Grace Hopper Nanosecond Pin

An online company is offering a GRACE HOPPER / NANOSECOND PIN. It is a neat idea, and Grace Hopper is a legend and was a wonderful teacher. No surprise to anyone here that I love the labyrinth design! Hopper's "Nanosecond Wire" is explained below in the pin description and the video by Hopper herself.

The company's description of the pin follows:

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, pioneering computer scientist and educator, is celebrated in our new hard enamel pin, the second in our Women in Science series.

As one of the first computer programmers, Hopper used binary code to program the Mark I computer. But she had a vision for a better way: She created the first computer language that used words to tell computers what to do. 

Hopper also dedicated her life to educating people about how computers work. She always carried “nanosecond wires” with her to use in her lectures. These 11.8” (30cm) wires represented the maximum distance an electrical signal can travel in 1 billionth of a second. This pin is a wearable version of her nanosecond wires: The white line on the pin is 11.8” long.

Sony toio Robot Cube

Sony's "toio" Toy Platform robot cubes look really interesting. Take a look at these videos. Many other videos are published too.




More info can be found here - https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/design/stories/toio/  Information on price and availability is hard to find! My pal, Eric shared this info. Price is $275 according to https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/13/sonys-fantastical-toio-cubes-combine-robotics-with-papercraft/ Unboxing and demo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEsxAkWqVjw See below for updates...

Update: “Sony’s Robotic ‘Toio’ Cubes Now Available For Pre-Orders” by Alexa Ward, 2017
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/06/sonys-robotic-toio-cubes-now-available-for-pre-orders.html I wonder if the Toio has really been available for so long?

Sony has unveiled a new robotic toy known as the Toio cube, with the device itself now being available for pre-orders in Japan. The new toy, which resembles small cubes on wheels has been funded through the company’s crowdfunding website First Flight, which produces concepts from Sony employees. The small cubes have a pair of wheels at the bottom, a number of sensors, and offer compatibility with Lego blocks so children can easily build their own imaginative creations. Each robot measures approximately 32 × 32 × 19.2mm in size and can be controlled with motion-sensing rings, which allow the owners to perform functions such as driving the robots and spinning them around. The robots function by using Bluetooth to communicate with the control station which resembles a video game console. The control station then issues commands to the robots based on cartridges which plug into the console and contain preprogrammed operations. Toio kits also contain a number of patterned designs made of paper that can be cut out and attached to the cubes. These additional paper kits have a dual purpose – they help control the robots, as well as provide entertaining visual effects, Sony claims.

Each kit comes with special mats, while the robots themselves likely function through the use of optical pattern localization, meaning they can locate their position on the mats by using a camera to examine the patterns below them. The robots also communicate with the centralized control station, which allows the cubes to communicate with each other. The use of optical pattern localization means that when using the robots away from the mats, they will be more limited, although the kits include special cards to help them navigate around in such scenarios.

Sony has not yet made it clear whether owners will have to buy new cartridges from the company if they want to add support for additional behaviors to the cubes, and it’s also unconfirmed whether Toio robots will be able to run third-party code, with some industry watchers believing that the popularity of the new toy may be restricted if hobbyists can’t program their own units. There are currently three different kits available for pre-orders on the Toio website, each one with different levels of complexity and costing around 30,000 yen, or approximately $270.

Update 2: Just found a blog post that said "Sony’s Educational Toy Platform “toio” Launches In Japan On March 20" - meaning 2019 - See
https://www.siliconera.com/2019/01/17/sonys-educational-toy-platform-toio-launches-in-japan-on-march-20/#KwqmjwAjTm7R6QDb.99 This lists the cost of the basic kit as 16,980 yen or about $155 dollars.

cyber:bot Preview Webinar

This Thursday is Parallax's BBC micro:bit cyber:bot's Preview Webinar. Can't wait!

Update: Full webinar video is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95vQCDc4qJ0&feature=youtu.be

New R.U.S. Die Cut Stickers

Coming soon to a robot near you! New die cut stickers are on the way. Show your support for R.U.S., your favorite source for robotic's news and fun.

www.stickermule.com has great deals.

Women and Girls in STEM

See https://news.microsoft.com/features/why-do-girls-lose-interest-in-stem-new-research-has-some-answers-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/

Chang’e-4 Lander Landscape

Chang’e-4 Lander Landform Landscape Camera Ring Panorama (Cylinder Projection) - from cnsa.com - http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n6758823/n6758844/n6760026/n6760035/c6805183/content.html

Amazing photo!

Here is the image rotated...

Chang’e-4 Yutu-2 Rover

The Chang’e-4 rover, named Yutu-2 (玉兔二号, Jade Rabbit-2), was deployed onto the surface of the Von Karman Crater, on January 3, 2019, at 14:22 UTC (22:22 Beijing time). The Von Karman Crater is located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon. China’s Chang’e-4 (嫦娥四号) lunar mission landed in the crater January 3, 2019, at 02:26 UTC (10:26 Beijing time). Communications with Earth are provided by the relay satellite Queqiao (鹊桥, Magpie Bridge).

Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)/China National Space Administration (CNSA)



Amazing work!

Here is another video describing the Jade Rabbit-2 Rover (prior to launch) from SciNews. "The rover for China’s Chang'e-4 lunar mission was presented in Beijing on 14 August 2018. The Chang'e-4 lunar mission (lander and rover) is scheduled to land in the Aitken crater, located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon. Wu Weiren, chief designer of the lunar exploration program, presented the rover."

Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)

Strange Worlds

I love knowing that humankind's robotic creations are rolling around strange worlds exploring them for us as we watch from afar. We are there through them.

This photo is from China's Chang'e-4 of the No. 4 lunar rover named "Yu Rabbit No. 2"

Here is a photo of the ground that the Mars Curiosity Rover has covered (over 12 miles, or close to 20 kilometers since landing in 2012).

Here is a chart of the distances we have covered (from a great wiki article on rovers here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_(space_exploration)

Note: The Mars Curiosity Rover info is not up to date in this chart. 
Note 2: Further research suggests the possibility that the Lunokhod 2 may actually be the record holder. See - https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/soviet-lunar-rover-lunokhod-off-planet-driving-record_n_3598067.html. I have reported on R.U.S. about the incredible Lunokhod missions. See - https://roboticsunderthestole.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-first-robotic-rover.html

As you can see, the champ is the Mars Opportunity Rover at around 40 kilometers, followed by the Soviet Unions' Lunokhod 2, the second of two unmanned lunar rovers in 1973!

And just today, I drove this robot, built by my friend Nikos Giannakopoulos, around his office in Greece - the other side of our world - via the internet.

Robots let us explore places we can't be in person. Unbelievable!

China's Chang'e-4

Great video from engadget on China's very impressive Chang'e 4 lander and rover.



Read more at engadget here or visit China National Space Administration.