HorizonWatching

Friday Gadget: Concept for a Harley in 2020

What will a Harley look like in 2020?   That’s what designer Miguel Cotto wanted to explore.   His resulting design is sleek and robotic. 

The 2020 Harley design is Cotto’s attempt to fast forward 10 years.   According to Cotto, the 2020 Harley will still have a large 883cc engine, with that solid brand sound of high revs and roars, but the traditional road hog will look entirely different.  Missing are today’s handlebars and spoke wheels.  The wheel hubs are said to be giant bearings.  And you can’t miss thinking that the orange color represents total transformation.

More pictures at Harley Davidson Circa 2020, which is on the Yanko Design website.  Yanko Design is a site that encourages designers to explore designs for the future.  If you spend some time on Yanko’s website, you’ll see there are all sorts of concept designs.

To me, this is more like a 2060 (or maybe even a 2100) design than a 2020 design.  From a technology perspective, I seriously doubt that embedded sensors, robotics, AI, and nanotechnology that looks to be a part of this whole design will be ready by 2020.  And from a brand image perspective, I don’t see Harley making such radical changes to their design over the next ten years…but perhaps you could make a case for 50 years from now. 

Want to get a feel for what it would be like to ride one of these things?  Check out the Official Tron Legacy Trailer and go for a 3 minute ride.

Friday Gadget: Pumpkin Sensor Project

For those of you hackers out there looking for a Halloween themed project.

Here is a quick project for an electronic Halloween pumpkin that will scare your guests as they approach.  A sensor embedded in the nose detects when people get close and can do anything you tell the sensor to do.  The project site I found has the pumpkin playing scary sounds and lighting up LEDs on the face. 

The sounds are stored on an SD card (like the one you use in your digital camera) so its easy to change and customize what the pumpkin says.  The project site says the code is very easy to modify if you want to change what happens. 

The project instructions seem well written and comes with lots of pictures to help you along the way.  Looks like an easy project for first time sensor hackers/programmers.

Friday Gadget: City-Sheet e-paper concept

Every once in a while I go check the red dot award site (http://en.red-dot.org/design.html).  The red dot awards are given out annually for excellence in design.  On my visit today I came across the City-Sheet concept design submitted by Yeon Haejung. 

The City-Sheet is portable device designed for travellers who today can be seen carrying travel guidebooks while they are touring.   They use guide books and maps to help them plan out their day and provides more detailed information on tourist sites, public transportation, and restaurants. 

The City-sheet concept is an electronic ‘book’ that contains five ‘e-paper’ sheets that can display information.  While attached to a computer via a USB connection, users download information to the City-sheet.  The user can customize their route for the day, including potential sites they will see, stores they want to visit, museums, sporting events, and restaurants.  The City-sheet can rolled and perhaps placed in a bag or large purse. 

See more at  http://red-dot.sg/concept/porfolio/06/ic/R098city.htm

While this concept design is certainly interesting, I think in the end it will not be successful in the market.  With the flurry of activity surrounding Google-Map mashup mobile applications along with recent augmented reality apps for i-phones and Android devices, I think in the end users will end up preferring to get their city travel information on their mobile device.

Friday Gadget: Augmented Reality Business Card

As gaming technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, we will begin to see that gaming technology make its way into everyday applications.  Augmented reality is an emerging technology that I’ve been increasingly fascinated with as it will further blur the line between what's real and what is generated by computers by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell.  I fully expect future movie goers will be experiencing AR in local theatres.

So I was looking for an example of how AR technology could be applied in the business environment and found a neat video I’ll embed below.  In the video, you’ll see a cool augmented reality business card created by James Alliban. 

In the video James shows a business card with a distinctive pattern on it to a computer equipped with a cheap web camera.  Software on the computer automatically renders a simple 3D object (attached to the card as it moves around in 3D) and plays a short video about the person whose business card is shown.  A nice idea if you want to convey more information about yourself than can possible fit on a paper business card. 

AR Business Card from James Alliban on Vimeo.

If you know of other neat AR applications for business, please comment with a link....thanks!

Friday Gadget: High Speed Robot Hand

In the future, robots will be not only more dexterous, but they will react dynamically at lightening speed based on all their embedded sensors.  In effect, they will become more human-like by understanding and processing their external environment by using many kinds of sensory information.

Future robot systems will be able to integrate all the sensory information into its decision making process, much like humans do today.

The Ishikawa Komuro Lab at the University of Tokyo has been doing research into both robot sensors and the parallel processing of the collected sensory information.  The purpose of the Lab’s Sensor Fusion Project is to develop innovative new architectures for sensory processing by integrating information from multiple sensors.

The Lab has recently been posting videos of some of the capabilities they have demonstrated in their lab.  Here is Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation.

The robot hand

• Dribbles a ball
• Picks up a grain of rice with a tweezer
• Spins a pen from one set of fingers to another
• Knots a rope
• Throws a ball into a net
• Tosses a cell phone into the air and catches it.

For this technology to advance, we’ll need to see more work in areas like

• Nanoscience
• Sensors
• Actuators
• Parallel Processing
• Dynamic Image Processing

For more information, see the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory site.

