The spring-loaded technology behind the Steadicam has just found another use — the x-Ar exoskeleton arm, which attaches to your wrists to reduce or eliminate the feeling of weight. Just unveiled at the Applied Ergonomics Conference in Florida this week, the mechanism mounts to a chair or other stable object and loosely cuffs your arms, allowing for a fairly extraordinary range of motion while bearing “the weight of your arm and small objects.” (Sledgehammer-wielding workers will probably be better served by one of these .) While manufacturer Equipois suggests that the arm will likely see use in factories, assembly lines and the like where workers are subject to repetitive stress, we can also think of a few bloggers who wouldn’t mind taking a little strain off their wrists. PR after the break. Continue reading x-Ar exoskeleton arm keeps repetitive tasks from doing you harm (video) x-Ar exoskeleton arm keeps repetitive tasks from doing you harm (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The spring-loaded technology behind the Steadicam has just found another use — the x-Ar exoskeleton arm, which attaches to your wrists to reduce or eliminate the feeling of weight. Just unveiled at the Applied Ergonomics Conference in Florida this week, the mechanism mounts to a chair or other stable object and loosely cuffs your arms, allowing for a fairly extraordinary range of motion while bearing “the weight of your arm and small objects.” (Sledgehammer-wielding workers will probably be better served by one of these .) While manufacturer Equipois suggests that the arm will likely see use in factories, assembly lines and the like where workers are subject to repetitive stress, we can also think of a few bloggers who wouldn’t mind taking a little strain off their wrists. PR after the break. Continue reading x-Ar exoskeleton arm keeps repetitive tasks from doing you harm (video) x-Ar exoskeleton arm keeps repetitive tasks from doing you harm (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …BMW launches DriveNow, the ‘premium’ car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video)
March 23, 2011 No CommentIf you liked the idea of the Car2go service we profiled a few weeks back, Smart fortwos available for rent by the minute with and some pretty fancy tracking apps to help you find them, but maybe you wanted to drive something a little bit bigger, BMW has you covered. Well, assuming “you” are German or at least living in Germany. The company has launched its own car sharing service it calls DriveNow. This one is billed as a “premium” — though curiously none of the company’s truly premium models will be offered. That said, the Minis and 1 Series autos that make up the initial fleet are hardly low-rent, and we’d be utterly shocked if the upcoming i3 didn’t get added to the mix down the road too. Usage details are still a little bit scarce, but we do know that each car will have a dash-mounted Dell Streak through which users will log in after unlocking the car doors with an RFID-equipped membership card or even a suitably endowed drivers license. Renting a car costs 29 cents per minute, up to €14.90 (about $21) per hour, and there will be 300 cars available at first starting in the Munich area. If you’re not in Munich it’s tough cookies for now, but BMW is hoping to have one million members worldwide by 2020. Maybe one of them will be you. Continue reading BMW launches DriveNow, the ‘premium’ car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video) BMW launches DriveNow, the ‘premium’ car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …BMW launches DriveNow, the ‘premium’ car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video)
March 23, 2011 No Comment
If you liked the idea of the Car2go service we profiled a few weeks back, Smart fortwos available for rent by the minute with and some pretty fancy tracking apps to help you find them, but maybe you wanted to drive something a little bit bigger, BMW has you covered. Well, assuming “you” are German or at least living in Germany. The company has launched its own car sharing service it calls DriveNow. This one is billed as a “premium” — though curiously none of the company’s truly premium models will be offered. That said, the Minis and 1 Series autos that make up the initial fleet are hardly low-rent, and we’d be utterly shocked if the upcoming i3 didn’t get added to the mix down the road too. Usage details are still a little bit scarce, but we do know that each car will have a dash-mounted Dell Streak through which users will log in after unlocking the car doors with an RFID-equipped membership card or even a suitably endowed drivers license. Renting a car costs 29 cents per minute, up to €14.90 (about $21) per hour, and there will be 300 cars available at first starting in the Munich area. If you’re not in Munich it’s tough cookies for now, but BMW is hoping to have one million members worldwide by 2020. Maybe one of them will be you. Continue reading BMW launches DriveNow, the ‘premium’ car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video) BMW launches DriveNow, the ‘premium’ car sharing service with a Dell Streak on every dash (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Operabots take center stage at MIT Media Lab’s ‘Death and the Powers’ opera
March 23, 2011 No Comment
