September 24th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
Honda’s been trying for months now to convince you that “the van is back in style,” and while we’re still not entirely sure that line isn’t just marketing hoopla (okay, it is), at least the company is working to make the thing more technologically advanced. Starting next month in Japan, the automaker will debut a multi-view camera system for its Odyssey minivan, which will utilize the same 360-degree overhead cam tech that Nissan picked up last year. The system will give drivers the ability to see more as they prepare to back out, and the biggest boon is the ability to view ninjas adhered to parking garage ceilings prior to opening the sunroof and facing The Reaper. Unfortunately, there’s no word on when it’ll be available in other corners of the globe, but we’d guess 2009 if we had a Katana put to our throat.
[Thanks, JagsLive]
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Posted in japan, panasonic, Matsushita, safety, honda, camera, automobile, minivan, multi-view camera, Multi-viewCamera, Odyssey, overhead, van | No Comments »
June 16th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
If you’re in the market for a fuel efficient car, but you’ve been holding out for something a little more advanced than the Prius — your dreams may have just been answered. Honda announced today that it would begin producing limited quantities of its FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles for sale in the US and Japan over the next few years. According to the automaker, it plans to offer around 200 of the zero-emission cars in the next three years, with a few dozen models expected on the road this year leased at around $600 a month. Said John Mendel, a senior vice president at Honda, “It’s an especially significant day for American Honda as we plant firm footsteps toward the mainstreaming of fuel cell cars.” Now all they have to do is get more than 3 fueling stations out there and we’ll be all set.
Read - Honda rolls out fuel cell car
Read - Honda starts producing next-generation fuel cell car
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Posted in fuel cell, FuelCell, hybrid, fcx, fcx clarity, FcxClarity, honda, hydrogen, hydrogen fuel cell, HydrogenFuelCell | No Comments »
June 10th, 2008 by
Filed under: Robots
ASIMO has already proven itself to be pretty multi-talented, but it looks like it’s now added yet another trick to its repertoire, with a pair of researchers giving it the ability to understand three people speaking at once. That was done with the aid of eight microphones and a specially-designed software program dubbed HARK, which works out where each voice is coming from and isolates it from other sounds. Right now, however, that’s only being used to referee games of rock-paper-scissors, with each individual shouting out their choice at once, but the researchers eventually hope to get ASIMO up to the level of humans’ ability to listen at a cocktail party, although they admit that is still a “long way” off.
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Posted in honda, asimo, honda asimo, HondaAsimo | No Comments »
May 13th, 2008 by
Filed under: Robots
Stand down oh gentle readers and defenders of the flesh, we’re getting reports from Detroit that the baton wielding ASIMO did not direct the human race to its doom. Instead, Yo-Yo Ma is safe and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert went off without a hitch while netting the DSO a cool million for the musical education of Gross Point’s children. Of course, the Honda-built robot wasn’t so lucky as he got “keyed” on his walk back through the parking lot. We kid, we kid.
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Posted in Music, honda, asimo, conducting, conductor, yo-yo ma, Yo-yoMa, detroit, orchestra, symphony | No Comments »
May 13th, 2008 by
Filed under: Robots
Stand down oh gentle readers and defenders of the flesh, we’re getting reports from Detroit that the baton wielding ASIMO did not direct the human race to its doom. Instead, Yo-Yo Ma is safe and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert went off without a hitch while netting the DSO a cool million for the musical education of Grosse Pointe’s children. Of course, the Honda-built robot wasn’t so lucky as he got “keyed” on his walk back through the parking lot. We kid, we kid.
Update: Video added after the break.
[Thanks, Funke]
Continue reading Video: ASIMO burns as Yo-Yo Ma fiddles
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Posted in video, Music, honda, asimo, conducting, conductor, yo-yo ma, Yo-yoMa, detroit, orchestra, symphony | No Comments »
April 23rd, 2008 by
Filed under: Robots
One of our favorite bots, Honda’s versatile ASIMO, will finally spread its wings and embrace the artistic future it’s always hoped for. On May 13, the automaton will conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra — and Yo-Yo Ma — in a performance of Impossible Dream. The DSO and Honda have combined forces to bring music education to children in Detroit, and ASIMO’s concert will be the launching point for a number of projects the Japanese monolith will be sponsoring in the industrial city. Sure, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a robot conducting an orchestra, but we’re fairly confident it will be the best… provided the little guy doesn’t take any bad steps.
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Posted in Music, honda, asimo, conducting, conductor, detroit symphony orchestra, DetroitSymphonyOrchestra, yo-yo ma, Yo-yoMa | No Comments »
April 22nd, 2008 by
Filed under: Wearables
It’s far from the only strength-boosting exoskeleton out there, but Honda’s so-called “walking assist device” is one of the few that you can actually take for a test spin — if you happen to be attending the Barrier Free 2008 trade show in Osaka, Japan next week, that is. Apparently employing some of the same technology developed by Honda for its ASIMO robot, the walking assistant is able to obtain information from hip angle sensors to help keep its wearer upright, with the device’s motors also able to increase the wearer’s natural stride. That, Honda says, should make the device ideal for the elderly or those with weakened leg muscles, although we’re sure they could find at least a few other buyers if it ever actually hits the market at a reasonable price.
