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Meet the laundry-folding washing machine of our lazy-ass future
Socks are the hardest. For a future washing machine that washes, dries and then folds the results, it's one of the small barriers that remains in that latter stage. But as a research project that started back in 2008, Laundroid is finally getting there. Next year, the collaboration between housing firm Daiwa House, electronics company Panasonic and Seven Dreamers will start offering preorders, the year after that 'beta' machines, then folding machines for big institutions, with event full retail planned the year after that -- we'll be in 2019 by then. (That said, the all-in-one model is still at the in-development stage). There's no price and the presentation we saw added in a bunch of mosaic filtering on top as the shirt gradually got folded so you couldn't see how the thing actually works. But that's okay. We can wait. It's not going to stop us waiting our chore-dodging dreams to come true.
Daiwa House enlists Moogle for remote control crawlspace inspections
Apparently Japanese homebuilder Daiwa House offers crawl space inspections as part of its warranty service, and to that end have enlisted Moogle (rhymes with "goggle," not "Google"). The robot weighs just under 30 lbs, measures roughly 20 x 12 x 9.5 inches, and rocks a laser rangefinder, WiFi connectivity, and two cameras: one for driving, one for inspecting. If you happen to be in the country yourself and wish to try the thing out, it can be leased monthly for ¥40,000 ($500) or purchased outright for ¥200,000 ($2,500). Just brace yourself -- you never know what you're gonna find when you start digging around under people's houses. See it in action after the break.
Cyberdyne said to be mass producing $4,200 HAL robotic suit
Years after the HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) suit first debuted, it seems that Cyberdyne's pride and joy is about to get really real. According to a report over at HPlus Magazine, the company is linking up with Daiwa House in order to "begin mass production" of the cybernetic bodysuit. You already know what it does -- inflates the ego, boosts your strength and scores you loads of nerd dates -- but here's the crucial part: $4,200. Of course, there's no hard date on when the first of the 400 annual units produced will be made available, but we'd probably get up with someone about a pre-order if you're serious about going bionic.[Thanks, Phil]
