Education  

Root is the latest educational robot to hit the scene. Invented by an experienced team from Harvard robotics area, Root can climb up whiteboards and draw on paper.  For kids, Root makes learning to code interactive, and lots of fun.

"It turns paper or whiteboards into an intuitive and interactive coding experience."

Invented by the bright minds at Scansorial (a startup emerging from Harvard University's Wyss Institute), Root is a fun, easy-to-use robot which teaches coding to anyone ages four to 99. The project recently launched on Kickstarter with the aim to secure enough funding for wider distribution to homes and schools.

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With over 50 sensors and actuators with which it can draw, erase, play music, explore its world, and even defy gravity by using magnetism to drive on wall mounted whiteboards, Root makes learning to code interactive, applicable to many different subjects, and tons of fun.

As coding skills improve, Root’s multi-level app translates programs written in one level to the next, helping growing programmers take each step.

"Root is more than just a robot that drives on walls. It turns paper or whiteboards into an intuitive and interactive coding experience," says Zee Dubrovsky, CEO of Scansorial.

The Scansorial team team has over 50 years of collective experience in launching and building consumer products (iRobot, Sonos, Apple) and software/education services (Microsoft, Disney, PLTW, Harvard, MIT). This includes launching four coding robots (Create, Kilobot, AERobot, Multiplo), launching two graphical coding environments (MIT App Inventor, Minibloq), and launching three consumer robots (Roomba, Scooba, Looj).

From now until November 30, Root will be available for pre-order exclusively through Kickstarter. It's only three days into the campaign and Root has already been picked as a "Project We Love" by Kickstarter staff and today it was honored with the title "Project of the Day".

Coding with Root is a dynamic and creative experience according to the developers. Root reacts to things in the environment, kids react to Root and the interplay is orchestrated with code. 

Kids can program Root to move, turn, draw, erase, scan colors, play music, light up, sense touches, feel bumps, detect magnetic surfaces, perceive light, and respond to sensors in your phone or tablet.

Research has shown that early, positive experiences with computing raise students’ interest in technical subjects later on. "Root will reach students as early as kindergarten, and grow with them as a familiar and consistent platform as they advance, opening doors that otherwise would have been invisible," claim the developers. 

By  33rd Square

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Robotics  

The creators behind a new Kickstarter initiative want kids to get started with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) early on, and plan to do so through their robotics kit called ZeGoBeast.

Learning about programming, electronics, and mechanics can be hard - the problems are abstract, the textbooks are dense, and the resources are scattered. The creators behind a new Kickstarter initiative want kids to get started with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) early on, and plan to do so through their robotics kit called ZeGoBeast.

"We created the ZeGoBeast Electric because robots are fun, engaging, and the best way to make STEM make sense," says Pittsburgh-based founders Daniel Goncharov and Alex Thompson. "ZeGoBeasts are designed to get people interested in robotics in a way that a simple robot with two spinning wheels just doesn’t quite get at, and for that, we think it’s awesome."

"We want every kid to have a chance to choose a promising career and have a place in this future."

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The new project represents a robotics version of the original ZeGoBeast kit inspired by Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests, kinetic sculptures powered by the wind.

ZeGoBeasts come in a flat-pack bundle of wood, hardware, and electronics that people can build and program themselves. "When you work with your ZeGoBeast, you’re not programming a box with a screen, you’re building and controlling the actions and behavior of a physical thing that resembles a living organism," say the developers.

The ZeGoBeast team will guide builders from the very basics all the way to having a fully-fledged robotic pet companion. "We provide lesson plans, videos, and even physical copies if you’d like that will teach you or your kid how to do all these awesome things," they claim.

A number of Arduino-based models are in the works, from a very simple version to the fully-loaded version powered by an Android 'brain.' The projected price ranges on the kits are set at between $249 and $499 USD.

"We want every kid to have a chance to choose a promising career and have a place in this future. We believe that robots are the future," say Goncharov and Thompson.  

SOURCE  Kickstarter

By 33rd Square

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Gadgets  

Designed by young Chase Freedman, the Brick Sound Kit is fun right out of the box and it works as a standalone toy, as well as a Lego® compatible toy that snaps easily to your bricks, letting you add recorded sounds through an iOS or Android app.

When eight-year old Chase Freedman was playing with his Lego® bricks one day about a year ago, he was having fun making sounds for his creations, and an idea struck him — "What if there was a way to record our sounds and play them back whenever we flew our spaceship." The question sparked a project, which has developed into a viable new startup enterprise.

"What if there was a way to record our sounds and play them back whenever we flew our spaceship."

After over a year in development, professional design and thorough planning, Chase, his dad and a team of developers are ready to go into production. The Brick Sound Kit (BSK) is a new attachable device that allows kids to record or download sounds to their toys, enhancing their playing experience.

Since it was designed extensively with Chase's input, the design is simple and intuitive to use. The BSK offers endless possibilities of creating motion-activated interaction for makers and developers and it opens up a world of sound, programming, and imagination.

The BSK is built around a custom Arduino board equipped with a gyroscope that connects with Bluetooth. It includes light-up buttons and LEDs, all protected with a highly durable and fun enclosure that works alone or can easily snap to anything you build with Lego®, MegaBloks®, Kre-o™ and other compatible brick building sets.

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The BSK is fun right out of the box and it works as a standalone toy, as well. It is a Lego® compatible toy that snaps easily to your bricks, and the iOS and Android app lets you record and playback sounds. It’s also a fully open platform where kids, collectors, makers, inventors, parents, and teachers can easily program and share new apps and games, taking active play to new heights.

For those who want to explore endless possibilities, the BSK can include a FTDI USB Adapter and Cable to reprogram the device functionality using free Arduino tools. Open source SDKs allow anyone to build their own apps and games controlled by the BSK. All programming will be easy to learn for any age and supported by the team through an inventor portal.

The project is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to help push it through to launch. Here's hoping this young inventor has a successful campaign, and continues to learn and explore!

SOURCE  Brick Sound Kit

By 33rd Square

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 3D Printing  

Tiko may be the 3D printer you have been waiting for. Priced at $179, this machine just might be the one to push 3D printing into into widespread use.

Priced at an incredibly low $179 USD, the Tiko 3D printer has already received over a million dollars in backing on Kickstarter.  The device uses some innovative new design features to keep the price low, while maintaining quality prints.

According to Tiko 3D's inventors,

Go into a store with $179 and see what you can get. A microwave, a mini-fridge, a vacuum, etc. All of these products are pretty complicated, and no one expects them to require fixing every week. We believe a 3D printer shouldn't be any different.

The Tiko 3D uses a Delta-style 3D printer with three sets of arms moving in unison to control the movement of the print head. The printer also is constructed in a unibody, which the inventors say makes it incredibly precise.

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Another feature of the Tiko 3D is that the connections are wireless.  Tiko is cloud-based, accessible by any browser, and users can prepare and monitor their prints from desktops, laptops and mobile devices.

The printer is outfitted to use non-proprietary filament, and its filament tray holds a standard roll (1kg) of filament. The print bed is unattached to the machine, and, according to the company, is made of a great material that does not need to be prepped or taped as with most other 3D printers.

The machine's extruder nozzle is not accompanied by a cooling fan, so it’s quieter than most 3D printers.

When your 3D print is done, you can actually just bend the print bed until the object pops off, which is a new feature to the whole industry or, at least.

According to the inventors, "Tiko’s cutting-edge technologies and bespoke parts give it a completely different cost structure than any other 3D printer." This is one of the least expensive machines ever at $179.  The company hopes to start shipping the 3D printers as early as fall of 2015.

At this price, 3D printing service bureaus like Shapeways and Redeye may be in serious trouble.




SOURCE  Kickstarter

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 Gadgets  

Start-up company Elemental Path is crowd funding their new CogniToys dinosaur.  The toy taps into the IBM Watson cognitive computing cloud to power speech recognition and provide an educational conversation for children.

Watson vanquished his opponents on Jeopardy! four years ago.  Since then, the technology behind the IBM artificial intelligence platform has evolved and been tweaked to work for medicine, investing and other commercial projects.

"Thanks to the power of IBM's Cognitive Computing Engine, Watson, Elemental Path is creating the next generation of toys and changing the way kids learn and play."

