As part of its 150th anniversary celebration, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation got ironsmithing genius Kogoro Kurata to display his insane 1:1 scale model of the Scopedog mecha from the 80s anime series VOTOMS. Weighing in at two tons and standing a full four meters tall, it dwarfed everything else at the exhibition. The cast iron structure was actually finished in 2005 and has been on display before at other Japanese conventions, but it still thrills every time it rears its mechanical head. Look at the detail on this thing!
Now this, this is cool. This is a video shot from an aeroplane of the recent total solar eclipse, showing the moon passing in front of the sun. This video shows the entirety of the eclipse — they’re quick — and you can see just how the sky is changed and darkened by the shadow of the moon. Remarkable stuff. [Canards]
Nippon Signal has revealed its new entrant into the colour projector size war, showing off a SVGA 800 x 600 resolution colour projector that’s roughly the size of a cigarette case at a recent micromachines exhibition. The prototype, which measures a tiny 90 x 55 x 20mm, uses a MEMS scanner to project images, rather than the more traditional LED.
Solar bags are a great way to charge all your gadgets while out and about, but Switzerland-based bag maker Sakku one ups the green aspect by making its bags out of recycled sails. Each Sakku Buddy comes stamped with a “story” listing the name of the lake or sea which the boat that used the sail is located. Each bag has a 2.5W solar panel and is big enough to contain a 17″ notebook. Currently only available in Europe, the Buddy costs either US$275 or US$385, depending on whether you get the chargeable battery option. [Sakku US page via Coolest Gadgets]
Australian researchers have developed a new fuel cell prototype that could lead to much cheaper, more efficient fuel cell vehicles in the near future. Scientists at Monash University in Melbourne created a new cathode that could bypass the need for expensive platinum nanoparticles, which adds about US$3500 to US$4000 to the sticker price of current fuel cells.
So you’ve seen John Connor and you’ve met Marcus Wright, but where are the stills of the robots? Lucky for us, one intrepid Gizmodo reader searched through the Hi-res trailer to find us a good picture of what humanity’s up against. Check out the colour corrected version! Is that bot wearing… cargo pants? [Terminator: Salvation at Giz]- Thanks Dimitris Karakatsanis!
newVideoPlayer("/winglet_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); Yesterday we saw in action the Large and Medium models of the Segway-killer Toyota Winglet. Here you have the Type S, which stands for small but, according to Toyota, could also mean Sports. Looking at the video, it makes sense: basically, this thing seems to allow for faster, more aggressive driving, achieving a behaviour similar to inline skates. Someone should boost their engines speed as soon as they arrive. [Toyota]
