I'm sure you've heard about the infamous pole dancing robots at a strip club in Vegas by now. If not, well you're in luck. Obviously this is a gimmick to get people into the strip club. Guess what, it worked!
The Sapphire Club in Vegas employed two pole dancing robots to attract some new customers and get their name in the headlines. I think they are mildly interesting to say the least, but my guess is they are here to stay and version 2.0 will do a little more than shake their asses. One of the disturbing things about them though is their 80's style surveillance camera heads. It says to me, "You are watching us but we're watching you."
Check out the video below to see them in action for yourself.
There's a new flying machine in town, and they're calling it the speeder. The company Jetpack Aviation that brought you this jetpack, is now making what almost looks like a jet ski that fly's. It looks amazing unless you run out of gas or get sucked into the jet. Here is their info, and now they are taking pre-orders. Check out the video animation at the bottom.
The world’s first flying motorcycle.
JPA's Recreational SpeederTM represents the ultimate in personal transport. It is fully VTOL (vertical take off and landing) capable and can effectively take off from anywhere the size of a small car space. Originally intended only for Military, Government and Commercial clients JPA is also designing a version of the SpeederTM for the recreational market. It will be lighter than most 125cc motorcycles, fully stabilized and simple to fly.
Flying the Recreational SpeederTM will be just light riding a motorcycle but in the sky!
Being fully stabilized means that minimal pilot training will be required.
It will take off from practically anywhere and will fly at over 150 mph*
It will also fly at up to 15,000ft but we don’t expect many of our customers to need this!
We plan to build two versions of the Recreational SpeederTM: The Ultralight Version and the Experimental Category Version.
The Ultralight Version (UVS) will not require a pilot’s license to operate – all training will be provided by JPA or one of our authorized training centers. The Ultralight version will be limited to carrying 5 gallons of fuel and to 60 mph flying speed.
The Experimental Version (EVS) will require a private pilot’s licence to fly and will have no fuel or speed restrictions. As the owner/pilot of the EVS we will host you in our manufacturing facility and you will be part of the aircraft completion process. This will satisfy the FAA rules around Experimental aircraft production.
Full training will be provided at the JPA training facility in California where we remain the only FAA authorized jet-VTOL instructors in world.
Italian researchers have developed a soft robot that climbs and curls
like a plant tendril(Credit: IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia)
A Plantoid robot, yep you read that right, is a plant inspired robot designed by Italian researchers to mimic curling plant tendrils, think living vines like we saw in Jumanji. It seems like humans always mimic nature when it comes to machines, after all it is nature that has spent an eternity working out the problems of walking or slithering a certain way. Anyway, it's a little creepy but check out the video below you to see for yourself.
As you probably already know if you are reading this blog, it was originally intended to showcase my graphic novel which is a neo-noir futuristic thriller. It's dark and very Blade Runner like in a not so distant future. To keep things interesting while I work on the story and art (which can take years) I post some of the latest or future technologies that can and do appear in my graphic novel.
This year, CES has outperformed to supply us with future tech. These interesting images are of their futuristic self driving cars. You can bet I'm going to include one of these in my story.
The R.E.A.D. (Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving) system tracks passengers' state of mind by monitoring facial expressions, heartbeat and other bio-markers. Then it optimizes the cabin to influence you in the direction of a better mood, using lighting, audio, climate control, aromatherapy and even seat vibration.
Kia at CES 2019(Credit: C.C. Weiss/New Atlas)
All of this is great news if you are terrified of the sun and birds. Take a look at this bizarre video showcasing the cars mood altering capability.
So, here's a thing made by a company called Youbionic. Things are getting weird now. This is a quote from their site. " This is the first wearable robotic devices that will evolve the human race in a something new, to turn the Native Human to Augmented Human." I would say you are right on that statement.
I am sitting here racking my brain trying to think of what I would use this for... and, I mean the obvious would be if you needed to lift something heavy or pull something larger than yourself. Maybe, something with a pole or maybe push a car stuck in the mud. But, there is a fundamental problem here. No matter how much you push, pull or lift, you are still limited by the users own strength, because it's attached to a human arm. Right? I guess if you covered it in velvet it might be a fun sex toy.
You can check out the video below to see it in action for yourself.
Welcome to 2019 the year when science fiction becomes reality. Oh, wait, it kinda already is.
Who knew that the company that brought us the Hyundai Excel in 1986 for under $5000 new, would develop a concept car that has legs.
The Hyundai Elevate is a blend of car, robot, and Mars rover as a machine for first responders, off-roading and explorers.
A normal car or 4 x 4 truck would get stuck at the edge of an accident site of collapsed buildings, cars and debris. The Elevate can climb over and walk to the area in need of assistance.
Hyundai says that, with its CRADLE modular platform, the main body that sits on top of the walking wheels and drive train can be exchanged for different options, including an autonomous option directed by AI. They have a taxi concept that can climb stairs to an entrance of a building, allowing a disabled person to exit closer to their front door.
Check out the video below to see all of the possibilities.
Flying taxi's seem to be the motivation for us to take to the air and Uber might just do it with this new Bell NEXUS aircraft. There are so many vehicle concepts already for this type of service, and Bell has just dropped another one at CES in Las Vegas. The newly unveiled Nexus is a look at future transportation that we have been following for some time. This aircraft is an all electric, tilting six-rotor design to take off vertically and propel itself through the air carrying up to 4 passengers. Bell has it's sights on having this Air Taxi in flight over several major cities sometime in 2020. Check out the video below to see the model at CES.
