ThinkHero.com is one of my favorite websites for insightful, thorough reviews of genre movies and genre TV. Founder Dennis Tzeng and resident film/tv critic Roth Cornet do a really great job of staying on top of my favorite shows and putting out video reviews (I always check their site after Flash Forward, Fringe, and V to see if we’re on the same page!)
So it was with great excitement that I sat down with Roth to talk about the return of my TV series, Science of the Movies, to the Science Channel on Thursdays at 8pm. I brought along my Nar Williams action figure and buckled in for Roth’s infamous Geek Cred Quiz!
Thanks to ThinkHero.com, this is definitely one of the best interviews I’ve done for the series — enjoy!
Everett Bradford has created a device that aspiring superheroes and supervillains alike will be drooling over: The Prometheus Device. Put simply, it allows you to cast fireballs from your hand. This is the kind of thing I expect Mickey Rourke to be sporting as Whiplash in Iron Man 2.
From Everett’s YouTube page:
Prometheus is version 3 of the Pyro System. This is the culmination of about 6 months of thought and 2 months of building during whatever spare time I could find.
So modest for the mad genius behind such a powerful device… See Everett’s design notes, schematics, and pictures here.
It’s the first week of the month and that means it’s time for your Heads Up for November!
This episode sees the debut of our new Tech correspondent, Genelle, who happens to be a hologram… Eat that, CNN! She’s got the lowdown on some of the coolest gadgets hitting this month, including the Eigenharp — the instrument of choice for the Mos Eisley Cantina Band.
November is the greatest month of all time for video games, with huge titles like Left For Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Assassin’s Creed 2 hitting shelves. We’ve got some zombie carnage of our own in store for you, plus a Rampage sketch that’s been dying to happen since Episode 1.
And, is Jonathan actually camping out for Twilight: New Moon tickets? Whaaaa???
All that plus the best picks for comics, movies, and video games in November…
Chestnuts roasting by a… Electrolux Portable Fireplace Capsule?
Okay, so this isn’t your mom and pop’s fireplace, but who needs that when you got this slick, portable, space age fire capsule? Designed by Camillo Vanacore and made by Electrolux, this fireplace is small enough to carry around, so you can put it in whatever room of the house you want.
The other cool thing about this (concept) design, is that The Electrolux Fireplace starts out as opaque, then slowly turns transparent as the flames turn on and the capsule heats up. Once it’s cool again, it returns to the white ceramic. Pretty sweet!
Developed by Bojan Nemec at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia, this future gold medalist navigates autonomously using a video camera and sensors to “see”, a GPS sensor to help determine velocity and distance from an obstacle, and an electronic gyroscope that sends information on the movement of the lower joints for stability.
When robots are in the Olympics, will they be competing for their developer’s country, or just The Singularity?
Then there’s Boston Dynamics’ latest robotics masterpiece: PETMAN.
Petman is a close relative of my favorite all terrain pack mule robot, BigDog, and the company says it shares elements of mechanical design and control. Where the four-legged BigDog is designed to carry stuff, Petman is a prototype biped robot developed to test chemical protection clothing for the US Army.
Unlike previous suit testers, which had to be supported mechanically and had a limited repertoire of motion, PETMAN will balance itself and move freely; walking, crawling and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents. PETMAN will also simulate human physiology within the protective suit by controlling temperature, humidity and sweating when necessary, all to provide realistic test conditions.
Sure… that’s what they say… But seeing how much fun the developers have in their videos, I think the folks at Boston Dynamics just wanted another robot they could shove around!
Microsoft Surface just got a +1 to Charisma thanks to the Surfacescapes developers at Carnegie Mellon University. They’ve created an application that could be the future of my Dungeons & Dragons table top experience.
No need for tons of miniatures and crappy graph paper maps — just roll your virtual d20 and watch the animated dire wolf go up in flames from your 8th level Firestorm spell. Best thing is, you still keep what I love most about the D&D experience: a table for you and your comrades to congregate around and roleplay your geeky little hearts out.
Designer Stefan Ulrich’s robot pillow is called Funktionide and it is the latest example of “emotional robotics”, in which designers seek to create an emotional relationship between human and robot.
The “Funktionide” is an autarkic amorph object whose intention is to provide the user with a atmosphere of presence thus counteracting the feeling of loneliness.
Makes sense to me, but does the video have to be so dramatic it crosses over into creepy?
What strikes me most though is the movement of the “breath” in the robot. In fact, after watching the making of video, I can envision this technology being used to emulate lungs in future humanoid robots.
