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This video will make you miss the heyday of animatronic puppets
Sure, CGI has come a long way. But there's still something magical about practical special effects in films. At Engadget Expand, we got a close look at some of the most intriguing work from animatronics expert Mark Setrakian. You've probably seen his stuff: He created the tiny, head-mounted alien that delivered some crucial plot information to Will Smith in Men in Black. He specializes in creating complex animatronics that appear surreally lifelike. (He particularly enjoys building terrifying robotic hands.)
Congratulations to our Insert Coin winners: Poursteady and Noke
The votes have been tallied; the judges deliberated; and we have our winners for this year's Insert Coin. The judges tossed their support behind Poursteady, a robot that makes five pour-over cups of coffee and handed the company $10,000 to help get off the ground. Noke took home the $15,000 readers choice prize. While we've seen plenty of smartlocks before, this is the first time we've seen Bluetooth crammed into the padlock form factor. You can relive the entire competition, from the initial presentations by the 10 semi-finalists, to the grilling by the judges, and finally the prizes being awarded after the break.
Making music in a Kinect-powered sandbox (video)
Tucked away under a tent at Expand 2014 was perhaps the coolest exhibition on the show floor: Sand Noise Device, a literal interactive sandbox experience. No, this isn't a new Grand Theft Auto; it's powered by hacked gaming tech, though, including an Xbox 360 Kinect sensor and a PlayStation Eye camera. Watching it in action immediately brought memories of Xbox 360 classic Geometry Wars to mind, actually. A ring radiates out from a center origin point, and when it hits the glowing, multicolored pucks (that are tracked for position by the PS Eye), a series of particles start shooting outward.
Watch these adorable robots dance better than you
We're used to seeing robots like MIT's Cheetah that are absolutely terrifying, so starting day two of Expand New York with an android dance party was a welcome change of pace. It came, of course, by way of the folks at Aldebaran Robotics who brought a trio of their fifth-generation Nao bi-peds to bust a groove. The outfit's James Dietrich said that while there are over 10,000 of the friendly little 'bots in use in some 70 countries, there are a more than a few things holding us back from having Rosie from The Jetsons in our homes. Namely, the price needs to come down: Developers can get one for $6,000 and a consumer model is a whopping $8,000.
The future of food, starring crickets and home hydroponics
Humanity currently numbers in the 7 billion range. By 2050, the United Nations expects Earth to house just shy of 10 billion human beings. Sounds like a lot, right? It is, but arthropods ("insects, spiders and other arachnids, crustaceans and myriapods") reading along know better: Our tiny companions outnumber us (and all other mammals) by a staggering margin of over 300:1. Though most of the world is already on board with munching insects, much of Western Europe and North America view the concept as madness. Exo, a Brooklyn-based protein bar maker, is trying to change that. For every $3 bar you eat, the protein you consume is "mostly" from (powderized) crickets, to the tune of approximately 40 crickets per bar. I tried one and can confirm: They definitely taste like protein bars, crickets or not. For Exo co-founder Greg Sewitz, the secret to getting people comfortable with eating bugs is disguising it in foods they're already comfortable with.
3D Robotics is building the drones that just about anyone can fly
The FAA might not know what to do with drones, but UAV technology is moving so fast we're thinking more "when," not "if" the skies will be filled with quadrocopters. To help more people jump into the future, 3D Robotics SVP of Sales and Marketing Colin Guinn joined us at Expand to show off the company's drone tech that makes the learning curve easier. He brought along the Iris+ drone, which expands upon the original model released last year by adding more autonomous smarts. Not only can it can take off and land by itself, but it can also orient around you for a third-person chase cam/drone selfie, or follow a predetermined, GPS-guided path to take aerial photography. It packs a GoPro-ready mount, datalink that lets you fly it from your PC/Android/iOS/etc. and is available now for $750. It can fly for a little over 20 minutes on a charge and just needs its propellers screwed on to work out of the box. If you've wanted to get into drones, but were concerned your first flight could be your last, the Iris+ was made with you in mind. Check out the full demo and discussion after the break to find out just how easy handling one of these can be.
