Kinect-powered autonomous robots cook popcorn, make sandwiches

The point of having a bot for a cleaning may be one move more specific.Thanks to a robotics team from the Degree of Munich (TUM). They have developed a number of impartial applications that are able to create range treats and create treats using a Console xbox kinect indication from Passion. Is there anything that side-line can not do?

Named John and Rosie, the awesome thing about these two automated cooks is that they use real understanding to get their responsibilities done. Relevance that the actions and actions involved in the preparing your recipe process are not pre-programmed actions. There can be confirmation of this as the duo create small problems such as dropping the toaster location with a element of bread and dropping a few treats parts when providing them into a providing.

The team gained this success along with TUM’s Psychological Bot Conclusion System application, known as CRAM for shorter. Using research that CRAM had already attained, students provided John and Rosie “brains” of a form.

The applications have the features of acknowledging actual physical objects around them, using those identifications to phone up the different uses items has. For example, when John identifies a toaster, its laptop or computer development allows it to know that the merchandise or service is used in the process of making done bread. What is even more wonderful is that using these Console xbox kinect system, both applications are outfitted of acknowledging presentation needs like “make me a dish.” When the duo understands that management, they will evaluation their surrounding and be able to identify what components are at palm to take out the work.

Popcorn and treats are not the only things that John and Rosie can create, they can also management hot desserts for day dish readers. You can see the complete film of the duo in methods below.

Source : http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/kinect-powered-autonomous-robots-cook-popcorn-make-sandwiches-20111216/

Toshiba launches 500GB/platter 1TB 2.5-inch hard drive

Toshiba is pushing the limits of hard disk capacity once again with the introduction of a new range of readers able to squeeze 500 GB of data on a single platform. The end result is a 1 TB 2.5-inch form factor drive with the small 9.5 mm.

Adjustment capacity of 1 TB of storage capacity in a small space saw Toshiba increase the density of data stored by 37% over the previous record. This new disc, called MQ01ABD gets 744.1Gb per square inch. Combined with an 8 MB cache, 3 Gb / s interface and 5,400 RPM rotation speed, the drive speeds of transfer of 1288.6 Mbps.

Such small discs are ideal high capacity for inclusion in laptops, nettops and demodulators. Laptop owners will certainly appreciate manufacturers who use this player as it weighs only 102 grams and consumes only 0.55 watts in standby. Add to that the quiet operation of only 24 decibels during the search (17dB in idle mode) and you have a portable storage solution very friendly.

Toshiba plans to start mass production of discs MQ01ABD mid August. You will be able to take one of 1TB, 750GB, 500GB, 320GB and 250GB. The price has not been revealed.

Toshiba is not the first manufacturer to use the 1 TB disk, but was able to do so using the form factor of 9.5 and two meals instead of larger disks 12.5 mm. Western Digital Scorpio Blue reached the same with 1 TB.

Flash storage continues to gain pace and ship in larger capacities, but the price and keeping the difference is even large enough to make the typical hard disk is the right choice for most notebook computers.

Alienware M11x R3

The 11.6-inch MacBook Air is the most perfect laptop I’ve ever owned, but that thin, miraculous wedge of glass and aluminum isn’t for everyone. As a writer, it’s the notebook I’ve always dreamed of, the laptop analog to the iPad… but as a gamer, it’s woefully under-specced. I forgive the MacBook Air for this, of course: as long as you aren’t running anything graphically intensive, the Air feels so fast thanks to its SSD that the idea of specs itself seem meaningless.

What if you’re a gamer who wants massive performance in the smallest footprint, though? Enter Alienware with their third foray into the ultraportable market, and if the specs rumored by Dell-Lab is anything to go on, we’re looking at a beast of a machine crammed into a form factor the size of a couple of MacBook Air’s pressed together.

The alleged specs include an 11.6-inch LCD (1366×768, LED-backlit), up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, up to 750GB storage or 256GB SSD, WWAN 3G/LTE/WiMAX 4G, and shipping in either red or black soft touch material. The proposed CPUs are Intel Core i5-2537M, Core i7-2617M and the Core i7-2657M.

Sandy Bridge CPUs! LTE/WiMax 4G options! Up to 8GB of RAM! All in under a foot’s worth of real-estate. In fact, the only thing not listed is the GPU, which we would assume — being an Alienware machine and all — would be similarly beefy to the rest of the specs. It should surpass the Nvidia 335M (1GB) used on the M11x and M11x R2, but the post coyly says there is not even confirmation of a discrete GPU yet. We’re betting Alienware sticks with discrete graphics, otherwise it takes the chance of massively disappointing consider number of M11x fans out there.

With the M11x currently at $599 (and about ready to be phased out) and the M11x R2 at $799, we should see the M11x R3 starting for under $1000 with the same (if not better) battery life. Rumor has it that these will be shipping some time in April.

Read more at Dell-Lab