Ex Machina
It is a pretty interesting film that approaches a genuinely interesting and vast topic, however I feel that things are held back a little too much. Anyway, while I’ll prepare a review of it let’s take a look at an interview with visual fx Andrew Whitehurst, and an interview with director Alex Garland.
3DSimo Mini is a pen that can enables you to draw in 3D
Not only can you do that but you can also solder, cut or burn stuff as well. It was originally launched two years ago and now it’s creators are back on Kickstarter with a much more refined and multifunctional device. via Atmel blog
Pepper goes on sale
…in Japan at least, for a price equivalent to US $1,600, an amount much smaller than actual production costs of the robot. However there are cloud subscription for interactive voice recognition and maintenance fees of about US $200 per month which will probably make up for the entire cost. via Automaton
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Read more Aldebaran Unveils Pepper, the Personal Emotional Robot
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Blade is world’s first 3D printed supercar
A startup from San Francisco called Divergent Microfactories presented a radical new concept of building cars using additive manufacturing. The extremely lightweight tubular chassis is made of 3D printed carbon fiber tubing interlocked with 3D printed aluminum joints. The total weight of the car is no more than 635kg or 1,400lbs and doesn’t just look fast, it really is. The powerful 700HP bi-fuel engine, which can burn either standard gasoline or compressed natural gas (CNG), helps the car sprint to 100km/h or 60mph in about 2 seconds. Via Atmel blog
ColorFabb presents a racing bike with 3D printed components
And while we are on this topic, Dutch 3D printing filament manufacturer colorFabb wanted show of their XT-CF20 carbon fiber based filament with a custom designed bicycle frame that uses 3D printed joints to replace welds for the tubing. The company says that their design works with carbon, aluminum, titanium or bamboo tubes.
LEGO Mindstorms EV3 balancing robot can compensate for external factors
Google DeepMind teaches reading to AI
An overview of Google’s technology for deep learning in the area of natural language processing from the perspective of current breakthroughs.
Panda is an Arduino powered cleaning robot
The Arduino Uno powered robot has a footprint of about 15 square cm or about 6 square inch. All plastic parts are printed and it comes complete with air suction, sweeper and roller brush. Via Atmel blog
DRC-HUBO’s winning trial at DARPA Robotics Challenge 2015
via Automaton
Welcome to the dawn of the age of robots
A philosophically titled retrospective about our technological expectations a while ago and today’s status quo, in the light of the recent DARPA challenge.
NASA wants to prepare its Valkyrie robots for missions on Mars
Even though the robot did not perform that well at the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, held earlier this month, NASA wants to stimulate development on this humanoid platform, referred by the name of R5. You can read the full announcement here.
This concludes my selection for this weekend, I hope you like it. If you feel that something has been left out don’t hesitate to mention it.
