bioloid
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Nokia N900 rises from the grave, replaces robot's head
Nokia's buried-but-beloved N900 smartphone has performed many parlor tricks in the past, but its latest role as a carbon-fiber swaddled cyborg cranium just might take the cake. Using the equally forsaken MeeGo Maemo OS, a roboticist by the name of Sascha hacked his way into the phone's three-axis controller and other components in order to bring his Bioloid creation to life. The smartphone's video streaming and remote access functions may also give this bipedal mech a leg-up on the last N900 robo we admired -- but we'll need to see some video of it all in action before we make that call. Meanwhile, let's just hope that this unholy union of rejected parts doesn't become self-aware and turn on the company that cast it away.
Building Bioloid Premium doesn't look easy, even if you do have $1,199 to do it
Remember Bioloid? How could you forget, right? Well, we had the pleasure of meeting his more expensive brother and Avatar-inspired-sister Bioloid Premium at the New York Toy Fair. Meant for hobbyist robot builders, the kit comes with everything you need to build and program the plastic and metal humanoid, including Robotis' AX-12 servo actuator and 'C' programming software. But getting Bioloid to walk, run and dance to Lady Gaga is going to cost ya a whopping $1,199. That seems like a lot of dough for us non-robot builders, but this guy's heartwarming demeanor and balancing act almost has us forking it over. You'll see what we mean in the video just past the break. %Gallery-85589%
Bioloid robot goes climbing on its own, will one day rip you from your hiding tree
It's a well documented fact that the Robot Apocalypse is only a matter of weeks, moments or scores away, but today we're facing the grim reality that it may already be underway in certain sections of Germany. Thanks to a tie-up between whiz kids at the Technical University of Dortmund and University of Manitoba, the so-called Bioloid you see above can actually scale walls on its own. As in, autonomously. The robot doesn't rely on a predefined motion sequence; instead, it looks up and figures out the most efficient way to get from the bottom to the top based on the X / Y positions of the grips. Future versions of the critter will utilize a full-on vision system, but hopefully we'll have outposts established on Mars by then in order to maintain some semblance of freedom. Peep the horror show after the break (if you must).
