HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--Got $1.2 million to blow on toys? Forget the conspicuous Veyron, which is sure to draw derision from everyone you pass. Instead, take your toys underwater: U.S. Submarines' Triton Model 1000, being made now, will take you and a friend 1,000 feet straight down, and keep you there for 6 hours while you gaze at the fish and reflect on your extravagance.
Randy Storch (left) gets a virtual tour of the ocean floor.
(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET)U.S. Subs is a major sponsor of the Fortune Brainstorm 2008 conference being held here, and had a simulator set up in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton to give attendees a faux spin in the device. Yes, there was a line.
If you're in the market, line up now. Delivery time is 12 months. You'll also need someone on your staff to get training for piloting the sub and maintenance. But you can get it in any bright color you want. If the Model 1000 is not exclusive enough for you, you can option-up the machine to seat more people or dive deeper.
See the rest of our conference coverage here.
John Dragonetti's self-professed enjoyment of both modern electronica and classic pop gets put to great use on the L.A. pair's second disc. "Honeysuckle Weeks" layers sun-dappled melodies into dreamy beatscapes, giddily mixing tambourines with drum machines.
(Credit:
Exomos)
Shockingly, we're finding that not everyone can afford to pay the $80 million or even the $12 million charged by U.S. Submarines to make custom luxury submersibles. But there's still hope for you cheapskates out there who still wish to play Captain Nemo.
Dubai-based Exomos will sell you your very own yellow submarine (or blue, green, orange, black or white) for only $40,000. The battery-powered "Goby" model carries three people and can cruise up to 40 meters below the surface for 8 kilometers per charge, according to Red Ferret, with on-board GPS and sonar scanning technologies. Best of all, its "flat acrylic and bubble windows" provide 360-degree views.
Nice, but we're still saving up for a bionic dolphin.
(Credit:
Luxurylaunches)
Sure, a multimillion-dollar yacht is OK, especially if it has multiple bars on board. But the true seagoing sybarite needs a luxury submarine.
That's why some very wealthy adventurers are apparently flocking to U.S. Submarines of Portland, Ore., a company that builds custom models "for the eccentric billionaires who want mysterious and secret subs," according to Luxurylaunches. It says there are 100 luxury subs now in the water with unidentified owners. (Does DHS know about this?)
The price of covert underwater travel is predictably high, ranging from $12 million to $80 million. But you can get a perfectly decent 10-passenger sub on the low end of the scale for just $15 million, though the gym may cost extra. We already sense a new Tom Clancy book in the making.
Once again, the top dog among robotic subs is a Gator.
The SubjuGator team from the University of Florida has finished first for the third straight year in the balmy San Diego waters of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition.
The SubjuGator surfaces in the center of the recovery zone on Saturday.
(Credit: Machine Intelligence Lab, University of Florida)There aren't many details to offer just yet on how Sunday's finals went. So far, it's just the Gators and the Proteus team from Cornell University that have posted brief notes on who won. Cornell reports that it finished fourth overall, behind Florida, the University of Rhode Island's (Ram-boat 8) and Montreal's Ecole de Technologie Superieure (Sonia).
Of the 28 teams that entered the competition, just 7 qualified for the finals, Cornell's team reported Monday morning. Qualifying rounds took place Friday and Saturday.
Cornell isn't wasting any time getting ready for 2008. "Before next year's competition, we hope to accumulate much more practice time with Proteus and a probable new vehicle. In fact, we began brainstorming for next year's vehicle after the competition," the team wrote on its blog late Sunday.
To see some of the undersea vessels entered in the 2007 competition, click here: "Photos: Robot subs vie for top honors."
So what do you do once you've created a robot sub? Some people go into business. By coincidence (apparently), The Boston Globe on Monday ran a story on autonomous underwater vehicles that hunt for ocean-going mines. A Massachusetts company called Hydroid, for instance, has sold about 130 of its Remus AUVs (which use an Intel 486 processor and MS-DOS) to the U.S. Navy, as well as the navies of the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, the Globe reports. Some of the Remus machines have been used in Iraq war operations, and they're also being put to use by marine biologists.
It's no coincidence that one of the entities behind the AUVSI competition is the Pentagon's Office of Naval Research, and that the submarine races took place at the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center.
Collegiate teams from around the country--and a few from abroad--are arriving in San Diego for a competition to see who has the best robotic sub.