Now, a start-up company called has Elemental Path has launched a Kickstarter funding drive to build a toy dinosaur toy powered by Watson.

The toy project is named CogniToys, has already doubled its initial goal of raising $50,000. For the Kickstarter release, this means the dinosaur will also be available in a variety of colors.

The plastic dinosaur uses speech recognition techniques to carry on conversations with kids, and according to project founders, Don Coolidge and JP Benini, it will develop a kind of smart personality based on likes and dislikes listed by each child. "What if a toy could grow with a child?" the developers asked.

It is similar to the Amazon Echo in function, but packaged as a child-friendly character, that talks with a dinosaur-like growly voice.

According the Elemental Path website, the company intends to produce toys that not only provide entertainment but deliver personalized engaging experiences. "Thanks to the power of IBM's Cognitive Computing Engine, Watson, Elemental Path is creating the next generation of toys and changing the way kids learn and play."

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The toy plays games with the child around educational topics like spelling, vocabulary, math and geography. It then takes what it learns from these conversations, and from what parents tell it about their children during an initial setup, and incorporates it into those games.

The CogniToys dinosaur connects to a Watson cloud computing service via the internet. “If we had relied on doing all this with the hardware,” says Coolidge, “it would have become a really expensive toy. It would be unaffordable.”

Parents connect the toy to a home Wi-Fi network, and then they input some details about their child, including such things as age, grade level, favorite color, sport, or food. This helps the toy interact with the child, but using Watson, it can also evaluate a child’s ability and skill level on its own.

“If your kid is, say, using new vocabulary words, we can bump up the skill level on the assessments to push the child further,” Coolidge says. A child in the first grade, he says, would use the toy differently from someone in the second grade.

Coolidge, began developing the toy as part of Watson-centic contest sponsored by IBM, the added benefit with this internet-powered toy is that his company can continue to improve the toy after it’s in the hands of kids. “Just like app developers,” he says, “we’ll be able to respond to user feedback and make the product better.”

Elemental Path hopes to one day license out its technology to the traditional toy makers.“We could have a Dora the Explorer that uses the same tech, and speaks in Dora’s voice,” Benini told re/code.



SOURCE  Wired

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 Artificial Intelligence  

Canadian-based Ainova Robot is soon releasing a virtual assistant app that intends to bring real conversation to users.  J.A.E.S.A.'s creators are aiming to make their AI "as close to a living being as possible."

Ainova Robotics, a Canadian-based start-up is trying to make a virtual personal assistant like J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man a reality.

The company has designed an artificially intelligent virtual personal assistant called J.A.E.S.A. (Just Another Essentially Smart Application), and is soon to release the first version of the software on Android, after a successful Kickstarter campaign this past summer.

According to Ainova Robotics:

Forget your past expectations about artificial intelligence - J.A.E.S.A. will easily surpass them. She's more human than anything before her - she has feelings, memory, character and ability to think independently. Our goal is to make Jaesa as close to a living being as possible!

J.A.E.S.A. is programmed with machine learning to search for information for you and to read it out to you, much like Siri, however, J.A.E.S.A. goes a few steps further. Ainova Robotics' chief executive Arseniy Nikulchenko compares J.A.E.S.A. to Siri in this video:

"We really liked the concept of J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man and we looked into the existing market but there are only search programs like Siri. We're targeting true artificial intelligence, something that would let you converse with a virtual assistant."

You can command the J.A.E.S.A. personal assistant to talk to a user on any topic, including sophisticated ones, just like a human would. She also has all the generic assistant features, such as web search, GPS, weather forecast, she can launch and stop apps, answer calls, reply to text messages and more. The developers claim she also has extensive security capabilities and integration with Smart House controls, allowing you to control everything at home by voice.

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"We really liked the concept of J.A.R.V.I.S. in Iron Man and we looked into the existing market but there are only search programs like Siri. We're targeting true artificial intelligence, something that would let you converse with a virtual assistant," Arseniy Nikulchenko told IBTimes UK.

At 150MB in size, will be able to run on iOS and Android devices, as well as Windows OS, Windows Phone and Mac OS X.

According to Nikulchenko, who has been working on the project for over two years, J.A.E.S.A.'s personality will evolve from the default set up as you talk to her thanks to machine learning technology.

"J.A.E.S.A. uses CRF++ programming library for machine learning, as well as neuro-linguistic programming patterns – a complex approach using psychology and technology that tries to imitate how real people respond to things, finds context in words and adds them to [her] library," he explains.

Due to interest from backers on Kickstarter, Nikulchenko says that his company will offer users the option to have J.A.E.S.A.'s interface look like Tony Stark's from the Marvel films, or it will be shown with virtual body and face.

Ainova Robotics is also now in talks with CrossWing, a firm that has created an interactive personal robotics ecosystem called virtualMe, to possibly provide the personal assistant technology for medical purposes.

There is no firm date yet on the release of J.A.E.S.A., but it should be soon according to the company's Facebook page.

By 33rd Square

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 Robotics  

Robotics Unlimited hopes to make the world's first legged running robot, the OutRunner commercially available to the public with a Kickstarter campaign.   The robot which moves with a cartwheel-like motion may rush ship by December, depending on the company's funding.

With OutRunner, a Kickstarter project, Robotics Unlimited hopes to make the world's first legged running robot commercially available to the public.   The robot which moves with a cartwheel-like motion may rush ship by December, depending on the company's funding.

The 20 mph capable OutRunner has other amazing capabilities, including self-balancing, running on various terrain and a simple to operate remote.  The battery life on the robot is up to two hours.  Robotics Unlimited has also made the system for simple upgrading in the future.

"There is simply no other robot with such capabilities and so easy and fun to play with."

"There is simply no other robot with such capabilities and so easy and fun to play with," the company claims. "All you need to do is just press the accelerator and steer it wherever you want it to go; it's that easy."

Robotics Unlimited is a spinoff of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) where a team of scientists and engineers have been working for years toward the development of walking and running robots.

Sebastien Cotton, Ph.D., founder and CEO is an internationally recognized scientist whose research work has been published in international robotics conferences and journals. His expertise is in software development, control algorithms and physics-based simulation. He has worked on some of the most prestigious robots such as Robonaut and M2V2, and led, over the past four years, a team of scientists and engineers to develop the FastRunner robot.

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OutRunner robots are biologically-inspired; they emulate the behavior of legged animals by reproducing their step pattern and having a similar mass / length distribution. By having a center of mass lower than the leg axis of rotation, OutRunner robots exploit a buoyancy effect, making them inherently stable and eliminating the need for expensive sensors and complex control algorithms.

Energy efficiency is achieved by exploiting the same feature observed in legged animals; using legs as an energy storage system allows for fluctuation and conservation (and not losses) of potential and kinetic energy during running. Steering is achieved by shifting the center of mass of the robot, forcing it to lean to one side, which in result induces a turn (similarly to what happens on a bicycle).

The core version is able to run up to 10 mph and has an battery life of 1 hour. It is controlled via a standard remote control. The robot has 6 legs and is equipped with a Universal Camera Mount (camera not included, 1/4" thread). If you want to have more sensors but don't have the budget yet for the Performance version, no worries, we will offer sensor upgrades that will allow you to get more out of your OutRunner Core. This version is about 1.5 foot tall and weighs a little bit less than 3 pounds.




SOURCE  Outrunner on Kickstarter

By 33rd Square

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 Robotics  

Five Elements Robotics™ has developed Budgee, a simple assistant robot that follows you around to carry your stuff. This bridge product looks to be among the first true consumer robotics that promise to be commonplace in our future.

Have you ever been carrying too much stuff with you - of course you have. Maybe you have health problems, or maybe you're a student with loads of heavy textbooks, or a traveler with heavy carry-on luggage. The team at Five Elements Robotics wants to help you with Budgee, a cute robot assistant that will carry up to 50 lbs around for you.

The concept of Budgee is that the robot works with a small transmitter that you keep with you. In principle it works much like the robot in the Boston Dynamics follow-the-leader demonstration: You put your stuff in Budgee’s basket and the robot follows you wherever you go.

For older people and those with disabilities, the robot assistant could be a big help in letting people be more independent.

If the speedy Budgee bumps into something sensors on the bumpers alert the robot to stop. The robot is also easily storable: when you’re done with Budgee, just remove his basket and fold it up.

At a weight under 20lbs it is easy to pick up and put in your car, or away when not being used.

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Budgee can last for up to 6-8 hours of continued use and comes with a rechargeable battery.

Budgee can also be driven in manual mode via your smartphone or tablet.

The robot has a security feature that sends you an alert via a mobile app when he’s out of your range, to help control theft.  Budgee’s basket will also go into lockdown mode so that no one can take your stuff. The mobile app allows you to change Budgee’s eye color, as well as let you manually drive him and set how closely you want him to follow you.

Budgee will let you know if he is powered off or is out of range.  He will talk to your through your device and indicate his change in status.

Five Elements Robotics is currently running a Kickstarter Campaign to get their first shipments of Budgee out the door.





SOURCE  Kickstarter

By 33rd Square

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 3D Scanning  

The Structure Sensor is now available for pre-order from Occipital, the creator of the gadget.  The Structure clips onto your iPad and will be bundled with augmented reality and 3D scanning apps.

Startup Occipital has already raised over $1 million on Kickstarter, and now is in the pre-order phase for its Structure 3D sensor.

The Structure is small 3D sensor that clips onto the back of your iPad, and hooks into the Lighting Connector.  With the sensor users can scan objects for other applications or 3D printing, and for augmented reality applications.  With an independent battery, the device won't eat up your devices battery life either.

The company is now opening up its platform to developers, so no one really knows what future applications may make use of the scanner.

Richard Darell at Bit Rebels says, "It’s not always that you stumble over technology that you know is going to fundamentally change the way we do things. The Structure Sensor is not only a device that will capture real life objects and create them into virtualized 3D representation of them, it is way more than that."

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The Structure Sensor has been designed from the ground up to be mobile. Occipital put a lot of thought into making the Structure Sensor work perfectly with the iPad and other mobile devices. The goal was to make a device that enabled incredible 3D scanning applications, was easy to use, had great battery life, was compact, and looked like beautiful, precision hardware.

The Structure Sensor chassis is machined out of a single piece of aluminum that serves as both an aesthetic exterior and as a thermal core that keeps the precision optics inside at an optimal temperature.  It’s also anodized for an appealing finish.  At its top, the Structure Sensor has a chemically hardened glass surface that optimizes the depth image quality, while also protecting the infrared emitter and camera inside.

Out of the box the Structure will come with the following functions:

1. Room Capture: Easily capture a 3D model of a room by simply spinning around with your Structure Sensor and iPad. Then, tap any two points to retrieve distances. 

2. Fetch: A virtual pet to play fetch with in the physical world around you. 

3. Ball Physics: An augmented reality demo where virtual balls interact with the dense geometry of the world. 

4. Object Scanner:  Capture models of objects and export them to CAD software or for 3D printing.  You can also upload models directly to Shapeways.com for 3D printing.

Length x Width x Height	119.2mm x 27.9mm x 29mm
Weight	99.2 grams
Minimum Distance	40 centimeters
Maximum Distance	3.5+ meters
Precision	1% of measured distance (typical)
Resolution	VGA (640 x 480) / QVGA (320x240)
Framerate	30 / 60 frames per second
Battery Life	3-4 hours of active sensing, 1000+ hours of standby
Illumination	Infrared structured light projector, Uniform infrared LEDs
Field of View	Horizontal: 58 degrees, Vertical: 45 degrees

The Structure Sensor is now available for pre-order here. The price is only $349 - much less than other 3D scanners.

By 33rd Square

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 Gadgets  

Bublcam from Toronto's Bubl technologies looks to convert massive Kickstarter funding into a baseball-sized portable 360 degree video camera and the software to operate it.

With Kickstarter funding already doubling their goals, Toronto's Bubl Technology is set to unleash 360 degree video to the masses.

The Bublcam is an innovative 360 degree camera, inside and out. The camera has been developed to be light and extremely portable, being slightly larger than a baseball. It was also created to provide users with the ability to capture 14 mega pixel spherical photos and videos at 1080p at 15 fps and 720p at 30fps.

