Scared Cat

BMW aggressively takes on the biomimicmarketing of Jaguar. Peculiar image of the week.

Via Infozaragoza. Related: The Naturalness of traveling with a Jeep, Facing Your Car, Steam Horse. Thanks iPeg.

The Uncanny Valley of the Pussycat Dolls

Make no mistake, you’re not looking at the latest Barbie line: These are the The Pussycat Dolls. Formerly an LA stripper show burlesque show, now upgraded to be pop music sensation and the new face of female empowerment. With virtually every race and hair color represented, the collection of women seemed to have stepped straight out of an adolescent boy’s fantasy.

Yet, their polished perfection also has a certain unheimlich quality: The lips, the breasts, the heavily done faces, the oh-so-perfect noses, the shiny skins, the ’sculpted’ bodies. Too perfect to be human: this cannot be trusted.

Screenshot from the movie Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

Could the female pop group perhaps be the latest manufacture of Abyss creations, the Californian company known from Real Doll life-size silicone sex doll mannequin advertised as “the state-of-the-art for life-like human body simulation”?

The name ‘Pussycat Dolls’ certainly adds to the suspect, but then again their hit singles with titles like ‘BUTTONS‘ and ‘BEEP‘ point more in the direction of a robotics project. Perhaps professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, after his so-so attempts to create a robotic schoolteacher and doppelganger of himself, now exceeded himself with this sexy machinery? Not sure, as the comparisons go on…

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Exmovere Chariot: the wearable wheelchair

Exmovere Holdings, a biomedical engineering company, is focused on government and consumer applications for healthcare, security and mobility. This company developed Exmovere Chariot a self-balancing, hands-free, motorized wearable wheelchair that enables both disabled and non-disabled people to move around in an upright position.

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Future babes

A future in which prosthetic patches prevent bodies from aging? Or a sexists view on femininity in robotics? Read the rest of this entry »

The anatomy of fun

This guy put his work as an x-ray technician and his gaming hobby together and put his (old) gaming devices under the scanner. I was surprised how some of them actually look like nature, maybe there is a clue in that? (Probably not).

Check out his set of X-Ray Funnies on Flickr.

Recycling robot takes the streets of Italy

Let the robots do the dirty work! This real-life Wall-E Recycling robot, part of the $3.9 million DustBot research program that is trying to improve urban hygiene, collects trash and measures atmospheric pollutants. He – or is it a she? – can also identify residents, and sort their trash into organic, recyclable, or waste.

The robot is nimble enough to navigate where conventional gas-guzzling garbage trucks cannot. The one on the picture is still in the prototype phase and robots aren’t legally allowed to roam around without human guidance in Peccioli, Italy. But who knows — some day soon you may see a friendly green robot zipping garbage down your street.

Via The Guardian. See also: Ladybug cleans the toilet, Killer Robots, the order Electrus.

Triceracopter

The Triceracopter is half Triceratops, half helicopter. If dinosaurs and technology evolved at the same time, this is what the helicopter might have look like? Built as a sculpture in 1977 by artist Patricia Renick, crafted of fiberglass and built on the frame of a Vietnam era U.S. Army OH6A/Cayuse helicopter.

The piece is now available for the discerning collector/dinopilot. Peculiar object of the week.

Via Joshspear.com. See also: Aquasaurus, Skeleton Car, Skeleton mouse, Animatus, Pacman’s skull. Thanks Jurrian.

What about Music? UFO Drums

Music evolves. So do the instruments. And when they do, some instruments turn into UFO’s, probably because designers like to associate futurism with alien vessels.

Peter Kubik about his electronic drum prototype: “My concept of this musical instrument is thoroughly electronic. Primarily it is designed for the household use, but I can imagine that its use will expand further and be used in big concerts without the need for other instruments.The musical instrument rests on the knees or is gripped by legs. The sound is produced by hitting the surface with hands, palms and fingers. The drum then identifies the force, area and intensity and as a result, generates various tones”.

It looks like the iPhone of instruments, it is smart and it knows what the user wants. [I believe there even is an app that generates such colors when touched, I’m not sure]. But will technology reach the soul and become an extention of the mind instead of a “tool” that we use?

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Green Vibes

The big lobby to endeavor for a climate neutral lifestyle must have reached its peak. It is common knowledge that recycling electronic and battery operated utensils is better for the planet, but if there ever was a taboo reckoning sex toys to that philosophy; with the Earth Angel it is now shattered. The vibrator in question is completely made from recycled materials and uses a wind-up crank to charge the internal rechargeable battery. Winding up for four minutes gives you half an hour of pleasure.

Saving the earth was never more fun! Read the rest of this entry »

Another Skeleton Car

This one is kinda sporty! Again created by Jitish Kallat – this emerging indian artist must have a whole skeleton-automotive-industry in place by now?

Related: Aquasaurus, Skeleton mouse, Animatus, Pacman’s skull.