Wednesday is the check-in and orientation day for teams entered in the 10th annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition, put on by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research. Then come several days of in-water practice and qualifying runs, with the finals scheduled for Sunday.
The entrant from the University of Florida, the SubjuGator.
(Credit: Machine Intelligence Lab, University of Florida)The gist of the challenge is this: the robot vessels have to navigate their way across a large pool following a set course. They must also perform various tasks, including passing through a gate, dropping a marker and releasing a buoy. In addition, the point system takes into account the craftsmanship applied to the vehicle and the technical merit and writing style of the research paper submitted beforehand.
The awards: cash prizes of up to $20,000 and "serious bragging rights," according to the AUVSI.
Last year's winner, the cleverly named SubjuGator team from the University of Florida, will be back to defend its title. The Floridians built an entirely new sub for this go-round, using Microsoft's Robotic Studio for control, simulation and communication with a network of sensors, and upgrading to a single-board Intel Core 2 Duo-based computer running Windows XP.
Other schools entered into the 2007 competition include Cornell, Duke, MIT, North Carolina State and the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as Amador Valley High School from the San Francisco Bay Area. Foreign schools include the University of Ottawa, the Delhi College of Engineering and Japan's Kyushu Institute of Technology.
The battery-powered vessels can't be big. They must fit within a box that's 6 feet long by 3 feet high and 3 feet wide, and must weigh less than 140 pounds. And they have to not dawdle. Teams have 20 minutes on the dock: 5 minutes for preparation, and 15 minutes for performance in the 16-foot depths of the pool's competition section.
Check back later for CNET News.com's photo gallery of the competitors.
(Credit:
BecauseWeCan)
If you've caught the nautical bug but aren't sure you want to live in a pineapple under the sea, consider this. Pirate-friendly game development company Three Rings Design has pimped out its office so that it resembles the interior of the high-seas-steampunk Nautilus submarine from Jules Verne's classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The interior is a mishmash of old maps, eye-catching colors, (fake) wheels and cogs, and Victorian-era styling that's sure to enamor just about anyone who ever thought that Star Trek-inspired interiors just weren't elegant enough. This masterpiece of a makeover was the work of design firm BecauseWeCan, and its pretty darn breathtaking.
(Credit:
BecauseWeCan)
And here's the best part. There's also a GIANT SQUID TENTACLE COUCH in the office's game room. I would fork over quite a bit of cash in order to have one of those in front of my TV.
(Credit:
BecauseWeCan)
More pics at GizmoWatch and BecauseWeCan.
(Credit:
Hammacher Schlemmer)
Just when we thought we'd found the best pool toy ever with the remote-controlled water cannon, another one comes along to run (or swim) circles around it. The "Remote-Controlled Omnidirectional Submarine" supposedly can "dive and surface like an actual naval submarine," including 360 progressive rolls.
The mini-sub can accomplish these mighty feats with three high-powered motors and can even see where it's going at night with its LED headlamps. Oh well, our cannon can still blow that puny yellow submarine out of the water. Tough luck, Caroline.
This episode is very dear to my heart--mostly because I get to talk about World of Warcraft, if only for a few quick moments. It's nice to see young kids using WoW to further their educations. Also, did you know that the guy from ZZ Top was the one who made that crazy VW ball that we talked about? Who knew? Here are the fabulous links of the day:
- LEGO Millennium Falcon: Revenge of the brick
- A remote just for the kids
- Radix malorum est World of Warcraft
- This summer take a sub, hit a pub
- Only in Japan: The cute snowplow
Subscribe
Download the Crave vodcast RSS feed, subscribe in iTunes, or paste this feed URL into the application you use to subscribe to vodcasts:
(Credit:
U-BoatWorx)
It may be hard to imagine if you're anywhere near Chicago right now, but summer will arrive before you know it. And what would the season be, pray tell, without one's own personal submarine?
The Dutch company U-BoatWorx is here to help with its "C-Quester," which MobileWhack says can dive up to 50 meters and cruise at 4 knots. You can even get a custom paint job. (How do you pimp a submarine?)
The underwater vehicles come in two sizes, at 9 and 11 feet, with the latter seating two--perfect for Valentine's Day, starting at a mere $127,000. For that much money, we'd just as soon get a bionic dolphin and maybe even save a few thousand bucks. Besides, we always wanted to grow fins.
