I’m not sure how I feel about this…

High-Speed Robot Hand Demonstrates Dexterity and Skillful Manipulation

Ishikawa Komuro Lab’s high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. For more information, see Hizook.com

 

Life-Like Walking Female Robot … creepy

BBC

Japanese scientists have unveiled a female humanoid walking robot at Tsukuba City, north east of Tokyo.

The robot, named HRP-4C, has 30 motors in its body that allow it to walk and move its arms as well as eight motors on its face to create expressions like anger and surprise.

She will also make a special appearance in a Tokyo fashion show and will go on sale for around $200,000 (£142,000).

More Video on Robots:

 

Baseball Cards Coming to Life?!

Baseball cards + Webcams = Sports Figure Avitars in your HAND?!?!

Yet another example of how we live in the future … or in Harry Potter’s magical land of witchcraft and wizardry. Either way I’m in a perpetual state of “WTF?”! – D.Blawg

Webcam Brings 3-D to Topps Sports Cards

Since the 1950s, Topps has sold baseball trading cards filled with photos and stats, bringing the game to life. Now the company is bringing its cards to life.

Beginning Monday, collectors who hold a special Topps 3D Live baseball card in front of a webcam will see a three-dimensional avatar of the player on the computer screen. Rotate the card, and the figure rotates in full perspective. It’s called “augmented reality,” a combination of a real image with a virtual one…

…Topps needs to augment reality because baseball cards are struggling in the Internet age. Today’s collectors, most of whom are still boys, can just as easily and less expensively find the sports facts they want online….

…Michael Eisner, the former chief of Walt Disney, (aka: the Devil) … and in 2007 his Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners bought Topps for $385 million. They hatched big plans to make trading cards relevant again.

Total Immersion, a French company, brought Topps the augmented reality technology. It has already been used in a theme park and for some auto design work. Using the technology, card collectors see a three-dimensional version of a player and can play elementary pitching, batting and catching games using the computer keyboard….

…Mr. Eisner says he does not see Topps as a trading card business. “I see it as a cultural, iconic institution not that different from Disney; it conjures up an emotional response that has a feel good, Proustian kind of uplift,” he said.

Mr. Eisner has also created Back on Topps, a 17-episode Internet comedy that spoofs his acquisition of the company. He is developing a movie based on another of the company’s products, Bazooka Joe bubble gum. He also wants to create sports films…

 

There Really is no such thing as “Science Fiction” anymore…

D.Blawg Asks: Remember that crazy Sci-Fi thriller “Minority Report” ? Apparently it was a book first, but I only saw the awesome, on-screen Tom Cruise version … Well, we may not be able to see into the future and prevent murders before they happen (yet) but a company called Oblong has created a spatial operating environment called G-Speak, that is essentially the same interactive interface from the movie … watch the clip below and see for yourself:

Visit: oblong.com