Author: John

Rise of the Exoskeletons

robo soldiersSoon you may be seeing squads of power suited troops on your evening news reports from international hot spots. Or at least that is what the Utah based start up company SARCOS wants. The exoskeletons amplify the strength of the operator enabling them to lift 200 pounds with no effort without sacrificing agility and speed. Even as these early tests were all tethered to a power supply, building a backpack sized power supply should be right around the corner.

[via futurismic]
Soldiers To Become Super-Human Mech Warriors

FPV Video Home Page

FPVJust over a year ago I noted a page where a guy had rigged up a telepresence system using a video transmitter with a servo that is slaved it to a head tracking system. The results were pretty good. He might have sparked a new fad amongst R/C fans.

This website is here to help others who are interested video piloting in the newly growing and exciting Hobby of First Person View (FPV or RPV) that has become popular with Radio Controlled airplanes, R/C helicopters, cars and boats.
What is First Person View? also known as FPV, it’s an intelligent term given to video-piloting by one of the pioneers of this kind of flight (cyber-flyer*) describing the use of video camera(s) to pilot a RC heli/plane by sending the video back to the user by a wireless transmitter/ receiver so the user will see what the plane sees.  So in short this puts you in the pilot seat of your RC airplane. For a lot of people this makes flying RC even more fun and gives the user a real since of controlling there aircraft/vehicle.  Most people who enjoy piloting by video and do well with it are typically persons who like video simulation games like flight simulators. Among others are Full-size aircraft pilots, they seem to pick it up quite easily.

[via MAKE]
FPV Video Home Page

NT Zeppelins over Tokyo

NT Zeppelins over TokyoI can only hope that someone decides that this sort of service is needed at the Grand Canyon. Makes more sense than a silly transparent walkway.

Starting this month Nippon Airship Corporation will begin offering airship cruises over Tokyo, at roughly US $1,100 to $1,500 a pop, no pun intended. Rides will be aboard a Zeppelin NT and will last 90 minutes

Too cool. You can read more about NT Zeppelin here.

Zeppelin rocks on in Japan

Plastic as Strong as Steel

Plastic as strong as steelNow if this material can be made clear… Oh wait, it is. If it can be made crystal clear and has good refractive qualities it would make for some dandy scratch proof glasses.

A new composite plastic built layer by layer has been created by engineers at the University of Michigan. This plastic is as strong as steel. It has been built the same way as mother-of-pearl, and shows similar strength. Interestingly, this 300-layer plastic has been built with ‘strong’ nanosheets of clay and a ‘fragile’ polymer called polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), commonly used in paints and glue, which acts as ‘Velcro’ to envelop the nanoparticles. This new plastic could soon be used to design light but strong armors for soldiers or police officers. The researchers also think this material could be used in biomedical sensors and unmanned aircraft.

A plastic as solid as steel

The Hamster Wheel Pedometer

Stuff like this just amazes me to no end. Not that someone built a rotation counter for a hamster cage but that someone would want one.

Worried that your pet hamster’s not getting enough exercise in his cage? This pedometer is actually a hamster wheel attachment that measures how many times the wheel rotates and then gives you an exact measurement of how much distance he’s covered in any one stretch of time. Pretty crazy!

[via boingboing]
TOKYOMANGO: The Hamster Wheel Pedometer