hockey

Hockey-playing robot can stick it to you

Here in Canada, you make the best of the long cold winters by getting out there and skiing, skating, testing solar bulbs, and launching Lego men into the stratosphere. Or you build hockey-playing robots.

Jennifer is a DARwin-OP robot from the University of Manitoba's Autonomous Agents Laboratory that can shimmy around on a rink and even stick-handle a bit. She's billed as the first of her kind.

Named after Canadian hockey Olympic medalist Jennifer Botterill, the bot has mini skates, a stick, a Team Canada jersey, and a ball and puck to play with. In the vid below, she shuffles around to the old theme from "Hockey Night in Canada" and you can't beat that.

The piece was put together as a submission to the DARwin-OP Humanoid Application Challenge at IEEE ICRA in May. The robots are open-platform humanoids developed by U.S. universities and sold by Korean firm Robotis.

The challenges facing Chris Iverach-Brereton and colleagues on the University of Manitoba team include getting the robot to hit the puck from a sideways orientation and improving her skating skills. She's not ready to join the Winnipeg Jets just yet.

"We want to improve a great deal and have proper skating and really precise stickhandling," Iverach-Brereton told Postmedia News. "By May, my personal goal is to have the skating down and have (Jennifer) be able to push off one foot and glide." … Read more

iPhone turned hockey puck survives 82 mph slapshot

If you've ever wanted to take out the day's frustrations on your iPhone, go grab the nearest hockey stick and get ready to vent.

Today, G-Form--the Rhode Island company behind heavy-duty iPad covers that it likes to test by dropping tablets from great heights--is debuting its first rugged protective cases for the iPhone 4 and 4S. True to form, the product demonstration for the new "X-Protect" case is pretty punishing. … Read more

Wayne Gretzky closes daughter's Twitter feed twice?

His greatest strength was always to look into the future.

He knew where the puck was going to be, and he made sure he was already there. Now Wayne Gretzky may be having trouble with the future of communication.

All this week, there appears to have occurred a tug of war--or perhaps merely a tug of love--between The Great One and his daughter, Paulina.

The tussle, which seems slightly more subtle than other confrontations in hockey, is over Paulina's Twitter feed.

The feed appears to have been shut down not once, but twice already this week, and reports suggest … Read more

The 404 858: Where dreams really do come true (podcast)

News of the Black Eyed Peas' hiatus proves that if you wish for something long enough, dreams really do come true. On today's episode, Jeff tells us about the long-awaited intersection of tech geekdom and hockey, we analyze WebMD's involvement in the spread of "cyberchondria," and we dispute a Dutch study that claims smoking marijuana makes you a better gamer.

The 404 Digest for Episode 858

Geekdom and hockey collide: The campaign for NHL player Mike Commodore to wear No. 64. The Black Eyed Peas go on hiatus; Jeff celebrates. WebMD reports: Internet makes hypochondria worse. Does marijuana make you a better gamer? Jeff's Cute Animal Video of the Week, starring a street-crossing sloth. Mitch B's custom 404 iPhone case and BodyGuardz iPad case!

Episode 858 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Icebreaker Hockey lets you take the slap shot

Icebreaker Hockey (99 cents) hit the iTunes App Store recently, adding another sport to the challenging 3D tilt-to-control sports arcade franchise from developer NaturalMotion. Now you'll be able to take to the ice and work your way around defenders until it's your turn to take a shot on the goal.

Many iOS gamers will remember Backbreaker Football, one of the early great iPhone games at the iTunes App Store. Taking advantage of the iPhone's accelerometer, Backbreaker Football let you tilt and touch buttons to maneuver a football player downfield to score a touchdown.… Read more

Hockey robot's slapshot can reach 110 mph

Boston Bruins Captain Zdeno Chara probably has enough to worry about during the Stanley Cup finals against the Vancouver Canucks to care that his fastest slapshot record can be broken by a robot.

The SlapShot XT can apparently beat Chara's world record of 105.9 mph. Developed by Hockey Robotics, a spinoff of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, the two-armed robot can repeatedly send pucks flying through the air at 110 mph.

The start-up developed the puck smasher as a method of testing the strength of hockey sticks. Since the introduction of composite sticks some years ago, broken sticks have been a problem in NHL and amateur games alike.

Golf club makers have used similar robots to test their product, but the XT is more complex because it uses two arms to wield a stick. It uses a gear, sprocket, and belt system to whack pucks into the net (see the vid below). … Read more

The 404 796: Where we're playing offense tonight (podcast)

If Wilson is the brains of The 404, and Jeff is the brawn, then what is Justin? Aside from answering that question, we're also thinking of new names for Jeff's hockey team and talking about Adobe's new software rental program, the iPad 2 coming to Toys "R" Us stores and Best Buy vaults, and the future of the Apple iPod Touch.

The 404 Digest for Episode 796

Adobe Creative Suite 5: Why buy when you can rent? Photoshop Touch SDK drives three Adobe iPad apps. Aviary.com puts light image edits in the cloud.

