Every year the same holiday question arises: what to get for the man/woman who has everything?  Chances are he doesn’t have Hammacher’s Advanced Acrobatic Robot.

This 13-inch tall toy includes 17 servos that work in unison with an included gyro sensor and accelerometer to perform a variety of tricks that range from backflips to air guitar.  We’re not kidding, though we haven’t found a video to demonstrate its acrobatic feats.  Hammacher says that the “points of articulation in its neck, arms, hands, legs, and feet are so precise” that it can grasp objects, punch the air like a boxer and even feign a soccer kick.  To further its compelling nature each action is accompanied by a sound effect from the built-in 1 watt speaker.

The frame of this robot is built from lightweight, precision-machined aluminum, while the plastic exoskeleton is injection molded. However, it does weigh 3lbs and cost a whopping $2,400.   For that kind of money we’d expect a robot butler.  At least you can program additional moves using your computer, provided you’ve got one running Windows 7, XP or 2000.  2000, seriously?

Watching Hugh Jackman pound robot heads into submission last month didn’t quite fill our mechanized fighting needs.  These Bionic Bopper Cars from Hammacher will surely fill the void, though.

Remember bumper cars?  Add a head, robotic arms and a joystick and you’ve got two fighting robots that can move left, right, forward or backwards at up to 3mph thanks to an internal Honda powered gas engine.  A set of independent joysticks activate two pneumatic-powered, tire-tread-fisted arms.   Pull the trigger and your robots will slug your opponent directly in the head.  There doesn’t seem to be a blocking option, so the game boils down to strafing, otherwise known as dodging.  The built-in bumper at the foot of the robot ensures that the optimal distance is achieved to score a punch.  And when a punch lands the robots head will sling back where upon the chest mounted display will tally a point.

The gas tank provides up to 5 hours of continue sockem and rockem fun, that is provided you don’t choke from the fumes, while a 12-volt battery powers the electronics.  Hammacher says you’ll need at least a 16-foot smooth surfaces to deliver your punches from this $17,000 duo.

Remember Honda’s ASIMO that could walk upright and traverse a set of stairs?  Today, they unveiled an all new version that can run at an uncanny speed both forwards backwards.  It also has the ability to jump on one foot or two.  It appears as though the robot is also capable of judging the rigidigty of objects.  In the above video you’ll see it pick up a metal container in one hand and a paper cup in the other without crushing it.  It may not seem like a significant feat, but just getting a robot to stand up straight and walk like a human is a massive challenge in and upon itself.  While it would seem that Honda is far from selling the ASIMO bot on a commercial level, it’s only a matter of time until we see them popping up in warehouses, hospitals and other industries that require a humanoid like form to complete the tasks at hand.

Cat videos are some of the most popular on the net.  So its only logical to develop a product that further facilitates what is inevitably a complete waste of time and bandwidth.  That product is the Sphero.

The Sphero is a robotic ball that rolls around and for all intent and purposes tortures your friendly feline.  Control comes in the form a smartphone app available for Android and the iPhone, which as far as we’re concerned is the only feature we needed to justify this post.  The ball is made from an ultra strong polycarbonate that shouldn’t break, but still allows its internal LED lights to shine through.

As you’ve probably surmised, in light of the fact that it’s an iPhone compatible cat toy, you can control its movement by either shaking your phone around (i.e. gyroscope) or use the on screen controls.  Orbotix, the company behind what will obviously sell like gangbusters this holiday, has also developed the the KittyCam App, which allows you to drive your cat bat sh*t crazy and record it simultaneously.

Human’s haven’t been left out of the equation either.  Sphero Golf converts your smartphone into a Wii like putting iron and presumably lets you tap the Bluetooth connected ball in between your law degree books.  Inductive charging also makes the list, which makes sense since an exposed charging port might not agree with Garfield’s tongue.

No word on a launch date, but it will sell for $130 when it arrives later this year.

It’s been an interesting week in the tech world! To sum up everything for you, we’ve compiled some of the coolest tech videos and products for the week so that you don’t have to scour the Internet looking for them. Enjoy!

4. CAT-LIFT

Cats have a mind of their own, which makes this Cat-Lift contraption even more hilarious. Fully operated by the cat, the tiny elevator allows for easy outside access and is fitted with a special “infrared catflap.”

3. GRAPPLING HOOK LAUNCHER

Homemade stuff is the best! This grappling hook launcher video shows a very Batman-like gadget that you can make at home.

2. BILLABONG V1 FLOATATION WETSUIT

Billabong has created a wetsuit that’s equipped with a floatation device so that surfers (or anybody, really) won’t drown when they become fatigued out in the water. Patent is still pending though, but it’s a cool concept!

