We adore WowWee. Their innovative Robosapiens and Dragonbot keep us constantly amused and entertained. So it is no wonder that we fell in love with their London Toy Fair entrants, Spideysapien and the rather buff-looking Homersapien. Both were undoubtedly designed to come out with this summer’s release of the new “Spiderman” and “Simpsons” movies. We expect Homey to utter the inevitable “Do-oh,” but we will be curious to see if he can hand us a Duff Beer.

 

Read More | Wowwee via Robo Community

Gallery: Homersapien Looks Buff, Still Sounds Dorky

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If you are one of the lucky ones to be living or working in NYC’s Chinatown, you can be one of the first to try out the city’s new robotic parking. So far the device has only been successful in China, but Robotic Parking feels confident that the glitches will be worked out by next month. The garage can hold up to 67 cars in a space that would otherwise fit only 24.

Drivers leave their cars on pallets, which are then lowered and set into vacant spaces with a computer controlled elevator that can run both vertically and horizontally. Fees of $25.00 a day or $400.00 a month will be charged. We understand that a similar unit had some problems in 2002 when a Cadillac was dropped 6 floors. We will just allow others to test this one out before we rush to put our beaters in the Chinatown structure.

Read More | AP

Gallery: Robotic Parking Space to Open in Febuary

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Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4

Read More | The Bleeding Edge

Gallery: CES 2007 Video: IOGEAR Nano Shield Germ-Free Peripherals

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Want to stop those harmful terrorists in their tracks? Meet the military’s new “active denial system,” a non-lethal ray gun that shoots out a beam that makes them feel as if they are going to catch on fire. Demonstrated yesterday for the media, this dish antenna mounted on a Humvee was aimed and fired at brave volunteers. Thank goodness the new tactical gadget is not slated to come out until 2010. Hopefully by then we will have come to our senses and our troops will be home.

Read More | Live Science

Gallery: Ray Gun to Thwart Bad Guys by Fear of Fire

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Cosmic Rust is offering free downloads of prototype paper-created Transformers, so you can relive the whole 80’s experience if you used to be as addicted to the action figures as we were. They come on PDF with detailed instructions, just in case you can’t remember what they were actually supposed to represent. We would give you more details, but we are too busy trying to recreate Ultra Magnus before Dreamworks/Spielberg’s “Transformer” Movie comes out this July and Cosmic Rust decides to charge for the privilege.

 

Read More | Cosmic Rust

Gallery: Make Your Own Paper Transformer

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Joining the ranks of our succession of feasible robots, Takara Tomy has announced that it will be releasing their Omnibot 2007 i.SOBOT CAM version later this year. It walks, it talks, it dances, it sees (with camera) and it responds to your commands with voice recognition. The robot measures 96 x 67 x 167mm and weighs 350 g with a WiFi connection for remote control. No word yet on price or exact availability date, we just wanted to be the first to welcome the new bot on the block.

Read More | Akihabara News

Gallery: Omnibot i.SOBOT to Be Unleashed in 2007

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We know that jamming is illegal, still we have to give kudos to hacker/researcher “Lady Ada” at MIT’s Media Lab for allowing us to defend our personal spaces with what appears to be a pack of cigarettes. The Wave Bubble features a rechargeable internal lithium-battery for up to 2 hours of jamming two bands in a cell phone or 4 hours in a single band such as a GPS, cordless phone, or WiFi. Three AAA batteries can also be utilized. The Bubble’s range is about a 20 ft. radius, if you have a decent antenna, and its output is .1W to .3W.

Lady Ada claims that neither the RF jammer nor its specs will ever be available due to FCC regs, and doesn’t recommend that build your own if you are an amateur technology geek. Thanks for the info, Lady Ada. We can take it from here.

 

Read More | Lady Ada

Gallery: Wave Bubble Protects Against RF Jamming

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This is surely the time of the military bot. We can now add the Red Owl to our “don’t send any more troops” iRobot collection. Developed by Glenn Thoren, a director at New Hampshire’s Insight Technology, the robot can be set up in a battlefield and can detect snipers’ hiding spaces by their report up to a mile away. Guided by a modified Xbox controller, the operator’s camera follows the bot movements and infrared lasers track targets while calculating the position by GPS. Unfortunately, it can’t command them to go away or go home. The Red Owl is slated to be available this spring at the life-saving price of $150,000.

 

Read More | PopSci

Gallery: Red Owl Seeks Out Snipers

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Here's how to get the show:
|Download| - iPod-formatted H.264
|Download| - Apple TV High Resolution
|Download| - MPEG-4
|Download| - Windows Media

Read More | The Bleeding Edge

Gallery: CES 2007 Video: Oticon Noise Cancelling Tiny Hearing Aids

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Move over, Bob The Builder. Dr. Behrokh Khoshneivis is leading a team at USC to create a “home-bot” that can build your next house with no help from humans. The bots only utilize gypsum and concrete to spray layers which form floors, walls, and roofs. The first prototype is slated to erect a 2-story home in only 24 hours this April. At a cost of $1.5 million, Khoshneivis claims it will increase production and drop prices to a fifth of what they are now. Imagine the ramifications of putting this puppy to work in New Orleans.

Read More | Techopolis

Gallery: This Bot Can Build

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