Roombots: Lego-like robotic blocks that transform into furniture (video)

Imagine if you can just snap your fingers or issue a verbal command for a table, a chair or any other furniture to assemble right in front of you. That's what a team of researchers from the Swiss Biorobotics Laboratory (BioRob) at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) hopes to achieve by developing Lego-like robotic blocks called Roombots that can stick to each other and form different structures. Each Roombot is made up of two blocks with wireless connection and a battery that powers motors, which the robot uses to rotate into place. These blocks also have retractable claws so anything you conjure up can climb walls and ceilings or stay attached to floors. The researchers believe that Roombots could be very useful to the elderly and people with disabilities, as they could eventually tell the machines to move closer to them or move out of the way.

For now, though, the team still needs to figure out how users can control the robots -- while voice or gesture command would be ideal, the team's looking at using software made for tablets at the moment. They still also need to smooth out the robots' movements, tweak their algorithm and make sure they work together better first before your can fill your homes with reconfigurable furniture.

0 Comments Share

Via: NanoWerk

Source: ScienceDirect

More Coverage: GizMag

Tags: furniture, robotics, Roombot, switzerland Next: FCC gets approval for plan to subsidize fast rural internet access .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

View the Original article

Electronic artists transform 600 phones in a Symphony of light and sound

"Purple rules" of the Prince forgot the concerts of Smartphone, a group actually encouraged fans on their mobile phones of the waves in the air because it part of the show. Electronica group Booka Shade recently gave a concert played its coordinate and lights the phones of the audience about an application custom during the songs, so that they are less inconvenience and more part of the performance.

"With so much resistance to the use of smart phones at concerts because of image and video rights to us how mobile technology show can actually be used, an even better performance to make," said Walter Merziger, Member of the group. The group worked with Vodafone and an organization called Makelight interactive in this project. To phones use, the application of the Makelight must have installed. You will then top synchronized at the fair with a tone that also identifies where each handset partially based on how he wants to sound. Creative Agency has done several shows of light with phones for bands in the past (like others), but this has been incorporated the first time her music into the mix.

Supplement the air meant new address as when and where to play tones to mix perfectly the agency or information. When it came time for the technical rehearsal, she ran in a huge problem: phones are not strong enough on their own to a live performance. The solution? The band distributed accessories for speaker, 10 times to make more expensive phones. The end result is a pretty epic show.

0 comments to share

Tags: Booka Shade, entertainment, Makerlight, Mobilepostcross, Vodafone the following: daily Engadget: Moto-E, tears of Xbox Live down from $ $ app paywall and much more! .Fyre .fyre-comment-divider

View the Original article