1. BIONIC HAND

Chole Homes lost her fingers as a toddler when she suffered from septicaemia after contracting chickenpox. But now at 15, she traded in her prosthetic hand for some bionic fingers, making for one hi-tech hand!

4. Sony NEX-7 DSRL CAMERA

Sony has officially taken their compact cameras to the next level with its NEX-7 DSRL model. While it features things that other compact cameras have (HD video and pictures, 24.3 megapixels, etc.), the camera now has interchangeable lens that allows you to take pictures like a pro without having to carry around bulky equipment.

3. HEX CODE WALLET FOR IPHONE 4

Someone has finally created a stylish wallet that also functions as an iPhone case! Not only does it secure your phone in place, but it also holds a select number of credit cards so that you don’t have to overload your pocket.

2. OLYMPUS PEN E-PM1 CAMERA

Olympus has finally released info on a release date for it’s latest camera. It’s actually the smallest and lightest of the PEN series, but can still do loads of cool stuff like capture HD video and photos and works with Olympus’ interchangeable lens system.

1. CINESKATES

A tripod with wheels? Yup, that’s exactly what CineSkates is. Although it looks a bit strange and robot-like, it was designed to be used by everyday people to achieve professional dolly-like shots.

Every day we wake up, wash our hands, brush our teeth, fix something to eat and drive to work.  We take all of these simple tasks for granted.  But not one teenager in London.  Chloe Holmes, now 15 years of age, contracted Chicken Pox as a toddler, a virus most if not all children survive unscathed.  Unfortunately, she suffered from septicaemia (blood poisoning) during the virus and as a result she lost most of her fingers, leaving her without a complete hand…that us until now.

For $62,000 her family invested in a bionic hand from Touch Bionics in Scotland.  Although it will never provide Chloe with the same range of motion and dexterity as a human hand, it does enable her to pick up items, or small blocks as seen in the below video.  The hands usefulness clearly extends beyond this example, but nonetheless it demonstrates to what level of dexterity has been accomplished.  Chloe even says that “she didn’t expect it to work as well as it does and that she’d get as much good use out of it.”

The bionic hand isn’t hard wired into Chloe.  Instead a set of sensors detect movement in her arm, enabling her to control the futuristic device. We’ve seen other devices, such as the Luke Arm, that offer a similar, but greater range of motion, and can be wired into the muscles or nerves, or controlled using a footpad.   However, the Luke Arm isn’t yet available for retail purchase, so the Bionic Hand will have to suffice until now.

Automatic oven meets robot chef with a memorized cookbook, together they form the iChef. Gorenje, an European appliance maker, ships their oven model together with a computer brain that’s capable of fully automizing nearly every culinary task. And it’s all touch-controlled.

At its most simple, you estimate the type of food you’ve put in, and its weight, and the computer does the rest. But more complex things can be achieved as well. With MyBake, ProBake and StepBake modes, you can program up to three steps into the process. There’s defrosting, baking, holding warm, multi-stage tempratures, and saving of programs and recipes.

Shipping this spring in Europe, an oven with smarter programs than a microwave will be a thing to behold.

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Brando’s MIDbot takes your laptop for a stroll around the house when you’re away, patrolling ominously and rather slowly, but what do you want – this ain’t 2030.

Billed as an ultra low cost ‘telepresence robot’, it’s not really a robot, more like a chassis with one interactive robot arm. It gets its real time video capabilities when you mount a laptop to the chassis. From there on it’s business as usual, with the video feed accessible through popular webcam software, the likes of Skype and Yahoo.

You watch the cam feed and control the robot’s movements, including the arm. The wheels are height adjustable, in case you live on a rocky outcrop and want to spy on the neighbors.

Range is limited by the Wi/Fi system in place in your house, so plan well or you’ll lose contact with this fragile trooper. Cost for getting a peek of the intruders before they nonchalantly step on your little robot – $319.

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Cost of making your kid impervious to bullies? $21,600.

Possible cost to society resulting from outfitting a young boy with a Japanese built 400lb hydraulic mech-suit? Does not compute.

Children are not the mellowest of creatures, and boys especially are given to nightmarish fantasies and terrifying outbursts. So we must all breathe a sigh of relief that Sakakibara Kikai’s does not intend to sell his infernal childhood-on-steroids machine, and the price stated above is just an approximation.

The Kid’s Walker, innocently named, as if to lure unsuspecting parents into shelling out the cash sometime in the future, stands 5’3” tall and, as one can tell from the video, it glides ominously across the ground at considerable speed while letting its metallic claws hang by its sides.

Mankind’s only hope after a group of rogue kids break into Kikai’s laboratory and turn themselves into relatively cute looking cyborgs? The Kid Walker can’t negotiate obstacles or climb stairs, so you’re probably safe inside your home.

Until the groceries run out.

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Last time we saw the PR2 robot, it was fetching beer and playing pool. But while its latest act is a little less fun, it’s more practical — folding socks. After Willow Garage sponsored a competition for the robot to be shown on video doing “impressive things,” one group at UC Berkeley had it fold laundry as an example of its durable, flexible gripping. You can actually buy one for yourself from Willow Garage, but it won’t come cheap. The video of the robot can be seen below.

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The Phasma hexapedal running robot is something that I do no want to see scampering down my hallway at night. That being said, it’s an engineering marvel. Built by Takram Design Engineering, it uses its springy six legs to scuttle about just like an insect. It’s currently on display at the Science Museum in Tokyo, but you can check it out in motion watching the video below.

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Pretty much everybody loved Wall-E, the cute waste disposal robot, when he first appeared in his eponymous movie a couple years. Which is why I find this custom Wall-E robot so charming, because it’s so similar to the character using just LEGOs. It was programmed using Lego’s Mindstorm Software, and turns into a box, has facial animations, and carries objects. It works via a remote control, or you can let it do its thing by itself. Check out the video and try not to smile.

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Should we be a little scared that this helicopter can take off, fly around, avoid obstacles and return home all without a preprogrammed flight path?  Is Skynet upon us?

Currently the Unmanned Little Bird, as it’s known, is in trials and is overseen by the Army funded research team at Carnegie Melon and Piasecki Aircraft Corp.  It’s the same tech that was used in some of those Darpa trials – you know, the ones where the car had to navigate a course sans driver.

The idea is that these helicopters could one day swoop in to combat zones that are under heavy fire and rescue wounded soldiers.  I’m also confident that they’ll be used to perform attacks, hence my reference to Skynet.

The Copter uses a LIDAR laser system that maps its surrounding.  The computer then creates a virtual 3D map and uses that info to determine where to fly, or in this case not fly, such as through towers, buildings and other obstacles.

What do you think: scary or cool?

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For a while there we thought the only thing notable to come out of New Zealand was the Lord Of The Ring‘s movies.  Full stop my friends.  The Rex is one bad ass piece of kit.  In the most simplest of terms it’s a set of bionic legs that are controlled by using a joystick.  Unfortunately, it’s useless to quadriplegics since it requires some balancing and of course the ability to operate a joystick.

It’s first user, a guy named Hayden Allen, says the Rex legs have been liberating.  He can now walk up stairs and his overall health has improved since he’s vertical allowing for his body to properly circulate blood and other fluids (oh the things we take for granted).

The Rex is the brainchild of of two childhood friends, Richard Little and Robert Irving. Their motivation to build the Rex stems from the fact that both of their mothers are in wheelchairs and Robert was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis seven years ago.

In order for you to purchase a Rex, which will go on sale for about $150,000 US some time this year starting in New Zealand, you must undergo a doctor’s evaluation. Each Rex will very in cost depending on your needs and requirements, and will be a tad cheaper when purchased in its home country.

Videos after the ‘leap’

World First Robotic Legs Provide NEW Option for Wheelchair Users

When Hayden Allen was spinal cord injured five years ago he became a full time wheelchair user and doctors told him he’d never walk again. Today a revolutionary product developed by Auckland-based company Rex Bionics has enabled Hayden to walk again.

Hayden has been one of the first people in the world to use Rex, the Robotic Exoskeleton, which is most easily described as a pair of robotic legs that supports and assists a person who usually uses a wheelchair, enabling the person to stand, walk and go up and down steps and slopes.

“I’ll never forget what it was like to see my feet walking under me the first time I used Rex,” says Hayden, who is 6’4″ (193cm) tall when standing. “People say to me, ‘look up when you’re walking’ but I just can’t stop staring down at my feet moving.”

Being up out of his chair and on his feet again allows Hayden many more options on a day to day basis, increasing opportunities for employment and recreational activities by providing access for him independently to go places previously inaccessible to him. For example – up stairs!

Rex users self-transfer from their wheelchair into Rex, strap themselves in and control their movements using a joystick and control pad. REX is powered by a lightweight, long life rechargeable battery. Rex is the brainchild of two childhood friends, Richard Little and Robert Irving – co-founders of Rex Bionics. “Both of our mothers are in wheelchairs so we are aware of some of the obstacles and access issues faced by many wheelchair users,” says Richard.

