RemoteControlCar
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Meet B, the flying car that'll make it even easier to terrorize local wildlife (video)
Sometimes, when a remote-control car and a remote-control helicopter love each other very much, they come together and produce something like the B. Well, okay, that's not exactly how this small flying car came about, but it's a nice story. Witold Mielniczek, a computational engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southampton, is currently running a Kickstarter for the simply named B, a hybrid car-helicopter that can handle both challenging terrains and limited air travel. Equipped with a sleek polycarbonate chassis, four propeller driving units (a fancy way of saying wheels) and an HD 1,280 x 720 camera to record one's travels, B seems to be the little flying car that could. In the greater scheme of things, Mielniczek hopes that B will one day be able to operate on water in addition to land and air. While it's no Avengers helicarrier, we suppose every journey begins with a single step. To see B in action, check out the video after the break.
CarBot lets you settle those grudges with battle mode
If you prefer your robots a little more terrestrial, there's Desk Pets' CarBot, a buggy that can do tricks, navigate mazes, and race with -- or fire on -- your buddies. The cars can be controlled by a free app installed on any iOS or Android Device, and allow up to four players to duke it out in multiple play modes. For mayhem lovers the most popular may be "battle," allowing you to fire on rival cars to disable them, along with a personality mode for freestyling and a drift 'n' race option. There's even a maze mode, in which the tiny wheeled bots use their infrared sensors to avoid objects with "military precision," according to the company. The built-in battery will give you 25 minutes of playtime for every 45 minutes of USB-based juicing, and each CarBot will set you back $30. Check out the PR and video after the break to let the rolling deathmatch commence.
Man steers R/C car with his hands, not to mention an HTML5-based web app (video)
With the right Arduino board, an R/C race car, a couple paperclips and the MacGyver spirit, we imagine most anyone can hack together a creative remote control these days... but how many can open-source an HTML5 web app that'll do the deed from any tablet, phone or PC? Gaurav Manek crafted just such a thing, and he'll demonstrate it for you on an Apple iPad in the video immediately above. What's more, he's also got a Kinect hack that uses Microsoft depth camera (with Code Laboratories' NUI SDK) to control the very same with the wave of a well-placed hand -- we're already envisioning fisticuffs should he and a lab partner try for some head-to-head racing action. That said, you don't need to wait for an illustrious creator to have all the fun. Why not download his source code at our links below and give it a go yourself?
German designer brings Wipeout racing game to life, burns up cardboard tracks with an R/C car (video)
The intersection of video games and real life is a fantastic place to play, as evidenced by Roombas, Halo and the occasional six-string guitar, but all you really need to blur reality is a webcam, an R/C car and a studio filled with cardboard. That's what Malte Jehmlich and company used to create this rendition of Wipeout, which moves practically as fast as the PlayStation original due to the blinding scale speed of its 1/28 model cars. It's all controlled by an arcade racing cabinet complete with steering wheel and on-screen display wirelessly connected to an Arduino board. Originally a two-month hobby project, the designers are presently working towards an advanced version with force feedback and powerups (including boost!) using sensors built right into the track -- and hopefully a forklift to lug all that corrugated wood pulp around. See it in action after the break.
Remote controlled car shoots for 200mph
200 miles-per-hour on steam? Yeah, you may catch us believing that one, but squeezing that kind of top-end power out of a 29.6-volt direct drive motor would be all kinds of impressive. Granted, the vehicle we're talking about is but a fraction of the size of a standard automobile, but Nick Maslowski is nevertheless hoping to break his own remote control car speed record of 134.4mph with the oh-so-drab X2. This little vehicle certainly won't win any Best in Show medals, but the streamlined design, melt-resistant foam tires, and onboard stabilization system will hopefully enable it to cruise somewhere close to its theoretical maximum speed of 274mph. Check out an (admittedly unexciting) video of a few test runs after the jump.[Via OhGizmo]