[Via Autoblog]
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Posted in honda, exoskeleton, walking assist device, walking assistant, WalkingAssistant, WalkingAssistDevice | No Comments »
February 19th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
Honda’s already made more than a few attempts at energy efficient vehicles, but it looks like the company is far from running out of options, with it now touting a new so-called “heat harnessing hybrid” that it says can recapture more lost energy than conventional hybrids during highway driving. The key to that is a so-called Rankine cycle engine, which captures waste heat from the car’s exhaust and puts it back to work to heat water, which gets converted to steam to power an electric generator, which in turn charges the car’s battery pack. That basic idea, as you may have deduced, is hardly a new one, but Honda appears to have pushed things farther along than most, with its current prototype (a Honda Stream) boasting a 3.8% increase in efficiency when motoring along at 62 miles per hour, among other advantages. That’s apparently not quite enough to convince Honda to put the technology to use in production vehicles, however, although it says that situation could change if they’re able to boost the efficiency even further.
[Via Digg, image courtesy of EcoGeek]
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Posted in hybrid, honda, rankine cycle engine, RankineCycleEngine | No Comments »
February 18th, 2008 by
Filed under: Transportation
We’ve heard the marketing babble, and pondered the possibilities of a hands-free drive to work, but do those radar-based collision prevention technologies actually work? The British Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre Thatcham seems to think so. BMIRPCT took a long hard look at Volvo City Safety, Mercedes Distronic Plus and Honda CMBS, and decided the technologies will have a major impact on slow speed accidents — which account for 75% of accidents as it is — and should prevent more than 125,000 injuries a year in Britain alone, according to this research.
[Via gizmag]
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Posted in cars, radar, mercedes, honda, collision prevention, CollisionPrevention, thatcham, volvo | No Comments »
December 30th, 2007 by
Filed under: Robots, Transportation
Generally we’re a little too, um, preoccupied on New Year’s Day to bother with such trifles as opening our eyes and watching the annual Rose Parade from Pasadena, but with Honda planning an ambitious float for 2008 that will feature a gigantic ASIMO replica riding a transforming Honda Ridgeline, well, at the very least we’ll be setting our DVR. According to American Honda, which provides the Tournament of Roses with hundreds of vehicles and has won numerous awards for its entries in the past, its generators will cause “the hood of the truck to fold forward to become an aircraft cockpit, the doors and sides of the truck to unfold outward to become wings, the wheels to tuck under the body, and the bed of the truck to open and take on the form of an aircraft tail section, complete with rocket engines - and even real fire.” Giant robots piloting huge fire-breathing truck-planes? If this truly is a “Passport to the Future” as Honda claims, you can sign us up! Lots more pics in the gallery below.
[Via The Raw Feed, photos courtesy of Honda]
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Posted in honda, asimo, american honda, AmericanHonda, honda ridgeline, HondaRidgeline, rose parade, RoseParade, tournament of roses, TournamentOfRoses, transformers | No Comments »
December 11th, 2007 by
Filed under: Robots
We’re not getting too hopeful about all of this just yet, but reportedly, Honda has worked a new series of “cutting-edge intelligence technologies” into ASIMO. Apparently aimed to keep the poor humanoid from tumbling down stairs, the improvements will supposedly enable it to “operate autonomously with people and other ASIMOs,” essentially making it more suitable for real world use. More specifically, the new technologies include a “new system that enables multiple ASIMO humanoid robots to share tasks and work together to provide uninterrupted service to people,” an automatic charging function, intelligence to avoid obstacles by stepping back or yielding to oncoming objects and the ability to “perform tasks such as carrying a tray and pushing a trolley.” That sound you hear? Yeah, that’s the collective grumbling of butlers / maids the world over.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted in humanoid, honda, asimo, capabilities | No Comments »
November 30th, 2007 by
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
If you’ve balked at the prices automakers are charging for integrated navigation systems, you should really take a look at what ¥300,000 ($2,746) would buy you in 1981. That atrocity you see above was an actual option in Honda’s Accord during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and while it didn’t sync up with any satellites, it did help to guide you along in some form or another. The Electro Gyrocator, as it was so eloquently named, accepted transparencies of maps and utilized a gas gyroscope that allowed the map to move with the motion of the car and plot your progress. Once a certain map ran out of road, you just popped the next one in and kept on cruisin’. And here we are kvetching about whether our portable navigator has 10 or 11 million POIs…
[Via Autoblog]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted in navi, navigation, nav, retro, vintage, sat nav, SatNav, honda, accord | No Comments »
November 14th, 2007 by
Filed under: Transportation
We’ve been tracking Honda’s FCX fuel-cell hybrid on and off since we first heard about the concept way back in 2004, and it looks like a lucky few will finally be able to get their hands on one soon — the company unveiled the production version of the car, the FCX Clarity, at the LA Auto Show earlier today. While it’s not clear if the zero-emissions whip still sports that hydrogen-fuel-station-finding GPS system, you’ll still be able to get the “gasoline-equivalent” mileage of 68mpg combined city / highway — but you’ll have to extra-special to do it, since Honda is only leasing around 100 of the vehicles to buyers who live near one of its three hydrogen fuel stations in southern California. The rest of us will just have to struggle along with our super eco-friendly Hummer limos, we suppose.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted in fuel cell, FuelCell, hybrid, fcx, fcx clarity, FcxClarity, honda | No Comments »
