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Quake Wars PC Demo Coming

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: First Person Shooters, PC,

Splash Damage, developer for the upcoming multiplayer shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars based on the Quake property, announced that it will be releasing a PC demo of the game on Monday, September 10th in anticipation of the game’s October 2nd release in North America.

Quake Wars was originally slated to be released in 2006 but was pushed back to allow for more testing and polish. The game is a team-oriented multiplayer skirmish game that takes place prior to Quake II in the game’s chronology and features objective-based missions, vehicles and full bot support for solo play.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is due in Europe and Australia September 28th.

Roller-Walker Skates

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Science,

The four-legged Roller-Walker has a special mechanism on each foot so that he can walk over rough terrain or roll on flat surfaces. Installed actuators assist the lightweight bot which moves in a way that is similar to roller skating. Not quite as cuddly or versatile as BEAR, we are beginning to notice that robots are becoming more lifelike in their movements every day as opposed to just waving their arms, sliding across a planet, and yelling, “Danger, Will Robinson!”

Read More | Hirose Fukushima Robotics Lab

Preggers Bot Up on eBay Block

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Hot Deals, Misc. Tech, Science,

What costs $12,000, is pregnant, but will never give birth? That would be this audio-animatronic, custom designed female bot up for sale on eBay. She was originally designed to demonstrate ultrasound equipment but we guess that her owner no longer needs her services. The unnamed robot (we’ll just call her Mom,) can move her eyes, mouth, eyebrows, nod, turn, go up on her elbows, rotate, and curl her wrists. After programming, she could also sing to her unborn bot while moving.

If you are interested, the seller would be willing to send you a DVD of her performance. You had better hurry though, as the bidding is set to end September 2. Frankly, as talented as Mom appears to be, we can’t envision living with robotic hormones running rampant.

Mr. Wu Creates Bots Out of Trash

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Science, Transportation,

Wu Yulu has never been to college, but somehow he has managed to take others’ trash and turn it into his own treasures. For every creation he comes up with, he modestly numbers and names it Wu, too. Apparently Mrs.Yulu is not crazy about the fact that her husband not only spends most of his time playing with his toys, but burned down the house once while the evil scientist in him was at work. We have no doubt that when the Wu Rickshaw Robot is discovered on a grand scale, he will be raking in the big bucks.

DJ Robot Delegated to Receptionist Duties

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Misc. Tech, Science,

Toyota created DJ Robot to be a part of their robotic band, which included a trombone, tuba, French horn, and percussionist that entertained at the Aichi World Expo in 2005. Unfortunately, he has since undergone retraining for his new gig as a receptionist. Perhaps Toyota feels that rapping to customers will be a boon to its business or maybe the company put the 1 meter tall DJ in the realms of the blue collar worker so that it could concentrate more of its efforts on its new musically inclined bot, one that really can play the violin.

Robot Copies Dance Steps

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Music, Science,

Folk Dancing Robot Shin’ichiro Nakaoka and his team at the University of Tokyo have created a dancing bot that can imitate dance routines within minutes. The researchers utilized motion capture technology after studying dance instructor Hisako Yamada. They are hoping that the robot can be used to preserve traditional Japanese folk dancing if the knowledge becomes lost in time. Because the dance learned, Aizu-Bandaisan, is mostly concerned with upper body movements, it may be a while before the big guy can move on to hip hop. After watching the video, we would swear there is a guy in that suit.

Tondon Tidies Up While Observing

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smart Home, Misc. Tech, Science,

Tondon Tondon has been “hired” by a 14 floor Tokyo apartment complex as its maintenance man. Built by Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries) and Sumitomo, the bot uses an optical communication system to run the building’s elevators and has been designed to sweep, clean, and scrub dirty surfaces both indoors and outside. The next generation of the RFS1 robot, he is also waterproof and features a design to match the Bali-themed decor. Tondon, named after a legenday Balinese snake god, features 4 video cameras and a hard disk so that humans can keep an eye on the little guy while he is also being utilized for surveillance. We call any rent-a-cop who can clean up at the same time deserves Japan’s 2006 Robot of the Year Award bestowed upon him.

Halluc II Can Take On Any Terrain

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Science, Transportation, Videos,

The Chiba Institute of Technology has released a working prototype of Halluc II, which has eight legs and wheels designed to drive over the lumps and bumps of the great out or indoors. In one of three modes (Vehicle, Insect, or Animal,) the bot can move sideways, turn around, and deal with even the most unstable terrains with wireless LAN capability and a system of motor-control with cams and sensors. Set to become available to the public within the next five years, its team hopes it will serve the mobility-impaired. We figure it will pay for itself, since it costs a lot less to feed when compared to a seeing eye dog.

Homersapien Looks Buff, Still Sounds Dorky

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Movies, Science, Toys,

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.

ROMI, the Giant Furby, is Unveiled

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: CES, CES 2007, Misc. Tech, Science, Wireless / WiFi,

ROMI ETRI has developed ROMI, a Korean bot that will make its debut at next week’s CES 2007. The robot transmits video with its Wireless/CMDA connection, sees through a camera, and can relay information to your PC or phone. He obeys commands by voice activation of its name. While you can probably give it the most basics of demands such as, “ROMI ~~walk~~ roll” and “ROMI gimme ~~five~~

none” we have a hunch that this bot is not much more than a glorified Furby.

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