Do you remember the robot called T-1000 Skynet made of liquid metal in the film Terminator 2? It seems that Steve Jobs decided to create devices of next generation using Liquidmetal Technologies, a California company from which Apple has recently acquired the exclusive rights for creation of liquid metal alloy products.

One of the best and most distinctive factors in all Apple products is how this company produces its own devices, the quality of production, as well as the materials used, which, undoubtedly, have first-class quality.

Now that Apple has the exclusive rights to create products of the liquid metal, we can assume that it has no plans to create a robot for the next Terminator movie, but probably will use it for such devices as iMac, iPad and iPhone of the next generation in order to be one step ahead of its competitors.

MOTO Labs conducted a new touchscreen test with a number of the most popular smartphones: Apple iPhone, HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid, Google Nexus One, Palm Pre and Blackberry Storm 2. The results were expected -- iPhone has a first place and is followed by Google Nexus One.

The test was made by 7mm and 4mm robotic fingers for accordingly medium and light touch imitation. Moto Labs reports iPhone screen to have straight and accurate lines but with weaknesses at the edges of the panel. Nexus One with Droid Eris has a “solid performance”. The results are almost the same because both of the devices are manufactured by HTC. As you remember, Apple filed a lawsuit about infringing their touchscreen-related patents earlier this month.

The results for the other smartphones can be seen on the picture below.
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iPhone is normally used to make calls, or at most to play. But we alway see different experiments with the iPhone involved in driving a vehicle or integrated into a robot. Today we show you how the iPhone is able to command a small rocket through an application and some special hardware!

Here is video demonstration of eMissileBox, an iPhone application to control missile launches which was developed for an ECE 4180 project at Georgia Tech in Fall 2009:

This Missile Launcher is based on an eBox running customized Windows CE 6, it launches model rockets to 200 feet. Everything is iPhone controlled (orientation, deviation and firing).

via ispazio

Here’s a cute little Walky robot controlled via iPhone. It is able to walk, run, jump and kick a ball.

This video demonstrates that with a proper implementation of controls we can obtain better results with the touchscreen of the iPhone than with a joystick from a PlayStation.

This is a robot capable of playing Rock Band iPhone application. The setup is pretty much the same as the other robots that play these kinds of games.

More video and pictures:

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iDriver is an iPhone application to remote control a car, created by the Freie Universität Berlin and powered by Appirion UG. The car is called “Spirit of Berlin”, it is a completely autonomous vehicle equipped with various sensors and a drive-by-wire system for unmanned driving.

via

A robot hobbyist has developed an application that lets the iPhone 3GS function as the brain and face of a miniature humanoid robot.

The body of the robot — named “Robochan” — consists of a Kondo KHR-2HV humanoid. The iPhone head, which attaches to the body via the dock connector, displays various facial expressions while functioning as the controller. Using Robochan’s iPhone interface, the user can program it to function as an alarm clock, dance to music, and perform other moves based on user interaction.

via pinktentacle

Voice Transformer is a fun application. The purpose is to change our voice with different effects.

There are 9 different effects: Echo, Robot, Static, Deep Bass, Helium, Reves, Megaphone, Creatures, Nasal.

Costs $1.99 in AppStore (link).

VoxBot is a retro speech synthesis robot. Type in any text and VoxBot will say it out loud. App is free for a limited time. Normal price is $1.99. Here is AppStore link.

Features:

• It talks!
• Full screen retro oscilloscope display when VoxBot talks
• Easily create, test and edit phrases for VoxBot to say
• Store phrases for quick VoxBot wisdom in the phrase list

This robot is made in Japan. The main part is a jailbroken iPhone 3G running some Ruby code. Other parts include an Arduino CPU, a TA7291P motor, and 4 AA batteries. The robot is controlled via WiFi from a nearby computer.

More pictures:

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