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Video: Four-Legged Animal Robot PIGORASS Jumps, Gallops By Itself

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 04:10 AM PDT

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We’ve covered our fair share of animal robots from Japan in the last years, but PIGORASS, developed by Yasunori Yamada from the University of Tokyo surely stands out: Yamada has developed a four-legged robot that can walk, jump, and (in a way) gallop, too.

Given that Yamada is still a master student and even advanced robots (like Honda’s Asimo, for example) are only able to move in a slow, chopping motion, the way the PIGORASS works is pretty impressive.

Another point worth noting is that PIGORASS moves “autonomously” via a simulated neural system, meaning it isn’t necessary to program which action it should take in advance. Instead, the robot uses a set of pneumatic artificial muscles (shown in red below), passive muscles (springs, in blue), pressure sensors and potentiometers to propel itself forward:

The idea here is to “to understand better the mechanisms underlying the animal's locomotor skills and how to apply them in robots” and “capture the important features of animals' musculoskeletal system in order to realize the embodiment of the neural system”, as Yamada et al. explain here [PDF].

You can watch PIGORASS in action in the video embedded below:


Via Plastic Pals

Square Enix Announces Online RPG Dragon Quest X For Wii And Wii U

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 03:03 AM PDT

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The Tokyo Game Show 2011 is just ten days away, but Square Enix preferred to hold a separate press conference in Tokyo to announce their next big game, Dragon Quest X [JP]. Perhaps the biggest surprises, after months of anticipation, are that the tenth installment in the 25-year old RPG series will be an online RPG and available on both the Wii and the Wii U.

The full title of the game is “Dragon Quest X: Awakening of the Five Tribes Online”, with Square Enix planning to release it next year on the Wii (a date for the Wii U hasn’t been fixed yet). Players will be exploring the same world on both consoles and can transfer game data to their 3DS and share it with other players via Streetpass.

This is the first official screenshot:

Square Enix hasn’t revealed too much as to what the game will actually be about, but it looks like players can form parties with others online, choose between five races and explore the five continents of a world called Astortia (for offline players, there will be NPCs, too). Unlike Dragon Quest IX and VIII (which were created by Level-5), X is being developed by Square Enix alone.

As previous Dragon Quest did make their way out of Japan, you can expect X to hit the US and other places after the Japan release, too (even though no official announcement has been made yet).

Here’s a first (unofficial) trailer in Japanese:

Gadgets Week In Review: Transport

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 01:00 AM PDT

Hot, Flat, And Widescreen: The Rise Of The Minitabs

Posted: 04 Sep 2011 06:29 PM PDT

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The past three days have brought us a trio of interesting “tabs:” the Samsung Note, the 7.7 Gal Tab, and (bear with me) the new, flatter iPhone. Sadly, two of those may not make it to the US of A (and one can’t even be shown in Germany), but it’s clear that there’s a trend. Wait a few months and we’ll see more new 5- to 7-inch tablets/phones on the market than, I’d wager, 10-inch tablets. But why the shrink? Who is clamoring for a flatter, bigger “minitab” about the size of a phone but just a hair bigger?

First, this trend is not new. It began with the HTC HD2 (and, going back further, with a few recent Archos tablets) and many Android phones have gone the “flat and big” route, creating phones that are more in line with widescreen media players than what we currently call candybar style.

Hardware designers run in packs. A few years ago, the hardware designers at LG, Samsung, and Apple all went for something they called piano black. Everything was piano black – phones, cameras, TVs, DVD players. You had some splashes of “color” in the trade dress, but glossy plastic a la iPhone 3G was all the rage.

The same thing is happening here – the running of the herd – but for a few interesting reasons. First, the 10-inch tablet market is tapped. There is nowhere to go. To build another one is folly and to many consumers to buy anything other than an iPad is moral failure.

