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Robosen Robotics' Optimus Prime collectible responds to voice commands
Robosen Robotics has teamed up with Hasbro to build a programmable Optimus Prime collectible.
Ubtech’s latest educational, dancing robot is bigger and more lifelike
There are plenty of educational coding robots, but few have moves like UBTECH's dancing robot MeeBot. UBTECH launched the JIMU build-your-own-bot kit for MeeBot in 2016. Today, the company unveiled MeeBot 2.0.
HP ships $50 WiFi Mobile Mouse, gives your Bluetooth radio a break
If you've been waiting oh-so-patiently for HP's $49.99 WiFi Mobile Mouse to ship, take heart -- the aforesaid critter is now ready to free up one more valuable USB port at your workstation. As mentioned before, this ain't your mum's wireless mouse, as it makes use of WiFi technology -- you know, instead of the tried-and-true Bluetooth. In other words, this bad boy doesn't require anything other than itself to connect. HP promises up to nine months of battery life, offers five programmable buttons, a four-way tilt scroll wheel and adjustable sensitivity. Just think -- you can finally choose to keep those remaining Four Loko cans chilled without resorting to an inbuilt trackpad. Reason enough to pull the trigger, yeah? %Gallery-126581%
Scientist cooks up adjustable strength metals
As you may know, crafting a katana is a delicate process that involves carefully constructing a razor-sharp high-carbon edge around a soft shock-absorbent core. One day though, smiths and forging fires could be replaced by electrode-wielding mad-scientists, with the technology to selectively harden and soften metal at will. At least that's what we envisioned when we read about Jörg Weißmüller's breakthrough research in the field of nanomaterials. The German scientist discovered that by placing precious metals in acid he could create tiny ducts through corrosion. Once those channels are flooded with a conductive liquid, electrical currents can be used to harden the material and, if you change your mind about the brittle results, the effect can easily be reversed to make it soft again. The tech could eventually lead to self-healing vehicle armor or scratch-resistant cellphones -- but, really, we just want to zap our way to a high-quality samurai sword.
Tabula scores $108 million to bring cheap, programmable chips to the masses
If you were to pry open your laptop, microwave or TV you'd find they're all loaded with an array of highly-specialized silicon. Designing, manufacturing, or just purchasing these chips is a major cost for electronics makers. Semiconductor company Tabula, which just secured $108 million in funding to help bring its 3PLD ABAX reprogrammable chips to market, hopes to make these dedicated components a thing of the past. Compared to similarly customizable FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), Tabula's chips are cheaper, smaller, and faster. This magic trifecta of attributes could put programmable logic into consumer products like HDTVs and may one day allow for hardware to be updated over the internet the way software is now. However, the immediate promise is being able to use the same chip for multiple purposes across several products. That should drive down costs -- and there's no way to make consumers happier than by slashing prices. Full PR and video after the break.
inPulse Bluetooth smartwatch gets Facebook Places check-in app for Android (video)
Ever since Allerta released an SDK for its well-hyped inPulse smartwatch, it was only a matter of time before we start seeing more practical applications that take this Bluetooth peripheral beyond the BlackBerry ecosystem. For instance, the latest example comes from the inPulse's very own Lead Designer Eric Migicovsky, who happens to be a fan of Facebook Places and possibly an Android convert. Rather than having to pull out his Nexus One for every check-in, Migicovsky can now use his simple app on his inPulse to grab a list of nearby locations off the phone, and then check in with just a click of a button. Pretty neat, eh? For those interested, you can grab the project code off inPulse's website and get programming.
inPulse smartwatch turns programmable, and it can almost play Doom (video) (update)
Once upon a time the inPulse was a BlackBerry peripheral, but no more -- now, it's a fully programmable device-agnostic Bluetooth wrist computer. That's because its manufacturer Allerta released an SDK this week, which lets the 52Mhz ARM7 processor and 8Kb of RAM within display whatever you'd like on the 1.3-inch, 96 x 128 pixel screen. Like the time of day... or this tiny, practically unplayable 3D game. Yours for $149. Update: Sounds like reports of the demise of BlackBerry support for InPulse were greatly exaggerated! The new developer support for the device is very much as described above, but the company assures us that Blackberry connectivity is still a huge part of inPulse, and that the Blackberry Main App is currently available from the company.
Misa Digital Kitara hands-on preview (video)
Ambidextrous, capacitive, programmable, open source, five simultaneous touch inputs. The Misa Digital Kitara has quite the laundry list of goodies to boast about, but we couldn't let it slide through CES without getting our fingers on it and exploring for ourselves. The first thing that strikes you about this guitar-shaped synthesizer is its weight distribution -- it's no heavier than a good electric guitar, but a lot more of that weight is contained within its neck -- and the second will inevitably be its lightning-quick response to touch. Misa tells us latency is less than 5 milliseconds and it felt like it. There are two main modes of operation: a string mode, as seen above, and a ball mode allowing for even more adjustability. Both modes can then be further tweaked by choosing between the red and blue setting, with the former allowing for the performance of hammer-ons. Sliding your finger around the 8-inch touchscreen can do all sorts of wonderful things as well, such as altering pitch, tempo and volume, while those fearful of having no tactile feedback in string mode can apply a clear sheet over the screen that has tiny little ridges where the strings would usually reside. We say "usually," because you'll be able to configure the distance between the imaginary strings for yourself. The Kitara runs an open source Linux OS, which will be updatable via USB and is already compatible with Mac, PC and, naturally, Linux machines. It also has more than a hundred sound presets and we've been promised the option to customize them and create new ones by playing around with the algorithms in the future. The black Kitara is made out of good old plastic (but it's made very well) and costs $849 whereas the silver one you see in the gallery below is constructed out of a single block of aluminum and will set buyers back $2,899. Pre-orders are going on now through Misa Digital's online store and shipping is set to start on April 3. Video follows below. %Gallery-113409%
Researchers develop programmable molecular circuitry for living cells
Researchers at the UCSF School of Pharmacy's Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, led by Christopher A. Voigt have just published a paper which promises to get your circuits moving. The team has been working with E. coli bacteria to build logic gates like the ones found in computers directly into cells, making it possible to rewire and program them. The simple logic gates used in the experiment were built into genes then inserted into E. coli cells. The logic gates then acted as the communicator between the separate strains, allowing them to be connected together.The use of logic gates in cells could make it possible to tackle more complicated processes, so that science can begin to use cells at the molecular level for biomedical advances.
DARPA's programmable matter initiative strives to make the ultimate Swiss Army knife
Remember Intel's shape shifting matter concepts? Well, those realty-bending cats at DARPA are looking to put their own spin on it with a Programmable Matter program of their own. As is their mantra, the long-term goals are pretty wild: researcher Dr. Mitchell R. Zakin is hopeful they can one day build a container that looks like a paint can and will form universal spare parts or tools such as hammers and wrenches based on the soldiers' needs, using a building material they call "mesomatter" that range anywhere from one hundred microns to a centimeter in size. Currently five months into the program's second phase, there's still another fifteen to go before they move on. By then, the group expect to be able to use the technology and assemble four or five different three-dimensional solids. Best be careful, if this falls in the wrong hands, we'll have more "leaked iPhone" images ever previously thought possible. [Via Wired]
Color changing Luxeed U5 LED keyboard is a rave at your fingertips
Luxeed's got a fine history of making the keyboard a fantastical piece of wonder, and its newest offering is not exception. The U5 LED keyboard has pretty much everything one could ask for in a colorful peripheral -- programmable, patterned LEDs which are guaranteed to brighten up your day. It boasts support for Windows, Linux and Mac (previous versions were Windows only), so if it's ever made available outside of Korea, we can guarantee you we'll be getting one for every member of our dance posse. They're available for pre-order in Korea now for KRW 99,000 (about $77 USD). One more mountain-moving shot after the break. [Via Technabob]
Intel's shape-shifting programmable matter shown on video, sadly not for real
If you were as confused as we were by Intel's talks of programmable matter, an intelligent amorphous blob formed of microscopic glass spheres and able to take any shape, you'll want to check out the video from CNN embedded below. It shows the stuff in action -- albeit rendered, conceptual action -- allowing a group of designers take a car that looks a lot like a Cadillac and make it even more slab-sided, changing its color a few times, and then causing it to explode in what can only be a 1/18 scale preview of another installment of The Matrix. We can't wait to have a blob of this stuff on our desk to play with (it'd be the ultimate stress ball), but we're guessing it's going to be a long, long time before that happens.
