Rolltop Concept: All Best Stuff Rolls Up

This looks like a pretty amazing gadget. This computer is for designers to architects to, well, everyone. The Rolltop is a concept computer that literally "rolls-up" allowing for easy portability and set up. It has a 13 inch OLED-Display and multi-touch screen which can easily convert to a 17 inch graphics tablet or flat screen monitor and has the utility of a laptop with the weight of a mini-notebook. This computer design was first introduced back in 2009 by a group of people with IT backgrounds that had an interest in the future of portable computers. It was initially nothing more than a concept to generate feedback. But given the emotional response by those who were exposed to this concept the team decided to move forward with their design and fully realize their vision. They are currently in the process of searching for partners and developing a final technical Rolltop design, including a pre-selection of electronic sub-parts and hardware platform design.

I, personally, hope to see this computer on shelves soon. This design could generate a wave of new portable computer designs for the average consumer.

For info: http://myrolltop.com/who-we-are.html

Audial Aweomeness: Audio Wishlist

AIAIAI Tracks Headphone Series

This is, just simply, pretty cool. In the past headphones were the size of small plates and did a pretty good job of muting the entire outside world. The audio was pretty great but you sweated profusely because of the generous foam padding. And to be quite honest you looked stupid. Through time and some evolution we then ended up at the other extreme, with tiny "earbuds" that nearly vanish in your ear — and you still looked stupid.

Now, we have moved on to “audio fashion wear” that combines the best of all worlds. Copenhagen’s AIAIAI and its design partners at Kilo has come up with the stylish, light-weight Tracks Headphone Series that combines toned-down nostalgic looks with superior sound quality. A leather version of Tracks, in natural and black, is apparently in the works as well.

In another 5-10 years I'll be saying these look stupid on me as well. But for now they have a great style and look to them. They'll set you back 80 bucks but style don't come cheap.

iPod Dock + Speaker + Bed Light

Note that, sadly, this is only in it's conceptual stage. This is the iPod Dock + Speaker + Bed Light. Its a pretty basic idea. Nothing to it really. But it's subtle yet brilliant design makes it desirable. This dock would have hidden speakers in the device's panels, a sleek smooth finish that comes in many colors and a handy night light fixed in the overhead panel above the dock station. Its the perfect device for someone with little space with an eye for great design.

Zikmu

Zikmu are wireless speakers designed by Philippe Starck for Parrot. Standing at 2.5 feet tall, these speakers are an iPhone/iPod docking station with surround sound technology and a range of wireless capabilities. The two speakers, which radiate sound from both sides, can be placed anywhere in a room and work without wires. Speakers can also stream audio from mobile devices such as a PC or a Mac using Bluetooth A2DP or Wi-Fi. They also have remote control and very trendy minimalist look.

Radiofonografo

I am really excited about this though it is way out of my price range. From the Italian brand Brionvega, the 60s and 70s are back, or that at least some of the design sensibilities of the era have new life. The classic, groundbreaking Radiofonografo, divined in 1965 by two of the three Castiglioni brothers, Pier Giacomo and Achille, is making a comeback as RR226. In 1965, the 'musical component robot' was an electronic marvel that in one groovy designed device included a radio, amplifiers and a record player (for both 45s and 33s).

This modernized model also has a CD and DVD player but other than that it is as close as possible to the original. The amplifiers are moveable which makes it possible to create different configurations both for visual and listening pleasure. It was showcased at the Salone del Mobile in Milan in April, it may be a while before coming to a store near you. But like so many of the Castiglioni brothers' product marvels, still produced and/or displayed by Zanotta,Flos, Artemide and MoMA, the Radiofonografio is most likely going to stay with us for yet another long period of time.

Links: aiaiai.dk, cultofmac.com, zikmu.parrot.com, brionvega.it

Alpha Dog: The New Beast of Burden?

This is a prototype from Boston Dynamics. Meet the 'Alpha Dog'. This four legged, robotic device is pretty amazing considering stuff like it was science fiction just a decade ago. It's called 'Alpha Dog' but perhaps a better name for it would be 'Awesome-sauce robot dog'.

