(Credit:
Jerry Jalava)
This is a story about Jerry Jalava, a Finnish software developer who lost part of his finger in a motorcycle accident last July. According to his friend, Henri Bergius, when the surgeon assigned to work on Jalava's prosthetic finger discovered his hacking history, he made a clever suggestion: incorporate a USB key into the new digit.
The prosthetic finger contains a 2GB USB key, and Jalava also loaded it with Billix distribution, CouchDBX, and Ajatus to run off the drive, throwing even more geek cred into the mix.
When Jalava needs the drive, he simply pulls it off his left hand, plugs it in, and comes back to pick it up after the transfers are finished. That dispels any parallels to that scene in "Robocop" when he uses the giant spike that comes out of his hand to transfer data from the OCP criminal database to the computer in his head.
Check out more pictures of Jalava's cybernetic finger in the slideshow below, and be sure to listen to Thursday's episode of The 404 Podcast to hear 30 jokes in a row about what would happen if this were to go on another part of the body.
It makes sense that this latest product comes from Japan, which we maintain is headed toward a human-free society because of its declining population growth. Just as it has found so many ways to automate services, the Japanese have found one less duty for police to handle: fender benders.
(Credit:
Nikkei)
As Plastic Bamboo notes, Fujitsu's automotive subsidiary has developed the equivalent of an airliner's black box to document "the scene and sounds of a traffic accident" with a system that includes a microphone, recorder and a camera with a 134-degree lens. The device automatically kicks in when it senses impact, sudden braking or other "gravitational change."
At an estimated $514, it's something that one can imagine becoming a regular option for automakers overseas. It's likely to be a very different story in the United States, however, where black boxes face uniquely constitutional issues of privacy.
(Credit:
Pink Tentacle)
RoboCop, here we come. Granted, we can't quite see Peter Weller looking very menacing while rolling around in this robotic security guard, but it may be only a matter of time.
The "Reborg-Q," from Sohgo Security Services, is the latest evidence that Japan is moving toward a human-free society. We've already observed recent developments in that country's service industry, notably in hotels and hospitals, but security is a significant leap toward full-fledged borgdom. (That's Sci-Fi 101.)
Thankfully, the Reborg-Q is fully operational only with human assistance. "When the robot encounters something suspicious, it alerts a computer in the security room and sends video. Human security guards view the video footage sent by the robot and determine how to respond," according to Pink Tentacle. We'll draw the line when they start to carry firearms.
(Credit:
Daniel Simon Studio)
This mechanical beast looks like a cross between extreme motocross and RoboCop. It goes by the appropriately incendiary name of the "Detonator" V4 6.0, with the numbers standing for a 6-liter, 4-cylinder engine contained in its block housing. Yet the most outrageous feature of this conceptual piece of hell on wheels is not the horsepower, but its steering mechanism: an electromagnetic sled controlled by two independent handlebars, according to Gizmowatch, which is complemented by a glass tube radar system to help navigation. Although it exists only in the minds and sketchboards of Daniel Simon Studio, we vote wholeheartedly to make it a reality.
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