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TC Makers: Centeye Creates Insect-Like Flying Robots In A DC Basement

Posted: 19 Aug 2012 02:00 AM PDT

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When we first wandered up to the suburban split-level that houses Centeye Inc., we were a bit confused. Could this be the place where a mad roboticist was building tiny robots with insect eyes and brains that could interact with their environment? We rang the doorbell and weren’t disappointed.

Founded by Geoffrey Barrows, Centeye is dedicated to computer vision. They make little electronic eyes that are cheap to reproduce and “see” only a few thousand pixels. He has a staff of two engineers who work with him on designing and building chips and has just released the open source Arudeye board, a tiny Arduino board with camera built-in.

Barrows does everything from his basement. Recent advances in fabrication allow him and his staff to design chips on a computer at home and then send the plans to manufacturers in Asia. They can then mass produce their eyes, driving down the cost per unit to a few dollars. They don’t need a big lab because everything is done remotely.

Their robots are actually proofs-of-concept but they’re really cool. The little helicopters use Centeye eyes to remain stationary in space and other models can avoid objects as they move. Because each eye takes in a small part of the scene, not much computing power is needed to process each bit of input. Like insects, the brain doesn’t have to work very hard to get a lot done.

Centeye has contracts with DARPA but is trying to commercialize their hardware with the Arduino offerings. It’s fascinating to see makers in their own habitat and even more exciting to see them make cool stuff in the oddest of places. Check out the video for more information and you can watch all of our TC Makers episodes here

If you’d like to chat about your project, drop me a line at john@techcrunch.com with the subject line MAKERS.

What Makes A City A City? New Visual System Identifies City Characteristics

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 05:11 PM PDT

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If you’ve been to cities and you’ve had enough, have you been to Paris, France? Paris is defined by a few magical characteristics – the street signs, the architecture, the street features – and a new system at Carnegie Mellon identifies cities based on their special traits.

The project describes a fairly complex algorithm that is able to find aspects from Google Street view.

Given a large repository of geotagged imagery, we seek to automatically find visual elements, e.g. windows, balconies, and street signs, that are most distinctive for a certain geo-spatial area, for example the city of Paris. This is a tremendously difficult task as the visual features distinguishing architectural elements of different places can be very subtle. In addition, we face a hard search problem: given all possible patches in all images, which of them are both frequently occurring and geographically informative? To address these issues, we propose to use a discriminative clustering approach able to take into account the weak geographic supervision. We show that geographically representative image elements can be discovered automatically from Google Street View imagery in a discriminative manner.

The system currently works in multiple city using large samples of images from cities around the world. Using these, the system can identify where a random photo was taken with some degree of accuracy. Interestingly, the system can also be used on everyday objects, including “discovering stylistic elements in other weakly supervised settings, e.g. “What makes an Apple product?’”

You can download the study PDF here.

via VisualNews



WickedLasers Releases 1.25W Spyder Super Laser

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 03:35 PM PDT

This being Shark Week and all, budding super villains may be interested in this 1.25W laser from WickedLasers. This monstrous slab of electronics sends out a beam powerful enough to pop multiple balloons and looks like a light saber. It would look great on your shark’s head.

The 1.25W version of the WickedLasers Spyder S3 costs $399.95 and require eye protection to operate.

It’s chassis is crafted from aircraft-grade aluminum which makes it virtually indestructible and allows for an unlimited duty cycle. A “Morse code” cipher lock is built in so unauthorized users cannot enable your laser.

If you’re tempted, please remember that these are not toys. We’ve reviewed a few of these things over the years and they’re some serious ordnance. I very nearly burned my cornea once because I was being a doofus. Practice safe lasing, kids.

Hands On With Romain Jerome’s Octopus Steampunk Dive Watch

Posted: 18 Aug 2012 02:55 PM PDT

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Here is a high-end dive watch to consider if you like that Captain Nemo look. It is called the Octopus, and is from avant garde Swiss watch brand Romain Jerome (RJ). Those familiar with the Romain Jerome Titanic DNA collection of watches will recognize the styling of this new Octopus diver.

The number 8 plays throughout the piece. There’s a unique octopus engraving on the back of the case, 888 feet of water resistance, and they’ll sell only 888 pieces in the limited edition. There are even eight special screws. One feature we love is the “suction cup” style inner part of the rubber strap. Decidedly strange looking, Romain Jerome knows that they are designing and producing polarizing products. People with a strong sense that their watch needs to say something about themselves tend to find watches like this appealing. The RJ Octopus will come in a few styles and each contains a Swiss automatic mechanical movement. You can check out my deeper look over here or just save up your pennies to buy this $10K piece.
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