A few things to note in the video: The weights being carried by the dog weigh a total of 400 pounds and this robot can carry that load up to 20 miles (30 kilometers) over the course of 24 hours without having to refuel. Also, when the robot is on the ground it was not do to any mechanical problems. The robot collapses into a "safety frame" because it runs out of room. Lastly note the guys pushing it with all their strength and it doesn't phase it a bit. It stays on it's feet. Now the real test is can I it be ridden? If it can I am going to start saving for one right now.



Now as cool as this robot is, the range of its payload and range has kept it from being a realistically deployed system. It will need to push its current limitations before it will be see as a useful tool for its cost and bother. But those over at Boston Dynamics are encouraged and optimistic that this will eventually be fully realized.

This is an artist rendering of a potential end product that could become the standard for military operations and planetary exploration. I can't wait till the first AT-AT is created. My dream is to see one in every nerd's garage.

Biorobotics: The Future Looks Awesome

Human devices, from light bulbs to iPods, send information using electrons. Human bodies and all other living things, on the other hand, send signals and perform work using ions or protons.

Materials scientists at the University of Washington have built a novel transistor that uses protons, creating a key piece for devices that can communicate directly with living things. The study is published online this week in the interdisciplinary journal Nature Communications.

Devices that connect with the human body’s processes are being explored for biological sensing or for prosthetics, but they typically communicate using electrons, which are negatively charged particles, rather than protons, which are positively charged hydrogen atoms, or ions, which are atoms with positive or negative charge.

“So there’s always this issue, a challenge, at the interface – how does an electronic signal translate into an ionic signal, or vice versa?” said lead author Marco Rolandi, a UW assistant professor of materials science and engineering. “We found a biomaterial that is very good at conducting protons, and allows the potential to interface with living systems.”

In the body, protons activate “on” and “off” switches and are key players in biological energy transfer. Ions open and close channels in the cell membrane to pump things in and out of the cell. Animals including humans use ions to flex their muscles and transmit brain signals. A machine that was compatible with a living system in this way could, in the short term, monitor such processes. Someday it could generate proton currents to control certain functions directly.

A first step toward this type of control is a transistor that can send pulses of proton current. The prototype device is a field-effect transistor, a basic type of transistor that includes a gate, a drain and a source terminal for the current. The UW prototype is the first such device to use protons. It measures about 5 microns wide, roughly a twentieth the width of a human hair.

“In our device large bioinspired molecules can move protons, and a proton current can be switched on and off, in a way that’s completely analogous to an electronic current in any other field effect transistor,” Rolandi said.

On the left is a colored photo of the UW device overlaid on a graphic of the other components. On the right is a magnified image of the chitosan fibers. The white scale bar is 200 nanometers.

The device uses a modified form of the compound chitosan originally extracted from squid pen, a structure that survives from when squids had shells. The material is compatible with living things, is easily manufactured, and can be recycled from crab shells and squid pen discarded by the food industry.

First author Chao Zhong, a UW postdoctoral researcher, and second author Yingxin Deng, a UW graduate student, discovered that this form of chitosan works remarkably well at moving protons. The chitosan absorbs water and forms many hydrogen bonds; protons are then able to hop from one hydrogen bond to the next.

Computer models of charge transport developed by co-authors M.P. Anantram, a UW professor of electrical engineering, and Anita Fadavi Roudsari at Canada’s University of Waterloo, were a good match for the experimental results.

“So we now have a protonic parallel to electronic circuitry that we actually start to understand rather well,” Rolandi said.

Applications in the next decade or so, Rolandi said, would likely be for direct sensing of cells in a laboratory. The current prototype has a silicon base and could not be used in a human body. Longer term, however, a biocompatible version could be implanted directly in living things to monitor, or even control, certain biological processes directly.

The other co-author is UW materials science and engineering graduate student Adnan Kapetanovic. The research was funded by the University of Washington, a 3M Untenured Faculty Grant, a National Cancer Institute fellowship and the UW’s Center for Nanotechnology, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.

source: washington.edu

Race To The Moon: Scientists Say, 'It's On Bitch!'

Now that the last space shuttle has landed back on Earth, a new generation of space entrepreneurs would like to whip up excitement about the prospect of returning to the Moon.

Spurred by a $30 million purse put up by Google, 29 teams have signed up for a competition to become the first private venture to land on the Moon. Most of them are unlikely to overcome the financial and technical challenges to meet the contest deadline of December 2015, but several teams think they have a good shot to win — and to take an early lead in a race to take commercial advantage of our celestial neighbor.

