Listening to: Zane Lowe - BBC Radio 1

A few weeks ago I
took part in the dry run for a 48 Hour film competition… the team I made it
with were the subject of a TV
segment on the real event. Congrats guys!

Listening to: Wrapped Around Your Finger - The Police

Honda have demo’d a
machine control interface that uses MRI data:

In a video demonstration in Tokyo, brain signals detected by a magnetic
resonance imaging scanner were relayed to a robotic hand. A person in the MRI machine
made a fist, spread his fingers and then made a V-sign. Several seconds later, a robotic
hand mimicked the movements.

UPDATE: NewScientist has more
details.

Listening to: A Room Full Of Cute - Minuit

I had read a few months ago that the real goal of Google was AI… it seems that this
is indeed the
case:

Speaking at a conference for Google’s European partners, entitled Zeitgeist
‘06, on the outskirts of London last night Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and
co-founder Larry Page gave an insight into perhaps the most ambitious project the
Californian business is undertaking - artificial intelligence (AI).

“The
ultimate search engine would understand everything in the world. It would understand
everything that you asked it and give you back the exact right thing instantly,” Mr
Page told an audience of the digerati representing firms from Warner Music and AOL
to BSkyB and the BBC. “You could ask ‘what should I ask Larry?’ and it would tell
you.”

I which case I would be far more comfortable if the company started to address some
of the criticisms that Cringley raises in his latest
column:

Google is secretive. This started as a deliberate marketing mystique,
but endures today more as a really annoying company habit. Google folks don’t understand
why the rest of us have a problem with this, but then Google folks aren’t like you
and me. The result of this secrecy and Google’s “almighty algorithm” mentality is
that the company makes changes — and mistakes — without informing its customers
or even doing all that much to correct the problems. It’s all just beta code, after
all. But the business part is real, as is the money that some people have lost because
of Google’s poor communication skills combined, frankly, with poor follow-through.

Listening to: Kiss You Better - Maxïmo Park

This guy has rigged an
EKG to a flame ring….the video of
it in action is oddly unsettling.

src: MAKE:Blog

Listening to: The Garden Of Allah - Don Henley

Kondo have announced their second generation
Robo-One robot, the KHR-2HV (Japanese):

In addition to changes in the mechanical design like simpler resin
plastic joints that should make assembly much easier than the KHR-1, Kondo has also
added some nice touches like the addition of a main power switch. Interestingly, the
robot interface is USB totally eliminating the prior need for a RS-232C port or conversion
cable.

Robots Dreams has more details (in
English).

Listening to: A.T.H.F. (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) - Dangerdoom

For Andy and Catherine (coz it’s a cat) and Pablo because it’s a combo of a cat and
a thing:

Lyyti
& iBook

>

Originally uploaded by mwri.>

Part of the Cats
Love Macs flickr pool

Listening to: Not Enough Love In The World - Don Henley

A really cool use for the motion sensors in the MacBook:

>

src: The
Register

UPDATE: It seems that
the new Nokia 5500 uses a similar ‘tapping’ input:

Similarly to Samsung E750 and E760, you can control several phone’s
functions, but not with moving the phone, tapping is done instead. When listening
to player, for example, you can tap twice on front panel in order to pause it, or
activate again. After you received an SMS – you can tap in order the phone to
open it. You can switch tracks by tapping on the right or left side of the phone,
depending on action you want to perform. In training mode you can control functions
too, like start of new lap.

Listening to: The Party’s Over - Talk Talk

Richard seems to have been impressed but the combination of free coffee and Bob reworking Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A Changin’:

Other highlights from today included an intro video message delivered by Tim Berners-Lee (looking very Max Headroom-ish I must say), free coffees thanks to the good folk at Provoke (visitors, ask for a “flat white”), some nice Microsoft shwag, the Freedom Is exhibit, and a song performed by ‘Bob’ - a web-themed version of Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A Changin’ (yes, Web 2.0 was in the lyrics!).

Listening to: The Party’s Over - Talk Talk

I stumbled across this little gem this morning. Not only is a robot that uses dry
adhesion to stick to windows really cool… but the site has
lots of information about the control and design of the little critter.

Listening to: Blind Man - The Darkness

Octagonal Star Geometric Progression, (backlit) 3 of 3

Originally uploaded by EricGjerde.