Far-flung Tech

Kill yellow teeth with USB microscope?

Japanese uber-gadget maker Thanko continues its drive to turn the entire universe into a USB gadget after giving us our last fix with its e-cigarettes.

The retailer, based in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics mecca, has launched a USB dental microscope that can turn your teeth into glorious 640?480 images or 1280?1024 video.

The 12-inch wand-shaped device has 6 LED lights and a 1/4 inch CMOS camera with 40x magnification. A shutter-release button is built into the underside. The device connects to a Windows XP or Vista PC with USB 1.1 or 2.0 and is available more

Turn your iPhone into a humanoid robot

When it's not enough to let your iPhone control your life, you can have it control a robot.

An enterprising tinkerer in Japan has turned an iPhone 3GS into a humanoid robot by wiring it to a mechanical body.

Meet "Robochan."

Check out the video. Robochan is perhaps disturbing, but undeniably cute. The anime face and leek-waving are nods to Hatsune Miku, a character created for Yamaha's Vocaloid singing synthesizer application. Hatsune is a virtual idol in Japan; one of her albums topped the Oricon music chart last month.

Robochan consists of a 3GS wired to a Kondo Kagaku KHR-2 HV kit robot more

Panasonic robot mascot off to Le Mans

Panasonic wants to prove that its AA alkaline Evolta batteries are the best in the world--even though it already has a certificate from Guinness World Records.

The electronics giant plans to send its 12-inch Evolta robot car in France, where it will race around part of the Le Mans endurance circuit for as long as possible.

Evolta batteries have a 10-year shelf life. Panasonic boasts they're the longest-lasting batteries of their kind in the world.

Built of carbon fiber over an aluminum frame, the Evolta robot car (more like a tricycle) travels at a blinding top speed of 0.more

Soothe that burn with a nanoparticle gel

Nanoparticles have ever-cooler applications. Here's another.

Researchers in India are developing a silver nanoparticle gel to treat burn wounds that could be more effective than conventional gels.

Burned skin is especially vulnerable to infection. Silver has been used as a purifying agent since ancient times, and burn creams have been around for some 30 years.

Silver sulfadiazine and silver nitrate gels are used in burn treatment as antimicrobial agents to accelerate healing, but some gels can cause skin discoloration and damage cells.

The researchers at the Agharkar Research Institute and Nano Cutting Edge Technology reported successful lab tests of more

Robots to brand the moon?

Speaking of the eclipse, an inventor named David Kent Jones wants to use robots to turn the Earth's only natural satellite into a giant ad.

Jones' scheme is to use lunar robots to plow moon dust into "logos, domains [sic] names, memorials or even portraits...You can even carve your initials in a heart to impress your sweetheart."

Imagine looking up and seeing a Nike swoosh among the stars.

A Salt Lake City company called Moon Publicity says its Shadow Shaping Technology would involve robots pushing the dust into furrows to create shadows that form images when viewed from more

Here comes the cybernetic bride

Welcome to Far-flung Tech, an exploration of far-out and faraway technology!

All eyes were on the stunning solar eclipse this week, but the Japanese were mesmerized by a new star on the catwalk.

Fashion designer Yumi Katsura showed her latest wedding dresses in Osaka including a gown sported by the government's newly developed "cybernetic human," the HRP-4C, which Crave first told you about in March.

4C slowly shimmied down the 10-meter catwalk to the beat of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." She turned to look at attendees and said, "I've put on a wedding dress for the first time. I'm very happy today to wear this dress by Yumi Katsura."

At a photo op later on, the blushing bride stood next to Katsura and blinked at photographers snapping her picture. Check it out in the video below.

Organizers were billing the event as the first of its kind in the world, and I can't recall another example of a humanoid robot showing off wedding apparel in a fashion show.

It also demonstrated how the Japanese continue to nurture a playful spirit in their approach to robotics. While other countries are building Terminator-style killing machines, Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) created 4C to work in the "entertainment industry." Perhaps a dubious use of funds by a deeply indebted state, the project was announced with the admission that "(1) robots walking on two feet only have little commercial value, (2) the unit price is very high, and (3) if it falls, it may be seriously damaged."