iCandy
From: IEEE Spectrum - Geek Life
By: Willie Jones

January

Slide 5:
Roboticists at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy, have designed
the world’s first automaton housekeeper for keeping public places tidy, the
DustCart. The work was funded by the European Union as part of the
continent’s DustBot project, aimed at improving the cleanliness of urban
areas.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/slideshow/geek-life/tools-toys/icandy-january-2010

Links:
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
http://www.sssup.it/

Dustcart Robot Does the Dirty Work
http://news.discovery.com/tech/dustcart-robot-does-the-dirty-work.html

DustBot
http://www.dustbot.org/

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February
http://spectrum.ieee.org/slideshow/geek-life/tools-toys/february-2010-icandy

Slide 2:
We're tantalizingly close to having robotic household servants. Mahru-Z
[right, with “older sibling” Mahru-M], an automaton developed by researchers
at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, can clean, put your dirty
clothes in the washer, pop your snack into the microwave, and bring it to
you. The 1.5-meter-tall domestic is the result of a two-year project.

Links:
Korea Institute of Science and Technology
http://www.kist.re.kr/en/index.jsp

Mahru-Z
KIST Mahru-Z waits on you very, very slowly

Robots Who Feed You
http://textcoco.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1018ACE34124CA54!432.entry


Slide 5:
Engineers at the Institute for Automatic Control Engineering at the
University of Bremen, in Germany, have developed a set of robot arms that can
be attached to a disabled person's wheelchair. The extra set of hands could
aid patients whose hands are paralyzed or extend their reach, allowing people
to grab things from high shelves or off the floor.  

Link:
Institute for Automatic Control Engineering
http://www.lsr.ei.tum.de/

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March
http://spectrum.ieee.org/slideshow/geek-life/tools-toys/icandy-march-2010

Slide 3:
This man isn't exasperated at a long commute to work. He's simply adjusting
the volume on his MP3 player. The earphones he’s wearing, made by NTT DoCoMo,
are studded with electrodes that pick up tiny voltage changes that occur
whenever he moves his eyes. The earphones interpret these changes as signals
to, say, scroll forward through songs or stop playback. 

Link:
NTT Docomo demos eye-controlled earphones
http://androidandme.com/2010/02/news/ntt-docomo-demos-eye-controlled-earphones-video/

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April
http://spectrum.ieee.org/slideshow/geek-life/tools-toys/icandy-april-2010

Slide 7:
No, this isn’t a novelty drinking device for campers or stadium-goers. The
cable is part of a system that allows the man, a former British soldier who
lost his sight to a grenade blast, to "see" with his tongue. Images captured
by a camera attached to the glasses are transformed to signals that create
impulses on a pad inserted in his mouth.

Links:
Blind Learn To See with Tongue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKd56D2mvN0

BrainPort Helps Blinded Soldier See with Tongue
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/182815.php