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How would you disguise an underwater survey robot? The first thing that passes through my mind when I think about underwater environments is fish. So why not a fish robot? A small one that would go completely unnoticed, unless it gets eaten by some predator fish. Or better yet, a bigger predator fish that wouldn’t be that easily transformed into tasty food by other fish. Probably the same things were passing through the minds of the engineers at the University of Kitakyushu when they started developing an underwater survey robot that looks like this:

Pinktentacle reports that the robotic fish is dubbed “Tai-robot-kun” and weighs about 7-kilogram (15.4 lb). The robot looks quite real with a silicone body covered in hand-painted scales, featuring a unique propulsion system that allows it to move its tail and drift silently through the water like a real fish. Check out this short clip:



A full battery charge will enable the robot to swim around for an hour or so. The robotic fish relies on a ballast system similar to those used in submarines to adjust its buoyancy and depth.

Professor Ikuo Yamamoto, the designer of the robotic fish, claims the robot can easily be mass-produced, outfitted with various cameras and sensors, and released into the sea to perform a wide range of oceanographic survey tasks. Of course, armies around the world would also be interested to own at least one of these, for their own stealthy purposes.

Yamamoto and his team are currently developing a robotic manta ray that uses some of the same technology.

Here’s a new Chinese player that is meant to shift your perspective away from the iPod players. This one is so thin, it’ll even cut through the Macbook Air. How thin? 4.5mm! Check out the pic:

Wait, it’s an MP4 player and it’s even thinner than Brando’s screenless customizable MP3 player. The player is known as CVSJ-1304 and comes with 4 GB of storage. It plays ASF videos in addition to audio files. Just to understand how thin this player is, take four credit cards and stack them up one on top of one another and here you go.

Here’s a list of specs:

• DisplaySize: 1.8”; Resolution: 160×128
• Supported Formats: MP4, MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV
• Bit rate: 32~320Kbps
• FM Radio: 87.5-108Mhz
• Built in MIC Record Format: WAV
• Earphone Jack Output: 5mW + 5mW
• Earphone Jack Size: 2.5mm
• SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio): 75dB
• Languages: English, Korean, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Czech, Danish, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Thai, Romanian, Greek and Hebrew
• USB: 2.0 (1.1 Compatible)
• System: Windows 98SE and Later, MAC OS 9.2 and Later
• Power Source: Internal Lithium Ion Battery
• Dimension: 85×54x4.5mm
• Manufacturer Ref.: G9536FUECW82

Not yet impressed? Take a look at this short clip:



How about a retail price of $39.55? Wholesale prices go even lower.

Would you believe that some toy gun actually inspired a real gun maker to build an improved model? This would be the first gun that fires variable speed bullets and which can be set to kill, wound or just inflict a bruise is being built by a US toy manufacturer. The weapon is based on technology used to propel toy rockets.

Lund and Company Invention is the toy make responsible for the design of the toy rockets that are powered by burning hydrogen obtained by electrolysing water. The company has been recently discovered by the US Army, which is now ready to fund the toy maker in order to adapt the technology to fire bullets instead.

According to New Scientist, the new weapon is known as the Variable Velocity Weapon System or VWS, and would let soldiers use the same rifle for crowd control and combat, by altering the muzzle velocity. It could be loaded with "rubber bullets" designed only to deliver blunt impacts on a person, full-speed lethal rounds or projectiles somewhere between the two.

The existing VWS design is a .50 caliber (12.7 mm) rifle weapon, but US Army officials claim that the technology can be scaled to any size, "handgun to Howitzer."A demonstration version will be ready within six months, and the VWS could go into production within 18 months of approval, according to Lund and Company.

A recent press release issued by AMIMON Inc. informs that the aforementioned company together with Hitachi Ltd., Motorola Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation and Sony Corporation will form a special interest group to develop a comprehensive new industry standard for multi-room audio, video and control connectivity utilizing Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDIâ„¢) technology. The WHDI standard is to be finalized by the end of 2008.

In order for the WHDI technology to work properly, the group intends to introduce a revolutionary video-modem that operates in the 5GHz unlicensed band to enable robust wireless delivery of uncompressed HD video (including 1080p and Super Hi-Vision standards). WHDI provides secure, encrypted HD video delivery through multiple rooms and other potential signal obstructions, such as people, furniture and walls, while maintaining a 3Gbps data flux with less than one-millisecond latency.

The newly-founded group will ensure the wireless uncompressed HD video and audio transmission between CE devices such as LCD and plasma HDTVs, multimedia projectors, A/V receivers, DVD and BD players, set-top boxes (STBs), game consoles, and PCs. The new interoperable standard also aims to facilitate flawless connections between CE devices manufactured by different vendors.

While all the above-mentioned companies will contribute to the development of the WHDI standard, WHDI still remains a trademark of AMIMON, Ltd.

The Japanese are preparing to make the jump for 22.2 surround sound systems? Forget about that. Goldmund, makers of the world’s most extravagant and technologically advanced systems for audio-video enthusiasts, is proud to bring you a new sound processor, the Goldmund U-32, which is capable of extending to an infinite number of discrete channels. All you have to do now is get enough money to buy more speakers to fill an entire room.

The Goldmund U-32 was created to meet the demands of Goldmund clients looking to build larger media rooms that can seat up to 50 guests. The new Goldmund U-32 Processor includes a set of high-power digital signal processors (DSP) capable of more than 50 times the power output of current solutions. When paired with the recently announced U-Telos family of amplifiers form Goldmund, which is capable of achieving an ideal crossover for the associated speaker with full time delay correction and a signal measurement feature to control the protection of each driver it operates, the Goldmund U-32 can reach an infinite number of discreet channels, which is necessary to properly reproduce extreme surround-sound accuracy in a very large Goldmund Media Room.

The new Goldmund Media Rooms provide unparalleled surround sound by enveloping each individual user with a higher than usual number of speakers, each being smaller and less expensive, each non-audible separately, but together capable of providing each user with sound levels up to 130dB at all frequencies. Hey, that’s more than a plane jet engine can produce!