Robonica looks at new robotic entertainment formats

Robonica is a start-up that is looking into new ways of robotic entertainment and aims to redefine the entertainment robotics market later this fall by rolling out a whole new range of products that come with the tagline, “The Rise of Robotic Gaming.” This new range will merge elements of robotics, R/C vehicles and electronic gaming, making them stand out from the current crop of entertainment robots that is able to offer meaningful and structured gameplay regardless of whether one is alone, with friends or through online interaction.

A smart, fully programmable and highly agile two-wheeled robot, Roboni-i is the first entertainment robot to offer unlimited play patterns. The state-of-the-art robot features 16 sensors and four processors, RF remote control and Zigbee peer-to-peer RF protocol allowing for competitive gameplay with real-world robots. It also comes packaged with game accessories and six action games enabling players to form a playing field and use the gaming controller to select a game as they enter a new dimension of interactive, real-world robotic gameplay. Whether alone or with friends, they will need to beat the odds, race against time, manage resources, neutralize threats, execute special effects and collect bonus points to improve score. The Roboni-i’s online gameplay is out of this world. By plugging Roboni-i into the PC, players enter a virtual world where they can create profiles, participate in virtual missions, play online games and interact with friends who are online at the same time. Its Advanced PC-based Command Center Software allows users to program every facet of the robot’s behavior, edit games and upload performance data.

The following online sources - ToysRUs.com, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and more will be the first to get hold of Robonica’s offering, followed by retailers Hammacher Schlemmer, Edmund Scientific and other specialty shops.

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ViewSonic introduces new devices

Mention ViewSonic and most of the time you would probably think about LCD monitors, but this time round they have released two devices for the masses - the smallest DLP projector from the company to date known as the PJD2121, while the WPG-350 wireless presentation gateway offers a solution for meeting rooms that won’t break the company budget. These devices are able to offer decent performance and capabilities despite their small size, making them suitable for those who do not want to be limited by projection technology in their line of work.


Let’s take a look at the Viewsonic PJD2121 first - the smallest short throw DLP pico projector from the company that tips the scales at just 2.2 pounds. This advanced device will come with integrated BrillantColor technology that is able to deliver 400 lumens of brightness, where your images are thrown at 800 x 600 SVGA native resolution, easily placing it as one of the brightest projectors available in its class. Contrast ratio for a pico projector is also pretty respectable at 1,800:1, where this combination ought to be enough to handle situations in virtually any lighting environment. It comes with a short 1:1 throw ratio that makes it perfect for tabletop personal use or for small meeting rooms, and can display images of up to 60″ from as near as just four feet away. The ‘Off to Go’ function also enables one to power the PDJ2121 automatically without having to worry about the lamp overheating due to insufficient cooling time. This filter-less design offers easy maintenance and a lower total cost of ownership, while it comes with a Kensington security lock port for added peace of mind. Each $449 purchase comes with a three-year limited parts and labor warranty, although the lamp stands at just one year.

As for the WPG-350 wireless presentation gateway, this device offers wireless capability to any compatible projector, LCD TV or large screen display without having the need to fork out a large amount of money for an embedded wireless projector. It is able to support 1,024 x 768 resolution and full-motion video up to 1080p, featuring 802.11b/g/n hi-speed wireless connectivity. Interested parties can pick up the WPG-350 wireless presentation gateway for $199.

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Ripe Fruit May Inspire Mosquito Repellents

Fruit flies actually have a love-hate relationship with the smell of fruit. And a new insight into the chemistry of that attraction and repulsion could lead to novel repellents for other insects, researchers say.


Carbon dioxide is a known turn-off to fruit flies when it emanates from stressed peers. "Drosophila sniff CO2 and avoid it like crazy," says neurobiologist Anand Ray of the University of California, Riverside. But ripe fruit puffs out the gas and still attracts plenty of flies. In this case, compounds released by the fruit block the flies' CO2 receptors, Ray and Riverside colleague Stephanie Turner report online August 26 in Nature.

Mosquitos, in contrast, outright love CO2. They hunt down blood meals by following plumes of the exhaled gas. But as in fruit flies, a fruit compound can jam CO2 receptors in the notorious mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus, the researchers say. This species spreads West Nile fever and the parasites that cause the huge limb swellings of the tropical disease filariasis. Ray proposes that compounds that could keep the mosquito detectors from sensing those plumes might render people hard to find. With a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he's starting to test the strategy.

In fruit flies, the aversion to CO2 turned up when researchers shook the insects or zapped them with a little electric shock. The stressed flies released an odor with CO2 as a key component, and unharmed flies fled from that odor.

"There was this paradox," Ray says. The same fruit flies that avoid stressed flies and even unripe CO2-exhaling fruit, crowd around ripe fruit as well as other strong CO2 sources such as beer.

To study the contradiction, Ray and Turner turned to the sensory detectors on the insects' antennae. "Each antenna is shaped like a strawberry, with hundreds of tiny hairs on it," Ray says. Inserting minute electrodes into pores on some of the hairs let the researchers check for activity in a neuron bearing the the specialized receptor known to detect CO2. The researchers monitored that activity while releasing both fruit odors and CO2. Two of the fruit odors strongly reduced the neuron's reaction to CO2.

Those two inhibitor molecules, 1-hexanol and 2,3-butanedione, were quite a surprise, Ray says. "They do not look anything like CO2."

Yet he and Turner note that earlier studies show that as bananas ripen, concentrations of 1-hexanol increase by 777 percent and 2,3-butanedione by 4,900 percent.

To see whether the inhibitors indeed act on the receptor, "we took the awesome power of fly genetics," Ray says, and put the receptor protein in a neuron that normally has nothing to do with CO2 detection. Isolated in this alien neuron, the receptor still jammed when the inhibitors wafted by.

Mosquito neurons responded to one of the inhibitors, 1-hexanol. The 2,3-butanedione didn't produce much of a reaction but a closely related compound, 1-butanal, did, Ray and Turner found.

The new paper looks like a significant contribution toward developing new controls for disease-spreading insects, says neuroethologist Pablo Guerenstein of the Argentine National Research Council in Diamante and Entre Rios National University in Oro Verde, Argentina. Now, Guerenstein says, he wants to know more about the results' biological significance, such as whether the inhibitors affect the way insects perceive CO2 in the natural blend of odors from a fruit. Also, he points out that the inhibitory 1-hexanol appears in some vertebrate odors, and he would like to know about its role there.

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Robofish Takes To Water

Aug. 28, 2009 -- A school of small, robotic fish has been developed by MIT scientists. Made with a only handful of parts and a blend of polymers, the fish wiggle their way through water like trout and tuna.

These new robofish could be equipped with sensors to monitor oil spills or other environmental contaminants.


"The interesting aspect of this research is that we are the first group to tailor different polymers in different parts of the body with different dampening and stiffness properties," said Kamal Youcef-Toumi, a scientist at MIT who, along with Pablo Vildivia Y Alvarado, is developing the robofish.

"We are also looking at using the natural motion and behavior of the fish and replicating those motions," said Youcef-Toumi.

The 18 new robofish have advanced significantly since the original Robotuna was created at MIT in 1994. Robotuna had more than 2,000 parts, including six motors, encased in its four-foot body.

These new models have less than 10 parts, including one motor, and are between five and eight inches long.

Youcef-Youmi and Vildivia Y Alvarado began developing the five-inch robofish four years ago, modeling their movements on freshwater fish like trout and bass. These small fish swim mostly by moving the tail, while the rest of the body remains motionless.

The most recent robofish are eight inches long and modeled to swim like salt water tuna. Instead of wiggling just the tail, tuna swim by moving their body as well, undulating back and forth to swim faster than trout or bass.

Whatever the length or swimming method, all the robofish are encased in a special blend of molded polymers. The body of the fish is one single piece of material, but each section of the body has a different stiffness, allowing the motion of one actuator to move through the robofish's entire body, propelling it forward.

One actuator allows for limited movement, basically forward and side to side. To move up and down and more complex movements will require two additional actuators be installed.

The unibody construction also protects the electrical and mechanical parts inside the robot; some robofish have been swimming for more than four years.

The robofish might mimic real fish, but they can't compete in terms of speed. The maximum speed of the robofish is less than one body length per second. Some fish can swim up to 10 body lengths per second.

Movement requires energy, and the robofish currently get their power from an attached power cable. Batteries could be installed to power robofish remotely in streams and bays, where they could be equipped with sensors to detect pollution or cameras to study animals that would be disturbed by the noise caused by propellers.

Fish aren't the only underwater creatures the MIT robotics team is studying. During the next few weeks, MIT scientists plan to test robotic salamanders and robotic manta rays.

Whatever type of robot is being created, "the underwater environment is the most difficult environment for robotics," said Huosheng Hu, a professor of computer science and electronic engineering at the University of Essex. Hu has built his own realistic robotic fish which was on display at the London Aquarium.

Hu likes the new unibody robofish, but doesn't think that the new robofish have any particular new advantage in terms of three dimensional swimming, or at least won't until the additional actuators are installed.

Despite the current limitations of robofish, human engineers will continue to chase natural fish in terms of speed, maneuverability and endurance.

"We still have a long way to go to achieving the same performance as real fish," said Hu.

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