Category Archives: technology

Robots that fly & cooperate by Vijay Kumar at TED

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Robots that fly & cooperate by Vijay Kumar at TED

In his lab at Penn, Vijay Kumar and his team build flying quadrotors, small, agile robots that swarm, sense each other, and form ad hoc teams — for construction, surveying disasters and far more. At the University of Pennsylvania, Vijay Kumar studies the control and coordination of multi-robot formations.

See how robots that fit in the palm of your hand work together to do various tasks including playing music.

See more TED presentations: Dennis Hong at TED : Making a car for blind drivers, Jae Rhim Lee: My mushroom burial suit and William Li at TED : Eat to starve cancer

Robots that fly & cooperate by Vijay Kumar at TED

iTUT by Hok x Di Moon Zhang x Pacman Chbeeb

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iTUT by Hok x Di Moon Zhang x Pacman Chbeeb

Dancers Hokuto (HOK) Konishi x Di (Moon) Zhang x Phillip (PacMan) Chbeeb collaborate on the dance video “iTUT”. It’s a creative dedication video to Steve Jobs and his beautiful contribution to our lives. The trio utilize Apple Products like MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones as part of their dance routine. Tutting with technology : it’s the iTUT.

See more dance moves from Hok and Di Moon Zhang : 0 views, Trigger Fingers, Rooftop Geometry, Take Me Back, Magic Bathroom, and Office Life.

iTUT by Hok x Di Moon Zhang x Pacman Chbeeb

Canon EOS C300 Review by Jonathan Yi

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Canon EOS C300 Review by Jonathan Yi

Director Jonathan Yi is known for his work on the East of Main Street series for HBO. (See clips from Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, chef Anita Lo, apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas, and Willy Santos.) Jonathan flips camera reviews on its head with his Canon EOS C300 Review. Here’s more about his review:

In early Fall 2011, I shot some footage with a pre-production model of the Canon EOS C300 for one week in NYC. I created an article and a video for Canon based on my experiences with the camera. The video is meant to poke fun at most camera test videos I’ve seen over the years. Canon, not thrilled with my sense of humor, does not credit or condone this video, but I think it shows a lot of the camera’s strengths.

You can read my full article about the EOS C300 here

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Canon EOS C300 Review by Jonathan Yi

10 Questions with Mythbusters’ Grant Imahara

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10 Questions with Mythbusters' Grant Imahara

Mythbusters’ Grant Imahara Answers reddit.com’s top ten questions submitted by fans. Here’s the questions:

* Question 1 – What’s your biggest screwup on mythbusters?
* Question 2 – Why don’t you, Tory and Kari work on anything with Adam and the walrus anymore? Is it simply because Discovery found better ratings with the two-team format, or does Jamie secretly despise Tory?
* Question 3 – Do you ever feel awkward doing the scripted ‘conversations’ with each other to introduce myths? They don’t seem necessary as the best quality of the show is that everyone has their own character. Other than that, love the show and long may it continue!
* Question 4 – Thanks to the magic of editing, it appears as though constructing a robot takes you about 5 seconds. How long do they actually take, and is there one robot in particular you remember being a complete ass along the way?
* Question 5 – Since you are the only person on Mythbusters with formal scientific education, do you tend to approach problems differently from your fellow Mythbusters?
* Question 6 – how much of the show that we see is “real” footage and how much is reenactments and producer/director created content?
* Question 7 – Do you hang out with any of the cast outside of the show? If so, who are you closest to and what do you enjoy getting together for?
* Question 8 – Favourite thing about the show that the viewers don’t get to see?
* Question 9 – In the episode where you tested out lie detectors, you were asked if you had ever made a female robot for yourself, and you said no, but it came up as a lie. So have you?
* Question 10 – Why was Geoff constructed with only one movable arm, a rotating neck and moving jaw? Was that resource issue, or a comic decision?

In addition to being a co-host of Mythbusters, Grants’s the creator and builder of robot skeleton sidekick, Geoff Peterson, from The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson — He’s also hosting Punkin Chunkin, along with Kari Byron and Tory Belleci on Discovery Channel & Science Channel on Thanksgiving night.

10 Questions with Mythbusters’ Grant Imahara

Safecast Crowdsources Radiation Map for Japan

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Safecast Crowdsources Radiation Map for Japan

Eight months after a tsunami caused a nuclear accident in Japan, ordinary people are using new technology and the power of crowdsourcing to find radiation hotspots. The government isn’t sharing their data, so it’s up to the people to do it led by computer hackers. The PBS NewsHour reports on a grassroots group called Safecast that is crowdsourcing data on radiation contamination from locations around Japan. While in Tokyo, reporter Miles O’Brien spoke to Hari Sreenivasan about his conversations with Safecast workers, Japanese officials and Japanese residents eager for more information about the consequences of the nuclear accident.

Safecast Crowdsources Radiation Map for Japan

Crowdsources Radiation Map for Japan

Dennis Hong at TED : Making a car for blind drivers

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Dennis Hong: Making a car for blind drivers

Using robotics, laser rangefinders, GPS and smart feedback tools, Virginia Tech professor Dennis Hong is building a car for drivers who are blind. It’s not a “self-driving” car, he’s careful to note, but a car in which a non-sighted driver can determine speed, proximity and route — and drive independently. Watch his presentation from TED.

See more TED presentations: Jae Rhim Lee: My mushroom burial suit and William Li at TED : Eat to starve cancer

Dennis Hong: Making a car for blind drivers

More about Dennis Hong
As director of a groundbreaking robotics lab, Dennis Hong guides his team of students through projects on robot locomotion and mechanism design, creating award-winning humanoid robots like DARwIn (Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence). His team is known as RoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory) and operates at Virginia Tech.

Hong has also pioneered various innovations in soft-body robots, using a “whole-skin locomotion” as inspired by amoebae. Marrying robotics with biochemistry, he has been able to generate new types of motion with these ingenious forms. For his contributions to the field, Hong was selected as a NASA Summer Faculty Fellow in 2005, given the CAREER award by the National Science Foundation in 2007 and in 2009, named as one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10. He is also a gourmet chef and a magician, performing shows for charity and lecturing on the science of magic.