Robots!

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from January 27th, 2015:

Here’s the usual set of links & videos from the show:

Our list of Pangloss Labs events so you won’t miss our next robot workshop

The Open Source (hardware and software) Thymio robot from EPFL and it’s programming environment

The NAO robot

and the much more serious and large ATLAS robot from Boston Dynamics:

And one of my favourite French open source robot projects, InMoov:

Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Have a good week, and remember that according to the original Terminator movie humanity should have been destroyed by now, so we are definitely not in that future.

French – English translation on the go & a giant robot suit

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from January 20th, 2015:

Here’s the usual set of  links from the show:

The Google Translate app for iPhone and iPad

The Google Translate app for Android

The Kuratas Giant mech suit from Suidobashi Industries in Kyoto on Amazon for $1million

Why would you want one of these?  Just watch…

CES Roundup 2015

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from January 13th, 2015:

Here’s some links from the show:

More information than you ever wanted about CES.

A round up of wearable technology from Engadget.

How to get and avoid tech neck (hint – lift your phone up).

The Belty smart-belt is easier to see than read about.

and the Sharp freeform display technology, so I can get my hexagonal screens 🙂

New Years Resolutions and Fitness Tracking

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from January 6th, 2015:

A few links from this show:

If your new years resolution is to get fit there’s no better way than eat less and move more. Technology can’t (yet) stop you eating but it can help with the moving, so here are some of the fitness trackers you can get from Fitbit, Withings and Jawbone.

Prices start from around 65 CHF. Or you can just use an app for your smartphone like Moves but then you must carry your smartphone all the time. If you put it down it won’t track your steps.

If you want to hack your life then If This Then That is the site you need. Make the internet work for you doing things that usually only coders can 🙂

If you want a heads-up on CES there is a useful CES preview at TechRadar. Plenty of wearables.

My VOIP provider that lets me have a UK incoming phone number is LocalPhone but there are others, including Skype. As expats living on an international border having multiple incoming phone numbers in different countries can be useful.

Here’s the Octopus:

and here’s the four-finned robot cuttlefish:

Next week we’ll look at the output from CES.

Christmas Gadgets, the Santa Tracker

Gadget Guru is a short weekly radio show on World Radio Switzerland that I do with Tony Johnston.

Here’s the show from December 23rd, 2014:

A few links from this show:

3D Printed cookie cutters can be downloaded from thingiverse or you can design your own.  The best place to try 3D printing is your local hackerspace.

Post Tenebras Lab in Geneva has an open evening each Tuesday.

Fixme in Lausanne has an open evening each Wednesday.

FabLab La Cote in Nyon has it’s open evenings on Mondays.

The Christmas Shopper Simulator from Game in case your shopping was too easy this year

The Norad Santa Tracker

The cool magnetic levitation hoverboard

and the noisy one that you can make yourself