Robot with a Sense of Touch

(Video Link)

Joe Romano, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, modified a robot to sense objects and pick them up without either crushing or dropping them:

This information has already been used to allow the robot to quickly stop after contact before damaging itself or the environment, naturally pass objects to a person, or detect when an object has been set down on a tabletop.

The goal of this work was to allow the robot to understand the sensory information that arises from contact with the environment, intelligently reason about what is happening in the world, and decide what the appropriate robot response should be. Using this tactile approach, the PR2 can delicately grasp a wide range of unknown objects, such as raw fruit, eggs, and heavy liquid-filled containers, all without crushing or dropping them. The PR2 can also quickly detect contacts between its arms and objects in the world, as well as contact between hand-held objects and the world.

Link via GearFuse

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The World’s First Touch Watch Phone

As a kid I remember watching Dick Tracy and being awed by his ultra cool wrist-watch phone. I wanted one. I still want one. Thanks to the folks at LG, now we can all have one. LG’s G910 Touch Watch phone, available later this year, is a mere 13.9mm thick and features a full touch-screen interface, video calling capabilities and an MP3 player. There are a lot of firsts for this little device – it’s the first of its kind and the first to be supported by a major mobile phone carrier. That mobile carrier is Europe’s Orange, which means if you don’t live in Europe you’ll probably have to wait a bit longer to sprint through the streets pretending to be on a top-secret mission.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.

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