In the future, we will be able to control our gadgets with our mind. Johnny Matheny is already relying on a mind-controlled prosthetic limb to do things. The Modular Prosthetic Limb, developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, has given Johnny the chance to retain complete range of motion through a Bluetooth-controlled arm.
Meet the Parrot Airborne Cargo MiniDrone: a mini drone with a VGA mini camera and compartments to hold smart objects. It has a shock resistant and durable design. You can control your smartphone or tablet. The 550 mAh battery life lasts up to 9 minutes and recharges in 25 minutes.
Meet the AirDog AD10 Drone: an auto-follow drone with modes for surfing, kiteboarding, wakeboarding, and other outdoor activities. It relies on AirLeash, a wearable device, to track your location and keep you in the center of the action. AirDog can fly for up to 18 minutes. It has a max speed of 42 mph and is resistant to 11 m/s winds.
Meet the StandiT Kit: a smart desk that turns your regular desk into an electric desk with app and voice control. You also get a control panel to change the height of the desk. Each leg can carry up to 100 lbs. You get a height range of 27″ to 44.5″. The control panel can control up to 6 legs.
It is no secret that you can try all kinds of fun projects with an Arduino. outaspaceman has posted a video an Arduino-controlled knife wielding tentacle. The Arduino controls the servo motor with the blink program. The developer sped up the interval on the blink program to 500ms complete this project:
We have covered plenty of fun robots here in the past. Robi is a cute robot that can turn his head and pelvis 360 degrees. It has microphones in his ears to detect the location of a speaker and turn his head towards him or her. Its built-in IR remote emitter allows the robot to control your TV. This 13.75″ tall robot has a vocabulary of 250 words.
Human computer interaction is a fascinated field to study. Teaching machines to decode subtle cues of our feelings is not without challenges, but many researchers are already working on it. Take Charles for instance. It is an animatronic head with 24 motors controlling its face, giving it human emotions. He is built to see whether humans are comfortable with an emotional robot.
As you can see in the above video, this robot remains a work in progress.
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Meet the Ecovacs Deebot D45: a robot that keeps your floors clean. The D45 can go under beds, sofas, and other hard to reach areas. There is an optional mop feature available. It has sweep. sweep & mop, and sweep & vacuum modes. The robot has advanced sensors to avoid falling down the stairs while cleaning your floor. You can put the robot on a schedule.
Meet the Parrot Bebop 2 Drone: a compact drone that lets you capture high quality aerial footage. It has no moving parts other than the propellers and comes with a 14MP camera and video stabilization. The 2700 mAh battery lasts you for up to 25 minutes.
Robots are going to change the way we live and get business done. Many businesses are already relying on robots for a more efficient operation. Sawyer and Baxter from Rethink Robotics are collaborative robots that can handle packaging, circuit board testing, and other tasks.
The above video shows how these robots work. You can find out more here.
