Gearfuse

If there is one talent I’ve always dreamed of having (aside from being able to roar like a Wookie), it’s the ability to be a good drawer. Just being able to draw something in which someway resembles what I was trying to draw would be cool. But no. God blessed me with the uncanny ability to find awesome shit online, but in the drawing department, I’m one of the worst artists you’ll ever meet. Seriously, I’m that bad.

The ScrabbleBot downloads instructional assistant sketches online and helps direct children and talentless wannabes like myself draw basic sketches such as ducks and other various water fowl.

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I’m not driving with you anymore. No way. I’ve had enough bruises to last me a lifetime, thank you very much. Nope, I’d like you to meet AIDA, short for Affective Intelligent Driving Assistant. Basically this little guy will take my place, and hopefully take my place as your punching bag. I’m tired of dressing as a robot anyway.

AIDA uses sensors both inside and outside of the car to create “a platform comprising of a personal robot and an intelligent navigation system that aims to bring an innovative driving experience.” So yeah… basically a robotic backseat driver. Focusing less on the waypoints and more on driver behavior, AIDA gets to know you and your car on a more personal level than some might be comfortable. Check out the demo vid after the jump.

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Foosball might be the greatest damn game on the planet, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get boring after years of constant play. The MaruBot Table Football set replaces the old knob-and-rod foosball table, replacing man-power with robotic intelligence.

With a set of 4 robots, 2 per team, your team is now much smaller, but that’s ok, because these little guys have much more mobility then your old plastic team. The bots are controlled by individual joysticks manned by 4 different players. So one man per one robot.

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Although the temptation is so hard to bear, the Bloodbot told me personally that if you’re a good boy, it’ll try not to stab you in your face with its needle.

Bloodbot was made to give nurses more time to read their gossip rag magazines and to swoon over the new hunky residents. Those five minutes of patient interaction was just a bit too hard on their feet. So, if you already have a fear of shots, get ready to add a fear of robots into the mix.

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None of this photo-trickery or CGI bullshit. This awesome Bumblebee costume is 100% the real deal.

Watch for yourself, about halfway through the video, the costumed dude squats down and morphs into a fricken Chevy Camaro lookalike. I’m so finding a way to get a hold of this ensemble by Halloween.

Developed and built by robotics man Drew, this “walking machine” resembles a four-legged spider and walks with an unusual hoppish gait. Designed to entertain, entertain it does.

Costing around $1000 to produce, one of the coolest things about this arachind bot is that it’s controlled with two sets of modified Wii Nunchucks. If you want to test the waters and attempt to make your own walking machine, you’ll need steel plate, copper, aluminum tubing, brass, a 7.4V 1100mAh lithium-polymer battery, a pair of XBee radio modules for communication, Pololu micro SSC board and eight HX12K servos. Check out Flickr for an awesome video of this little guy.

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This lucky couple was chosen out of 500 applicants to have a special Gundam-themed wedding event at the Odaiba life-sized Gundam statue.

The images from wedding are both amusing and breath-taking. The sheer size of that thing. I still can’t get over it.

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Japanese robotics company ZMP have created the Robocar Z in hopes that it can teach us more about the future of robot-controlled automobiles. The vehicle has a protruding which holds two cameras which connect to a state of the art image recognition system.

The Robocar is thought to be an ideal platform for testing robotized vehicle automation before heading to the big time. The Robocar Z has its very own API and runs off of Linux, so developers are apparently encouraged to work their magic. The basic model costs a staggering $7,ooo to produce.

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Ice sculptures are the type of thing you imagine old men doing in small Alaskan towns. But apparently there are some aspiring ice sculptors who like to add a taste of geekery to their art.

This Optimus Prime ice sculpture would be great for chilling a small swimming pool full of beer. Other than that, I don’t see much use other than looking pretty. How many disguises do these damn things have?

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No, that isn’t just the work of some handy alliteration. Although, this post does happen to be brought to you by the letter “R.”

The Fuamen Ramen restaurant  in Nagoya, Japan is manned by a team of robots who expertly prepare the customers’ bowls of noodles. The owner claims that the benefits of using robots are the consistency of taste and the accuracy in their timing. Just wait until they start adding nuts and bolts to the recipe. Check out a vid and the finished product after the jump.

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