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The software suite developed by Bubl lets users experience content by looking up, down and all around in any direction. These moments can also be shared across social networks. It utilizes Wi-fi to allow users to live stream content directly to a computer, mobile devices and via the web.

Content can alos be saved to a MicroSD card. Soon it also be available for storage directly to cloud storage providers like Drop Box, Google Drive and Younity.

The bublcam utilizes 4, 190º, 1.6 mega pixels lenses. The OmniVision sensor captures 5 mega pixels and has high quality low-light vision. The sensor will also allow you to set gamma, contrast, gain, brightness and saturation.

Up next for Bubl,

We have met with a number of large international manufacturers who are all very interested in helping bubl bring bublcams to everyone. Our goal is to make our choice for manufacturer before the end of our Kickstarter campaign so we can share the news with everyone who has supported us and those who are truly interested in the advancement of bubl technology.

SOURCE  Bublecam on Kickstarter

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 Space Elevators  

LiftPort, a company headed by a former NASA researcher claims it now has the fundamental technology to build a space elevator from the Moon to an orbiting station.  The venture could pave the way for economical mining of the Lunar body.

The LiftPort Group, a US-based privately-owned company, headed by former NASA researcher Michael Laine, is planning to build a space elevator to the Moon. A space elevator allows for a potential a rocket-free way to transport people and cargoes into orbit with the use of a special cable.

The idea of ​​a space elevator is not new. For the first time, it was put forward by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895.

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The California-based company founded by former NASA engineer has developed a cheap and easy way to get to the lunar surface. The project is based on a special ribbon cable, on which transport modules and autonomous robots will travel. At first, the researchers plan to test the system on the planet: the test elevator will be two kilometers high.

The test project, has already been funded by a Kickstarter campaign. Initially, the company will use a space elevator to connect the Moon with a specially designed space station.

According to the campaign:

Before we can build Earth’s Elevator, we’ll need to build one on the Moon. It is significantly easier, and much much cheaper. Importantly - we can build it with current technology – in about eight years.

The station will then be connected to a platform on Earth. While the project was essentially mothballed during the recent economic recession, he claims there has been a fundamental technological breakthrough that has made the feasibility more likely than ever.

The construction will require only a single launch of a spacecraft that would technically resemble the famous Soviet Sputnik-1. It is assumed that such an elevator can already become a part of modern-day reality taking into consideration the current level of the technological development.

The space elevator, scientists say, will help people build manned bases on the Earth's natural satellite and organize the extraction of helium-3 there - a raw material that will potentially solve global problems of the shortage of energy resources.  According to most pessimistic estimates, the reserves of helium-3 on the Moon will be enough for Earth's population for at least 1,000 years.




SOURCE  My Science Academy

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 Gadgets  

What if your pen told you you were making a spelling mistake like your word processor does now? A new Kickstarter crowd funding project called 'Lernstift' wants to develop a pen that does just that.

When you were learning to write, what if your pen told you you were making a spelling mistake like your word processor does now? A new Kickstarter crowd funding project called 'Lernstift' wants to develop a pen that does it.

Where current digital pens use optical sensors to pick up the writing movements and digitize the words or sketches for computer use. Some of them require external devices. Others only work with specialty paper.

Lernstift is different. It requires none of those. According to the developers, it's the first truly intelligent pen because all the tech and software is built-in. It can be used with apps but it doesn't depend on them.

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The computer inside Lernstift is an embedded Linux system. The board contains motion sensor, processor, memory, Wi-Fi and vibration module. It will be oval-shaped to fit neatly inside the pen.

There are three different methods to process the sensor data for the handwriting recognition engine. Lernstift's solution is a math calculation that generates a 2D path (the usual shape of handwritten letters). Getting that clear and precise 2D path is tricky because of sensor noise and a few mathematical "problems".

The start up isn't developing the handwriting recognition itself, but is working with partners to develop the software for the pen. The engine is tried and tested on millions of tablets and smartphones around the world, but the application in the pen has its own requirements.

The team looks to have the pen released for mass production by Q1 of 2014.
 

SOURCE  Kickstarter

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