Tech Tuesday - Mar 21st

The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.
An accidental discovery announced this week has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The miniature breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention obsolete.

Now I know this doesnt sound like much, but until recently LED's couldn't emit a white light. Now knowing that a LED runs for longer and brighter than a regular 60 watt lightbulb and also uses less power, this is a great advancement in lowering costs to lighting your home.

Not only that but because it can be developed as a reactive paint, just think of walking into your bathroom, and instead of flipping a light switch to turn on a little dim light above the sink, you could flip a switch and the entire cieling would glow a soft white with a gentle blue hue, AND COST LESS THAN A LIGHTBULB TO POWER!!! =D Read this article here and think about the possibilities.

Tech Tuesday - Cyberhand

Scientists invent the Cyberhand, a brain-controlled robotoic hand with fingers that can actually feel

Last October we reported on the first mind-controlled bionic limb, a multimillion-dollar prosthetic arm built by scientists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago [“A Toast to the Bionic Man”]. Now a team of European scientists led by Paolo Dario, a professor of biomedical robotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy, has unveiled the first brain-controlled prosthetic hand. The metal-clad prototype, dubbed the Cyberhand, combines unprecedented mechanical dexterity with a sophisticated computer system designed to harness brain signals from the wearer, allowing him to move and feel the hand as though it were his own.

You can read more on this here.

Also of note was this other article I didn't get to talk about, The Army's Robot Sherpa.

Meet BigDog, a mechanical mutt that does more than snare Frisbees and irrigate fire hydrants. It totes hundreds of pounds of gear so soldiers won’t have to, and it will never spook under fire. Developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the U.S. military, the BigDog prototype is arguably the world’s most ambitious legged robot. Its stability and awareness of its own orientation make it the first robot that can handle the unknown challenges of the battlefield. The Great Dane–size ’bot can trot more than three miles an hour, climb inclines of up to 45 degrees, and carry up to 120 pounds—even in rough terrain impenetrable to wheeled or tracked vehicles. But this one is just a puppy; Boston Dynamics expects the next iteration, ready this summer, to be at least twice as fast and carry more than twice as much.

You can read up more on both of these articles at www.popsci.com

Both are very cool. I mean think of what both companies could do if they combined efforts. You could have a replacement robotic dog in your home that would feel like a real dog as well as help carry in your groceries, and my favorite, won't goto the bathroom on your floor.

Couple these with some of the other Tech Tuesdays I've posted, the xfinger, and the slime controlled robot, and we could easily replace our familyies with more likeables versions. =D

Hell I could replace myself and send it to work in my stead, as long as it could perform all the abilities my job required me to perform, while I was making soup. Mental Note: Make sure replacement me CAN'T replace me completely.