Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets

We’re going out on a limb here and assuming that the Haute Diggity Dog iBone comes jailbroken and ready to rock, or at least that’s the impression we get from checking out that heretofore unseen bevy of icons. Customized for the “tech savvy dog on the go,” this here iPhone chew toy gives dear Fido access to bark / hand-shake training, posture lessons, Washington Huskies sports updates (it’s the Clemson Tigers in all honesty, but work with us here), a mysterious fitness app and a bone application for times when supper just seems too far away. You know your pup’s worth the $11.95, you just know it.

[Via textually]

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Filed under: GPS, Wireless

Just under a year ago, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced his hopes that one day he could pinpoint the location of his black Labrador, Koni, at any time of the day. Today, a dream has been realized. Mr. Putin has finally procured a satellite collar that will enable him to track the lab regardless of which of the eleven times zones she may be in while waltzing through Russia. Once the collar was slipped on, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov immediately said “she looks sad, her free life is over.” Putin didn’t miss a beat when snapping back: “In Soviet Russia, GLONASS track you!”

[Image courtesy of Picasa, thanks MJ]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

For those of you (we know, pretty much everyone in existence) who already picked up a set of Pink Pig PC speakers a few years back, you can carry on with your daily routine. For everyone else that owns an iPod, hold it right there. Speakal is delivering the iPod docking iPig, a unique speaker system that packs five total drivers (including a 4-inch subwoofer), adjustable bass controls, 360-degree sound distribution and a very debatable design. You’ll also find a 3.5-millimeter auxiliary jack for hooking up every other source, and the bundled remote makes it easy to switch tracks and such from your sofa. The only problem? That $139.99 price tag. Check the full release after the jump.

Continue reading Speakal’s iPig speaker system rolls in the mud with your iPod

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Filed under: GPS, Wearables

In no way are we insinuating that farming is ever “easy,” but a new headset designed for cows could make cattle herding a much less stressful experience. The Ear-A-Round headsets are the product of a project involving the USDA and MIT, and essentially, the GPS-infused devices would transmit stereo sounds directly in a bovine’s ears in order to guide and direct his / her movements. Strange though the head-worn gizmos may look, the built-in solar panel should keep it juiced up and ready to dictate on command, giving farmers the ability to track and herd from the comfort of their computer desks. The overriding goal here is to “improve animal distribution on the landscape,” though we can think of quite a few other positives to having such a robust virtual fencing system.

[Via Core77]

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Filed under: Cellphones

It’s hard to say if the pigeon you see above actually understood what he / she was doing, but apparently these birds can be taught to at least play iPhone 3G games in a very poor manner. The creature’s owner does note that Mr. Pigeon was pretty awful at racking up high scores on Tap Tap Revenge, but the important thing to realize here is that pigeon pecks do register as presses on the screen. Now that this is all out in the open, we fully expect a follow-up video next week of someone teaching their bird to dial a number on command. Vid’s after the break.

Continue reading Video: pigeon learns to “play” Tap Tap Revenge

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Look, that USB-powered fish tank was fine during your teenage years of irresponsibility, but it’s really about time you started acting your age. Of course, we’re not suggesting you actually work harder — just smarter, is all. The DIY Automatic Fish Feeder is an exceptionally cheap, easy and almost life-changing creation that will never, ever forget to keep your fishes well fed and well lit. By attaching a makeshift pill bottle dispenser to a timer, Baha Tanju was able to create an automatic feeder that barely requires any attention. We know fish have a way of forgetting everything they ever knew every three seconds or so, but they’ll love you three seconds at a time for never leaving ‘em hungry.

[Via Hack-A-Day]

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Filed under: Robots

Traditional fish should definitely start keeping their guard up, as we’ve seen a noticeable influx of robotic alternatives flapping around here recently. Joining the school today is the Robofish, a robotic swimming creature developed at the University of Washington. Reportedly, a trio of the units have been built, and during a recent workshop, the bots were able to communicate with one another and successfully swim in either one direction or in different directions. Eventually, researchers hope that these mechanical animals could explore underwater caves, track moving targets or plunge beneath ice sheets, but there’s still work to be done before the creature’s coordination ability is up to the challenge. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Robots

Hate to say it, but Pleo ain’t got nothing on Sparky. Created by five interaction design master students, this robodog actually responds in sensible ways to positive / negative scenarios going on around it. For instance, the creature will drop its head, whimper and collapse down if faced with “carbon monoxide, cigarette smoke, alcohol, too much dark lighting, hitting and yelling.” Consequently, he’ll perk up and show signs of excitement when standing in broad daylight or going on walks. All the pluses of having your own pet, minus the excrement and doggy daycare costs — brilliant! Peep Sparky’s day out on the town after the jump.

Continue reading Sparky the robodog reacts accordingly to surroundings

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Filed under: Robots

Rest assured, this won’t be the first or last time you hear of insects and mammals being used as inspiration for robotic creatures. Nevertheless, a recent MIT mechanical engineering course saw students craft bots that could handle “beaver-like tasks” such as “knocking down trees and gathering food in the form of street hockey balls” while fending off competitors in 45-second rounds. Separately, the EU-funded SPARK endeavor is seeking to “develop a new robot control architecture for roving robots inspired by the principles governing the behavior of living systems and based on the concept of self-organization.” There’s plenty more material to make your skin crawl in the read links below, just don’t feed the mechs, okay?