It already had its premiere in Monaco last year, but composer Tod Machover’s new opera, “Death and the Powers,” has now finally made it to the United States. Why are we reporting on a new opera (rather than Opera ) on Engadget? Well, it just so happens to feature the “Operabots” pictured above, which were developed by MIT’s Media Lab . The lab also helped develop some of the opera’s other high-tech components, but it seems like the Operabots are the real standout — they’re “semi-autonomous” and freely roam around the stage throughout the opera, acting as a Greek chorus. Not surprisingly, the opera itself also deals with some futuristic subject matter. The Powers of the title is Simon Powers, a “Bill Gates, Walt Disney-type” who decides to upload his consciousness into “The System” before he dies — hijinks then ensue. Those in Boston can apparently still get tickets for the final performance on March 25th — after that it moves onto Chicago for four performances between April 2nd and 10th. Head on past the break for a preview. Continue reading Operabots take center stage at MIT Media Lab’s ‘Death and the Powers’ opera Operabots take center stage at MIT Media Lab’s ‘Death and the Powers’ opera originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Operabots take center stage at MIT Media Lab’s ‘Death and the Powers’ opera
March 23, 2011 No Comment
It already had its premiere in Monaco last year, but composer Tod Machover’s new opera, “Death and the Powers,” has now finally made it to the United States. Why are we reporting on a new opera (rather than Opera ) on Engadget? Well, it just so happens to feature the “Operabots” pictured above, which were developed by MIT’s Media Lab . The lab also helped develop some of the opera’s other high-tech components, but it seems like the Operabots are the real standout — they’re “semi-autonomous” and freely roam around the stage throughout the opera, acting as a Greek chorus. Not surprisingly, the opera itself also deals with some futuristic subject matter. The Powers of the title is Simon Powers, a “Bill Gates, Walt Disney-type” who decides to upload his consciousness into “The System” before he dies — hijinks then ensue. Those in Boston can apparently still get tickets for the final performance on March 25th — after that it moves onto Chicago for four performances between April 2nd and 10th. Head on past the break for a preview. Continue reading Operabots take center stage at MIT Media Lab’s ‘Death and the Powers’ opera Operabots take center stage at MIT Media Lab’s ‘Death and the Powers’ opera originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Okay, we admit, we were taken in by the video on Snapkey’s site showing the keyboard in action before its inner workings were revealed at CTIA 2011 . The system is actually quite simple: there are four boxes to tap for letters — plus backspace and space — and each represents a type of letter. Top left includes letters with one point that touches down like “i,” bottom left includes closed letters such as “d,” top right includes letters with two points on the bottom, and bottom right curved and letters with a flat base. Sounds simple? it is, or kinda. Of course there’s a learning curve, in essence you have to rethink the way you type; as we immediately found we had to pay more attention to the letters in words, or at least the shape of them. The system we were shown was running on a jailbroken iPad , but we were told it could be moved to just about any platform. Is it as revolutionary as the buzz suggests? We’re not entirely sure but hope to find out soon with a trial in our labs. Follow on for a video of our grade school assistant Jonathan giving us a tour. Continue reading Snapkeys keyless keyboard hands-on Snapkeys keyless keyboard hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Okay, we admit, we were taken in by the video on Snapkey’s site showing the keyboard in action before its inner workings were revealed at CTIA 2011 . The system is actually quite simple: there are four boxes to tap for letters — plus backspace and space — and each represents a type of letter. Top left includes letters with one point that touches down like “i,” bottom left includes closed letters such as “d,” top right includes letters with two points on the bottom, and bottom right curved and letters with a flat base. Sounds simple? it is, or kinda. Of course there’s a learning curve, in essence you have to rethink the way you type; as we immediately found we had to pay more attention to the letters in words, or at least the shape of them. The system we were shown was running on a jailbroken iPad , but we were told it could be moved to just about any platform. Is it as revolutionary as the buzz suggests? We’re not entirely sure but hope to find out soon with a trial in our labs. Follow on for a video of our grade school assistant Jonathan giving us a tour. Continue reading Snapkeys keyless keyboard hands-on Snapkeys keyless keyboard hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Photographer Terje Sorgjerd spent a week capturing what he called “one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years,” and the results are simply stunning. The footage was shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park in the very north part of Norway, which borders Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : Universe Today Discovery Date : 22/03/2011 23:01 Number of articles : 7
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Chris Brown tweets frustration after ‘Good Morning America’ incident; Ja Rule pleads guilty to $3M tax evasion; Another injury rocks ‘Spider-Man’ Broadway musical. (March 23)
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