When the inevitable happens and robots take over the world, let's all hope that TacoCopter meat and bone Skycatch bring delicious Mexican treats over the fence to the last remnants of humanity. Anthony TacoCopter have entered during the panel "These are not the droids you're looking for," where he discussed the future of autonomous robotics and sensing technology is changing our lives.
The robot is a basic quad-copter with a small box at the bottom that opens automatically. This unmanned plane was piloted by an employee Skycatch but the Christian founder Sanz has prototypes that can follow a laser around the room and even run completely autonomously.
I, for one, welcome our robotic taco-delivery gentlemen.
The vacuum cooking is probably one of the most high-tech methods of food preparation that home cooks can perform without a degree in chemistry and / or kill themselves and those around them. That's why I was particularly excited to try the Anova, a circulation pump to automatic vacuum that can turn a piece of cold chicken in a succulent taste sensation in about an hour.
Sous vide is a form of poaching in which meat and vegetables are in bags and then cooked slowly at low temperatures in vacuum sealed recirculated water. The Anova, for example, allows you to seal a chicken breast in a bag and fully without losing any of the juice or burning flesh. Then you can brown the meat surface by hand after cooking, creating some of the best darn chicken you've ever tasted.
The Anova is surprisingly simple. To use it you need a large pot with water and an outlet. You should seal the meat in a plastic bag - zipper bags probably will not work, unfortunately, so a thermal vacuum sealer is also needed. Next, adjust the temperature and time. For example, I cooked the chicken on the right at 60 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes. Then I Salé and seared on a hot skillet.
The system has a temperature range of 25 ° C to 99 ° C and a pump of 12 liters per minute circulates water during cooking. Ideally preheat the system before turning on the food because the food lying comfortably in warm water, not a great idea.
The founder and creator, Jeff Wu, claimed to have made the first vacuum system of affordable housing in the market. Although there are some open source projects and DIY out there, this is one of the most "Apple-esque" fire and forget the models we have seen. Wu has a background in biochemistry, computer science, and finance. He builds hardware for pharmaceutical and chemical companies.
"Most, if not all of the products that I helped develop are directly related to the investigation of new drugs, medical research or the development of new innovative materials," he said. "I'll meet a lot of smart people in my line of work - mostly doctoral researchers, graduate students, and Nobel prizes occasionally. - Which is indeed as I found vacuum"
"I was in Boston visiting a research group at MIT / Harvard / BC (I forget which) about 4 years ago and saw some graduate students sous Viding some chicken in a circulator laboratory and finishing off on a hot plate. This interests me enough to try it in the lab that was a big mistake that almost killed the project, "he said. "I basically had no idea what I was doing because it was really no clear guide to sous vide in 2009 and above all this, my luggage was sucked into the turbines of scientific circulators."
So it's amazing? Yes. I'm a little hooked. The fact that this thing is only $ 199 (which will also have to invest in a vacuum sealer $ 70 and a big pot) makes it very compelling and it made an excellent meal in just a few hours. I've always wondered how the most elegant restaurants make most of their succulent meat and not soggy vegetables and now I know. Because it requires very little preparation you can essentially set it and forget it. You can also leave food at a low temperature for 72 hours, creating some amazing slow-cooked it's not as careless as a pot of baked beans, but it's so tasty as one meal.
Again, $ 199 is a great investment for a pretty cool tool for cooking. However, if you are a fan and want to try sous vide, this is probably the best device out there. There are other online water furnaces, but those passing the $ 400 mark and higher. This is the first "independent" model - you do not need another computer to work, but not much - and it's surprisingly easy to use and elegant design.
Well sous vide is obviously a very intense culinary technique. Fortunately, food nerds like Wu are out there and do interesting things like Anova.
What's this? An ordinary vending machine you say? If that was your guess, it would be a mistake, but it would be understandable why you might not notice anything special. That's because, on the outside, this looks like any other vending machine plain-Jane. No screens or touch in special areas or NFC chips or anything like that grace its exterior, however, this machine can accept mobile payments for PayPal or Google Wallet.
How? Well, it has a special device in it - designed and developed by Red Like Us Keyston Ray Hernandez and Clay - which connects to the existing hardware inside and communicates wirelessly to accept payment and add credit and PayPal Google Wallet. Platforms Other payments are being planned right now.
Using either an application for smartphones that developed or mobile website (in order to identify a vending machine ID and to close the transaction cycle) credit is added to the machine when authorized. Pow! Their drink is out like a slipped a crisp dollar bill (or conversely as you fought for more than 3 minutes trying to deploy a bill that could be mistaken for a Spitwad).
Out of the transactional nature of the payment process, there is also a built-fi game. The application can also tabular loyalty points for sharing your purchase and trackable perform other activities. In one scenario, the team is investigating the product price variable depending on the influential status of the buyer. For example, someone with a high Klout score might get an item at a reduced price or even free if they agree to broadcast your purchase. They are even considering geo-fencing some vending units to broadcast your location to impulse purchases. Very clever.
There have been many concepts in recent years, especially international, who have tried and deploy the capabilities of alternative payment for vending machines, but many have required new hardware interfaces, changes or payment methods are agnostic and can add a considerable expenditure of capital deployment. That kind of spending is notorious for delayed roll growth and stifle innovation.
But the beauty of the network approach Like Us is that it is plug and play. You drop your little wireless node in the vending machine, connect it to the motherboard chip old school inside and mobile payments are enabled. No external alterations to the machine itself are required.
monetization
Obviously, it could be difficult to make items for sale, but the team is considering some options. They are investigating a convenience fee for consumers or possibly data rates to owners of vending their cloud node capacity.
What comes to mind as a viable option for monetizing would simply accept a reduction (and only) purchases where payment is facilitated by the system. I mean, that the purchase could not have happened otherwise so the court could be justified.
Overall, I think the concept is a great idea, but who cares what I think? What I really want to know is "what Mark Cuban thinks about it?" As it turns out, actually has an opinion about it and, in fact, is an investor. Mark has spent $ 75,000 so far on the device Like Us Network.
How Mark Cuban got to participate as an investor is an interesting story in itself. Mark and Ray Hernandez met during a freak accident at a gym where a man who had resolved an "event" of pacemakers and fell off a treadmill. Both Cuban and Hernandez and some other good friends, got the help of man, and then the conversation took place and the concept is on the radar of Mark. He advised Ray and Keyston and now we're here at the launch of the concept in TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013.
BotObjects 3D printer is a printing company that promises "full color" in a system that uses a set of colored filaments for extracting colored plastic in layers. Like Makerbot, plastic ProDesk3D layered deposits and can print color bands around an object and not really specific points in a model.
That said, they have more video of the printer in action (I can not embed here, perhaps by design); the founders have offered a practice after a little back and forth.
After following this company in the last month or so, I've seen a number of 3D printers express skepticism in your product. I've seen a lot of vaporware in my day - I was one of the first guys to poo-poo the Phantom console at the time - and, at least, these guys are willing to work the crowd. The printer, as shown in these videos is not exactly full color printing - it is essentially only good in creating bands of color around a device - but could be programmed to add spot color in the right places.
Although I can not say I have seen this with my own eyes, my understanding of the technology we are seeing a working model will be ready to ship within a few weeks.
Is this a true color 3D printer? If you accept the clear limitations of the current incarnation then sure, it's entirely possible to create colorful plastic objects very well with this technology. If you are looking for something more detailed, however, you will need to use services like Shapeways to print real, full color sandstone. I am cautious but optimistic about BotObjects ProDesk3D, that is all I can be without seeing it in the flesh (or plastic).
The Liberator pistol made headlines when its creator lit his 3D printer created, building guns that shoot really little more than the plastic components combined cost little more than your average Blu-ray. Now, the turning point in the history of DIY 3D printing is comfortably installed in a London museum, reports Engadget.
Liberator of Cody Wilson had his own faults from the beginning, which destroyed half of the case, but later proved he could give several shots. As John Biggs explained in an overview, which technically can be printed at home for anyone who wants one, but not all self-printed versions carried the story that make these original models Libertador.
As Biggs noted, homemade weapons are not new; It is a longstanding pastime, especially in the USA, with an illustrious history. But while once a lathe and other tools of iron metallurgy and some kind of dedication and sand is required, it is now more or less can be managed by casual fans able to spend some money on a 3D printer competition in downloading Internet files.
The project is developed by the London museum Victoria & Albert is designed to display a series of "projects of contemporary design", of which the printed-3D Libertador is a key example, and these are displayed between September 14 - 22 to the time, the Liberator has not led to a popular revolution or a wave of murders, but getting eyes-on the original could still be a story to tell the grandkids one day depending on how things go out.
Old
iPhone
springs are a depressing spectacle in this world of cables and connectors Lightning, sitting with his 30-pin connector exposed and alone. There are a number of Bluetooth accessories that can be used with these devices, including one accessory-maker named Freeda Auris. But his latest project is a similar attachment brings AirPlay and DLNA streaming to the docks.
The Auris Skye is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, and connects via Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth. It allows you to stream music from your iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows Phone and Mac or PC on your local Wi-Fi network using proprietary streaming protocol Apple AirPlay or DLNA on Android and Windows. It is also Wi-Fi Direct enabled, so you do not even need to have a Wi-Fi router or network available for use.
Their are some advantages to using AirPlay via Bluetooth. For one, if you have other AirPlay speakers and stereos at home, you can transmit to Skye and simultaneously from a Mac or PC. Apple has also made every effort to optimize the AirPlay streaming protocol for a high quality, so you'll get a much better sound vs using Bluetooth, as long as the Skye works as advertised. Also, no need to mate; Skye should only appear in the list of available streaming devices once established in your network. Finally, the Wi-Fi range is much greater than that of Bluetooth.
Skye also do not need a separate power supply as it uses power from the dock itself, which is normally used to charge the iOS device sitting on crib. The Auris team says have been tested with a range of speakers now, and so far have not found one that does not work, and offer a control application get configured.
Headquartered in Santa Clara Auris already done and sends two audio accessories, so you know how to build the product. The company previously kickstarted their Bluetooth receiver, and raised $ 131,911 (higher than its $ 40,000) objective. It is worth noting that some supporters complained about the quality of this device in the comments for that project, but Auris has redesigned the original product, and has already exceeded its goal of $ 56,000 Skye, raising $ 72.197.
AirPlay can be tricky to do well, but the latest incarnations of the technology in consumer products have performed reliably, so Auris has much to offer with this project and a timeline for sending Hopefully December 2013 the company learned some lessons from his first lap, though, because this is a very useful accessory to have.
After a brief pause, during which most of the writers based in Europe TechCrunch packed their laptops and took off from San Francisco (for Disrupt 2013), the TechCrunch Europe Podcast is back for a few nuggets to chew election news regional technology.
On the board this week, get your own incubator Paris oversized alias 1000startups - a massive factory startup is backed by CEO Xavier Niel free. Our own French resident, Romain Dillet, is available to comment, but is not entirely convinced of the merits of this model très Big ...
Besides taking the operating time of the air this week, the retail giant Amazon style movement Tesco own-brand tablet with Hudl - as a way to extend the reach of other digital services has been trying to sell to buyers, and the reasons for Tesco 'baked beans.
We also play the Finnish start-winter blues Valkee directed to the headphones, which takes the form of a pair of headphones light emission. Does it work? Who knows. We could feel the light shining deep in our ear canals during a long winter, scandinavian dark? Frankly, who would not.
Join host John Biggs, besides the TC Natasha Lomas, Steve O'Hear and Romain Dillet to discuss all these issues, along with one hand on the finer points of the European irony. Background sound effects courtesy of the counter demanding money in Montenegro.
