opinionated observations » Category: Innovation

BMW i. Born Electric.

Dru — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 08:33:39 +0000

BMW just unveiled the BMW i3 Concept and BMW i8 Electric Concept cars! BMW i stands for visionary vehicles and mobility services, inspiring design and a new understanding of premium that is strongly defined by sustainability. With BMW i the BMW Group is adopting an all-embracing approach, redefining the understanding of personal mobility with purpose-built vehicle concepts, a focus on sustainability throughout the value chain and a range of complementary mobility services.

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Check out Swarmanoid, a Heterogeneous Robot Swarm

Dru — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:54:28 +0000

Swarmanoid is a heterogeneous robot swarm in which different groups of robots have different capabilities: some robots are specialized in manipulating objects and climbing, some in moving on the ground and transporting objects, and some in flying and observing the environment from above. This video presents the Swarmanoid project, a 4 year research project coordinated by Marco Dorigo and funded by the Commission of the European Union.

This video won the Best Video Award at the AI Video Competition.

More information at: http://www.swarmanoid.org/

A robot that flies like a bird

Dru — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:11:09 +0000

Plenty of robots can fly — but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh from TEDGlobal 2011.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts.

Jacques Fresco’s Utopia

Dru — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:30:05 +0000

Transcendent Man by director Barry Ptolemy introduces the life and ideas of Ray Kurzweil, the renowned futurist who journeys the world offering his vision of a future in which we will merge with our machines, can live forever, and are billions of times more intelligent…all within the next thirty years.

Check out: YouTube Trailer for FUTURE by DESIGN

Could this be what will be? It is a fascinating look at what could be.

Sebastian Thrun: Google’s Driverless Car

Dru — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:54:36 +0000

Finally, what looks like some real progress getting driver-less cars moving onto the roads.