At the very least, a flotilla of unmanned spacecraft could be headed Moonward within the next few years, with goals that range from lofty to goofy.

One Silicon Valley venture, Moon Express, is positioning itself as a future FedEx for Moon deliveries: if you have something to send there, the company would like to take it. Moon Express was having a party on Thursday night to show off the flight capabilities of its lunar lander, based on technology it licensed from NASA, and “to begin the next era of the private commercial race to the Moon,” as the invitation put it.

“In the near future, the Moon Express lunar lander will be mining the Moon for precious resources that we need here on Earth,” the invitation promised. “Years from now, we will all remember we were there.”

Naveen Jain, an Internet billionaire and a founder of Moon Express, says the company will spend $70 million to $100 million to try to win the Google Lunar X Prize, but could recoup its investment on its first flight. He envisions selling exclusive broadcast rights for video from the Moon, as well as sponsorships, à la Nascar, for companies to put their logos on the lander.

Or, perhaps, a tie-in to reality television.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a ‘Moon Idol,’ just like ‘American Idol?’ “ suggested Mr. Jain, who previously founded Infospace and Intelius. “You take the top 10 contestants and play their voices on the Moon, record it and see who sounds the best.”

(There is no air on the Moon to transmit sound waves, but “you could play it through the dust and see what it sounds like when you play it right on the surface,” Mr. Jain said. His point was that with cheap lunar transportation, there was no predicting what might catch people’s fancies.)

Another competitor, Astrobotic Technology, intends to sell berths on its lunar lander to space agencies and scientific institutions, which would pay $820,000 a pound to send up their experiments. The company, a spinoff from Carnegie Mellon University, is building a large craft — much bigger than Moon Express’s — capable of carrying 240 pounds of payload (read: $200 million of cargo) and hopes to be ready to launch in December 2013.

“We can make a lot of money even if we do not win the prize,” said David Gump, president of Astrobotic, which is based in Pittsburgh. “We will be making substantial profit on the first flight. Basically, we’ll break even by selling a third of the payload.”

The X Prize competitors might all be beaten by landers and rovers that China, Russia and India plan to send up over the next couple of years. But those fall more in the mold of traditional, government-built science probes.

While NASA had wanted to send astronauts back to the Moon, its program was canceled last year, a victim of budget cuts and shifting priorities. But it has awarded $500,000 each to Moon Express, Astrobotic and a third competitor, Rocket City Space Pioneers, the first installments of up to $30 million that it will contribute to the X Prize efforts.

George Xenofos, manager of NASA’s Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data program, said he expected one or more teams to make it to the Moon. “It’s definitely not the technical issues that’s stopping them,” he said.

The contestants’ goals do not appear to face legal hurdles. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, ratified by 100 nations, bars countries from claiming sovereignty over any part of the Moon, but does not prevent private companies from setting up shop. As for mining the Moon, it could fall under similar legal parameters as fishing in international waters.

Although some orbiting spacecraft have crashed into the Moon in recent years, 35 years have passed since anything from Earth made a soft landing there. To some people, this looks like an overdue invitation.

“It’s probably the biggest wealth creation opportunity in modern history,” said Barney Pell, a former NASA computer scientist turned entrepreneur and now a co-founder of Moon Express. While Moon Express might initially make money by sending small payloads, the big fortune would come from bringing back platinum and other rare metals, Dr. Pell said.

“Long term, the market is massive, no doubt,” he said. “This is not a question of if. It’s a question of who and when. We hope it’s us and soon.”

Link: nytimes.com

And in another piece of news worth mentioning astronomers found a reservoir of water measuring 140 trillion times the earth's ocean water in space. The reservoir of water is the most distant ever discovered in the universe, said two teams of researchers.

The water surrounds a giant feeding black hole called a "quasar" and is located more than 12 billion light-years away. The giant black hole powers the quasar which gradually consumes a surrounding disk of gas and dust. It also emits enormous amounts of energy.

Astronomers studied a quasar named APM 08279+5255, where the black hole is 20 billion times greater than the sun and discovered water vapor around the black hole extending hundreds of light-years in size.

NASA scientist Matt Bradford said, "The environment around this quasar is very unique in that it's producing this huge mass of water. It's another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times."

Link: ibtimes.com

Apple: The End of an Era

Steve Jobs has spent his career challenging conventions about personal computing. He's transformed an industry and changed the way we think about technology. The ailing tech visionary who founded Apple Inc., said he was unable to continue as chief executive of the technology giant and handed the reins to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.

Apple said Mr. Jobs submitted his resignation to the board of directors on Wednesday and "strongly recommended" that the board name Mr. Cook as his successor. Mr. Jobs, 56 years old, has been elected chairman of the board and Mr. Cook will join the board, effective immediately, the company said.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know," Mr. Jobs said in his resignation letter. "Unfortunately, that day has come."

Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and an Apple board member, said in a statement that the board "has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO." He added that Mr. Jobs will "continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration."

After a brief halt, Apple's shares slid 5.13% to $355.70 in after-hours trading, after closing at $376.18, up $2.58, at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market Wednesday.

Mr. Cook, 50, has been widely considered as the leading candidate to succeed Mr. Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January. The 13-year Apple veteran, who joined the company shortly after Mr. Jobs took over for the second time in 1997, has been running the day-to-day operations during this period as he has done during two prior medical leaves of absence by Mr. Jobs in the last seven years.

The announcement likely marks the end of one of the most extraordinary careers in U.S. business history. Mr. Jobs not only co-founded Apple—and the personal computer industry along with it—but decades later played a central role in reshaping the music, movie, animation, and mobile-phone businesses.

"Steve Jobs is the world's magic man. No compromises," wrote John Sculley, who led the company from 1983 for a decade, in an email. Mr. Sculley was recruited by Mr. Jobs in 1983 as CEO, but ousted him in 1985 after a power struggle.

Mr. Jobs—widely known for his mercurial, demanding management style—drove his company relentlessly to make products that consumers lusted for, unveiling them in heavily rehearsed events that earned him a reputation as high-tech's greatest showman.

It earned him a fortune that he said he wasn't interested in. The company pays Mr. Jobs a salary of $1 a year. He also has Apple shares worth about $2.1 billion, and is the single largest Disney shareholder, with stock worth about $4.4 billion.

Even after his health began to fail, Mr. Jobs insisted on turning up at key product launches—including the introduction of the iPad 2 earlier this year, where he was greeted with a sustained standing ovation.

"I think his brilliance has been well-documented, but what gets forgotten is the bravery with which he's confronted his illness," said Howard Stringer, Sony Corp.'s chief executive. "For him to achieve this much success under these circumstances doubles his legacy."

Perhaps more than any other CEO, Mr. Jobs has developed a cult-like following among both employees and customers who hang on his every word at press conferences and vigorously defend the executive from those who might question his products.

Former Apple employees say he created a unique culture inside the company, and affected how other Silicon Valley companies think about innovation.

"Steve inspired an entire generation of entrepreneurs and creative people to think about things in terms of innovation and design," said Dave Morin, the CEO of start-up Path Inc. and an Apple employee from 2003 to 2006.

The announcement focuses attention on the health of Mr. Jobs, who was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant two years ago.

Mr. Jobs hasn't commented on it since he said in a letter in January that he was taking another leave of absence to "focus on my health." He appeared thin at Apple's annual developers' conference in June.

People familiar with the matter say Mr. Jobs has continued to be active at Apple and closely involved in the company's product strategy. To the extent his health permits, some Apple watchers think that involvement is likely to continue even after Mr. Cook takes the CEO post.

Some Apple employees Wednesday were in a state of disbelief, people familiar with the situation said. One person noted that Mr. Jobs had been seen less frequently around the company's campus lately.

The transition to Mr. Cook has been widely expected and many are determined to move forward, starting with the launch of the fifth-generation iPhone, which is expected in October.

Mr. Cook, an Alabama native who previously worked for International Business Machines Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp., is known for his operational acumen. He was instrumental in wringing out inefficiencies in Apple's manufacturing and setting up its supply chain in China.

Since then, he has gradually increased his responsibilities, becoming chief operating officer in 2005. He has also ably led the company during Mr. Jobs's absences in the past.

Unlike Mr. Jobs, Mr. Cook has tended to stay outside of the spotlight apart from quarterly earnings calls with analysts.

