Archive for the ‘germany’ Category

HECTOR insect-inspired hexapod walking robot is a smooth operator (video)

We’ve seen some rather nightmare-inducing robots inspired by insects, but, once again, the folks at Germany’s Bielefeld University have managed to turn something inherently creepy into a rather lighthearted affair. HECTOR, or hexapod cognitive autonomously operating robot, was designed to help its creators understand how exactly real animals manage to move so gracefully. Physically speaking, HECTOR sports six legs, with 18 joints in total, that protrude from an exoskeleton made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Its legs are given a rather life-like range of motion provided by a special set of “elastic joint drives” and a series of “biologically inspired” algorithms, and its exoskeleton can carry a load weighing 30 kilograms — the robot itself weighs a mere 12 kilograms. What’s more, HECTOR’s built to learn from its experiences. Okay, so a three foot robotic insect that can carry nearly three times its weight does sound kind of creepy in retrospect, but HECTOR really does have some smooth moves. You can see for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading HECTOR insect-inspired hexapod walking robot is a smooth operator (video)

HECTOR insect-inspired hexapod walking robot is a smooth operator (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmag  |  Bielefeld University  | Email this | Comments

JooJoo Now Available To Unsuspecting Europeans [Joojoo]

Perhaps JooJoo will be one of those things—you know, like David Hasslehoff or cheese fondue. Big in Europe. Maybe they’ll even sell more than 64? Available to France, Germany and the UK now, for €359.00/£319. [JooJoo via Blogeee] More »

HP’s Pavilion dv3 and dm1 wash ashore on European land

As one of the last two Vista holdouts on HP’s online laptop store (the other being HDX16), we were wondering what was going on with the Pavilion dv3. Well, it’s still not stateside, but Germany and the UK can apparently pick up the Windows 7-equipped touchscreen dv3-2200 now for £799.99 / €899 (somewhere between $1,305 and $1,350, respectively, in comparable US currency), with difference of pricing based on the separate listings. Additionally, we spotted the 11.6-inch dm1-1000 — which was also leaked alongside the dv3 — with a 1.2GHz Celeron processor and that hot new OS from Redmond. We’re sure it’ll come to the US eventually, but for now we’re just gonna have to wait ever, ever so patiently.

[Thanks, Adam and everyone]

Read – Official HP dm1-1000 page
Read – Official HP dv3-2200 page
Read – PC World UK listing for dv3

Filed under: Laptops

HP’s Pavilion dv3 and dm1 wash ashore on European land originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

ASUS Eee PC T91MT multitouch tablet listed on Amazon.de for October 22nd

Surprise! Another “new” computer coming out October 22nd alongside Windows 7, or at least rumored to be. This time it’s the previously-rumored ASUS Eee PC T91MT, which has wound up as a listing on Amazon Germany. Same processor and 8.9-inch screen size as the T91, but with a 160GB HDD instead of solid-state. Since it’s Windows 7, there’s now multitouch support, hence the “MT.” The color options are black and white and it’ll set you back about 506 euros ($754). Oh, you wanted US prices and release dates? Show a little more patience, why don’t ya?

[Via Netbooknews.de]

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS Eee PC T91MT multitouch tablet listed on Amazon.de for October 22nd originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

New e-reader “txtr”: Germany’s answer to the Kindle

Deutsche Telekom’s e-book reader probably has gone the way of the Dodo, but the Germans are still getting a home-made Kindle competitor. The device, dubbed txtr, was announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair that’s happening  in Deutschland right now, and it will become available in that country as soon as December 1 (as pre-order).

The txtr is the product of a Berlin-based start-up of the same name. It features a 6-inch grayscale e-ink screen, a microSD slot (an 8GB card is included in the package, 1GB flash), an ARM11 CPU (532MHz), 64MB RAM, a micro-USB port and “ultra-long battery life” (company quote). The device is sized at 151×131×12 mm and weighs 281g.

You can download books and other documents via the USB port, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) or the txtr wireless service (EDGE/GPRS). The reader can display PDFs and books in the EPUB format. Currently, there are over 10,000 books offered in the official txtr store, with about 3,200 of them being English books. It costs $18 per month to access your documents via the web and synchronize web sites with the reader.

When compared to the Kindle, the price for the txtr can’t really be called competitive at this point: $480 is a lot of money. Another problem for txtr: The Kindle will hit German stores as early as this Monday, while the txtr will be delivered to German customers December 15.

A company representative also said a new version featuring a 9.7-inch touch screen is already being considered for next year.

Via netzwertig [GER]

« Older Entries