Designers Party :

CHARLI : Dennis Hong

CHARLI was born in the lab of Dennis Hong, the robot maker who was chosen as one of Popular Science's Brilliant 10 in 2009

- Popular Science

A group of undergraduate and graduate students at the Virginia Tech College of Engineering's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) have unveiled CHARLI, which they are calling the first full-sized, walking, untethered, humanoid robot, complete with four moving limbs and a head, to be built in the United States. While walking robots are nothing new, this one's humanoid counterparts, such as Petman and Honda's Asimo, are apparently disqualified for lack of height, autonomy, and nation of origin.

Dennis Hong is the founder of VT’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory and the leader of the student team that built CHARLI-L. We’re seated at a workbench inside the University of Pennsylvania’s robotics lab, run by Hong’s friend and collaborator Daniel Lee. Hong’s students are here to show CHARLI-L to Lee’s students, to prepare for RoboCup 2010, held in June in Singapore, and to discuss upcoming partnerships. Hong (winner of a 2009 Popular Science Brilliant 10 award) and his students have produced chemically driven, amoeba-like robots; a spider-like ’bot called STRiDEr, whose swinging walk is modeled on the human gait; and a system by which blind adults can make guided yet independent decisions as the drivers of their own cars. Lee’s students build complex software to govern robot behavior and human-robot interaction. These are some of the most accomplished robotics engineers in the field. But as I watch the students fiddle with CHARLI-L, it begins to dawn on me how much work stands between CHARLI-L and the RoboCup trophy, to say nothing of how much work it will take to reach a future full of robot helpers.

Dennis Hong

Augmented shadow : Joon Moon

Augmented Shadow 2010 View

Augmented Shadow is a design experiment producing an artificial shadow effect through the use of tangible objects, blocks, on a displayable tabletop interface. Its goal is to offer a new type of user-experience. The project plays on the fact that shadows present distorted silhouettes depending on the light. Augmented Shadows take the distortion effect into the realm of fantasy. Shadows display below the objects according to the physics of the real world. However, the shadows themselves transform the objects into houses, occupied by shadow creatures. By moving the blocks around the table the user sets off series of reactions within this new fantasy ecosystem.

This experiment brings augmented reality to the tabletop by way of a tangible interface. The shadow effect is an ‘interface metaphor.’ Second, the unexpected user experience results from manipulating the users’ visual perceptions, expectations, and imagination to inspire re-perception and new understanding. Therefore, users can play with the shadows lying on the boundary between the real, virtual, and fantasy.

: Credits : Katherine Moriwaki, Louisa Campbell, Marko Tandefelt, Loretta Wolozin, Zachary Lieberman, Anezka Sebek, Nick Hardeman, Stephen Varga, Uros Otasevic, Jenny Tsai, Yongsub Song, Namsoo

Joon Moon

Beyond : Jinha Lee, and Hiroshi Ishii

Beyond - Collapsible Input Device for 3D Direct Manipulation view

What would it be like to reach into a screen and manipulate virtual objects as in real world. We present Beyond, a novel collapsible input device for direct 3D manipulation. When pressed against a screen, Beyond collapses in the physical world and extends into the digital space of the screen, such that users can have an illusion that they are inserting the tool into the virtual space. Beyond allows users to directly interact with 3D media, avoiding inconsistencies of input and output without having to wear special glasses. Users can select, draw, and sculpt in 3D virtual space and seam- lessly transition between 2D and 3D manipulation. We de- scribe detailed interaction techniques, implementation and application scenarios focused on geometric design and pro- totyping.

MIT Media Lab - Tangible Media Group | Project

Jinha Lee

MOS transistor : Dawon Kahng

Figure from Dawon Kahang’s MOS patent

1960 - Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor Demonstrated
John Atalla and Dawon Kahng fabricate working transistors and demonstrate the first successful MOS field-effect amplifier.

In 1959 M. M. (John) Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs achieved the first successful insulated-gate field-effect transistor (FET), which had been long anticipated by Lilienfeld, Heil, Shockley and others (1926 Milestone) by overcoming the "surface states" that blocked electric fields from penetrating into the semiconductor material. Investigating thermally grown silicon-dioxide layers, they found these states could be markedly reduced at the interface between the silicon and its oxide in a sandwich comprising layers of metal (M - gate), oxide (O - insulation), and silicon (S – semiconductor) - thus the name MOSFET, popularly known as MOS. As their device was slow and addressed no pressing needs of the telephone system, it was not pursued further. In a 1961 memo, however, Kahng pointed out its potential "ease of fabrication and the possibility of application in integrated circuits." But researchers at Fairchild and RCA did recognize these advantages. In 1960 Karl Zaininger and Charles Meuller fabricated an MOS transistor at RCA and C.T. Sah of Fairchild built an MOS-controlled tetrode. Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein followed in 1962 with an experimental 16-transistor integrated device at RCA.

Dr. Dawon Kahng, 61, Inventor In Field of Solid-State Electronics - New York Times
Meet the 2009 National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductees - Hall of Fame

Intravascular Therapy Microrobot : Jongoh Park

The various electromagnetic based actuation(EMA) methods have been proposed for actuating microrobot. The advantage of EMA is that it can provide wireless driving to microrobot. In this reason a lot of researchers have been focusing on the EMA driven microrobot. This paper proposed a swimming microrobot driven by external alternating magnet field which is generated by two pairs of Helmholtz coils.

The microrobot has a fish-like shape and consists of a buoyant robot body, a permanent magnet, and a fin. The fin is directly linked to the permanent magnet and the magnet is swung by the alternating magnet field, which makes the propulsion and steering power of the robot. In this paper, firstly, we designed the locomotive mechanism of the microrobot boy EMA. Secondly, we set up the control system. Finally, we demonstrated the swimming robot and evaluated the performance of the microrobot by the experiments.

Jongoh Park, Intravascular Therapy Microrobot

Unveils newspaper-size flexible e-paper : LG

LG Display has announced its development of a newspaper-size flexible e-paper. The 19-inch wide (250x400mm) flexible e-paper is almost as big as a page of A3 sized newspaper. The product is optimized for an e-newspaper and able to convey the feeling of reading an actual newspaper. Additionally, as the product measures 0.3 millimeters thin, the e-paper weighs just 130 grams despite its 19-inch size.

LG Display arranged TFT on metal foil rather than glass substrate, allowing the e-paper display to recover its original shape after being bent. The use of a metal foil substrate makes the e-paper both flexible and durable while maintaining display qualities. In particular, LG Display applied GIP (gate-in-panel) technology which integrates the gate driver IC onto the panel. This improves its flexibility by removing driver ICs which are attached to the side of panel and hinder the bending of the display.

LG

Smart Magnetic Janus Particles with Nanoscopic Surface Complexity for Remote-Controlled Locomotion : Seung Man Yang

Shin-Hyun Kim, Jae Young Sim, Jong-Min Lim and Seung-Man Yang, “Smart Magnetic Janus Particles with Nanoscopic Surface Complexity for Remote-Controlled Locomotion,” Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Accepted for Publication (2010)

Colloidal particles are used as elemental building blocks to construct biofunctional nanostructures. In particular, multidimensional periodic arrangements of colloidal particles such as planar arrays and spherical assemblies can be used in a wide range of biological fields. The spatial regularity of such structures at the submicron-scale gives rise to special features such as a photonic bandgap (PBG) and selective permeability, which cannot be achieved by single colloidal particles. Recent advances in microfluidics technologies enable the fabrication of designed microparticles of equal size and shape in a continuous manner. Such microparticles have great potential for use in high-throughput screening and immunoassays. In this article, we review the current state-of-the-art in regard to colloidal assemblies and microparticles prepared by microfluidics for biological applications. This review consists of five main sections: (1) surface modification methods, (2) two dimensional (2D) and (3) three dimensional (3D) colloidal assemblies, (4) confined regular structures, and (5) novel fabrication strategies for advanced colloidal assemblies. In each section, we discuss not only the fabrication routes for biofunctional materials but also the characteristics of the materials and their biological applications. Finally, we outline the future perspectives for biofunctional colloidal materials.

Janus microspheres composed of superhydrophobic and hydrophilic hemispherical surfaces were prepared using photocurable Pickering emulsion droplets. Upon placement at an air-water interface, an impregnable superhydrophobic barrier with high flexibility is formed. These microspheres have great potential in size-dependent semipermeable membranes, floating micromachines, and superhydrophobic coatings.

Kaist Superlattice Nanomaterials Lab

Angewandte Chemie International Edition

HUBO 2 : HUBO Lab

The World’s 3rd Running Humanoid Robot

KAIST’s HUBO 2 has recently become the world’s third full-sized humanoid robot capable of running (after Honda’s ASIMO and Toyota’s Partner Robots – SONY’s QRIO was technically the first bipedal robot capable of running in 2003, but it was only 60cm tall). In the last video (in which HUBO 2 performs TaiChi) we saw the robot in its incomplete form doing some running tests. Now it appears that KAIST has got a complete robot running at 3.6kmph with 30cm strides, and improved its walking speed from 1.2kmph to 1.8kmph. In order to qualify as “running”, both of the robot’s feet must be off the ground simultaneously during the flight phase of the running gait (HUBO 2’s feet are in the air for approximately 20~30ms).

HUBO Lab

Remix : Hye jung Chung

REMIX is a musical instrumental installation which is played by water. Using the water, it is operated as the switch of the installation, turning the power on or off. Moreover, it changes the music by itself. As the audience change the combination of instruments, they hear the music sound according to the movement of two golf balls, being in and out of a pair of holes.

This installation is composed of two water pillars and there are five different switches in each of them. As each switch has its own musical instrument sound, it is possible that ten different kinds of music instrument sounds can be played. The main material, the water, is controlled by two water pumps and flows through two pillars from the place that audience put the golf balls. In doing so, the music is played and the light in the water is gradually illuminated as the water level in each pillar rises and triggers the switch of it.

Hye jung Chung

the Spectators : Young Sang Cho

the Spectators , interactive video installation , 2008 - View Movie

This project is an interactive video installation that explores issues of (inter)personal responsibility and suffering vis-?-vis torture.

Young Sang Cho