These days, biomimicry is a big thing for Germany’s industrial control and automation company Festo. This eel-like robotic fish you see here, called BionicFinWave, is one of its newest robot in the company’s study into biomimicry and man, it is pretty darn creepy! Seriously, why do need to give them eyes? It has a camera on its ‘nose’ already, didn’t it? Anyways, The level of creep of this thing rivals that of the crawling robotic salamander. Continue reading Festo Has Created A Robotic Fish That Swims Using Undulating Fins
Category Archives: SCIENCE
This Designer Desk Lamp Also Transmits High-Speed Internet
Light source, such as those coming from desk lamps and whatnot, is part and parcel of our everyday life and so, it only makes sense that we start leveraging on it to do more than just lighting up. The same thought struck Alexandre Picciotto when he designed this lamp called c-224. On the surface, c-224 looks like a regular designer lamp, but beneath its sleek aesthetic, it is actually a Li-Fi (pronounced as /‘laɪfaɪ/) point too. Wait, Li what, you ask? Continue reading This Designer Desk Lamp Also Transmits High-Speed Internet
Rolls-Royce’s Idea Of Engine Maintenance Is A Swarm Of Tiny Robots
Michael Crichton’s Prey painted a grim picture of swarming robots. While grim, it presented a not so pleasant scenario, swarming tiny robots are probably the future and Rolls-Royce is one organization that shares this vision. The aircraft engine maker envision a swarm of collaborative miniature robots inserted into the engine to perform visual inspection of hard-to-reach areas. Each tiny robot measures around 10 millimeter in diameter and they will be deposited into the engine by another bold Rolls-Royce vision, a ‘snake’ robot called FLARE. Continue reading Rolls-Royce’s Idea Of Engine Maintenance Is A Swarm Of Tiny Robots
Bet You Didn’t Know There Were Rocket Guns In The 1960s
Here’s a piece of firearm history that you may not know. What you see here is essentially a weapon that fires rocket-powered projectiles. You heard that right. Rocket. Called GYROJET, this futuristic firearm was produced by a San Ramon, California company called MB Associates and exists in a variety of configurations, including rifle, pistol, carbine, as well as sub-machine gun. What made GYROJET “revolutionary” was it uses bullet-sized rocket rounds. Continue reading Bet You Didn’t Know There Were Rocket Guns In The 1960s
Learning-based Artificial Intelligence Makes Stunning Low-light Imaging
At this year’s IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), a group of researchers from UIUC and Intel Labs showed off how learning-based artificial intelligence can help imaging in low light. It is almost surreal to see how an otherwise darkened photo can be made bright as day. It was that crazy. Here, have look at the result: Continue reading Learning-based Artificial Intelligence Makes Stunning Low-light Imaging
Mars Color CT Scan Shows The True Color Of Human’s Inner Beauty
X-Ray and Computer Tomography scan, or CT scan, are brilliant technologies that let doctors dig inside what’s inside of you without putting you under the knife. The medical community has been relying it for years and while useful, medical professionals have been putting up with the incoherent-to-layman black and white images. Well, that is set to change with New Zealand-based tech company Mars Bioimaging’s new medical imaging scanner called Spectral CT. Continue reading Mars Color CT Scan Shows The True Color Of Human’s Inner Beauty
NVIDIA’s New Tech Slows Down Video Without Serious Loss Of Quality
What you see here is a video demonstration of Super SloMo: High Quality Estimation of Multiple Intermediate Frames for Video Interpolation. In layman terms, it means squeezing high-quality slow-motion videos from 30-frame-per-second videos – something which is not possible until today. If you have watched enough documentaries where often there are videos slowed down from normal speed video, the quality is often less than desirable. Continue reading NVIDIA’s New Tech Slows Down Video Without Serious Loss Of Quality
Wait, What? Now, Even Stunt Man’s Job Is Threatened By Robots?
The need to protect actors during movie making lead to the creation of the job known as stunt doubles, AKA stuntman. Little do we know that a job normally reserved for the fearless could be at threat of robot takeover too. Believe or not, Disney is hatching a plan to let autonomous humanoids take on dangerous stunt. Continue reading Wait, What? Now, Even Stunt Man’s Job Is Threatened By Robots?
Cockroach-inspired Robot Bug Walks On Water, Land And Underwater Too
What you see in movies that depicted strange robots that are capable of doing just about anything are slowing materializing and the Harvard University’s Harvard Ambulatory Microbot, or HAMR, is a robot cockroach that is part of this realization. The development of HAMR has been going on and recently, we heard that it just got an upgrade. It can now walk on and under water. I am not sure if roaches walk on water, but this robot bug surely does. Continue reading Cockroach-inspired Robot Bug Walks On Water, Land And Underwater Too
This Rolling Surveillance Robot May One Day Replace Security Guards
This is Guardbot, a rolling surveillance robot that could one day replace security guards. Officially called “Spherical Amphibious Robotic Vehicle Systems,” Guardbot is an all-terrain bot that you could think of it as a giant-ass Sphero with cameras stuck to its sides. As demoed in the video, this thing is pretty much unstoppable, capable of traversing any ground terrain, swim in water, and roll on snow and sand. One thing we foresee is obstacle, but the biggest being 7 feet in diameter, I guess most obstacles are really not an issue for this futuristic surveillance bot. Continue reading This Rolling Surveillance Robot May One Day Replace Security Guards