Mr. Cook faces a daunting task succeeding Mr. Jobs, who proved his managerial mettle by bringing Apple back from near bankruptcy when he returned to it in 1997. And Mr. Jobs relentlessly pushed through his vision of the tech business, reviving the Macintosh computer business and developing new products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Apple faces a particular challenge in that Mr. Jobs has had an unusually strong influence in setting Apple's corporate culture and strategy, said Charles O'Reilly, a management expert at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business "Great companies rarely go from strength to strength," he said.

"I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it," Mr. Jobs wrote in his letter Wednesday. "And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

"I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you," he added.

The news of Mr. Jobs's resignation quickly became the talk of the Internet. Overwhelmed with traffic, the blog Cult of Mac temporary went offline. "This thing is melting down," said editor Leander Kahney, about an hour after the news broke on Wednesday.

Wall Street reacted with little surprise. "This was a 'when' not 'if' moment," said Mike Binger a fund manager for Thrivent Asset Management in Minneapolis, which owns Apple shares. He added that he had no plans to change his holdings, saying that the stock is still "really cheap for the kind of operating fundamentals they've been putting up."

The value of the company, however, has been skyrocketing as the success of products like the iPhone, iPad and ultra-thin Macintosh computers keep setting records. At close to $350 billion, Apple is second only Exxon Mobil in market valuationat the moment, recently eclipsing the oil giant for a brief period.

Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer for Solaris Asset Management in New York, which holds Apple shares said he has confidence in Apple's executive team even without Mr. Jobs, but is hoping for more details on who will be Apple's "creative force" now that he is gone.

While Mr. Jobs's resignation is a blow to Apple, the company has a solid pipeline of products, churning out new versions of its Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPods every year.

A person familiar with the situation has said in the past that the board spends most of its time discussing product development and there is a roadmap in place for the next several years. Its next iPhone is expected in mid-October.

"This definitely marks the end of an era," said Michael Gartengerg, an analyst for Gartner, but he added that "there's much more to Apple than Steve Jobs."

(link: www.wsj.com)

Window Phone: I Want One Now

This is truly amazing. Designer Seunghan Song has created the Window Phone. Though, this phone is still in the concept stage it has high potential to be the next big thing in cell phone technology. The focus of the attention this phone is getting is its ability to mimic weather conditions. If its sunny and clear outside the phone appears clean and fresh but should rain start falling the phone will begin to show drops of water on the screen. Also if its humid or foggy the screen begins to fog up or if its snowing or really cold the screen starts to show frost. I am sure by the time this concept becomes realized its ability to mimic the weather will be even more finely tuned showing even the most subtle changes in weather. But aside from the fact that it mimics weather people seem to be glossing over the fact that it literally looks like an iphone sized piece of glass in your hand. I suppose that technology is so yesterday but it still impresses me.

Check it out.

Time Trave Impossible: Blame It On The Photons

Sorry scifi nerds, looks like the Tardis is just an old call box after all.

Science fiction will never be the same again. Apparently time travel has now been proven to be impossible and it's all thanks to those little balls of light, photons.

The prospect of time travel seems unlikely, according to the latest findings by physicists who confirmed the ultimate speed limit of photons, which are packets of light.

The universe's ultimate speed limit is the speed of light in a vaccum. Recent experiments suggested that single photons might beat it and allow for the prospect of time travel, but now findings indicate that individual photons are also limited to the vacuum speed limit.

Einstein's theory of special relativity maintains that an event's effect cannot precede its cause by traveling faster than light. A violation of this causality would permit time travel.

The limit in a vacuum is a fixed number - about 300,00km per second, but the speed of light can vary.

"By showing that single photons cannot travel faster than the speed of light, our results bring closure to the debate on the true speed of information carried by a single photon," said professor Shengwang Du of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

In conclusion, photons cannot time travel, and moving information around at faster-than-light speeds is not possible. But that doesn't mean that time travel is entirely ruled out.

Source: www.ibtimes.com

Resource: http://physics.aps.org

Ok, so it's not ruled out. It just means that it's impossible if you are made of matter. So, now all we have to do is figure out how to turn matter into anti-matter or harness the energy of a star, find a black hole, if they exist, toss ourselves in and use that harnessed energy to propel us into another time and space hoping that DS9, Stargate and Sliders got it right.

