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Posts Tagged ‘Dexterity’

Flickr faster with Flickit Pro

Filed under: Multimedia, iPhone, App Review

I love Flickr (and alliteration, apparently). That is, I love Flickr on my desktop, and often on my Apple TV. I’ve never really been in love with the mobile experience, mostly due to long wait times and cumbersome navigation. When Mike Bernardo from Green Volcano Software contacted me about Flickit Pro, his Flickr app for the iPhone, I was definitely game to try it. I bought a copy the same day in the hopes that it would bring a little joy to my mobile Flickring.

We’ve played with Photon before, so we know that Green Volcano knows how to make photo handling fluid and fast. That interface dexterity carries over to the iPhone app. I was impressed by the overall aesthetics, and as I played with it I quickly confirmed that it wasn’t just eye candy. There are little details that made me smile, and then ask, “Why all apps don’t do things like this?” My favorite of these interface gems has to be the ability to zoom a photo in quite far, drag it to the edge and hold it a sec, and watch it suck back down and load the next image. Whether or not you dislike the usual double-tap-before-you-slide on most iPhone photo browsers as much as I do, it’s still a great feature and demonstrates some serious attention to detail.

The speed is impressive, the background loading isn’t cumbersome or even noticeable, and the overall experience left a great impression. It was $3.99US well spent. There’s a free version, Flickit (without the Pro), but I haven’t tried it. I assume it’s a cool app, but if you’re a Flickr fanatic (or really like well-designed apps), check out Flickit Pro.

I put together a little gallery below, so in case you don’t buy that whole “nice interface” spiel, you can dive in and see for yourself.

TUAWFlickr faster with Flickit Pro originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Found footage: 6 iPhones almost make a full keyboard

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Found Footage

A piano has 88 keys, and this arrangement of iPhones comes pretty close (we counted 84). The pianist has six iPhones laid out in a row starting from a low C and progressing through 5 octaves. As a result, he can play a nice piece of music on very tiny, touch-sensitive keys. That takes a good bit of dexterity. He has obviously been doing his Hanon exercises.

There are a number of piano apps in the App Store, including Pocket Piano [iTunes link], Virtuoso Piano [iTunes link] and Mini Piano [iTunes link]. We can’t tell which app is being used here, but the UI closely resembles that of Mini Piano. Budding artists may wish to practice piano with GarageBand ‘09 or work on sight reading with Key Wiz [iTunes link].

[Via Swiss Miss]

TUAWFound footage: 6 iPhones almost make a full keyboard originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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KAIST’s HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet

Sometimes when we see the seemingly slow advance of Honda’s ASIMO, the inherent limitations of WowWee toys, or the purposefully limited one-off research projects of universities, we start to give up hope of being super best pals with a humanoid robot this century; hope of partaking in whimsical 80s movie hijinks, hand-in-metal-hand. This little video of the Korean Institute of Advanced Science and Technology’s recent advances on its HUBO project therefore serves as a bit of a “hope refresher,” allowing us to once again re-imagine those aforementioned scenes of whimsy with a metallic bot that can handle a sword and walk at an almost-useful pace, while inexplicably wearing a smallish, visored helmet. Sure, there’s a long way to go, but we’d just like to say that when the robot apocalypse doesn’t happen and we realize how much we really have in common with these machines we’ve built to look like us, that somewhere in late 2009 this video helped us keep on believing.

Continue reading KAIST’s HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet

Filed under: Robots

KAIST’s HUBO shows off some newfound dexterity, hides emotions behind ill-fitting motorcycle helmet originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Prosthetic, robotic ‘Smart Hand’ has feelings, too

Researchers in Italy and Sweden have spent the last ten years developing what they call the “Smart Hand,” a prosthetic hand which enables feeling in its fingertips. The hand — which was recently wired up to a test patient through a surgical procedure — has four motors and forty sensors which are linked directly to the brain. In the surgery, the nerve endings of the patient were linked up to receptors in the hand, which allows for feeling in the fingertips of the hand, even though the hand is not really a part of his body. In the video after the break, you can see the greater precision and dexterity this hand allows for. Though the research still needs to be refined before practical use, it looks pretty far along — and pretty awesome — to us.

Continue reading Prosthetic, robotic ‘Smart Hand’ has feelings, too

Filed under: Robots, Science

Prosthetic, robotic ‘Smart Hand’ has feelings, too originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Vstone’s tiny Robovie-nano robot drives the lane, jumps, shoots, scores retail availability

There is certainly no shortage of humanoid robots conspiring to attack your savings, but few look to offer the combination of tiny size and amazing dexterity of the Robovie-nano, the little guy from Vstone who is now shipping to would-be Dr. Frankensteins. He’s just 230mm tall (about nine inches) and weighs 575g (about a pound and a quarter), but looks to be at least as nimble as larger forebearers and is far cheaper than most, costing just ¥49,350 ($540) to start — less than a set of those sweet robot hands we spotted last week. For that you won’t get the optional “gripper shaft” mitts shown above, or the paintable Lexan bodywork he sports in the video after the break, but nobody ever said a robot needs clothes, right?

[Via Impress]

Continue reading Video: Vstone’s tiny Robovie-nano robot drives the lane, jumps, shoots, scores retail availability

Filed under: Robots

Video: Vstone’s tiny Robovie-nano robot drives the lane, jumps, shoots, scores retail availability originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Robot hand shows off amazing dexterity, speed

So you want something to look forward to in your fast approaching old age, eh? If robots playing baseball doesn’t quite cut it, how’s about a robohand that redefines what we understand by the word “dexterity”? The Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory is at it again, this time demonstrating robotic appendages with a reaction time of a single millisecond. Using harmonic drive gears and a (really) high-speed actuator, the three-fingered hands can tie your shoelaces, tweezer your brow, and even perform some kung fu pen spinning for the ladies. Video after the break — skip ahead if you must, but don’t miss out on the slow-mo action at 2:40 in the demo, it’s pure kinetic poetry.

[Via Hizook; Thanks, Thomas B]

Continue reading Video: Robot hand shows off amazing dexterity, speed

Filed under: Robots

Video: Robot hand shows off amazing dexterity, speed originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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