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Super-precise artificial hand uses smart wires as muscles
As a rule, bionic hands are clunky contraptions made of motors, pneumatics and other machinery that just can't be as elegant as the real thing. Germany's Saarland University might just change that, however. Its researchers have developed an artificial hand that uses smart nitinol (nickel titanium) wires as its muscles. All you do to make them flex is heat them up or cool them down -- the metal 'remembers' its original shape before you bend it, so you don't need bulky equipment to move it back and forth. The wire bundles are as thin as cotton, but they're very strong and can move with much more precision and speed than usual. They don't even need sensors, since electrical resistance in the wires themselves is enough.
Emoti-bots turn household objects into mopey machines (video)
Some emotional robots dip deep into the dark recesses of the uncanny valley, where our threshold for human mimicry resides. Emoti-bots on the other hand, manage to skip the creepy human-like pitfalls of other emo-machines, instead employing household objects to ape the most pathetic of human emotions -- specifically dejection and insecurity. Sure it sounds sad, but the mechanized furniture designed by a pair of MFA students is actually quite clever. Using a hacked Roomba and an Arduino, the duo created a chair that reacts to your touch, and wanders aimlessly once your rump has disembarked. They've also employed Nitinol wires, a DC motor, and a proximity sensor to make a lamp that seems to tire with use. We prefer our lamps to look on the sunny side of life, but for those of you who like your fixtures forlorn, the Emoti-bots are now on display at Parsons in New York and can be found moping about in the video after the break.
