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Kiro robot teaches Korean kindergarten by day, discusses Kandinsky by night
This little girl loves Kiro. Why? Because he's probably the raddest robot teacher she's ever seen. Developed by Korea's Robot Research Institute, the bot recently wrapped up a three week trial period in a kindergarten classroom, where he apparently spent most of his time screening educational videos on his abdomen, playing interactive games, and keeping his students in rapt attention. When he wasn't busy dishing out Ritalin to his underlings, Kiro also served as a guide at the Dong-A University Museum, in Busan. After programming the droid with enough knowledge to make him sound smart, engineers set him loose within the art gallery, where he would provide visitors with background information in hushed, docent-dulcet tones. He loves kids. He loves art. He's always smiling. He's the kinda bot you could bring home to Dad. Scope him out for yourself in the video, after the break.
Strawberry Tree brings free, solar-powered charging to Belgrade's BlackBerrys, more (video)
Dead battery in Belgrade? Head to the city's Obrenovac district, where a group of students has developed the world's first public charging station powered entirely by solar energy. Known as the Strawberry Tree, the structure's 16 ports support a variety of handhelds, allowing pedestrians to juice up their cell phones in just ten to 15 minutes, at no charge. Its built-in batteries can also store up to a month's worth of back-up energy, enabling the station to hum along at night, or even during Serbia's less sunny seasons. In the first 40 days following its November launch, the Strawberry Tree logged some 10,000 charging sessions -- or about ten charges per hour. Creator Miloš Milisavljevic was just 17 years old when he came up with the idea, and now, at the ripe old age of 22, is looking to plant new stations across other Serbian cities, through his Strawberry Energy NGO. He says these installations won't generate much revenue from consumers, but that's not really the idea: "Energy from the sun is free, and it would be unethical to charge people to use the Strawberry Tree...We are trying to inspire young people to think about the source of the energy they use, and behave and act responsibly." You can check out the Strawberry Tree in the video below, or find out more about Milisavljevic's ideal-driven endeavors in the full PR.
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.
Students: Free Xbox 360 with purchase of Windows 7 PC
Microsoft is about to launch a new promotion offering any student who purchases a Windows 7 PC (laptop or desktop) at $699 or more a free 4GB Xbox 360 S. The promotion officially runs from May 23 through September 9, though Windows Team Blog notes that the end date will vary by retailer. Currently, the offer is only valid in the US, though details on similar offers in France and Canada are forthcoming. For all of the fine print, hit up the source link below.
Google to offer $20-a-month 'student package' for a Chrome laptop?
Just as we're wrapping up day one of Google I/O 2011, Forbes received an interesting piece of information regarding Chrome OS. According to an unnamed senior Google executive, tomorrow's keynote will see the launch of a Chrome laptop sold as an attractive $20-per-month "student package." If true, this will make a compelling option for laptop-seeking students bounded by a limited budget (booze before books, right?), and Forbes speculates that a similar enterprise offering will follow soon -- makes sense considering Google's already cozying up to businesses with its $50-a-year Google Apps suite. Anyhow, all will be unveiled soon enough -- keep an eye out for our Google I/O day 2 liveblog tomorrow for the full monty.
Intel licensing Kno hardware for partners with manufacturing knohow
A month or so ago, we reported that Kno was looking for a way out of the tablet hardware business and intended to transition itself into a purely software-centric operation. Well, now Bloomberg and All Things D tell us that a deal has been worked out to make that desire a reality. A $30 million investment round led by Intel Capital has reportedly been arranged, whose stipulations include granting Intel a license to the hardware designs and blueprints of the original dual-screen tablet. Chipzilla's share of the new buy-in is estimated at around $20 million, though before you start fantasizing about what the company's financial and R&D muscle could do for the platform, we should note that it apparently doesn't intend to build any tablets of its own. The goal is simply to obtain the knohow and share it with its OEM partners (while inevitably tying that gesture of goodwill to more chip orders). As to Kno itself, it'll try to exploit the new cash in its continued efforts to become an educational software delivery platform benefiting from its many partnerships with academic institutions. Knowledge is power, after all. Update: Not that there was much doubt, but this deal is now completely official. Press release is after the break.
