Forget running humanoids, autonomous drones and the like. As this video demonstrates, our future robot masters will in fact disarm us with their lightning reflexes and squishy rubber balls. [YouTube via Geekologie]
Not only is this artificial hand incredibly versatile, but it’s based upon extremely simple mechanics.
If Mike Tomich is to be believed, colouring, video games and keyboard use are crippling our children. According to Tomich, each of these activities is responsible for deforming the youngin’s hands. FOREVER.
Gadget makers just occasionally stump-up with something that seems so wonderful you have to buy it: the remote-controlled electroluminescent gesturing hand is one of these. Sucker it onto your car’s rear window, and enjoy the ability to signal your pleasure or displeasure at other drivers without sticking your arm out the window. Guess which gesture would get the most frequent use? No doubt about it. This personal expression gizmo is out now for $US40. [PerpetualKid via Technabob]
Robotic hands and arms may be getting more sophisticated, but they don’t really rival what we think C3-PO would have poking out of his torso. That is until now: an European science team have been busy creating the Sensopac robotic limb, and it’s arguably the most human-like robotic limb yet. And partly that’s because its sophistication is derived from software modelled on the human cerebellum. The arm has artificial skin that can sense force and direction in detail, and its 38 motors mimic the structure of human muscles and tendons to give it a very human-like grip.
Over at Intel’s R&D fair, Wired got to play with a robot hand that is able to sense an object it’s about to come in contact with before actually touching it. Using electrolocation, the fingertips of the robot hand send out a weak electrical impulse, and approaching objects interfere with that impulse, which allows the hand to form to the object before touching it.
Microsoft continues their quest to bring Minority Report to life with a recently published patent for a wearable mouse from 2006. Now you too can wave your hands around like Tom Cruise—jumping optional—to control the cursor on your computer screen. The mouse is placed around the palm and activated by making a fist. The cursor moves based on a gyroscope inside which tracks the X and Y coordinates of your hand, much like a Wiimote. The handheld style opens our eyes to some interesting possibilities.
