I thought the Honda U3-X was weird, but this personal mobility device prototype by Nissan and AIST actually separates into a whacked out pair of motorized skis on stilts. With its unstable seeming controls, I think I'll stick to walking. When the the device is in one piece, you can control turns by shifting your weight, but when the sides are split up you're supposed to lift your feet and step around as if truly on stilts. Great, everything already look unstable and you want me to lift a foot without a nice soft pile of snow to fall face-first into? Thankfully, neither Nissan nor the National Advanced Institute of Science and Technology appear to be in any rush to actually market this thing. [Gizmodo via Plastic Pals via Engadget]
First seen at CES years ago, Horizon's MiniPak has (finally) gone on sale for $100. It's the first personal, portable fuel cell—if you don't count the Japan-only Toshiba one—and is like a mini power plant for charging gadgets.
It eats refillable cartridges (coming bundled with two), with each cartridge giving the equivalent of 1,000 AA batteries. At $100, you can see it's going to end up saving you quite a bit of money. Not to mention help save the environment, with fuel cells being a clean and cheap way to generate energy. More on that can be explained here.
A bunch of connectors are included, so your smartphone/gaming console/other portable device should be supported, with up to 2W of power surging through a USB port. It's dead-small too, fitting in the palm of your hand, only slightly larger than the object you're charging up.
Remember the U3-X Mobility Robot from Honda from last year? Well, the auto-unicycle is still a prototype, but Honda has just released a new (and pretty interesting) promo video on its official YouTube channel. The company says the U3-X can run continuously for one hour on a single (lithium-ion) battery charge and can be recharged via a conventional 120-volt power outlet.
The prototype weighs just 22 pounds, can stand by itself and features a foldable seat and retractable footrests. But its main bullet point is the omni-directional driving wheel system, which, according to Honda, is the only one of its kind. It allows U3-X drivers not only to move forward and back but also sideways and diagonally, setting it apart from vaguely similar products like the Segway or Toyota’s Winglet (which is also still just a prototype).
What's cooler than a hover-capable, electric-powered, super-quiet personal VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft? If you answered 'absolutely nothing,' do read on, because NASA is preparing to oblige you. The space agency's Puffin aircraft design will be officially unveiled tomorrow, showing just how far personal, electrically propelled flight could change the ways we live and get around.
The Puffin is something of a personal V-22 Osprey, complete with vertical-takeoff and landing capability (but minus the squad of Marines). But rather than tilting the rotors forward for horizontal flight, the whole craft — cockpit and all — pitches forward, meaning the pilot flies from a prone position. During takeoff and landing the tail splits into four legs that serve as landing gear, and flaps on the wings deploy to keep the aircraft stable as it lifts and descends.
Don't let the cuddly name fool you; as far as specs are concerned the Puffin is no slouch. Its 12-feet height and 13.5-feet wingspan mean it's big, but of manageable stature. In theory it can cruise at 150 miles per hour and sprint at more like 300 miles per hour. Since the craft is electrically propelled it doesn't need air intake, so thinning air is not a limitation, meaning it can reach — again, in theory — 30,000 feet before limitations on battery power force it to descend (clearly the pilot would need a pressurized cabin or oxygen tanks at that altitude, but we're just talking raw physical capability here).
The Puffin's range would be the most limiting characteristic, at just 50 miles, but that's simply a matter of battery density. Batteries are growing more dense by the day, so in coming years that range could be drastically improved.
Of course, the Puffin is so far just a cool digital rendering in a NASA-branded video, but let's not forget exactly who put men on the moon before we call the concept unfeasible. The coolest thing about the Puffin design is that it shows just how electric flight could revolutionize personal transportation. Aside from the military applications (super-stealthy troop insertions with very low thermal signatures?) the quiet, uncomplicated, low-powered electric lift — just 60 horsepower gets pilot and craft airborne — shows how a world in which everyday folks get around modern cities via personal aircraft may not be as sci-fi as was once thought.
[Gizmodo via Scientific American] Popular Science is your wormhole to the future. Reporting on what's new and what's next in science and technology, we deliver the future now.