Fruit Ninja live, bring your overcoat
Your virtual overcoat, that is. Students in a virtual reality workshop at the FH Wedel University of Applied Sciences cloned Fruit Ninja, the best-selling game for smartphones and tablets, in 3D using the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). The result is a life-size, fully immersive fruit slicing experience that transforms the casual game into a serious workout where players slay seedy sprouts with their (almost) bare hands. The life-size sword-slasher runs in CAVE, a virtual environment driven by four PCs, four rear-projection 3D displays, four infrared motion-tracking cameras, a 5.1 sound system and two "buttkickers" in the floor that rumble when a player's virtual steel blade encounters a bomb. To get the juiciest experience, players wear 3D glasses and hold a Wiimote for haptic feedback when hitting a fruit. Developers Thiemo, Alex, Matze and Moritz, media-informatics students at FH Wedel in Germany, took two weeks to complete the project. Perhaps next the foursome could tackle a 3D version of Angry Birds played from the point of view of the birds, Doodle Jump with real jumping, or Plants vs. Zombies with life-size zombies breaking down the front door. In any case, the 3D clone of Fruit Ninja, the fourth best-selling paid app on the App Store, is a delicious showcase of virtual reality technology and these students' skills. Continue to the full article to watch a short gameplay video.
Scientists improve blue OLED efficiency, don't promise everlasting light
Although this is not the first time we've seen an efficiency increase in blue OLEDs, it's worth noting that their proposed cap of productivity up to this point was a lowly five percent. It's exciting to learn, therefore, about a breakthrough by professor John Kieffer and graduate student Changgua Zhen from the University of Michigan, which has resulted in them successfully increasing azure diode power efficiency by 100 percent. The duo, accompanied by some bright minds in Singapore, manipulated performance controllers by rearranging OLED molecules in a computer model, improving material characteristics. In simple terms though, we're still looking at a measly ten percent efficiency, so we'll see where they take it from here.
GumPack wearable vitals monitor: the new MedicAlert bracelet?
It may not have the charm or good looks of, say, the uBOT-5, but a new wearable vital signs monitor could cut back on doctor's visits for the chronically ill. Produced by a Kansas State University student, the GumPack -- known as such for its size -- is a multi-sensor monitoring device that fits in the palm of your hand and relays vital stats to your doctor via the internet. Along with a built-in camera and microphone for record keeping, as well as WiFi capabilities for connectivity, the battery-powered GumPack will sport various sensors, like a reflectance pulse oximeter or a two-thumb ECG. The monitor is still in the concept stage, and will likely not be available for mass-market distribution for years -- if ever -- but with technology like this in the works, the "I've fallen and I can't get up" lady might as well start looking for a new gig.
Antistatic E-3POD concept wins Citroen design award, job for its student creator
Who says dreaming doesn't pay? A young designer by the name of Heikki Juvonen recently won himself a six-month job placement at Citroen's PSA Design Centre in Paris after producing the most compelling response to the company's Double Challenge set to students at London's Royal College of Art. The premise was simple -- put together an aesthetic for an ultra-compact urban vehicle that Citroen could call its own, and judging by the imagery above, we can all probably agree that Heikki achieved a very distinctive look with his E-3POD. We're not yet certain how we feel about being inside the largest of the three wheels for the duration of our electrically powered journeys, but the young gent has half a year on his hands to tweak and refine his eye-catching design. We'll be ready to test-drive the prototype as soon as Citroen becomes mad enough to build one.