Episode 796 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 716: Where we're thankful for enhanced pat-down searches (podcast)

It's the last day of the week for us! Mark Licea joins us today to fill in for the day before Thanksgiving. We hope all of your enjoy your new TSA-approved enhanced pat-downs when you're flying to see your loved ones. Justin isn't even leaving the city, but he's making daily trips to the airport to meet his special security officer.

Speaking of the TSA screenings that have become all the rage on the news these days, Jeff thinks that it's the dearth of news in American media that is letting the issue blow up on cable news and across the Web. In part, Wilson agrees given that the new regulations, backscatter (cool name for a band) X-ray scanning machines and pat-down searches have been planned for months. While the general populace might be a bit surprised by the new TSA regulations, Wilson doesn't believe it makes it right to be photographed through our clothes just because we want to fly.

In happier ramblings, The 404 does give thanks for the privilege of essentially shooting the tech-and-culture crap with each other on a daily basis. It's something we're truly thankful for, and we'd love nothing but to share our love for our loyal and growing listener base.

Jeff, being Jeff, though, has to interrupt the flow of happiness to talk a bit about the blackout for the New York-New Jersey region when it comes to the NHL's new GameCenter service, which lets fans watch games and replays. The big exception that really irks Jeff is that the service won't let him watch his beloved New Jersey Devils! Wilson and Mark really couldn't care less.

Any way, we won't be having a show tomorrow or Friday, due to the Thanksgiving holiday, but be sure to e-mail us or call in at the usual 1-866-404-CNET (2638), and let us know what you're thankful for. Maybe it's that new tech gadget or Wilson's laugh? Let us know.

Episode 716 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 682: Where we face-off with Eklund (podcast)

Do not attempt to adjust your picture- today's guest on The 404 Podcast prefers to remain anonymous, even using the pseudonym "Eklund" to protect his sources. Still, there's no way to hide to the giant grin on Jeff's face because Eklund grants us the favor of his first ever video interview, and it's an insider's look at sports blogging and how technology is shaping the future of media.

There's no doubt that he's the expert, either-- Eklund is the founder and CEO of Hockeybuzz.com, a hockey fan's best friend for news, season predictions, game day updates, and more!

But none of us seem to mind that Eklund hides his face on camera, because he brought over his GTR Pedal board that he brings to every game- it's basically a portable broadcast center that allows him to maintain his Twitter page and blog posts, and there's no other way to describe it than straight up NERD PORN (<---click that).

The beautiful spread includes four Apple iPod Touches, an HTC Evo 4G for tethering and Qwik live broadcasts, a Toshiba dual-screen Libretta, an iPad with an AIDA case that has a built-in BT keyboard, a Pico mini projector, a Palm Pre, a Clear Wi-Max modem and router, a Windows tablet PC, and a Snowball mic for podcasting on the run! Our number one recommendation for his next purchase? A full-time bodyguard.

Eklund is truly on the bleeding edge of hockey blogging, and as he tells us stories from the Olympics we begin to understand how the future of media is tenderly shaped by his near-bionic hand. Apparently security at the Olympics weren't thrilled with Eklund broadcasting footage (firsties!) using just his Evo 4G and Qik, the provider for the Evo's video chat application, but Eklund imagines a world where every fan will have the technological ability and the NHL's sanction to record live events from alternate angles, providing a unique perspective on the game play.

There's plenty more we talk about with Eklund, but you'll have to listen to the entire episode to hear the rest of his insights...or, if you're in the New York area, drop by our Fall Meetup tonight to meet Eklund in person--he'll be the guy wearing a full-body radiation suit. We'll all be hanging out at 7:30 p.m. at the Frying Pan bar at the Chelsea Piers. See our 404 Meetup.com page for more details, and don't forget to RSVP!

Episode 682 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

NHL gaming wrap-up

This season the hockey world is being presented with a trio of titles, including the first-ever EA-published hockey game on the Nintendo Wii. There's a lot of puck talk to come, so hop over the boards with us as we skate through each of the games in our hockey video gaming wrap-up for 2010.

NHL 11 (PS3, 360) For some time now, EA's NHL series has set the tone for realistic hockey simulation. The franchise's groundbreaking deke-stick control propelled the game into a level of authenticity that a hockey title hadn't been able to achieve prior. With NHL 11, mostly everything we've come to love and expect remains in tact, we're just not sure how long these subtle updates and improvements will continue to dazzle fans of the sport.

This year, EA has focused mostly on tweaking existing gameplay. That said, there a few notable additions we really enjoy like accidental stick breaks, new deke moves, a more natural and realistic body-checking system, and the ability to "cook" a pass for more power.

The overall speed of the game does feel a bit slower this time around, which we believe was done to increase realism. EA says the game utilizes a new physics system, and though it's definitely noticeable with body checking, we don't think it's that apparent with the puck. We may be nitpicking here, but at times we wish it would flutter more or bounce around on its end. When it stays horizontal too much, we think the game loses some of the unpredictability of the sport.… Read more