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TakkTile turns digital barometers into open-source robot touch sensors Aug 4th 2012, 23:48 Freescale Semiconductor's MPL115A2 is a tiny thing that will sit quite comfortably on the tip of your finger. It's hard not to marvel at the engineering that went into the creation of something so small, yet so sensitive. The little metal square is minute enough to be plunked into a cell phone, offering up location pinpointing technologies that supplement GPS, gauging positions based on changes in atmospheric pressure. Harvard's Biorobotics team was clearly impressed when it discovered the technology, devising a fascinating implementation that extends beyond the walls of the cell phone. The sensors would go on to form the core of the department's TakkTile open-source boards capable of bringing sensitive touch sensing to robot hands. The I2C bus / USB-compatible boards incorporate several of the sensors, with the whole thing covered in 6mm of rubber, to help protect them. The rubber lends some durability to the TakkTile -- in fact, if you click on after the break, you can see footage of the team placing a 25 pound dumbbell on the board and banging it with a hammer (which seems to be a fairly popular activity over there). Even with that extra layer, the TakkTile is still quite sensitive -- as evidenced by the five gram weight in the video. In fact, it's even possible to get it to detect a pulse by placing it against your wrist, though the team was unable to recreate that during our visit. Also compelling is the price -- bought in bulk, the tiny barometers will run you $1 a piece, making the tactile array relatively inexpensive to assemble. Once you buy one, you can also get the most bang for your buck by snapping off the rows for individual use, a possibility given the symmetry of the design. Or you can just make one yourself, as the department has opted to open-source the technology, to help make it even more readily accessible to interested parties. Gallery: Tactile Array turns digital barometers into open-source robot touch senors Continue reading TakkTile turns digital barometers into open-source robot touch sensors Filed under: Robots TakkTile turns digital barometers into open-source robot touch sensors originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Aug 2012 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink   |  Takktile  | Email this | Comments Cranial Drilling Device puts a hole in skulls, not brains Aug 4th 2012, 22:29 If you told us on Monday that we'd be capping our week off by checking out an innovative cranial drill, we likely would have just stared at you funny. But here were are and here it is, a device referred to, quite straightforwardly, as the Cranial Drilling Device with Retracting Drill Bit After Skull Penetration. The drill was designed by a team of researchers at Harvard in order to address a major shortcoming with manual drills. Such devices require neurosurgical training in order to know precisely when to stop so as to not damage underlying brain tissue. In certain instances, such as emergency rooms and the backs of ambulances, medical practitioners may require a cranial drill in order to perform procedures such as the insertion of pressure monitors, with nary a neurosurgeon to be found. The Harvard team has concocted a drill that automatically retracts back into its protective casing, as soon as it's finished drilling through the skull, using a bi-stable mechanism that is active as the drill spins. After the break, team member Conor Walsh explains the technology is a manner that, thankfully, is not quite brain surgery. Continue reading Cranial Drilling Device puts a hole in skulls, not brains Cranial Drilling Device puts a hole in skulls, not brains originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Aug 2012 18:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

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