Famous Circuits Blog: January 2016

IEEE Spectrum

Did Stephen Curry Inspire ESPN’s Virtual 3-Point Line?
Video Friday: Marvin Minsky, Submersible Drone, and SLAM on a SnakeBot
A High School Physics Teacher Turns Telescope Repairwoman—at the South Pole
Conductive Concrete for Ice-Free Roadways

Did Stephen Curry Inspire ESPN’s Virtual 3-Point Line?

Posted: 30 Jan 2016 05:00 AM PST

Basketball spawns a grandchild of football's virtual first down line, and it debuts Saturday

Video Friday: Marvin Minsky, Submersible Drone, and SLAM on a SnakeBot

Posted: 29 Jan 2016 02:40 PM PST

Your weekly selection of awesome robot videos

A High School Physics Teacher Turns Telescope Repairwoman—at the South Pole

Posted: 29 Jan 2016 12:00 PM PST

Val Monticue goes to Antarctica to help fix a telescope—and tests some high tech gear for educators

Conductive Concrete for Ice-Free Roadways

Posted: 29 Jan 2016 11:00 AM PST

Watch this concrete slab melt ice

IEEE Spectrum

Bosch Haptic Pedal Can Save You 7 Percent on Gas
Charge Transport in Plastics Increased One Thousand Times
When 82 TV Channels Was More Than Enough
Wi-Charge Promises Phone Charging by Infrared Laser
The Chevy Bolt Won't Make a Dime for GM
A Tesla in Every Garage? Not So Fast
The Saddest Lesson of Challenger: Columbia
When Technology Hates Us
The Challenger Disaster: A Case of Subjective Engineering
This Robot Changes How It Looks at You to Match Your Personality

Bosch Haptic Pedal Can Save You 7 Percent on Gas

Posted: 29 Jan 2016 09:00 AM PST

A gas pedal that communicates with you through vibration offers improved safety, fuel economy, and foot massages

Charge Transport in Plastics Increased One Thousand Times

Posted: 29 Jan 2016 08:11 AM PST

Vertical orientation of polymer chains could change the game in OLEDs and organic solar cells

When 82 TV Channels Was More Than Enough

Posted: 29 Jan 2016 08:00 AM PST

How the rollout of UHF television in 1951 led to "the shot heard 'round the world"

Wi-Charge Promises Phone Charging by Infrared Laser

Posted: 29 Jan 2016 06:30 AM PST

Another entrant in the wireless charging field says it will have a smart-home product by late 2016

The Chevy Bolt Won't Make a Dime for GM

Posted: 29 Jan 2016 05:00 AM PST

Impressive though the engineering may be, the big-battery EV is simply not economical

A Tesla in Every Garage? Not So Fast

Posted: 28 Jan 2016 01:33 PM PST

Elon Musk's sunny vision of the electric-car future sells well to the tech elite, but it won't captivate the masses

The Saddest Lesson of Challenger: Columbia

Posted: 28 Jan 2016 12:54 PM PST

30 years after the Challenger disaster, space agencies and private companies alike must guard against the greatest threat: complacency

When Technology Hates Us

Posted: 28 Jan 2016 12:00 PM PST

There's a word for when the machines in your life seem to be out to get you: Resistentialism

The Challenger Disaster: A Case of Subjective Engineering

Posted: 28 Jan 2016 10:41 AM PST

From the archives: NASA's resistance to probabilistic risk analysis contributed to the Challenger disaster

This Robot Changes How It Looks at You to Match Your Personality

Posted: 28 Jan 2016 10:01 AM PST

How you look at a robot and how it looks at you can make you more comfortable

IEEE Spectrum

Google Plans Four New Sites for Self-driving Cars
Feed the World by Wasting Less Food
Smart Wearable Sensor Takes Sweat-Monitoring To Next Level
Monster Machine Cracks the Game of Go

Google Plans Four New Sites for Self-driving Cars

Posted: 28 Jan 2016 06:42 AM PST

The prime contender is Ann Arbor, Michigan which has one thing Mountain View lacks: snow

Feed the World by Wasting Less Food

Posted: 27 Jan 2016 12:00 PM PST

Food waste begins on the farm and doesn't stop on our dinner plates. But we can easily cut that waste in half

Smart Wearable Sensor Takes Sweat-Monitoring To Next Level

Posted: 27 Jan 2016 11:00 AM PST

Plastic sensor array combined with flexible silicon IC accurately measures several biomarkers in sweat

Monster Machine Cracks the Game of Go

Posted: 27 Jan 2016 10:00 AM PST

Google DeepMind's program defeats a pro, meeting a Grand Challenge of AI years earlier than expected

Trossen Robotics Blog

New Product – Xevelabs USB2AX v3.2a

Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:37 PM PST

We have a new product, and it’s pretty gosh darn exciting for anyone using AX and MX series Dynamixel Servos for a single board computer robot! The Xevelabs USB2AX v3.2a USB to TTL Dynamixel Servo Interface is diminutive in size, but talks a big game with any device utilizing a half-duplex TTL interface 3-pin connector using the Dynamixel Protocol! The USB2AX works as a serial device, receiving messages from your PC via USB, and transmitting the data over to the DYNAMIXEL chain. You can send and read data to/from DYNAMIXEL servos just like you would with a microcontroller.

Often a USB2DYNAMIXEL adapter would be used to connect a PC to a DYNAMIXEL chain, but at just under 4cm in length, the USB2AX is a much more compact solution. The USB2AX also offers lower latency and more software features than the USB2DYNAMIXEL. If you want to use a small single board computer like the Raspberry Pi to control your DYNAMIXEL based robot, the USB2AX is the board for you.

Xevelabs has a plethora of documentation to get you started with the USB2AX in no time at all. The USB2AX is an Open Source project, allowing you to reprogram, hack, and configure the hardware and software as you deem fit!