iBot Sighting

In LoDo last week, I saw an iBot, which is inventor Dean Kamen's answer to the wheelchair. Try to forget the media circus that took place around the Segway, that silly little scooter (Remember the code name "Ginger" and the idea that our mail would one day be delivered by Segway-driving postal workers?). The iBot is truly amazing; it provides transportation to those who can't just go out and buy a skateboard.

Using gyroscopes, the iBot balances its user high up on two wheels (at eye-level). Best of all, the iBot can take people up stairs. I even found video of a man in an iBot at the shooting range.

Jeff Han: Perceptive Pixel

Jeff Han, the founder of Perceptive Pixel and the creator of the multi-touch interface now being seen in the iPhone, is featured on the Technology Review website today. He talks about the simple idea behind his interface - moving away from the single point interface, as with a mouse arrow - and instead choosing something that gives users a more natural and intuitive response. He mentions that part of the goal is to develop a presure-sensitive interface.

This reminded me of the progression from the harpsichord to the piano, which, for the first time, allowed 18th-century composers to write in an important musical dimension: volume. The action inside the piano, which strikes the wires rather than the plucking motion of the harpsichord, allows the pianist to play loudly or softly.

Technology Review Video

Animaris Rhinoceros Transport

From the Strandbeest website: "Since about ten years Theo Jansen is occupied with the making of a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic matierial of this new nature. He makes skeletons which are able to walk on the wind. Eventualy he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives."

I've seen a lot of robots walk, but I've never seen anything look so life-like that didn't require thousands (if not millions) of dollars worth of programmable motors and processors. These are wind-powered and absolutely gorgeous.

If these three things are seemingly out of reach creatively, try your own hand making an articulated machine with SodaConstructor, a software that allows the user to build and run virtual machines.

The Onion Weighs in on The iPhone:

Ah, The Onion. Perfectly put:

• Comes with an iPhone hat, so people know you own an iPhone during the brief periods you're not using it

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iConcertCal

This weekend, I found out about iConcertCal, a plugin for iTunes that uses your music catalog to search for local concerts. Pretty dern cool.

Make: Magazine

About a month ago, I saw Make: magazine on the shelf at Tattered Cover. As described on Amazon: "MAKE brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life and celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend your technology to your will. MAKE ignites your ingenuity and connects you with your fellow "Makers.""

For example, here are directions for building a pinhole panoramic camera.

They even have a "Weekend Projects" video page on YouTube.

If you need me, I'll be at RadioShack.

Liquid Cool

Three years ago, I saw a brief article on PBS about something called ferrofluid, a liquid that hardens when magnetized. The application it was being used for at the time was hydraulic shocks. The stiffness of the shocks was variable and determined by the amount of current being run through the ferrofluid inside them.

To explain this tactilely, remember playing with oobleck, a mixture of water and cornstarch, as a kid? When you squeeze a handful of it, it's solid, but then let it go and it oozes through your fingers. Apparently you can run across the surface of a pool full of this mixture: "A pool filled with non-newtonian fluid"

You can even make some of your own ferrofluid, but be careful! I read through the directions, and not only do you expose flammable materials to heat, but the operation looks very similar to a meth lab. When you explain to the police that you're simply making a flammable liquid magnet, you'll change instantly from a suspected drug dealer to a suspected terrorist. Yippee!

At first, this video just looks like bubbles in oil. But wait until he removes the Ferrofluid reservoir.


Also, there are all sorts of modular or configurable robots being designed. These robots assemble and disassemble themselves depending on the application. This is by far the creepiest one I've seen so far: