Zoomer: The Robotic Dog for People Who Can't Have Pets

My dog, Zoomer, doesn’t listen. He sticks his shiny black nose where it doesn’t belong, is always bumping into things and has a habit of peeing where I don’t want him to. Still, when he rolls around on his four paws I am more than a little charmed by his impish nature and can’t help but be a little sad when he runs out of power and falls asleep.

Zoomer is, as you may have guessed, no ordinary dog. He’s a $99 (retail) robotic pet from Spin Master LTD for children ages 5 and up, and despite his (or rather, "its") limitations and the fact that it's not the “most technologically advanced robotic dog ever made” (as the press materials promised), Zoomer is certainly an entertaining electronic companion.

Spin Master’s canine creation is, without a doubt, a level above most toys. It has motorized joints and sensors in its chest to detect motion, objects and touch. It responds to voice commands in three different languages: English, Spanish and French. It can move more quickly than any robot dog I’ve ever seen. That’s because Zoomer’s feet are actually wheels. This was a smart move on Spin Master’s part; previous robot dogs like Tiger’s i-Cybie and even Sony’s legendary AIBO robotic dog had articulated plastic feet, which meant the robot dogs could walk, but at a relatively slow pace. Running was out of the question.

Zoomer zips around the room with speed, but virtually no grace. It makes the toy remarkably puppy-like, which makes sense; at roughly 10 inches long and 6 inches high, it's about the size of a small puppy.

Mostly white with black spots, LED eyes and a rubber tail, Zoomer has an internal battery. That’s right, no double or triple A batteries for Zoomer — he uses an internal rechargeable that connects to an old school mini-USB cable, which can charge directly from your computer or a wall plug. A full charge takes about an hour. It’s rated for about 30 minutes of play time, though you can extend that by turning Zoomer off when you’re not playing with the robot. The most intelligent robot dog I ever tested, AIBO, could charge itself.

Zoomer’s power, language control and charging port are all covered by rubber on its belly near the sensors. I had a habit of touching the cover, which kept flapping open. It was kind of annoying.

Not So Sophisticated

Spin Master’s instructions and useful website explain that Zoomer can actually learn and improve at following commands. It even has moods. It didn't get noticeably smarter in my time with it, but I hope Spin Master's promise is true; Zoomer isn’t great at following instructions like "sit," "play dead," "follow me" and a dozen or so other voice-activated commands, all of which start with announcing the robot’s name. I had to repeat commands multiple times.

Spend enough time training Zoomer and you may finally get him out of training mode so he doesn’t forget commands. Personally, I’d like to see a quick learner mode, in which Zoomer becomes a great listener with the flick of a switch. Even if Zoomer does get smarter, its way of listening is not particularly sophisticated. 

Zoomer doesn't listen at all unless you press the robot pup's head, essentially a giant button, and wait for his LED eyes to turn into two question marks. This is just one of the places where Spin Master’s claims fall short. Sony’s AIBO, for example, only needed you to say its name for the robot to pay attention and respond. Of course, AIBO cost nearly $2,000 in 2003.

When you do get Zoomer to pay attention and perform a trick, it's quite endearing. If you ask it to, the toy will follow you, shake hands, play with a ball and pee on command (with no messy cleanup!). Zoomer’s body is jointed at the waist so it can roll half of his body and then the other to play dead and get up again. Zoomer will also perform random tricks if you press the button on its back, and the robot dog will bark loudly and run around if you leave it in independent mode. All that noise left me wishing Spin Master added a volume control, which is a feature available on almost every robot dog I've tested.

Despite its sensors, Zoomer cannot see edges, so keep it away from steps and off tabletops. Unlike most real dogs, it also prefers the indoors.

Expectations

Though Zoomer lists for $99, you can easily find it on most sites for $79. Considering build quality and entertainment value, I think the price is worth it. Zoomer isn't the best robot dog ever made, but it's one of the best on the market today. I bet it will make some child very, very happy this holiday season.

The Low Down

The Good:

• Adorable
• Good build: If the ear pops off, you can pop it right back on again. Try that with a real dog.
• Surprising smarts and agility

The Bad:

• Won’t listen without help
• Half hour of battery life
• Loud

Bottom Line:

If you’re looking for an affordable, fun, worry-free pet for a child than can’t have pets, Zoomer is an above-average holiday choice.

source: Mashable

Li-Fi: Alternate Of Wi-Fi Transmits Data 250 Times Faster Than Broadband

The quickest speed antecedent re-portable was 3Gbit/s, achieved earlier this year by the Fraunhofer physicist Institute in European nation. Chinese researchers conjointly claimed this month to possess created a 150 Mbp/s association; however some consultants were uncertain while not seeing any proof.

The term Li-Fi was coined by capital University's academician Harald Haas throughout a plug-ugly speak in the technology is additionally called actinic ray communications. 

Many consultants claim that Li-Fi represents the longer term of mobile web because of its reduced prices and larger potency compared to ancient Wi-Fi.

Both Wi-Fi and Li-Fi transmits information over the spectrum, however whereas Wi-Fi utilizes radio waves, Li-Fi uses actinic ray. This is often a definite advantage therein the actinic ray is much additional plentiful than the radio-frequency spectrum (10,000 times additional in fact) and may reach so much larger information density.

Li-Fi signals work by shift bulbs on and off improbably quickly – too quickly to be detected by the human eye. This most up-to-date breakthrough builds upon this by victimization little micro-LED bulbs to stream many lines of knowledge in parallel.

The analysis was dole out by the radical Parallel actinic ray Communications project, a venture between the schools of Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Strathclyde, and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences analysis Council.

Existing junction rectifier lightweight bulbs may be reborn to transmit Li-Fi signals with one semiconductor unit, and also the technology would even be of use in things wherever radio frequencies can't be used for worry of busy with electronic equipment.

And though Li-Fi bulbs would have to be compelled to be unbroken on to transmit information, the bulbs may be dim to the purpose that they weren't visible to humans and however still useful. One draw-back is that the information receiver would have to be compelled to be seeable of the transmitter-bulb as actinic ray doesn't penetrate solid materials.

The makers of Li-Fi note that this quality may truly be a bonus in some eventualities, creating Li-Fi safer than Wi-Fi with hackers unable to access unsecured web connections from out of sight of the transmitter.

Rocket Engine Technique First Time Used Outside NASA

Students at the University of CA port of entry (USCD) have tested a liquid oxyacetylene, 3D written rocket employing a technique that has ne'er been wont to build a rocket before anyplace within the World except for NASA.

The students have designed and with success take a look at laid-off a rocket that uses fuel and LOX for the $6,800 that was prompt and partially funded by area Administration |NASA| independent agency} as a part of the Marshall Space Flight Center. The take a look at was devised to check whether or not or not 3D written components might really be used for a rocket.

The contraption used a fuel-oxidizer-oxidizer-fuel intel arrangement. The cooling jacket was ready to keep heat compartment-ed so the chamber walls were unbroken as cool as potential. throughout this method, skinny layers of atomic number 24 metal square measure repeatedly unfold and amalgamated to the element and also the excess powder is removed.

The ultimate piece has all temporary supports removed before being hardened, then polished and designed. The result's an especially fast and low cost thanks to build rocket components. By mistreatment 3D printing, build time for components may be reduced from weeks to hours.

The fire take a look at that happened throughout the chums of Amateur technology launch was designed to check if the engines might power the third stage of a Nanosat launcher. These square measure solely needed to launch smaller satellites deliberation but one.33kg. As a result, the team came up with a rocket that's seven inches (17.7cm) long with a weight of solely 200lbs (90.7kg). NASA provided $5000 of the entire build prices with students raising the remaining cash by organizing varied fundraising activities.

The rocket, tagged Tri-D has well-tried that written engine components will so be used. this might mean the quicker manufacture of rockets at a immensely reduced value. For further details watch video below. 

GPS Bullets for Car Chases

Everyone loves a decent police chase; except, well perhaps the police and any pedestrians UN agency can be within the space. Whereas high-speed car chases is also exciting on the large screen, they're something however exciting to the cops in world. Over 360 officers area unit killed annually as a results of high-speed automobile chases. Those numbers may well be dynamic within the future, though, because of a more recent piece of police technology called the Star Chase System.

What is the Star Chase System?

Admittedly, this new piece of kit appears like it’s taken straight out of a fantasy moving picture. Employing a “cannon” mounted ahead of the grill on a prowl car, the Star Chase System uses compressed gas to shoot a GPS tag onto a targeted vehicle.

Once the GPS tag is connected, dispatchers will frequently monitor the whereabouts of the vehicle in question and relay the data to the officers concerned. This permits any police UN agency might are concerned in a very high-speed automobile chase to impede and wait till it's safe to create a stop.

Currently, solely two states area unit testing out this equipment: Iowa and FL. If it proves in, though, the Star Chase System may beyond any doubt save a unnumerable variety of lives all told fifty states. It’s not simply the police and people {they area unit|they're} chasing UN agency are scraped or killed, though; it's conjointly any vehicles and pedestrians UN agency realize themselves within the middle of the pursuit. If it works, it feels like a no-brainier for each local department within the country to urge this instrumentation.

The only drawback is also it’s value effectiveness – every cannon system can reportedly value around $5000, which value doesn't embody any of the GPS tags which is able to value another $500. This quantity can for sure be troublesome for smaller cities and cities.

To view videos and facts about the Star Chase System, please visit Star Chase’s website.

[Image Source: TechBeat]

Storage Disk To Store Million Year Data Unveiled

Nano-technologists have currently designed and engineered a storage disk that may store data for 1,000,000 years or additional. The point frame is nearly incomprehensible compared to the present magnetic laborious disks that may store knowledge for simply over a decade.

Back in 1956, IBM was the primary company within the world to introduce an advertisement laptop capable of storing knowledge on a memory device drive. The IBM 305 RAMAC used fifty 24-inch discs to store up to five MB of knowledge. Today, laborious drives haven't any drawback storing knowledge with general capacities of one TB obtainable on a three.5-inch disk. Despite this huge increase in storage capability, things haven’t very modified. The lifetime of knowledge that may be hold on on magnetic discs remains some ten years. The question is, however will we tend to preserve data on a timescale larger than that?

Well, Jeroen DE Vries at the University of Twente within the The Netherlands and colleagues have designed and engineered a disk capable of storing knowledge over one million years. they need performed accelerated ageing tests showing that the disk ought to be ready to store knowledge for one million years and perhaps longer.

The idea behind fast the method of ageing is predicated round the undeniable fact that knowledge should be hold on in Associate in Nursing energy minimum that's separated from alternative minima by Associate in Nursing energy barrier. thus to corrupt knowledge by changing a zero to a one, for instance, needs enough energy to beat this barrier. The chance that the system can jump during this method is ruled by a principle referred to as Svante August Arrhenius law. This relates the chance of jumping the barrier with factors like temperature and therefore the Boltzmann constant and the way usually a jump are often created, that is relative to the amount of atomic vibrations.

Calculations reveal for knowledge to last 1,000,000 years, the specified energy barrier is sixty three KBT or seventy KBT to last a billion years. “These values square measure well among the vary of today’s technology,” say DE Vries. To prove now, the team engineered a disk capable of storing data for this era of your time. the information is hold on within the pattern of lines incised into a skinny metal disc so coated with a protecting layer. 

The metal they used was wolfram, that they selected due to its high melting temperature (3,422 degrees C) and low thermal enlargement constant. The protecting layer used is Si compound (Si3N4), chosen due to its high resistance to fracture and its low thermal enlargement constant.

The disk was mistreatment normal patterning techniques and hold on knowledge within the sort of QR codes with lines 100nm wide. The disk was then heated at varied temperatures to check however the information would be affected. The results, though dispensed in specific laboratory conditions, square measure spectacular. in keeping with Svante August Arrhenius law, a disk capable of living 1,000,000 years should survive one hour at 445 Kelvin, a check that the new disks passed with no issues. 

Actually, the disks survived temperatures up to 848 Kelvin, though with major amounts of data loss. That compares well with the Rosetta Project, a proposal by the Long currently Foundation to make deposit materials capable of storing knowledge for periods larger than ten,000 years.

This suggests we tend to could to be ready to preserve a big quantity of data for future man mistreatment this method.

Livescribe 3 Pen Sends Your Handwriting To Your IPad

When I first saw an ad for Livescribe some years ago, I remember thinking just how good kids these days have it. Back in the day, we had to be creative to find out ways to jot down notes as fast as our professors in school spat out ideas. Today, students can use tablets, laptops, phones, and Livescribe pens to take care of that. And for those who actually like to write notes the old school way – pen and paper – but also appreciate the power of technology, there is the Livescribe 3 Smartpen.

The core idea is simple: you write on paper, and what you write will appear on your screen. Just like magic, huh?

Of course, the magical aspect is based on technology, and part of that requires you having Anoto-based Livescribe Dot paper. Unfortunately, you can’t just use any kind of notebook.

Right now, the Livescribe 3 pen is only compatible with the iPhone and iPad (running on iOS 7), so if you’re an Android user, you won’t be able to take advantage of this groundbreaking technology. For now. The company has said that the Android version will be available next year.

How does the Livescribe 3 send your handwritten notes to your iOS device?

It uses LE Bluetooth 4.0 (LE = low energy), giving the pen 14 hours of juice. When you run out, you’ll need two hours for a full charge.

For students who like sharing notes (or professionals who have to share – meeting minutes, perhaps), the Livescribe 3 also allows sending documents to others.

You can choose between the Livescribe 3 Smartpen and the Livescribe 3 Smartpen Pro Edition, with the former selling for $149.95 and the latter for $199.95.

[via: TechBeat]