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March 3, 2007 6:55 AM PST

Smart scale tells how buffed you are

by Mike Yamamoto
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(Credit: Gizmag)

We generally try very hard not to think about exercise equipment when not at the gym (or even when we are at the gym, actually). But this is one fitness item that may be impossible for us to ignore.

If you've ever wondered what, exactly, your workout routine was doing for specific parts of your body, this intelligent scale from Tanita might interest you too. Far more than just indicate poundage, the new BC-545 model delivers "individual body composition readings for five body segments (each arm, each leg and the trunk area)," according to Gizmag. To get this kind of information, however, you need to do more than just step on the scale.

You must stand on four foot plates and pull two retractable cables that carry electrode signals through the body for a physiological reading. The resulting data is then crunched by the scale, which can track progress daily for three years.

If you get that far you're already way ahead of us, scale or no scale.

December 5, 2006 1:37 PM PST

NEC tablet takes Terminator approach

by Mike Yamamoto
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(Credit: Akihabara News)

Judging by some of the products on the market of late, the next major trend in technology may be extreme computing. And by that we don't mean supercomputer algorithms that can humble a grandmaster in chess; we're talking about throwing stuff out a window just to see what it does.

That apparently is the inspiration behind NEC's "ShieldPRO" 12-inch-screen tablet PC, which supposedly can withstand 3-foot drops and temperatures from 69 below to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Akihabara News notes that its specs aren't exactly steroidal: a 1.2GHz processor, 256MB of RAM and a 60GB hard drive. But it's not the innards that count when you're throwing it off the Golden Gate Bridge.

November 17, 2006 6:30 AM PST

Robot, heal thy self

by Mike Yamamoto
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We make sport of robots here at Crave on occasion, but it's all in good fun. We'd like to state that for the record, now that we're afraid they may some day rule the world.

Self-healing robot (Credit: Science)

The latest fodder for our paranoia comes not from watching too many episodes of Battlestar Galactica, but from a reputable periodical. Science magazine is reporting today that mechanical engineers at Cornell University are working on a robot that can recover from injuries--we're not talking Terminator just yet, but it's definitely limping in that direction.

Cornell's four-legged prototype can, for example, sense when it's been injured and take appropriate action. At present, that means adjusting its gait to compensate for a lost limb after "learning" that it's been maimed, though conceivably it could figure out how to replace damaged parts altogether. The article quotes this observation from Dario Floreano of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne: "If an engineer cannot be dispatched to fix the problem, [this new] robot will attempt to change its own control strategy in order to continue the mission." Does the name "Hal" ring a bell?

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The name says it all. Crave is our blog about gorgeous gadgets and other crushworthy stuff. If you would like to contact Crave with a tip or comment, please write to: crave@cnet.com

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