Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

She’s not one of the fembots from the Austin Powers movies, but she’s the next best thing.  Her name is EMA, which stands for Eternal Maiden Actualization.  The maker is Sega Toys, and the target demographic is lonely dudes.  That’s right, according to Reuters she’s being marketed in Japan as a female companion.  She can sing, dance, hand out business cards (?), and of course give kisses.  EMA would make a great girlfriend because not only is she very affectionate, she’s also really low maintenance.  All she needs is some battery power, as that’s what she runs on.

She’ll be available in September for about $175, and Sega hopes for first-year sales of 10,000.  Maybe this could be like a Lars and the Real Girl situation, where not just the Lars character but everyone else could come to see EMA as real!  Except EMA is only 15 inches tall.  But her other measurements would make any girl jealous!

Speaking of robot women, check out this video for comments made about Madonna by singer Dan Gillespie-Sells of The Feeling.  Hilarious!  Unfortunately, unlike EMA, Her Majesty has been unavailable for some time.  But she can still sing and dance though.

Read [MSNBC]

Surely the holy grail for the engineering world is the ability to make a robot that is lifelike, and although the robots in question are not particularly lifelike in bodily form or in thought, they have some of the crucial things that will move us into the future. Festo, normally known for their heavy machinery, recognized this and moved into making life like ‘beings.’

The Jellyfish (plural) are designed for air and water, and they are incredibly sophisticated and built using automating techniques that create robots that not only use peristaltic motion but can communicate with each other to provide equal space for each other and take turns at the recharging station.

But it is not just this sophistication that is what makes these so remarkable, it is their beauty and symmetrical-ity that makes them so incredibly (attractive?) beautiful, and although they are undoubtedly useless, they are a step forwards into the future.

Via [kk.org]

Fancy spending the afternoon talking at your favorite living room devices? Toshiba’s new robot might be able to let you do just that. With a name that’s inspired by the Italian term “Poco a poco,” which means little by little, the Toshiba Apripoco will enable you to wireless communicate with most remote-controlled devices by using simple voice commands. It was designed to learn how you use your devices “little by little,” hence the name. With a little time, it should be able to tell whether you’re turning on the TV or turning up the AC. And will turn on (or off) the corresponding device accordingly.

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What if you could talk… without really talking? Aside from saving you all the effort required to move your lips, don’t you agree that it would be the sexiest thing in mobile communications since the RAZR? Well, Ambient Corporation promises to give you just that, the ability to say words without opening your mouth. Just think of all the possibilities this will bring. Now, you can continue to annoy your peaceful old neighbors without even moving your lips, you talkative freak of nature you.

In a recent conference held by microchip manufacturer Texas Instruments, Michael Callahan of Ambient Corporation demonstrated how “Audeo”, the groundbreaking technology developed by their company, can let a user “speak without speaking” via a neckband and a nearby computer. The neckband is used to interpret the nerve signals in the user’s vocal cords and then wirelessly transmits it to the computer to be spoken aloud by a robotic voice. It doesn’t read your thoughts, though, but only the words that you “want to say”. I believe this is a significant step forward in the field of wireless communications. You have to see it for yourself to believe it (keep reading for a video demonstration).

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You’ve got to hand it to the Japanese, their passion for weird gadgets is really boundless. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at this new SoftBank 815T PB mobile phone introduced by Softbank and TV Tokyo.

Developed by Toshiba, it’s practically the first Transformers-inspired 3G mobile phone equipped with 2.0-megapixel camera, a secondary 0.3-megapixel camera, 2.4-inch QVGA screen, music player, IrDA, and a microSD card slot. 

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For the technologies that fall into the catapult category, enter Robopult, the newest and most terrifying metallic sight since Godzilla crushed a city that got in the way of his last good will tour fifty some odd celluloid years ago. Robopult is unlike the others of its ilk; namely, the ballista and the catapult, as Robopult is perfectly capable of flinging fireballs and just about anything else you can imagine in the air! This industrial robotic arm that is transformed into a computerized demon hurler is not for everybody in more ways than one. 

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If you have money to burn, you might be interested in purchasing this project, which is sure to excite and whelm all who behold it size and/or shadow (as Mel Brooks used to say). The larger-than-life Gundam robot is expected to stand 60 feet tall and the unbelievable price tag doesn’t even include the cost of labor or the necessary infrastructure!

You can forget about flying this technological wonder or even taking it for a ride. The most you can hope for is a simple promenade with your new 43-ton robot.  And even that could present problems, as a simple walk is sure to result in the destruction of

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You have to love the Japanese. If it isn’t awards for mobile films, it is awards for Robot of the Year.

The thing that did surprise me though was that it wasn’t the walking android or the robotic firefighter that won, but the robotic sorter, that was designed to accurately sort items on conveyor belts.

Then again since the awards were established in 2006 they have given first prize to a furry seal for use by the elderly!

Paro, as the robot mammal was known, was fitted with sensors beneath its fur and whiskers that allow it to respond to petting and was developed for use in nursing homes.

Now that really does seem somewhat wacky to say the least!

Via [BBC]

I have become convinced in the last few years that the pharmaceutical industry has created a pill to treat every single problem that human kind has ever imagined. There are certainly no shortage of medicines for whatever may ail you. Apparently, the real shortage going on in our uber-medicated world is that there just aren’t enough Pharmacists to hand out all that restless leg medication.

Instymeds seeks to take all the humanity out of buying prescription drugs and turn it into the same experience you have buying a Snickers bar. Using software, the Instymed can verify electronic prescriptions and dispense up to 100 different medicines. Insurance companies will be billed instantly through the web for copays. On the plus side, this could help those in need of emergency medication after traditional pharmacy hours. Conversely, demand may force this vending machine to be packed full of Viagra.

Via [Gear Live]

The Tux Droid could possibly be one of the geekiest toys I have seen so far, but that aside its actually pretty cool and should make the perfect gift for just about any Linux user. Tux is a felt covered penguin that receives notifications via a wireless fish shaped transmitter and can inform you of new emails, RSS feeds, weather reports or breaking news. Just in case that was not enough, Tux can also act as a VoIP phone, speaker for playing MP3’s, alarm clock and even alert you of an intruder by detecting sound or light.

The notifications come in the form of Tux dancing, spinning, flapping or flashing, he can even speak to you using his text-to-speech abilities.

The complete kit includes Tux, a fish that connects via USB and acts as a receiver/transmitter and a remote control, and as is should be the Tux Droid will work only with Linux based systems.

The Tux Droid normally retails for $99.95, however it is currently out of stock, which could mean either the Tux Droid is very popular or possibly just in limited quantity to begin with.

Product [Firebox] Via [Red Ferret]