Kno looking to sell off ambitious tablet hardware business, focus on software instead
Competition usually giveth, but sometimes it taketh away too. All Things D is reporting today that Kno, the company that aimed to deliver a most bodacious dual-screen tablet to students, is investigating the possibility of selling off its hardware venture and focusing exclusively on its software offering. Internal sources claim the "quicker-than-expected" move into tablets by big electronics makers has made the environment tougher for Kno, which is now said to be negotiating with a pair of companies about offloading its slate-selling business. Apparently, just a few hundred pre-orders of the Kno were fulfilled before the company stopped shipping them recently, which could be an indication that a deal may be close. We can only guess what a purchaser would want to do with the Kno tablet designs, but as for the company itself, it'll look to the iPad and Android-based tablets for its new market of opportunity -- no point in wasting all those textbook distribution partnerships.
Student-made 'White' redefines 'F.P.S.'
Created by first-year students at ENJIM, the Graduate School of Games and Interactive Medias in Angoulême, France, White plays on the classic FPS formula by asking players not just to shoot, but to: "Frag, Paint and Share." Designed in just four months, the game is, curiously, "based on both the player's violence and creativity." You traverse a flat, white canvas, fragging multicolored "Calvis" -- chubby Pikmin-like creatures -- which bleed and burst into beautiful splatter (paint!). Get this: The logo pictured above is actually a bird's-eye view of the after-action gameworld, called a "Whitepaper." Players are encouraged to share these murderous works of art through the official game site. White was released today for PC. You can download the game here -- it's free! Check out the launch trailer after the break.
Students get their hands on Microsoft's Adaptive Keyboard, adapt it to their nefarious ways (video)
When Microsoft announced its Adaptive Keyboard, backed by an LCD not entirely unlike the Optimus Maximus and its dynamic ways, the company said it'd be hosting a contest to see which students could come up with the best way to use the thing. Now it's time to look at some of the results. Highlights? One app, with the press of a button, replaces your keys with the icons on your desktop. Another brings Windows Media Player playlist control to your fingertips, and a third lets coders easily navigate namespace, class, and member variables. Oh, and then there's the app that dynamically remaps your keys to frustrate keyloggers -- and users. There are lots more, all presented by some generally uncomfortable looking students over the course of the video embedded after the break. Warning: it's 24 minutes long, so you'd best get a refill before clicking "Play."
Computer 'glitch' causes university to send out false acceptance letters
Middlesex University in the United Kingdom has confirmed that a problem with its "internal mailing system" cause acceptance letters to be sent out to 2,500 applicants who have, in fact, not yet been accepted. Anyone who's ever waited for such letters can probably imagine the insanity of being accepted to a school, only to be told a day or so later that a "glitch" caused the letter to be sent "in error." The University says it's not yet completed its review process of the applicants, so it's safe to assume that some of them will eventually be formally accepted, while everybody else? Well... they'll always have that letter The Onion sent them, won't they?
Intel Classmate PC becomes Toshiba CM1 in Japan
Toshiba and Intel have announced that they're partnering up to deliver Chipzilla's convertible Classmate PC to Japanese youths -- just in time for the new school year. Sporting a 1.66GHz Atom N450 and an overhauled design, this latest iteration of the educational use netbook will start filtering through Nipponese school corridors this August. It packs 160GB of storage room and 2GB of RAM under a nice 1,366 x 768 10.1-inch touchscreen. The latter flips around to facilitate pen input with an included stylus, while the whole package is protected by a well rubberized and ruggedized case. Now if only it could get some multitouch and one of those crazy 15-hour batteries, we might consider going back to school and using it to finish our floristry studies. Full PR after the break. Update: The Japanese school year starts in April, so technically the CM1 is just in time for the second semester. So long as it's on time, we don't think anyone will mind much.
Graduation cap modded with LED array, steals show (video)
Yomo Gaocho, an enterprising young man about to graduate from Northwestern University, has put together pretty much the coolest grad cap mod we've seen. Not that we're experts on the subject or anything, but the array of 256 LED lights adorning his cap surely makes for one of the geekiest ways to bid adieu to one's undergraduate studies. He's taking it one step further too, by programming animation patterns into the white LED arrangement and offering advertising space -- we're not kidding -- for any unorthodox companies that may wish to have him as a walking billboard. See Yomo's creation on video after the break, or hit the source for a guide on how to make your own light-fantastic grad cap.
