Thanks to an innovative design and well-thought form-factor, the Transformer concept phone by Shkinder Maxim can do much more than your average mobile device. The Transformer has the capability to act as a mobile phone, photo/video camera, multimedia player, projector, and is even working on support for holographic imaging and 3D scanning.

Featuring 2 independent swiveling and flipping displays, the Transformer can accomplish multiple functions without much change to navigation or form. The concept also talks of a possible 3D scanning system which would store a 3D image of an object in the memory banks and project an exact image of the 3D model using holographic imaging, much like R2D2 does for Princess Leia in Star Wars. (more…)

Researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan have developed a modular robot, called M-Tran, which changes its shape depending on the situation it is in. The robot is compiled of a number of different modules which each contain different sensors and uses depending on the situation.

M-Tran can be formed as a snake-like structure if it needs to fit into a small hole or a large cube shaped entity, hell bent on scaring the shit out of enemies, much stronger than the girly-man Optimus Styro. This allows the M-Tran to be usable in a very wide range of activities. Will it take out my trash? That ranks right up there with world peace for me at the moment. — Andrew Dobrow 

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A few Chinese dudes spent around $8,000 turning an old Citroen into a large Transformer model. This fatty weighs in at nearly 1,350 lbs and looks to be about 20 feet in height.

If this isn’t a mark of Chinese ingenuity, then I don’t know what is! — Andrew Dobrow

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