Intel talks up shape-shifting "programmable matter," bugs us out
We've managed to somewhat wrap our brains around shape-shifting robots and printable circuits, but we're still working on fully understanding the latest Intel spill. As IDF came to a close, Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, presented a keynote speech in which he explained just how close the outfit was to realizing "programmable matter." Granted, he did confess that end products were still years away, but researchers have been looking at ways to "make an object of any imaginable shape," where users could simply hit a print button and watch the matter "take that shape." He also explained that the idea of programmable matter "revolves around tiny glass spheres with processing power and photovoltaic for generating electricity to run the tiny circuitry." For those now sitting with a blank stare on their face (read: that's pretty much all of you, no?), hit up the read link for even more mind-boggling "explanations."[Via MAKE]
Luxeed's Dynamic Pixel LED Keyboard fills a void for under two bills
For the longest time, Luxeed's eye-tingling keyboards were only available on the other side of the planet. Now, however, the Dynamic Pixel LED Keyboard is finally for sale on US soil. We'll spare you the completely irrelevant Optimus Maximus links -- after all, this thing only allows you to tweak the colors of each individual key -- but those obsessed with lighting up their gaming area without using those boring incandescents will certainly find plenty to love. And yeah, the $199.99 (for the keyboard alone; the number pad attachment is another $34.99) price tag is way closer to "manageable" than that 'board you really want.[Thanks, Zarian]
Programmable NeuroLED lighting solution has brains, man
Joining the elite club of intelligent lighting solutions that are sophisticated enough to not be laughed at is NeuroLED. Truth be told, we're pretty far from understanding exactly how this contraption works, but we are told that the system is controlled by software written in Java and that it can be altered to react in different ways via toggle switches or wall-mounted touch panels. From what we can tell, the system can be used for pure entertainment, educating or even spicing up a nightclub, and considering that it can play nice with WiFi, remote access is also within the realm of possibility. That's about all the explaining we can do -- click on through to let the vid do the rest of the yappin'.
Luxeed keyboard goes disco, sports programmable color keys
We can't think of a much better way to compliment your disco-inspired mouse than, you guessed it, a psychedelic keyboard. While we've seen our fair share of colored keyboards, Luxeed's latest elevates the game by letting you program each individual key with one of 512 colors, "be it a single hue, a spectrum rainbow," or your own distinct / tacky creation. Reportedly, users can even download color skins / patterns directly from the firm's website, or you can save your own design for future reference, and actual brightness levels can also be adjusted right alone with tone. Moreover, users can make the keys light up and dim based on the beat of the music surrounding it, sure to create quite the dance-floor experience right in your studio. Of course, Luxeed is marketing this as a way to relieve stress via light therapy, but everyone knows this here is best used with all the lights shut out.[Via CNET]
Lego Robots now Mac-friendly
Just when I thought there wasn't any new hobby that could arise and completely eat up any paltry free time I might have, they make LEGO robots Mac-friendly: "The heart of the new system is the NXT brick, an autonomous 32-bit LEGO microprocessor that can be programmed using a PC, or for the first time in the retail offering, a Mac. After building their robots, users create a program within easy-to-use yet feature-rich software, powered by LabVIEW from National Instruments." Engadget has a great video up of the different robots on display at CES that you should definitely check out.
