Unicycle-riding girlbot hits the road

Bicycle-riding robot Murata Boy has a cute new cousin--and she's so one-upping him by getting around on a unicycle.

Murata Girl, a.k.a. Seiko-chan, can ride forward and backward at 2 inches per second--or idle in place. Tiny sensors tell the bot when it's about to bump into something, and gyroscopes on her back, plus a spinning disc embedded in her stomach, help her stay balanced.

Murata Electronics, an electrical components maker based in Japan, uses Murata Boy to promote science education and advertise its brand. It describes Murata Girl as "active but shy" (she occasionally blushes) and from central Japan, noting that she's programmed to follow her cousin around (no doubt taunting him endlessly for only being able to manage on two wheels). Users can control Seiko-chan via Bluetooth.
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The smart cell key phone

In the latest move by convergence, your car keys are about to be swallowed up by your cell phone. The big goal of convergence seems to involve emptying our pockets, not of cash, although that is a side-effect, but of things. The fully equipped tech nerd used to carry a cell phone, PDA, MP3 player, and digital camera. Cell phones took over all those functions, so convergence went rummaging through your pockets looking for something else to subsume. And it found your car keys, which, thanks to new smart keys, can easily be converged into the cell phone.

This latest effort is being spearheaded by Nissan, Sharp, and Japanese phone company NTT Docomo. Nissan has been offering smart keys in its cars since 2002, and we've gotten so used to them that we don't bother mentioning it in our reviews any more. Sharp designed a phone that would, we assume, work on NTT Docomo's service, and include the functionality of a smart key for a Nissan car.
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No fib: Headband would catch lies via infrared light

As anyone who watches Dr. Phil has surely learned, standard polygraph tests measure responses such as blood pressure, pulse, and respiration rate to detect anxiety associated with guilt or lying. But a new kind of lie detector test could skip the psychophysiological gauges and head straight to the brain for answers on a subject's veracity.

New Scientist pointed us to a patent filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization that proposes detecting lies via near-infrared spectroscopy. Basically, a device would shine near-infrared light through the scalp and skull into certain parts of the brain. Seeing how much light reflects back would indicate oxygenation levels, which vary depending on how active the brain is at a given point and could yield information on the neural pathways underlying the cognitive as well as the emotional aspects of deception.

To measure the light, the patent filers, headed up by Dr. Scott Bunce, a professor of psychiatry at Philadelphia's Drexel University College of Medicine, have come up a with flexible sensing device that would fit around the head. Neural activity could be transmitted to a processor through wired or wireless means, according to the patent, and results could be made available after post-test averaging, or in real time, while the subject is being tested.
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HP's alternate experience centers

In the not-so-distant future, you'll be able to sample and experience HP products and services in the least expected venues. To reach out to even more consumers, the Palo Alto company has tied up with various fashion and entertainment industry partners to promote its wares. This is on top of the 7,500 new retail partner stores slated for launch across 1,000 Asia-Pacific cities to beef up its regional presence.

Under its latest HP alternative experience center initiative, the IT solutions provider has identified three key customer segments in the youth, family and women markets to implement its new shop-and-play concept. The following are details of the collaborations as well as their respective propositions to bring HP's offerings beyond the usual IT malls and conventional retail channels.


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slotMusic--the digital music format of the future?

If SanDisk and the various music labels (Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI Music) have their way, we could see songs preloaded onto 1GB microSD cards dubbed slotMusic, instead of CDs in the near future.

The new initiative announced today is aimed at users of multimedia phones and portable media players that support the flash memory format. According to the release, the tunes will come in 320kbps MP3 format, are DRM-free and the flash media will have USB adapters for use with Windows, Linux and Mac computers.

Just how this is going to take off is still a big question weighing on our minds. Why can't we have uncompressed formats? What happens if I accidentally delete some songs on the card? How do I tell which album belongs to which card? Is there really a need for 320kbps? What's the price going to be like? And everyone's moving toward online stores, why the need for this now?

Unless these questions can be answered, we're going to take a pinch a salt with this announcement. The flash media will first be available in the US, followed by Europe. No word on whether it will eventually make its way to Asia.

Via Engadget

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