Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

Remember back when the Billy Bass was popular back in 2000 or so? Since then there have been a number of similar items on the market that are equally as annoying as the singing fish. However, these robot trophies have to be the coolest ones I have seen.

Since I’m fully expecting a robot uprising within the next decade or so, I would love to put one of these on my wall. That way when a robot breaks into my house to kill me, it knows that I’m someone that’s not to be messed with. There are 11 different robotic animals which have sensors that will make the robots come to life and become aggressive towards anyone who comes near. Unfortunately there’s no word on pricing or availability.

[ France Cadet ] VIA [ GearFuse ]

By Evan Ackerman

I like robots rather a lot, but I never thought I might actually be capable of building one until I ran across a website about photovore robots. Most photovores are small, solar powered BEAM (biologically inspired) bots with a solar panel, light sensors, and a tiny motor or two. In the same way that herbivores eat herbs and carnivores eat carnies, photovores ‘eat’ photons in that their light sensors tell their motors to chase bright light to ‘feed’ their solar panel. I decided to try to build one myself, and bought a small kit from Solarbotics.com.

Full review after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »