Dave McGoran of the University of West England has built what he called the Heart Robot, a semihumanoid doll that “appreciates” affection. Covered in a variety of sensors, Heart Robot responds to your attentions with a range of expressive and, to be honest, unsettling tools: batting eyelids, a beating heart and pleasant purring, to name a few.
Its designer claims that the Heart Robot is an example of a soon-to-be common “emotional machines,” which along with providing entertainment to customers, could be used in hospital rehabilitation scenarios as well. Heart looks like he might be a tiny fun to play with, but due to the fact that he looks terminally ill and has a serious case of permasad I can’t envision this droopy, disconcerting robot doing a whole lot of good around the children’s ward.
In an attempt to humanize the creature, the BBC strung together a sort of plot for the Heart Robot. In this video he uses all of his creepy, pathetic wile to woo an exposed, hideous Hexapod mate. It’s like the first half of Wall-E, if Wall-E starred a giant elf fetus and one of those upside-down skull spiders from Doom 3. [BBC via BoingBoing Gadgets]
The modding issue has always been a touchy one. In case you’re not aware of it, there are available for nearly every game console or handheld a number of hardware-based hacks that allow one to play pirated games and/or homebrew applications. These range from simple boot discs to soldering extra connectors to your console’s boards […]
The modding issue has always been a touchy one. In case you’re not aware of it, there are available for nearly each game console or handheld a number of hardware-based hacks that allow one to play pirated games and/or homebrew applications. These range from simple boot discs to soldering extra connectors to your console’s boards to simple flash drive-based frontends that take advantage of security holes in the system. Like P2P software (or, say, a gun), it’s not inherently illegal, but it is an enabler for illegal acts.
The DS’s well-known interface (the GBA cart interface) and extensive feature set have drawn pirates and developers alike. And very early in the handheld’s life, a special cartridge with writable memory (essentially a small flash drive with a GBA cart interface) became available. The types and capabilities soon multiplied, and in this writer’s thought Nintendo missed the boat on containing this mess. While there is a burgeoning homebrew community for the DS and other consoles, it’s no surprise that more people use it to play pirated ROMs downloaded from the internet. Nintendo has had enough, apparently, and is suing five Japanese firms (unnamed) associated with piratical behaviors. I could have just told you that in the beginning, but then I wouldn’t have been able to write all those words up there.
This odd beast is made entirely of wood and without screws or nails. The creator, Del, is quite proud of his little creation and gives us a full tour of the device, proving that gadget cares about come in all ages and that some of the ideal ideas come from folks we’d initially discount as hopelessly […]
This odd beast is made entirely of wood and without screws or nails. The creator, Del, is quite proud of his little creation and gives us a full tour of the device, proving that gadget loves come in all ages and that some of the best ideas come from folks we’d initially discount as hopelessly outdated or, worse, crazy. I just hope I’m this cool when I’m Del’s age.
First Look - MagicPad from Apple iPhone Apps on Vimeo. TC’s Jason writes: Copy and Paste has long been one of the most requested features on the iPhone, and its continued absence has been both frustrating and confusing for many. How can it be that the iPhone - running a finely tuned version of Mac OS […]
Copy and Paste has long been one of the most requested features on the iPhone, and its continued absence has been both frustrating and confusing for many. How can it be that the iPhone - running a finely tuned version of Mac OS X - is unable to perform functions that have been included in text editors since the 80’s?
MagicPad, a new application from Proximi that is currently waiting for approval on Apple’s App Store, is finally making copy and paste a reality on the iPhone. The application is essentially an improved version of “Notes”, and features rich text editing, allowing users to alter font type, size, and color. And best of all, it grants for copy and paste. Users need only drag their fingers over text to choose it, and adjustments can then be made on a menubar that appears above the onscreen keyboard (see the video below).
Unfortunately, MagicPad isn’t going to bring true Copy-and-Paste to the iPhone, as there will be no way to replicate text between applications (say, from Safari to the Mail client). You’ll be able to replicate and paste between multiple notes within MagicPad, which will make it a step up from Notes, but in reality it serves as more of a proof of concept than a solution.
While the nightmarish beer-belly-ready Iron Man suit was WRONG and disturbing, this homemade version of the original suit is a perfect reproduction of the original. And still disturbing. As you can see in the gallery, it’s perfectly made, with the same finish and every single detail of the real Iron Man suit, down to the last notch and junction.
The armor was made to fit a 6.2-foot, 35-inch, 200-pound person, using glass fiber for the armor parts, flexible plastic for the midsection and neck, and foam rubber for the gloves. The arc reactor lights up, and the eyes are covered with reflective lenses.
For sound effects, however, you still have to shout “pew pew pew” while waving your arms up in the air. [My Disguises]
Got one of them newfangled Nike+ setups? Doubtless you’re wondering what happens when the battery dies on the receiver. Unsurprisingly, you’re supposed to bring it into your local Niketown and pay the man $20 to do the deal. But if you’re comfortable slicing the thing open and doing things with tiny wires, you can do […]
Got one of them newfangled Nike+ setups? Doubtless you’re wondering what happens when the battery dies on the receiver. Unsurprisingly, you’re supposed to bring it into your local Niketown and pay the man $20 to do the deal. But if you’re comfortable cutting the thing open and doing things with tiny wires, you can do it yourself for five bucks. Instructables has the whole story.
This extremely fancy treadmill puts in a whole lot of effort to make you feel like you’re running outside when you, in actuality, aren’t. While it’d be simple to cynically joke about how people hate the sun so much that they’re devising ways to pretend to run outside, this is clearly designed for physical therapy in hospitals. But really, what makes me interested in it is the potential to put something absolutely different up on that screen. Like a video game.
Why not grant people to jog through, state, the underwater city of Rapture from BioShock? Sure, a country dirt road in the summertime might be nice, but when you can put anything at all up there you might as well think outside the box. And if you can make running on a treadmill feel like a video game, maybe, just maybe you’ll be able to get a whole new group of people into exercising. And that wouldn’t be something even the biggest cynics could make fun of. Much. [New Launches via Ubergizmos]
Dave McGoran of the University of West England has built what he called the Heart Robot, a semihumanoid doll that “appreciates” affection. Covered in a variety of sensors, Heart Robot responds to your attentions with a range of expressive and, to be honest, unsettling tools: batting eyelids, a beating heart and pleasant purring, to name a few.
The modding issue has always been a touchy one. In case you’re not aware of it, there are available for nearly each game console or handheld a number of hardware-based hacks that allow one to play pirated games and/or homebrew applications. These range from simple boot discs to soldering extra connectors to your console’s boards to simple flash drive-based frontends that take advantage of security holes in the system. Like P2P software (or, say, a gun), it’s not inherently illegal, but it is an enabler for illegal acts.
While the nightmarish 
This extremely fancy treadmill puts in a whole lot of effort to make you feel like you’re running outside when you, in actuality, aren’t. While it’d be simple to cynically joke about how people hate the sun so much that they’re devising ways to pretend to run outside, this is clearly designed for physical therapy in hospitals. But really, what makes me interested in it is the potential to put something absolutely different up on that screen. Like a video game.
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