Future-proofing a pine seedling nursery through automation

MuzGadget cousin, Patrick, is featured in this Rural Delivery clip and talks about how he is using technology to automate, sustain and improve his pine seedling nursery.

Read the whole Rural Delivery story at https://www.ruraldelivery.net.nz/stories/Murray-s-Nurseries

Izmir International Fair 2016 - theme Innovation

We recently attended the annual Izmir International Fair. The theme this year was innovation and the exhibits included a mini maker faire.

Suburban train simulator

Virtual reality parachute

Virtual reality cycling

Virtual reality submarine

Mini Maker Faire 

Lots of 3D printers on display

Solar powered boat

Solar powered car

A drone motorcycle?

Robot arms

Intricate laser cutting laminated to produce interesting geometric effects

Robots

Octocopter

CNC producing a label

Laminated cardboard and LEDs 

Laminated cardboard sculpture

Wooden construction blocks. Not available on the App Store

Animatronics

Model of Artemis Temple constructed from sugar cubes

Simone's robot helpers

Simone Giertz, maker/robotics enthusiast/non-engineer, creates some amusing robots.



Build logs and more of her robots on her blog and YouTube channel.

UNI-CUB - personal mobility device featured in OK Go's "I won't let you down"

OK Go recently released another amazing video for their song "I won't let you down" featuring the Honda UNI-CUB personal mobility device.

The UNI-CUB is ideal for the music video featuring the band and synchronized dancers because it has unique omni-directional maneuverability and auto-balancing. The balance control technology and Honda’s proprietary driving wheel system in the UNI-CUB originated from their research into humanoid robots such as ASIMO.

Watch an interview with Damian and Tim on some of their inspiration for the video and behind-the-scenes challenges.

Explore more including interactive video of the song at I won't let you down. The pre-visualization is really cool - you can create your own version of the video with UNI-CUB riders and umbrellas.

Hovercycle

I am looking forward to developments of this life size quadcopter.

Robot Ride A Hovercycle by sci-tech

3D Printed Food

The guys from Tested visited CES 2014 and tasted 3D printed candies and chocolates made with the ChefJet line of food 3D printers which create the food using alternate layers of powdered food and water.

Three years ago, 3D food printing technology from Cornell University used a different approach - printing the designs with food pastes.


Currently the technology is slow and expensive. It will be interesting to see what develops over the next few years. 

Dynamic Remote 3D Shape Display

A team from the Tangible Media Group at MIT are working on the inFORM system, a Dynamic Shape Display that can render 3D content physically using Microsoft Kinects and a matrix of actuators. The system allows video conference participants to physically interact remotely.

Playing catch

Some amazing quadrocopter acrobatics. 

Happy Shrove Tuesday

Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent is traditionally the day to make pancakes. Enjoy these pancake inspired gadget videos:

Pinokio - lamp, robot, friend?

Pinokio is a humble anglepoise lamp created by Shanshan Zhou, Adam Ben-Dror, Joss Doggett with the ability to be aware of its surroundings and behave in an attention seeking manner.

Pinokio from Adam Ben-Dror on Vimeo.

Read more at http://www.behance.net/gallery/Pinokio/5914541

How monsters are made

During our travels in New Zealand we visited the How to make a Monster exhibit at the Waikato Museum.

Featuring animatronics, props and special effects from movies such as Inspector Gadget 2, George of the Jungle 2, Peter Pan and Pitch Black, the display highlighted some of John Cox's Creature Workshop's work.

Inspector Gadget hands

George of the Jungle gorillas

Animatronic head

Fabricating origami pop-up microbots

This fascinating video shows the detail of fabricating millimeter scale robots with laser cut pieces sandwiched together and then folded into the 3D shape like pop-up origami.

As seen on Robots.net

Get any gadgets for Christmas?

Greetings of the season!

While I didn't get any gadget loot this year, I am thankful for my loved ones who gave me:

• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• 50 Architecture Ideas You Really Need to Know
• Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things

My son got a solar robotics kit and a Logiblocs Super Inventor Kit. We got our daughter a mineral exploration kit and we had fun digging semi-precious stones out of a block of plaster. She also got The Lego Ideas Book.

Where's WALL-E?

Can you find WALL-E in this artwork by Richard Sargent?

How many of these robots from movies, television and popular culture can you name? The entry that identifies the most characters correctly by 31 August 2011, will win a signed poster print. See Hopewell Studio news and events for details.

Fast robot hand

I am amazed at what the robot hand in this video can do and how fast it can do it. I can't even do some of those things with only three fingers.

Bird-like robotic flight

A TEDtalk video of the first robotic aircraft that flies like a bird.

A robot that balances on a ball

This ball balancing bot can move in any direction without changing its orientation, making it very useful in situations where a small footprint is needed. 


Read more about this at ieee spectrum.

Why I want a 3D Printer

This amazing video of 10-year-old Schulyer makes me want to get (or make) a Makerbot 3D printer.

Cheap telepresence robot

This Low-Cost Video Chat Robot made by Johnny Chung Lee can remotely move around to follow the conversation in different rooms.

Robotic Balls

Controlled by a smart phone, these robotic balls (in prototype) from Gearbox have a gyroscope, compass and other cool technology built in so when you tilt the phone, the ball moves in that direction. Hackable, the ball's serial port can be used to control other devices. Fun cat teasing toys.

This startup says "play with our balls, please!"