The Loop: Superb Remote Control Design
There was once a time when two buttons were added to remote controls for every TV feature. That worked fine … when all TVs had were channels and volume. But with today’s TVs that have tuners for everything from reception to feeding your dog, it should be a hint that more buttons are NOT the way to go! (Perceptive readers will sense that I’m frustrated over modern thousand-button remotes). Thankfully some companies realize this, and I recently came across a lovely example of that. It’s a simple design called “The Loop”: It has two buttons, a scrollwheel and … that’s it! A built in motion system tracks your movements, allowing you to select from menus on screen. No overflow of buttons! Beautiful. [Continue reading for video]
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m officially announcing a new titleholder of ‘Happiest Robot in the World‘ (formerly held by 
As most of us know, and shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who don’t, the military has a fervent eye on applications of AI in wars. While most modern military robots are remote controlled by humans, there are around 4,000 robots currently in Iraq, and governments don’t intend to stop at that. The goal is full autonomy, and we’re getting there. A recent article on increased autonomy of war machines mentions a few real life examples of current semi-autonomy, such as the use of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, and DARPA’s intentions to explore systems that make life-and-death decisions on their own.
I’ve been following the news and rumors on Radar Networks for a few years now, a company that’s about to unveil a new semantic web application. What originally brought it to my attention was the fact that my brother was the chief architect of the underlying system during its conception, and is now on the board of advisors. But it’s not blood relation that’s perpetuating my interest; it’s the potential revolutionary nature of the product they’re about to release. As we get closer to their beta, the shroud of secrecy is gradually being lifted.
Once again news from the forefront of the artificial: Last saturday, on Georgia Tech’s campus at Robocup, the first nano-scaled soccer tournament took place! Microscopic robots — six times smaller than amoebas — competed on a soccer field barely the size of a grain of rice. Image on the side here is the ball!
It’s not every day that elephants inspire technological advances, let alone make existing technologies safer. Robotic arms can be quite dangerous, a single malfunction can cause frantic motion that could easily cause severe damage to us poor biological creatures. But the robotic arm ISELLA is built to minimize potential of such malfunction, and it’s design is inspired by an elephant’s trunk.
Exciting scientific developments descend upon us, as scientists at the J Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, have successfully managed to transfer an entire genome of one species into another — which grew and multiplied into the first species. Why is this significant? Because the next experiment involves creating and implanting a synthetic genome — the success of which could mark the creation of the first artificial lifeform and enable greater possibilities for biological engineering.