Read - SPARK project
Read - MIT competition

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Filed under: Robots

After an absolutely heart-wrenching video of Pleo being annihilated by a sadistic ComBot emerged yesterday, we’re thrilled to add a little balance to the whole thing with a totally heartwarming clip today. Down at Sea World, Pleo was politely introduced to a number of animals in the park, though its interactions with the dolphins were particularly special. In the vid posted after the jump, you can go ahead and fast-forward to around the two minute mark — there you’ll find the true definition of a stud. Or maybe the pod just thinks miniature dinosaurs look extraordinarily tasty.

[Thanks, Robert]

Continue reading Pleo communes with nature, woos Dolphins

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Filed under: Robots

Most of the squirrels our college campus were massive, hyper-intelligent little beasts that were best dealt with by vigilant avoidance, but it looks like Hampshire College professor Sarah Partan is taking the opposite approach, using a robotic squirrel named “Rocky” to interact with the local rodents up close. Rocky is controlled wirelessly from a laptop, and can realistically move his tail and body to communicate with other squirrels, as well as play pre-recorded squirrel noises from built-in speakers. The goal is to study how animals communicate, and it looks like Rocky’s doing a good job — the local squirrels seem to respond to him just like any other. That’s pretty impressive for a bot (or pretty weak for the squirrels, depending on your point of view), but we’re just waiting for Partan and her team to discover the shocking truth: that the squirrels are really studying them.

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Filed under: Wearables

Not like we haven’t seen a similar idea passed around before, but James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau have apparently taken things one step further with their LED Dog Tail Communicator. As the title implies, the device would simply be affixed to your favorite canine’s tail, after which it could broadcast actual words based on the speed of the tail wag. There’s no telling just how many phrases the thing could spell out — and honestly, we have no idea how accurate the statements would actually be — but this may be just the thing to keep Rover quiet while still letting him get his point across.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

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Filed under: Robots

We don’t know about you, but to us, there’s nothing cuter than a warm, cuddly bunny — save for Hello Kitty, of course. Thankfully, the National Institute of Health and the EPA have teamed up to jumpstart a five-year research program that “will use high-speed automated screening robots” instead of live animals to run chemical tests on cells grown in a laboratory. Reportedly, the long term goal here is to “reduce the cost, time and number of animals used in screening everything from pesticides to household chemicals,” but according to those involved with the initiative, it’ll be quite some time before non animal-based testing becomes the norm. Hang tight, dear bunnies — there’s hope for you all yet.

[Image courtesy of Flickr]

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Filed under: GPS, Transportation, Wireless

It’s been a tick since Zoombak’s pet locator snuck into the FCC’s database, but the time has finally come for the unit to go commercial. The outfit has at long last launched its A-GPS-based locator that can be used in both automotive and pet applications to find your favorite critter anytime of the day or locate your rebellious youngin’ who decided to take the family minivan for an extended Sunday drive. Owners of the device can create “safety zones” around particular locations and can be alerted via e-mail / SMS whenever something goes awry. As for pricing, you’ll be looking at $199 to keep an extra close eye on Fido or $249 for your vehicle, but don’t forget to factor in the $9.99 monthly service fee for “unlimited locating.”

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Yeah, teaching a canine how to operate a computer may sound pretty complex, but considering that one such animal was actually trained to sniff out and snag cellphones for its dubious owner, we guess it’s not too difficult to conceive after all. In a recent study published in Animal Cognition, researchers from the University of Vienna in Austria taught four dogs to use computer automated touch-screens in order to carry out classification tests, theoretically eliminating any “potential human influence.” In experiments that sought to see if dogs could indeed visually categorize pictures and transfer learning to new scenarios, the four subjects “were shown landscape and dog photographs and expected to make a selection on a computer touchscreen.” Eventually, the authors concluded that using computers in animal testing could open up new windows of opportunity in testing cognitive abilities, but c’mon, you know those pups were just clicking around to see if their testing station would in fact play Doom.

[Via TheInquirer, image courtesy of Itchmo]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Robots

Strangely enough, we’ve seen robotic roaches in action before, but a new report focusing on nature’s influence on mechanical creatures substantiates some of our worse fears. Apparently, a team of researchers led by Jose Halloy of the University Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium crafted “cockroach-sized robots that interacted with their living counterparts.” The critters themselves did not actually resemble cockroaches, but they were doused with chemicals to mimic the authentic aroma; subsequently, these autonomous pests were able to persuade a clan of real roaches to choose a poor (light) shelter over a dark alternative, sparking worry that humanoids may one day use these very tactics to lead us straight to our demise. On the real, the gurus behind the research are looking at the trials to “explore decision-making mechanisms in group-living animals,” which when you think about, really isn’t any less frightening.

[Image courtesy of ETHZ]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!