Check out Swarmanoid, a Heterogeneous Robot Swarm
August 17th, 2011
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/
Topics: AAAI, AAAI-11, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Competition, Environment, Europe, European Union, Experimental, Heterogeneous, Innovation, Marco Dorigo, Project, Research, San Francisco, Sport, Swarmanoid, Technology, the Best Video Award, Video, Watch, YouTube
Wireless Charging for Mobile Devices
September 23rd, 2008
Check this cool gadget out. A way to charge your electronic devices with no wires. Read the article on Philips website. I have seen 3 or 4 more of these out in the market over the past year, I am sure Best Buy will have them soon enough.
Blue Ray Player vs. PlayStation
September 21st, 2008
Sony BDP-S300
OK, so I bought this Blue Ray player last holiday season. It has been great, I bought it with a new Sony LCD TV as well and they combine to be a really nice set. The one thing that I have to say is that this player is about the slowest thing I have ever seen. My family has times it and it takes 65 seconds to start up and open the DVD tray, as well it takes almost 30 seconds to start playing the DVD once put into the machine.
I have loaded all of the updates, and am running the latest firmware on this machine, was a challenge as I use a Mac and had to run parallels to get the updates and burn a dvd to install. after all of the updates there was no increase in speed of startup or load time.
OK so why am I writing this posting? I was at a friends house recently and saw the Sony PlayStation in action on a similar model TV. I saw a Blue Ray disk being played and it looked awesome, I saw the machine start up in no time and spit out the disk tray in under 20 seconds. I later found out that the Blue Ray drive in the unit was upgradeable as well, and will likely support the new 2.0 format of Blue Ray. Not sure I need it or not but wow. So I went to SAMs last week and the Sony was almost the same price as the PlayStation.
If you are thinking about going the Blue Ray route, I say go for it but do the research and buy the PlayStation even if you never use it as a game console. You will appreciate it in the long run. The game stations will likely integrate more and more into the living space. Good luck in your search.
Topics: Blu-Ray Disc, Blue Ray Player, Compact Disc, Digital Media, DVD, Electronics, Game Stations, HD, HD, High End Audio, PlayStation, PlayStation 3, Research, SAMs, Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Playstation, Technology, Video Game console
Using Biology to Make Better Animations (2008) Torsten Reil
July 10th, 2008
For years I have heard about special algorithms that were used to understand how the flow could effect blood cells through a mechanical valve using a NASA formula for analyzing air flow through a jet engine. Even the crash sequences in the pod races of Star Wars were completely based on a virtual crash formula that was 100% computer driven, and there are many other examples of this concept. It is the obvious evolution in 3d design animation. Instead of a two day creation that was the result of interpretation of what would happen in a particular case, these formula actually allow for the computer to do much of “tweaking.”
Now at TED, Torsten Reil gives a remarkable talk was given about how characters move in games, and how to make more lifelike using genetic algorithms… mimicking the human spinal cord and using evolutionary learning algorithms… it is very cool idea.
Revisiting Site Relational Graphs
June 24th, 2008
Presidential Watch 08 website has a very interesting map of the relationship of a bunch of politcal bLog websites, and shows ALL of their relationship to eachother in the bLog-o-Sphere map. CLICK HERE to view.
It is would have been nice to be able to rotate and move nodes in the flash chart, that takes a while to load. Very, very kewl way to represent relationships, between sites. It wold be nice to be able to zoom in more easily as well… anyway – reminiscent of the GraphViz application ( see: 2007-02-08 ). In the meantime enjoy the idea.
Topics: Cloud, Convention, Data Graph, Design, Design, Experimental, Flash, Graph, Grouping, Internet, Map, Politics, Relational Graphs, Research, Shared, Social Networks, Technique, Theory
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