MC10 takes the guesswork out of fitness with wearable sensors
There's no denying that the wearable craze is upon us, whether we like it or not. MC10 is quite familiar with employing sensors to deliver info on training and athlete performance, and it's looking to do even more. If you'll recall, the outfit was behind the Checklight -- developed alongside Reebok -- for monitoring blows to the head and the potential for concussions. Now the company is working on a sticker that collects data, and more importantly, isn't confined to a specific location -- like your wrist. So, just what's the advantage to compiling the loads of info that your body generates? Well, there are quite a few really.
Using Lego to either save or destroy Manhattan
There was plenty of fun stuff going on at Expand, but certainly one of the highlights was a competition put on by Lego. The toy giant challenged participants to create a machine that either saved or destroyed Manhattan. (Poor Manhattan is always in the crosshairs...) Six participants got up and demoed their creations, which ranged from remote controlled street sweepers, to soothing music-playing robots and a violent bot that smashed anyone or anything violating its personal space. Ultimately though, winners had to be selected (this is a competition after all).
Cute robots make good filmmakers and maybe better companions
What is the last risk you took? Who do you love most in the world? If you died tomorrow, what would you regret the most? Posing those questions to your friends would probably net you a snide rejoinder, and a stranger would walk away in a huff (if you were lucky). Artist and engineer Alexander Reben wanted to explore what kinds of relationships could arise between humans and robots, so he did the only logical thing: he and his team build a legion of cute machines to ask those very questions.
A colony on Mars will be the 'next giant leap for mankind'
Bas Lansdorp, CEO and co-founder of Mars One, is nothing if not ambitious. His dream is the stuff of science fiction -- not only does he want to put humans on Mars in 2025, but he wants to leave them there to establish a self-sufficient settlement. And he plans to fund the enterprise, in part, by televising everything from pre-mission training to daily life on the Red Planet. Or as much as the colonists want us to see, anyway, as they'll ultimately be in control. As you can imagine, he's a pretty interesting guy to talk to, which is why we were psyched to have him on the Engadget Expand stage to articulate his vision, and what he hopes it'll mean for humanity.
Virtual reality has a future beyond video games, and it's already started
With devices like the Oculus Rift and Sony's Project Morpheus driving the public's interest in virtual reality, it's easy assume the future of VR lies in video games. It's a safe prediction, but it isn't right: "It's a broad category," Matterport's Matt Bell said at Engadget Expand. "I think it's going to go in about ten directions at once." Bell compares the future of VR to the history of the internet -- in the early days, we had no idea how pervasive the technology would become. Now it's wormed its way into every aspect of our lives. Bell isn't alone in his optimism: LindenLab's Ebbe Altberg and BeAnotherLab's Marte Roel joined us in New York City to talk about the future of VR beyond gaming.
Learning circuits and programming with the Geek Squad
If you're ever made a gadget purchase at Best Buy, you've likely heard of the Geek Squad: the retailer's in-house fleet of tech support and repair specialists. Well, helping with your hard drive issues isn't all they do. Here at Expand NY, the crew is showing off some of the tools used at Geek Squad Academy events where kids can learn about technology -- from circuits to programming and more. Being the type to roll up our sleeves, we headed over to take a look. Jump down after the break to take a look at the banana-powered piano and video game controlled with a pair of watermelons.
3D printing is venturing beyond plastic and into your home
When you think of what 3D printing can do, you probably imagine simple plastic models and parts -- clever, but not exactly revolutionary. If you ask Dovetailed's Vaiva Kalnikaite and Make's Anna Kaziunas France, however, they'll tell you that 3D printers can accomplish much, much more. Dovetailed's 3D-printed fruit is just the start of what you can do with food, for example. Kalnikaite told Engadget Expand guests that 3D printing offers not just extra creativity with how you present meals, but a way to change the meals themselves. Do you like the taste of bananas, but not their texture? You could print food that offers everything you like, and nothing you don't. This could be particularly helpful if you have a food allergy, since you could enjoy food that was previously off-limits.
