Technology that answers back
February 27, 2009
cleverbot is a product of jabberwacky.com. Jaberwacky lets you create a robot and then teach it to chat about what ever you would like it to chat about. The idea is that insurance companies and other commercial sites could teach the robot about what they do and then the robot could be placed on their website to help customers with questions and advice. That’s the practical side of it but for me i just enjoyed chatting absolute nonsense to it and reading its random responses. At one point it asked me if i tasted of cheese and it also told me the the giant pyramid with the eye is watching me. Perfectly normal conversations! The idea behind the site is pretty amazing! It would be good if they published an API for the service so that people could link Arduino and other hardware to the site and have actual AI talking projects.
BeatBearing Tangible Rhythm Sequencer by Peter Bennet
February 27, 2009
There are three main reasons why i love this project. Firstly the switches are ingenious. They look to be made out of washers cut in half and separated then as the ball bearing is placed down it connects the two half’s and joins the circuit together. Its so simple that is brilliant.
The second reason i like this project so much is that it uses the old CRT type screen. If you ever go to a dump you will see plenty of these thrown to waste replaced by the more convenient TFT monitor. Its nice to see the old monitors being put to use, i have always thought that the CRT screen would make an awesome base to a coffee table (project coming soon).
I also love that the interface is placed directly above the screen making it possible for the interface to react and change colour throughout the experience. I found this project on the MAKE magazine blog. The Make blog has more information on the build and techniques used for communicating with the computer so if this interests you take a look there as well.
Links:
Virtual Reality Circular Floor
February 25, 2009
Bring out the old school platform games like Mario and Alex the Kid and immerse yourself in them. Ok not quite but it does show some serious potential. This automated floor adapts as the user walks and makes sure they don’t go any where. Its pretty impressive but i feel at the moment it is a bit slow at the moment!
3D Mapping Projection
February 25, 2009
Found this video of laughingsquid.com. Some of the effects used are mind blowing. I especially like the leaking TV its just a really nice concept. There are a few cheesy moments but these can be excused as overall the footage is awesome. The video is a show reel from the french design company EasyWeb.
Plug computer
February 24, 2009
The very idea of an always on PC the size of a plug opens up vast possibilities. The SheevaPlug runs at an average of 5watts which is much less than the usual servers and house hold computers. It connects to an ordinary network and has a USB input to incorporate the usual peripherals such as cameras, external hard disk drives etc…
From what i could see this only comes with a type ‘A’ plug (American Standard) but i am sure there is a way of converting it to work in the UK. There is an open source API framework named RainDrop which from the text on the site ‘makes it effortless to deploy third-party applications onto the SheevaPlug securely and in a resource-defined manner.’
The SheevaPlug would be very useful when working with home automation and security.
Japanese cycle store
February 22, 2009
Recently i had my bike stolen from outside university and i know quite a few people who share the same misfortune. Although it is very unlikely it would be amazing it the university could come up with something as ingenious as this to encourage students to cycle into university.
Solarcat batteries
February 17, 2009
Knut Karlsen has come up with a really simple idea for charging those batteries that are just lying around not doing anything. Knut produced the Solarcat batteries by wrapping flexible Photo Voltaic (PV) cells around the shaft of older NiMH rechargeable batteries.
Comfort food
February 16, 2009
I love toast who doesn’t? Not to mention there are hundreds and thousands of old VHS players going to waste out there. The only logical move is to combine these to facts into one and create something of true genius!
BRING OUT THE VHS TOASTER!
All joking aside this is a very good mod. The appearance of the VHS player is untarnished and the spring release toast firing mechanism is the icing on the cake.
Automation on a new level
February 7, 2009
I have learnt so much from the ambles of the great minds published on Ted talks. Recently the most inspirational talk has been about Theo Jansen . Nature is a most peculiar thing and these automaton are impressive in their likeness to some very familiar living things. Its quite daunting to imaging what research goes into realising the behavior of and creating such objects as the ones in the video.
