I've still been sneezing like crazy and the pollen robots are nowhere to be found in the States. However, if you have other physical conditions, such as difficulty carrying yourself, hope may have arrived.
Honda announced Tuesday that it will demonstrate its prototype walking assist devices for the first time in the U.S. The demonstrations will take place at the 2009 Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit from April 20 to 23. Prior to the Detroit event, Honda will demonstrate the devices for select media in New York.
These walking-assist devices are designed to support walking for the elderly and people with weakened leg muscles. The demonstrations are part of Honda's real-world tests to evaluate the products' effectiveness.
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Honda's new support system can do stairs.
(Credit: Honda)See all the cool things we'll have to look forward to when we're older?
Honda unveiled another experimental walking-assistant device on Friday that lets people's legs still do the walking while taking take some of the weight off leg muscles and joints. The device looks like a follow-up to another walking aid from Honda shown off earlier this year.
With the latest one, a person steps into the device shoes and leans back into the high seat. Honda does the rest by supporting a large portion of the person's body weight during walking, stair-climbing, or even squatting.
The seat level can be adjusted for different heights. People wear their own shoes and place them into the device shoes. The device is controlled through an individual's body movement with the assisting force from two motors being automatically directed toward the person's center of gravity to maintain balance, according to Honda.
The technology applied to the device grew out of studies Honda research groups did to develop walking techniques for Asimo, its humanoid robot.
Honda announced it will begin testing the device this month at its assembly plant in Sayama, Saitama, Japan.
If you've walked down the street in an urban area, you've likely witnessed at least one near-accident between a car and a cyclist or pedestrian wearing earbuds.
How welcome, then, are these groovy concept headphones by Seohyun Baek? The semicircle shape is designed to fit in your ear without blocking out background noise, so you can have your tunes but still be in tune with what's going on around you. The designer also claims the small shape will produce less fatigue during long stretches of music-listening.
The headphones themselves are connected via wire to a Bluetooth receiver, which communicates with a small transmitter plugged into the headphone jack on your music player. The wireless connection lets you stash your MP3 player in a bag, carry it in a secure pocket, or even mount it on your bike without limiting movement.
As with all design concepts, there's no telling whether this will ever see the light of day as an actual product. But we hope accessory manufacturers are paying attention, because neither cyclists nor pedestrians should be forced to forgo their music fix during the daily commute.
(Credit:
Fareastgizmos)
It's nice to see Japanese scientists developing technology that can actually help the elderly help themselves for a change, rather than creating more robots that ostensibly are designed to minister to their needs but may well have ulterior motives. To wit: Honda is developing a lightweight walking assistance device that can be worn around the hip and thighs to help ease a person's gait.
The mechanism works with brushless motors that get their cues from hip angle sensors and commands from the control CPU, according to press release. Being that this is Japan, however--the land that's headed for a human-free society--a robot's influence was still key to this invention. Fareastgizmos says that the R&D that went into Asimo, Honda's celebrity "advanced humoid robot," was used in developing this automated walker.
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Walking-Chair)
Who says creativity is dead? Sanity, maybe, but not creativity. Just hours after learning of a concept that lets you use your laptop while walking, we came across another invention that does it one better: a chair that does the walking for you.
The ingeniously named "Walking-Chair" is the brainchild of a couple of mad-scientist designers in Austria, for what purpose we have no idea. The eight-legged beast is made of steel tubes, plastic, and an "electronic heart," according to Gizmowatch.
The price might be a bit on the high side for the office budget, however: 15,000 euros, which comes to about $22,000. Another argument for telecommuting.
House MD is one of the many shows that rely on screenwriters.
While some 12,000 TV and film screenwriters go on strike this week, people are filling the void by turning to other forms of media, such as DVDs and the Internet. Ironically, these outlets are exactly what the members of the Writers Guild want more of the profit of (and don't want people to support). They're hoping to come to an agreement soon, although the last walk out like this (in 1988) lasted for five months. Ouch.
We'll miss The Office, Desperate Housewives and Conan O'brien, but it's not the end of the world, right? Rather, it's the perfect time to listen to new music on Download.com! Check out this made-for-TV screenwriters strike playlist now (while you work), then go to the artist pages to download or stream the songs. The playlist includes Johnny Cash, E40, Simply Red, the House MD soundtrack and more. Read our related newsletter here.
(Credit:
Coolest-Gadgets)
There's apparently a booming business in marketing headgear that makes people look like idiots. How else can one explain the popularity of such products as the solar fan hat and the "Head Spa Massager"?
Witness the latest entry into the lucrative field of nerd apparel--the "iWalk" headphones, as seen on Coolest-Gadgets. This ingenius invention is kind of the MP3 equivalent of the beer hat, with a slot on one side that holds an iPod instead of a 12-ounce Bud Light. It gets better: The same player can be shared by two sets of headphones for Siamese dorkdom. But we think "I Walk Alone" would still be the most appropriate theme song.
There's at least one saving grace. The iWalk has the ability to fold away, for when its owner sobers up.
Welcome to the social? Not exactly.
I spent a week trekking around San Francisco, Zune in tow, hoping to find more of the players to share music with. I nearly gave up in failure but finally found one other Zune on my downtown expedition.
It's early on, of course--the Zune has only been available for around a month. Still, one of the main reasons Microsoft is hoping that consumers will opt for the Zune over the iPod is the MP3 player's wireless sharing feature. And, as I found out, it's not much use if there is no one to share with.
Microsoft says that part of the problem is that many of the Zunes that have been sold are sitting under Christmas trees, so maybe I'll have to retrace my steps in January.
(Credit:
Uber-Reviews)
(Credit:
Fred Flare)
Why would anyone want a camera that morphs photos together? If we asked questions like that before writing, we'd never post anything.
So today we offer you the "Split Cam," which Uber-Review summed up thusly: "We got uber effects on a this camera that puts a man with a woman's skirt and a guy with his legs on reverse mode. Taking in consideration that it uses an old-school 35mm film and doesn't have flash, the Split Cam might have a quality below the average but those effects are priceless."
We all know, of course, that such effects can be accomplished easily with Photoshop. But the simple plastic Split Cam will set you back only $14 and will prove invaluable for those times when you want to make a fool of someone spontaneously--including yourself.
This item begs for a biblical reference, which is exactly why we won't go there. (Never discuss religion, etc.)
Deities aside, this water-walking invention is definitely worth passing along. Gizmag reports that a patent has been granted to a Massachusetts inventor for an "Upright Human Floatation Apparatus And Propulsion Mechanism," which basically looks like a pair of pontoon-shaped shoes. A grainy video demonstration seems appropriately eerie for this weird creation. And if you look closely, the image may even bear a resemblance to a certain well-known Scottish seagoing creature.
(Photos: Gizmag, Wikipedia)
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