Even you can build your own social wearable
It's easier than you think to create your own wearable gadget -- assuming you're handy with a needle and thread. At Engadget Expand this weekend, Kate Hartman, an associate professor at OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) University led workshops focused on building social wearables. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that my inability to sew well would hinder my wearable dreams. But, as you can see in the gallery below, others were far more successful.
DARPA goes beyond killer robots with prosthetics and Ebola research
DARPA, the military's mad science division, is also a master of PR -- we all cheer them on, even though they may be building a robot army that one day hunts us down (kidding!) There's a lot more to the Agency than robotics work, however. DARPA was actually founded to "prevent technological surprises" of any kind after the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957. As a result, it also supports projects peripherally related to defense, like Ebola research, brain-controlled prosthetics and space exploration. Here at Engadget's Expand NY, we sat down with Director Arati Prabhakar to learn about how its pushing boundaries with its, shall we say, less terrifying work.
60 seconds with the kit that makes everyone their own 'mini EPA'
Sure, there are plenty of consumer-focused gadgets in our Insert Coin competition. But at least one group has a much more altruistic vision. Public Lab wants everyone to have a spectrometer in their home that allows people to detect pollutants in their environment. The heart of the Homebrew Oil Testing kit is simple enough: a refractor that attaches to the camera on your phone. The cheapo version can be made from a DVD and a folded-up piece of cardboard, but there's also a heavier duty plastic model in the works. The other hardware component is a simple light source. In this case: a Blu-ray laser. If you want to know what sort of foreign substances are floating around in your water, you shine the light through a sample of it and into the spectrometer strapped to your phone.
Limitations drive hip-hop producer RJD2's creativity
"Basically, I'm here to make records." For a musician who has access to any piece of kit under the sun, producer RJD2 prefers limits to keep him on task musically. Anything else -- restoring old synthesizers or building new ones -- is just a distraction from his actual job. With hard rules in place for what you can or cannot do, ingenuity comes easier. "There's something to be said for an idea that's well discussed in jazz... oftentimes, for me, creativity exists in a threshold you pass where you stop thinking about what you're doing and you just start doing," he said in a fireside chat at Expand New York. "When you work in an environment with limitations, you can reach that creativity faster."
60 seconds with Hemingwrite, an E Ink typewriter
Between social networks, video games and the endless void of procrastination we call "the internet," computers can make pretty poor writing devices. Isn't there something better? Insert Coin contenders Adam Leeb and Patrick Paul think so -- they've created the Hemingwrite: an E Ink typewriter that does almost nothing, save text entry. It's a minimalist writing machine that features a machine-tooled aluminum chassis, a satisfying mechanical keyboard and a six-week battery life. It's not completely devoid of modern faculties, however: it also automatically uploads your prose to a cloud storage system as you type it.
60 seconds with the world's first Bluetooth padlock
In just a matter of three months, the Noke smart padlock managed to make its way from Kickstarter to our Expand event as an Insert Coin contender, so of course it's rather special. First of all, it's a Bluetooth 4.0-enabled steel bolt that can be unlocked with a click on the shackle when your iPhone or Android phone is nearby. Secondly, the companion app lets you share your Noke locks with family and friends, thus saving you the hassle of passing on a physical key. You can even set the repetition and security level for the authorization, as well as tracking history by users or by locks.
60 seconds with a simple but smart home monitoring device
There are already plenty of ways to keep an eye on your abode from afar, so any new home monitoring product better have a fresh approach if it wants to stand out from the competition. For start-up Form Devices, the goal wasn't to create an elaborate, connected home security system that did more than existing products, but to make something simple, affordable and user-friendly. And, it must've done something right with its Point home monitoring device, which cruised past its $50,000 Kickstarter goal just two days after the campaign went live, and is now participating in our Insert Coin competition at Engadget Expand. The plain white, palm-sized puck hosts sound, humidity, temperature, air quality and particle sensors, but no camera. This was a very intentional omission, not just because Point is supposed to be small and inconspicuous, but so users have peace of mind that nobody will ever be watching them.