Segway inventor Dean Kamen is looking to re-invent the prosthetic arm. IEEE Spectrum caught up with Kamen and one of his "test pilots," to see the robotic arm (named after Luke Skywalker's articficial limb) in action.
It's everyone's favorite droid! IEEE Spectrum talked with R2-D2 builder Steve Simmons at Maker Faire to find out how the Star Wars droids work. (For more, check out http://www.artoo-det oo.net/)
IEEE Spectrum http://spectrum.ieee .org stopped by Ignite NYC, where Bre Pettis and the NYC Resistor hacker collective hosted a contest to see who had the fastest soldering iron in the city. The contestants all raced to build a TV-B-Gone kit http://www.makershed .com/ProductDetails. asp?ProductCode=MKAD 4, and the first to turn off the TV won.
Two kid testers get a sneak peek at KOTA, Hasbro's dinosaur that you can ride (sort of-it doesn't actually go anywhere). Although it doesn't really buck or move, the kids weren't too disappointed.
IEEE spectrum (http://spectrum.iee e.org) takes you inside Kiva Systems' robotic warehouse, where orange robots make inventory move instead of workers. Over time the system becomes increasingly efficient, with the robots learning from the wisdom of the crowd.
To read more about Kiva Systems and how their robots work, check out the article at http://www.spectrum. ieee.org/jul08/6380.
It's hard enough to get the mouse trap to work right in the board game, but the San Francisco crew at Maker Faire managed to pull it off on a human scale several times over the weekend. The rig apparently took 10 years to build.
IEEE Spectrum caught up with Andrew Turley, who had turned an archival tool into a musical instrument. Using a simple photodiode, the keyboard plays notes based on how light the center of the screen is.
Mitsubishi hopes their new LaserVue TVs will give LCD and Plasma screens a run for their money. The screens use three lasers to scan the screen at 1080p. The main sacrifice is depth-the TV's are about ten inches thick. IEEE Spectrum http://spectrum.ieee .org caught up with Mitsubishi at NYC's Digital Experience in July.
Anyone can hook up a speaker to make a robot talk, but Mike Brady wants his Voxhead to use it's own vocal cavity. What's more, he really made Voxhead to explore learning, so the bot has to listen to itself to correct its speech (which, at this point, is more like singing).
For more info, visit http://www.fluidbase .com/mike/projects/V oxHead
At CES, Ford announced a new navigation system that will be in the Ford Flex, the Ford F-150, and the Lincoln MKS. The nav system uses Sirius to stream information like gas prices, movie times, and weather updates directly to the car. IEEE Spectrum caught up with Ford to talk about Travel Link, which, like Sync, can be voice activated.
At Digital Experience! (the CES pre-show), IEEE Spectrum stopped by the Altec Lansing booth to check out the first dock/speaker system designed specifically for the iPhone. Not only does it shield GSM radiation, it pauses the music when you get a call.
Sci-fi author Vernor Vinge talks about the run-up to a technological singularity and what we can do to engineer the best outcome for humans. The interview is part of IEEE Spectrum's Singularity Special Report: http://spectrum.ieee .org/singularity
In the report, Vinge also updates his ideas in an article called "Signs of the Singularity": http://www.spectrum. ieee.org/jun08/6306
IEEE Spectrum looked around Maker Faire for some of the coolest projects. These mouse robots follow a beam of light and have bump-sensing whiskers and tails.
Jeremy Toeman, head of marketing for Bug Labs, explains how open source software and hardware interact on Bug Labs' customizable gadget. For a more general introduction to the device, check out part one of IEEE Spectrum's interview with Bug Labs' Mehrshad Mansouri
![Dean Kamen\](http://img.youtube.com/vi/R0_mLumx-6Y/2.jpg "Dean Kamen\")
![KOTA: When Pleo Just Isn\](http://img.youtube.com/vi/w5c3Wq0jpps/2.jpg "KOTA: When Pleo Just Isn\")
![CES 2008: First \"Works with iPhone\" Speaker System](http://img.youtube.com/vi/YWTMD6E9_k8/2.jpg "CES 2008: First \\"Works with iPhone\\" Speaker System")