Robert’s Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis seven years ago was the catalyst for these men to put their engineering skills to use to develop a practical, standing and walking alternative to wheel chairs.
The founders are quick to point out that Rex is not a replacement for a wheelchair, but a complement that offers a range of options not currently available anywhere else in the world. It is potentially suitable for manual wheelchair users who can self-transfer and operate hand controls.

Dr Richard Roxburgh, Auckland neurologist and Medical Adviser to the Muscular Dystrophy Association says, “For many of my patients Rex represents the first time they’ve been able to stand up and walk for years. There are obvious immediate benefits in terms of mobility, improved social interaction and self-image. There are also likely to be major long term health and quality of life benefits through reducing the complications of being in a wheelchair all the time. I think that this will also enable people to stay well longer; this means that those who have conditions where disease modifying treatments are coming over the next five to ten years, will be in better shape when those treatments finally arrive.”

Each Rex is built onsite at the Rex Bionics’ Auckland plant. It has been designed to be practical, lightweight, portable, safe and simple to use and sufficiently powered for a typical day of use. Potential customers must complete a medical appraisal including checks with their own physician to ensure their general health and suitability before they can begin the process of fitting and training. This process typically takes around two weeks with Rex Bionics’ team of technicians, based at the Rex Centre in Auckland.

Rex has undergone thorough testing during its seven year development including engineering validation and clinical trials, with the approval of the New Zealand Ethics Committee, in conjunction with disability and rehabilitation advisors.

Rex is expected to cost about US$150,000. The decision to purchase Rex will be a very individual assessment of what Rex allows you to do. The benefits can be social, for the work place, for home and health related.

Rex will soon be available for purchase in New Zealand, where the price will be a bit lower since it will be easier to supply and support close to the company’s home base on Auckland’s North Shore.

CEO of Rex Bionics, Jenny Morel, says they expect to conclude internal testing of Rex shortly and will then have a preliminary release in Auckland to allow the company to track what happens when people take Rex home. Sales are expected to commence in New Zealand by the end of 2010 and elsewhere in the world by the middle of 2011.

Rex has been developed with the support of TechNZ and venture capital company, No 8 Ventures.

Kondo, a Japanese robot maker, has unveiled the Kame Robotto, the world’s first turtle robot. (Kame is Japanese for turtle — the more you know…). The turtle is powered by a 10.8V-300mAh Ni-MH “Robo Power Cell”, and has nine joints of movement. If you watch the video, you can see that it gets pretty expressive for only nine joints, and is pretty cute for being made of black plastic. Best of all, you can build one for $450, but you’ll have to import it from Japan, and get the remote control elsewhere. Do it with your girlfriend! It’s like getting a dog that poops a lot less.

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When it comes to technology, robots doing things for us lazy humans is always a plus, and while we’ve seen beer fetching robots before, none are as efficient as the PR2. Its creators, Willow Garage, taught it to play pool, and now they’ve designed a web interface to select specific brands of beer, which the robot then goes to the fridge to fetch up to four beers at a time. Check out the video to see the future of male laziness.

A creation of the Willow Garage team, this PR2 robot can do a variety of tasks, including folding clothes. But the team put it to an even cooler use — playing billiards. Using a special grip and bridge attachment, the PR2 managed to sink five balls. They put this together in a week, which just goes to show you how far technology has come. Check the video out to see for yourself.

A crafty MIT student has, well, crafted a robot out of a desk lamp. Natan Linder’s LuminAR robotic lamp can display images and text via an embedded Pico Projector, helping with your homework. It also recognizes hand movements via a webcam, moving left when a hand swipes left, or playing a video. I totally want one. Check out the video to see it for yourself.

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iRobot’s bots clear gutters and remove debris from floors.  So it might come as a surprise to hear that they’ve been working on another breed of robots that can clear a road chalk full of mines.

The 710 Warrior machine is an APOBS (Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System) that fires a rocket down a road carrying behind it a rope of grenades.  Upon explosion, which happens remotely via a human finger, it is designed to detonate up to 45 square meters of mines.  It’s a sort of ground fired carpet bomb system.

Due to public fear and safety concerns the bots never made it to the battlefield.  That’s odd, because the last time I checked UAVs weren’t exactly the most palatable form of warfare.

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Dean Kamen’s Luke Arm is most certainly one piece of impressive kit.  And while we were thinking nothing could possibly eclipse it along comes the BeBionic hand.  The deets are a bit few and far between, but it comes in 19 different skin tone overlays and as you’ll see from the below video has enough dexterity to grab a Jenga piece.  How it the wearer controls it is currently unknown, but it’s said to include some wireless technology, so we’re hoping for a brain implement…hoping.

The BeBionic Hand will be available worldwide as of this June.

Video after the ‘leap’

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