It would appear that everyone’s favorite dino-killer, the Velociraptor, isn’t all he’s cracked up to be. Instead of the disembowling-vicious-hunter, he’s more like a attach-myself-to-the-victims-back-and-serate-him-to-death type killer. And all of this we know thanks to the loving help of robots. Way to go. You’ve ruined what was such a life-like movie.

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Continuing with their massive onslaught of robotic helpmeets for the elderly (can’t forget Pero), a group from Osaka University has created a robotic jacket that will help stroke victims recover. Looking vaguely Metroid-esk (which came from Japan, BTW) the jacket reads the muscle movements from the good arm and transmits them to the jacket which moves the immobilized arm.

"Four pressure sensors in the arm section of the jacket capture muscle movement. When the healthy arm bends and extends, the jacket analyzes this data and sends compressed air to the affected arm, where eight artificial muscles affixed there expand and contract in the same way as the movement in the healthy arm."

The researchers are hoping to have the jacket on the market by Spring of 2008 with an asking price of about $2,100 USD.



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The Consumer Electronic Association has listed robotics as a technology trend that is set to influence the next 12 months. Also on the list are content creation and obscenely large TV screens. Unusual, yes, I know.

"A robotic future has long been talked about but so far has failed to deliver anything to match a human’s flexibility, mobility and dexterity."

Of course, the main hangup keeping robots from moving off of the bleeding edge is the price point. I highly doubt we’ll see a real robotic revolution in American (or otherwise) homes till you can pick up a robot at Best Buy for the same price you’d pay for a refrigerator.


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The great guys at Element Products Inc. sent me one of the Scribbler Robots they built for Parallax. I’m hoping to get a review of it up on the site in the next week or two. If I forget, remind me.


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Robotics Trends, the industrie’s new-found marking group (their website says, ‘integrated media firm’), is sponsoring a "Robot TechZone" at CES 2006. For those living in a cave for the past long while, CES is the hottest electronics conference/expo in, well, pretty much anywhere. It’s great to see that robotics is starting to get the recognition it needs. For those of you wanting to drop a few (or more) G’s on a booth in the TechZone, Robotics Trends is ready and waiting to take your money.


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