Friday Gadget – Layar’s Mobile Augmented Reality Browser

Layar is an Android-based, augmented reality browser from SPRXMobile based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.   Check out the following video.

The Layar Reality Browser displays real time digital information on top of reality in the camera screen of the mobile phone.  Users can pan their cell phone cameras around and see nearby buildings and spaces tagged with information from the web. While looking through the phone’s camera lens, a user can see houses for sale, popular bars and shops, tourist information of the area, play a live game, etc.. 

Layar currently is only available in the Netherlands.  SPRXMobile plans to bring the browser to international markets and develop an iPhone application as well.  The company is based in Amsterdam.

The Layar platform serves as an enabler for mobile location services - any database with geo-location information can easily be turned in a content layer.

Friday Gadget: i-Real Personal Mobility Device

Toyota has been experimenting with Personal Mobility devices for some time (i-unit and i-swing concepts).  Their latest prototype is called i-REAL.  It is a personal mobility vehicle which uses three wheels (two at the front and one at the back).  The ‘driver’ sits in a chair when operating the i-Real.

It operates in both low-speed and high-speed modes.  When operating in low-speed mode, it shortens its wheelbase to allow it to move naturally among pedestrians (and at a similar eyesight height) without taking up a large amount of sidewalk space.  In high-speed mode, the wheelbase lengthens to provide a lower center of gravity and better driving performance.  The i-Real is like a three-wheeler Segway and hits 20mph.

Watch the 4 minute video from BBC here.  Interesting part of demo starts about 2 minutes into the video.

Toyota says the i-REAL ensures safe handling [both to the driver and those around the vehicle] by employing perimeter monitoring sensors to detect whenever a collision with a person or object is imminent.  It alerts the driver through noise and vibrations and alerts people around it of its movements through the use of light and sound.   The i-Real concept car is designed to communicate with other i-Reals, allowing you to find and navigate to them on command.

Friday Gadget: Disaster Relief Quadcopter Robot

Earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones -- disasters like these make a normally natural environment hard to navigate and dangerous for human search-and-rescue teams.

However, there is a growing number of robot rescue devices being created to help those search-and-rescu teams.

For example, a team of researchers led by Professor Andreas Mitschele at Germany’s Ilmenau University of Technology are developing flying quadcopter (an aircraft that is lifted and propelled by four rotors) robots that can be used to form an ad-hoc wireless network during the post disaster time when communications are critical.  

Built with off-the-shelf parts (including VIA’s Pico-ITX hardware and a GPS unit) the robots are designed to provide both mobile phone and WiFi access.   Since the robots can be deployed quickly, a network can be established far more quickly than a technician on the ground might be able to.   The robots are dropped off at a disaster area, take off, create a self-organizing mesh network, and locate landing spots to afford maximum coverage.   The current prototype robot has only a 20 minute flying time but can power the communications gear much longer after landing.

For more info see the research poster (pdf file) or the video of the Quadrocopter robot (mp4)

Friday Gadget: The Snuza Halo

The Snuza Halo (www.snuza.com) is among the latest gadgets that use sensors to monitor a baby’s crib for signs of trouble.  The Halo, designed in South Africa, is unusual: rather than clipping the device to a crib or mattress, you attach it to the baby’s diaper.  The Halo senses the slightest movements.  If it does not detect movement for 15 seconds - a sign the baby might not be breathing - the device vibrates the baby’s abdomen.  If after a few seconds the vibration doesn’t appear to restart movement, the Halo sounds an alarm.  Source: Clip-on sensor monitors infants for trouble - The Boston Globe

Friday Gadget: The Hummingbird Robot

AeroVironment has been designing and building small, portable, reliable, and rugged unmanned aerial platforms designed for front-line day/night reconnaissance and surveillance.   One of the projects they are working on now is  a tiny drone that looks and flies like a hummingbird, flapping its little robotic wings to stay in the air. 

Check out the video here at YouTube (2:18 minute video…hummingbird technology displayed 50 seconds into video)

Based on what I’ve read, apparently this first version of the ‘robot’ has only stayed aloft for 20 seconds at a time so far.  But that short flight was enough to show the potential of a whole new class of miniature spies, inspired by nature.  The news is that Darpa just handed AeroVironment, more money to research and develop a second version of this Hummingbird.  

The goals of Darpa’s NAV program ….

“The NAV program will push the limits of aerodynamic and power conversion efficiency, endurance, and maneuverability for very small, flapping wing air vehicle systems. The goals of the NAV program — namely to develop an approximately 10 gram aircraft that can hover for extended periods, can fly at forward speeds up to 10 meters per second, can withstand 2.5 meter per second wind gusts, can operate inside buildings, and have up to a kilometer command and control range — will stretch our understanding of flight at these small sizes and require novel technology development.” - Dr. Todd Hylton, DARPA program manager as quoted in AviationWeek

If you sit back and imagine where this technology is ultimately going, it’s fair to realize that we will end up with nano-sized hummingbirds loaded with all types of sensors and deployed all over the place for applications ranging from security surveillance to birds-eye view video coverage of sporting events.  Reminds me of the nano-bots deployed in Neal Stephenson's 1995 book, The Diamond Age Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer