Nitz’s friends forget about his birthday so he decides to start hanging out with Jessie and her friends. At the same time at Tekerson Tech, Gimpy’s has lost his command of his band of minions and must fight Number One for control.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Nitz’s friends forget about his birthday so he decides to start hanging out with Jessie and her friends. At the same time at Tekerson Tech, Gimpy’s has lost his command of his band of minions and must fight Number One for control.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
The result of MIT undergrad Charles Guan’s hard work, the LOLRiokart (yes, LOL + Mario Kart) is simply a shopping cart with better wheels and jury-rigged golf cart electronics. The final product looks easy to build and drive, but finding the right way to run current through the electronics and brakes that wouldn’t burn out quickly took some time.
Courtesy Popular Science
And I bet developing that “custom-made steering system” required some work too. Early test runs saw Guan braking by digging his heels into the road “Fred Flintstone-style”, until he settled on using mountain bike brakes for safety’s sake: “Once, his quick footwork helped him avoid being hit by a train.”
The important stats? The motive assembly weighs a surprisingly hefty 160 pounds. Guan estimates a max range of 12 miles, and he even modified the transmission mechanics to keep the top speed at 30mph—the original ceiling of 45mph apparently seemed a bit too dangerous for a vehicle without any sort of crash absorption whatsoever. Mostly though, that hasn’t been a problem, according to Guan. “When you’re driving something this weird, everyone tends to stay away from you.”
No word yet on if this creation will ever see the mass market (honestly, the only market for this are golfers with a sense of humor?). You can bet though that a production line will cut down the one-year-long build-time. The same might not be true for the $300 cost of materials, given that Guan used whatever was lying around in MIT’s labs.
Post from: The Gadget Blog
UAB Engineering Students use the Wii for CPR from uabnews on Vimeo.
If you’ve ever been CPR certified, you know that it involves a lot of demonstration on a dummy that isn’t the best at giving feedback. But that’s the way it’s been done forever and it’s likely not going to change — although some undergrads at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are looking at a way to make the process a little more high-tech. They’ve designed a program, or “game” if you will, which integrates the Wiimote into the motions of the CPR training and lets you know if your compressions are deep enough, if you’re doing the right amount, etc. Sure, they could implement accelerometers and wireless data connections in the dummies, but we know that’s not going to happen.
It sounds kind of random, I know, but I think this is a good thing. My CPR training, while adequate, was less than stellar and more feedback and oversight would have been welcome. I’m not sure this Wii-PR will make it to the national stage or anything, but if it helps a few people learn a life-saving technique better than before, then it sounds like a winner to me.
It’ll be free and open source when it’s finished, though you will need a couple Wiimotes around to take advantage of it.