Gadgets hold totemic significance and their shape is important to manufacturers. Shape allows for a level of differentiation that is immediately apparent to the consumer and allows the manufacturer to hide any number of sins. Chip speeds are stagnant and the physical limitations of a compact device are forcing manufacturers to rethink the size and shape of their devices.

Consumers, too, are looking for something new. The 10-inch tablet is boring and, more important (at least according to Apple) a patent violation. What better way to keep tab-like gadgets in the pipeline than to smoosh them down?

Additionally, big touchscreens are still hard to come by. With everyone focusing on glass that maxes at 10 inches and larger, manufacturers can reduce costs by hunting down smaller pieces.

In the end, the next tablet is the next tablet. There is a certain fickleness to hardware size and it’s based on fashion, manufacturing ability, and some designer’s whim. Whether we buy these things as they get bigger (or smaller) is a matter of taste and quality. Manufacturers are trying to figure us out while reducing costs and, for a while, we’re going to be saddled with some truly pocket-straining devices until the next technology comes along to replace this one.

Lost In Legoland: A Gazillion Bricks And A Mini Star Wars Geekfest

Posted: 04 Sep 2011 12:58 PM PDT

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What happens when a geek winds up in Legoland? He has loads of unfiltered fun, that’s what.

“WTF? I should have kept this for my personal blog. This has got nothing to do with technology, and this blog is called TechCrunch for crying out loud. A report and pictures about a visit to a theme park have absolutely no place here on this blog. I wasted a couple of minutes of your life, and your time is valuable. You can, and perhaps should, unsubscribe from and never visit TechCrunch, ever again.”

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, on to the fun stuff!

I was in Denmark this week for the Next Aarhus ‘Beautiful Mistakes’ conference and exhibitions. I had a great time, as you can tell from my report about the trip. I did something awful, though.

At the third day of the event, there was a separate conference for school teachers about the next wave of technology for kids, at the Billund Center in – you guessed it – (tiny) Billund. As I wasn’t actually speaking at the event, I managed to sneak out of the conference room, and walked a mile down the street, passing the original Lego factory, which is conveniently located right next to Denmark’s second busiest airport, Billund Airport, as well the Legoland Hotel.

My destination: theme park Legoland Billund, a popular tourist attraction originally opened in 1968.

No disrespect to the Next Aarhus organizers who kindly invited me to the event, but it was by far the highlight of my trip. And not just because it made me feel like a kid again.

I even got on some rides, garnering wary looks from parents in waiting lines as I was pretty much the only adult in the park with no kids in tow – one carrying around a laptop bag, no less. Ah well, I thought, I’m used to making painful sacrifices for my work here at TechCrunch.

Here’s an elevated, 360-degree and slightly sped up video overview of the Legoland Billund park:

Quite a view, right? I can’t even imagine how many bricks are used for all this.

And here’s a small selection of the pictures I took:

You can quite literally spend hours gazing at the many fantastic creations, big or small, hop on fun rides, grab food, or visit some of the movies and exhibitions in the designated areas. I promised myself to come back here when my son, who is now only 5 months old, grows a few years older. If you have kids, or you would love to feel like a kid again too, I encourage you to see if there’s a Legoland park near you (spoiler: there are parks in Denmark, Germany, UK and California, US).

Here’s the video of a Lego submarine surrounded by (real) sharks, batoids and plenty of other fish:

Bonus points if you can name all the fish you see in the video.

On to the real highlight of my visit to Legoland, which was beyond any shred of doubt the 420 square-metre Star Wars display area in Miniland, which is at the heart of the park.

As a self-confessed Star Wars fan, the level of detail that went into the minitiature depiction of several of the movies’ most famous scenes genuinely astounded me. I took quite a few pictures, but they don’t really don’t do enough justice to the fantastic work that went into this.

Do you remember all the scenes from the films (and The Clone Wars animated series)?

Bonus: a slideshow featuring all the pictures embedded above:

Click to view slideshow.