Godspeed: The Last Space Shuttle Launch

The last space shuttle of the US manned space program launched today and with conditions that couldn't have been better. The US government has shut down a 50 year program that "launched" us into a new era of technology and discovery. The shuttle program was started in 1981 and has launched 132 shuttles into space including the final one this morning. I am not, of course, a NASA engineer nor a politician, but I think it’s a huge mistake to give up such a huge stake in space exploration. The reasons I have heard are everything from financial issues, to changing technology even to conspiracy type ideas like the powers that be switching world powers... though I don't put much stock in the latter. No matter the reason I find it sad that so many people who have such a life investment in the program are just let go and forced to hang up their childhood dreams of space. This of course doesn't mean that we are no longer researching space it’s just no longer going to be seen as the final frontier by the US government.

NASA is adjusting to what they are calling a commercial space flight program where small companies will be able to pick up the slack that NASA leaves behind. This will undoubtedly redefine the astronaut and what space travel will look like. If anything good was to come of this I suppose it would be that a new industry will be created supplying new jobs. Who knows... maybe this will be the beginning of public space transportation here in the states. Still, I am sad to see a legacy of NASA come to an end.

Read an article at www.thenewamerican.com for more on the last shuttle launch.

Nerd Hair: Luke, I Am Your Hairdresser

Now we know how Luke got that feathered hair looking so Jedi-tastic. Let's face it, Tatooine isn't exactly the mostly friendly planet when it comes to hair. All that dry, sandy, air and not a hairstylist in the system judging by the miscreants that trod the streets of Mos Eisly and hang out at Jabba's crib. So when the atmo of Tatooine gets your hair down, and you need a feathered boost, try the Darth Vader hair dryer for that slightly imperial, brush-with-the-dark-side, look.

The Ice Queen Helene: Cassini Gets A Close Look

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has successfully completed its second-closest encounter with Saturn’s icy moon Helene, beaming down raw images of the small moon. At closest approach, on June 18, Cassini flew within 4,330 miles (6,968 kilometers) of Helene’s surface. It was the second closest approach to Helene of the entire mission.

Cassini passed from Helene’s night side to the moon’s sunlit side. It also captured images of the Saturn-facing side of the moon in sunlight, a region that was only illuminated by sunlight reflected off Saturn the last time Cassini was close, in March 2010. This flyby will enable scientists to finish creating a global map of Helene, so they can better understand the history of impacts to the moon and gully-like features seen on previous flybys.

The closest Helene encounter of the mission took place on March 10, 2010, when Cassini flew within 1,131 miles (1,820 kilometers) of the moon.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two on-board cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, CO.

(source link)

This is an animation using the still images captured by Cassini.

50s Style Go-Bots: The Past Is The Future

So this old news to many people but after seeing this I had too post it. Japanese artist Kazushi Kobayashi has created the Chubu 01 This line of beautifully designed mecha robot models could be described as something from “a parallel 50s where these robots are the most popular transport system”.

This is just genius and looks like something straight out of an anime movie. Now all we need to do as is add some gears and a motor and get these things moving and into garages everywhere.

If you would like to have your own all you have to do head over to Harajuku's Tokyo Cultuart gallery and shell out 28,000 yen (about $350) for the DIY model kit.

Rad To The Max: Technology

It's never too early to start making your Christmas list and this stuff is at the top of mine.


Robotic Dinosaurs

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan has made some really cool dino-bots. They are still far from making one that could actually be mistaken for the real thing - t T-Rex head shakes when it walks, it's very slow... rounding corners would be an issue and its skin is obviously rubber - but I still want one. Just think of how much gas you could save by riding it to work.

link: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


The Reactable Mixer

"...an electronic music instrument that combines a tangible tabletop interface with concepts or techniques such as modular synthesis, visual programming and visual feedback." What more do you need to usher in the music of the future? The Music Technology Group has made their mark in the music industry. This is another must for me. The idea of combining visuals with music is brilliant. It makes music tangible and that is the best way for people to learn. I am excited about this technology entering the home in the near future.



source link: Music Technology Group


Zelda Theme, Electrified

Now, I am a huge Zelda fan. I have followed the series since the beginning starting with that Christmas years ago when I got the gold special edition for the NES. After that I was hooked. I also like all things science, though I don't always understand it... always being a generous word. So, when I saw that someone had used Tesla Coils to create the original Zelda theme music I became an instant fan. That electricity would look great flying across my living room.