awareness. The pair also gives us a first glimpse of mounted combat in action. You can watch the full dev video after the jump!
Google doodle gets animated to honor zoopraxiscope creator
Long before there was Flash animation in the world, Eadweard Muybridge gave us the Zoopraxiscope, a simple stop-motion device considered by some to be the first-ever movie projector. Created in 1879, the player features spinning glass disks that give displayed images the illusion of movement. Muybridge, born this day in 1830, photographed a galloping horse to help settle the question of whether all four of the animal's hooves leave the ground at the same time while galloping (they do), later animating the image via his new invention. That movement can be set in motion with a click on today's Google doodle.
Visualized: Huawei crafts smartphone pegasus, makes no mention of quad-core horsepower (update: video)
Crafted from 1,000 (or 3,000, depending on who you talk to) smartphones, Huawei's symybol for this year's MWC proudly stands in squarely in the middle of the mobile madness. However, the chinese handset manufacturer still remains a bit of a dark horse in this year's selection of OEM fillies.Update: We've added a gallery below and a short video after the break.%Gallery-149616%Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
Leaderboard: Mechanized vs. monster mounts
Unless you're stuck in the invisible wall, no jumping, running-with-your-hands-flopping-about hell of Guild Wars, chances are you've gotten the opportunity to pick up a mount or two in an MMO. It's one of the ways that MMOs are so superior to the real world: There are no driver tests, no insurance policies, no (usually) gas. You just plop down some money and the vendor looks the other way while you go off-roading in a major metropolitan area. But it wouldn't be a Leaderboard if we didn't force you to choose between your '67 Mustang and your pet Tauntaun, and so it shall be. In the world of mounts, there are two categories: the mechanized and the monsters. Vehicle mounts may be more rare due to fantasy's dominance over the genre, but they're still there and quite popular for the set that doesn't appreciate staring at horse doody all the live-long day. Then again, the fantastic creatures that have served as animal mounts are unceasing in variety as they are in style. So what shall it be? Will you plug Old Yeller and go with your motorcycle, or will you mothball your favorite dune buggy in favor of Seabiscuit? Vote after the jump!
WRUP: I will make sure you never buy knives again
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too! Ladies and gentleman, there is a Twitter account I'd like you all to meet: @horse_ebooks. On its surface, it's nothing special -- just a Russian-owned Twitter spam account designed to sell (predictably) ebooks about horses. To appear as if it were a human, the account employs a comically bad algorithm that tweets seemingly random sentences fragments. If @horse_ebooks is an attempt to pass a Turing test, it fails on every level. Little it says seems relevant to horses; nothing it says seems to make sense. It's short dispatches are internet-age poetry at its finest -- absurd works of art, all. It's my inspiration. But that's not the only Twitter account I'd like to introduce you to. There's also the must-follow @WoWInsider. And @mikesacco. And @foxvanallen. And ... well, this kinda brings me to the week's bonus question that I asked our columnists: If there's one Twitter account you'd recommend everyone follow, what would it be?
Fantastic Skyrim bugs #1: Horse rides a dragon
Look, just because dragons are massive, ancient and deadly creatures doesn't mean they can't also have a sense of humor. After all, what's the point in all that power if you can't engage in a little horseplay every now and again?
The Tattered Notebook: A 'Top Gear' look at mounts
Previously, I've been writing about the weighty topic of free-to-play vs. live subscription servers in EverQuest II. This week, I'd like to switch gears, both figuratively and literally, to talk about speed. I've recently become a fan of the show Top Gear, a British program(me) that is completely devoted to the love of cars. I don't know why -- I'm not really into cars, and my Volkswagon Passat Wagon hardly qualifies as a car with a soul. But I was watching a recent episode, the one in which Jeremy was driving an Aston Martin across country, and I thought about how far EQII's mount selection has grown. Gone are the days when your choices ranged from a horse with brown spots to a horse with white spots to the really impressive horse with brown and white spots. The only unique mounts back then were the Paladin and Shadow Knight "fun" mounts. Today, there are dozens of different types of mounts that run, leap, glide, and fly. And they're not all just marketplace quick hits; several are easily attained from simple quests or live events. In this week's Tattered Notebook, I'll look at a few of my favorite mounts with an ode to Top Gear.
Patch 4.3: Worgen racial mounts
Blizzard has finally seen fit to give Worgen players -- or more specifically, the Gilnean faction -- their own mounts. Worgen originally had no racial mount because of their innate ability Running Wild, which allowed the Worgen to be their own mounts, dropping to all fours and moving at mount speed. The new Gilnean mounts appear to be unarmored horses coming in brown and grey colors. It is presumed that players will be able to purchase these mounts if they are exalted with the Gilnean faction, much like how other factions' mounts work. Players were torn over Running Wild, mostly because each mount collected counts toward the achievement Mountain o' Mounts, which rewards a Red or Blue Dragonhawk to fly around on. Many Alliance players were upset over the fact that Horde players had an easier time collecting 100 mounts because of the Goblins' trikes. Horses make sense for Worgen, as Worgen are still essentially a Human nation, and Humans in Warcraft ride horses. These two particular mounts seem a bit plain, though. These new mounts are coming in most likely to ease the disparity between mounts when faction changes occur. All in all, this is good news for Alliance mount collectors.
The OverAchiever: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain o' Mounts
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we contribute to Azeroth's obesity epidemic by refusing to walk. Mounts: They get your ass from point A to point B, and if you're lucky, they'll do it as stylishly as possible. They're the most immediately visible status symbol in WoW and often give you a one-glance note on the kind of player at whom you're looking. People astride Invincible can be counted upon to be hardcore raiders from the Wrath of the Lich King era, someone riding a Violet Proto-Drake is never new to the game, and players rocking a White Stallion are seriously old school. Players who have been around for any length of time almost inevitably accrue a stable's worth of beasties to cart them around, but some folks go the extra mile for the Leading the Cavalry and Mountain o' Mounts achievements. In Cataclysm, these are a lot easier than they once were, although you should still be prepared to dump a ton of gold and time into them no matter what. Fortunately, the first part of the Mountain o' Mounts trek should also net you The Ambassador achievement and title.