New Bento templates aimed at students
It may seem like odd timing; with the US about to head into the unofficial pre-summer period with the imminent Memorial Day long weekend, the last thing on most students' minds is getting organized for next year. Nevertheless, today Filemaker is setting the Bento 3 Student Survival Kit loose upon the world. The linked set of free Bento templates includes layouts for organizing lecture notes, courses, group projects, special events and job searches (that last one seems timely, now that I think about it). The Survival Kit is part of the Bento Template Exchange, which offers scores of specialized layouts like the Family Organizer pack and the Mail Management tool. Bento's clean integration with the Mac OS X personal information apps means that students won't have to enter contact information twice, and they can track deadlines and test schedules in iCal with ease. The templates also allow for synchronization with the iPhone and iPad versions of Bento. Downloading the Student Survival Kit does no good, of course, without a copy of the Bento 3 database app; Filemaker is offering a 30-day trial copy to test out the kit, and the software retails for US$49 after that, or $99 for a family pack. It requires Mac OS X 10.6 or 10.5.7 and runs on both PPC and Intel machines.
The world is safe: Twilight MMO not a confirmed project
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/The_world_is_safe_Twilight_MMO_not_a_confirmed_project'; Thanks to some astute Joystiq commenters and a MySpace photo of a newspaper article, it seems we might all breathe a collective sigh of relief. The Twilight MMO isn't an official, confirmed project as of yet. The current Twilight: The Video Game is being created by Brandon Gardner, a student of game design from Blountstown, Florida. BrainJunk Studios currently consists of a volunteer staff, all working together on the concept of a Twilight game. Currently, Gardner is still studying with Westwood College Online, seeking out a bachelor's degree in game design as he works on his pet project. So, in conclusion, we're all temporarily spared... at least for the time being.
Laguna Art Museum hosts WoW art exhibit
Chris Caesar of the Orange County Register got to check out Blizzard's newest exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CA, and as you can see above, is niiiiiice. The exhibition centers around the art of World of Warcraft, and is called "WoW: An Emerging Media Phenomenon," offering up fourteen different artists' takes on the wide world of Azeroth. And it comes with swag, apparently: you pay for a certain package to come visit the show, and all the packages, starting at "Lvl 30" for $15 all the way up to "Lvl 80" for $125, come with free stuff, from an illustrated "exhibition manual" to free t-shirts and a copy of "The Art of the Trading Card Game."The event runs through October 4th, so if you're planning to spend some extra time wandering around southern California for BlizzCon, we're sure they'd love to see you (in fact, we wouldn't put it past them to have scheduled this event specifically around BlizzCon -- sneaky art museum types). And finally, they're also hosting a series of panels from different artists in the exhibit, all discussing how a digital game like World of Warcraft has affected their art. You can check out some of the art in the show over in the Register's gallery -- with art from the TCG, the official game art, and even some student work, it looks like they've got a whole bunch of great work on display.
Norway giving free laptops to angsty teens
What do we know so far about Norway? That it likes electric cars, has buses powered by poo, and offers so much snow even its billboards are filled with the stuff. Now we're learning something else: that it's in the middle of a pilot program that would put a laptop (a real one, not one of those OLPC toys) into the Bedazzled rucksack of every 16 - 19 year old. The trial is currently underway in a single county, Nord-Trondelag (site of the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030), where 6,000 lappys have been distributed featuring Big Brother-like software. The stuff, provided by 3ami, captures screenshots and keystrokes when students take quizzes and exams electronically. If all goes well Norway will expand this program nation-wide, and since each laptop comes with a copy of Photoshop we're expecting a whole new generation of expert image manipulators.[Image courtesy of mrsviennau]
