While it’s not the elusive laser-guided screwdriver or hammer, the Victorinox Presentation Master does have a laser pointer, and 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of USB flash drive storage, and a Bluetooth® remote control, not to mention a blade, nail file with screwdriver, scissors, and key ring. For those of you trying to get through airport security, Victorinox also makes a bladeless version, the Presentation Master Flight.
These are supposed to be available in April 2010, but several online sites already have pricing starting around $113 and rapidly getting north of $200. If you can live without Bluetooth® — or prefer a retractable ball point pen! — there’s an earlier 4GB version that you can pick up for a mere $55 or so.
These might make nice executive gifts, but I don’t see your typical Toolmonger rushing out to buy one. I could be wrong. Let us know in comments.
Presentation Masters [Manufacturer's Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
The folks at Bosch recently released a video of their new GLL2 80 line laser. We find it a little difficult to get stoked about lasers after the last couple years, but this is actually pretty sweet. It’s a 360 degree multi line laser for less than $300.
The concept of a true 360 degree laser –- not a rotary –- unit was pretty fantastic a few years ago but the high end guys were about the only crews that could get their hands on them. Now the GLL2 80 can be had by almost anyone running around on a jobsite. It features a range of 65’ indoors to 265’ outside with a receiver you can buy separately. It’s got all the bells and whistles like self leveling, a locking pendulum, tripod mount, and several different modes that let you get the line you want on the axis you want where you need it.
Of course this all sounds great, though it’s not sexy like a hammer drill. When turned off it does just look like a box — hence the video, complete with dramatic voiceover. It really looks like pro, dual plane line levels are going to be more accessible to those who want them going forward.
GLL2-80 Video [Youtube]
GLL2 80 Laser Level [Bosch]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Product study: LineRunner400 multi-line laser light sensor
In a product study of the LineRunner400 (LR400), Pepperl+Fuchs presents the world’s first multi-line laser light sensor as a smart camera for three-dimensional object measurement.
Based on the triangulation principle, an object can be measured two dimensionally in X and Y directions in standstill, or three-dimensionally in movement, when captured several times with a laser light sensor. A three-dimensional measurement in standstill is not possible with common laser light sensors.
Using several laser light lines, the LR400 laser sensor can accurately measure an object without movement. The LR400 holds the complete evaluation of measured data on the sensor and can therefore be used as a standalone laser sensor without a PC. Unlike conventional camera technology, the laser light process guarantees robust measurements, even with various object and background colors and ambient light. Laser protection class 1 spares the user of complex and expensive protective measures.
With these excellent features, the LR400 laser sensor can be used in many applications such as presence checks, 3D shape measurement, position control, height control, volume measurement and tolerance control.
http://www.pepperl-fuchs.in/cps/rde/xchg/india/hs.xsl/13627.htm
The problem. Input of information is becoming a challenging task as portable electronic devices become smaller and smaller. Alternatives to the keyboard/mouse are necessary on handheld computers; for instance, on personal digital assistants (PDAs), input of text data is often done through a touch sensitive screen and a stylus using a prescribed input method, such as Graffitti™.
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For most applications, it is impractical to use an ice bath for the reference junction. By compensating for the voltage developed at the reference junction, the ice point reference may be eliminated. This is performed by adding a voltage into the thermocouple loop, equal but opposite to that of the reference junction.
The basic principles of the thermocouple were discovered in 1821 by Thomas Seebeck. When two dissimilar metals are joined at both ends and one end is heated, a current will flow. If the loop is broken at the center, an open circuit voltage (the Seebeck Voltage) is generated and is proportional to the difference in temperature between the two junctions. Therefore, in determining the temperature of the measuring junction, the reference junction temperature must be known.
Types of thermocouple, range and mV output
Maximum ANSI Alloy Temperature mV Code Combination Range Output B Platinum/Rhodium 0°C to +1700°C 0 to +12.426 E Chromel/Constantan –200°C to +900°C –8.824 to +68.783 J Iron/Constantan 0°C to +750°C 0 to +42.283 K Chromel/Alumel –200°C to +1250°C –5.973 to +50.633 N Nicrosil/Nisil –270°C to +1300°C –4.345 to +47.502 R Platinum/Rhodium 0°C to +1450°C 0 to +16.741 Platinum S Platinum/Rhodium 0°C to +1450°C 0 to +14.973 Platinum T Copper/Constantan –200°C to +350°C –5.602 to +17.816
| Type | Temperature range °C (continuous) | Temperature range °C (short term) | Tolerance class one (°C) | Tolerance class two (°C) | IEC Color code | BS Color code | ANSI Color code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | 0 to +1100 | −180 to +1300 | ±1.5 between −40 °C and 375 °C ±0.004×T between 375 °C and 1000 °C |
±2.5 between −40 °C and 333 °C ±0.0075×T between 333 °C and 1200 °C |
 |
 |
 |
| J | 0 to +700 | −180 to +800 | ±1.5 between −40 °C and 375 °C ±0.004×T between 375 °C and 750 °C |
±2.5 between −40 °C and 333 °C ±0.0075×T between 333 °C and 750 °C |
 |
 |
 |
| N | 0 to +1100 | −270 to +1300 | ±1.5 between −40 °C and 375 °C ±0.004×T between 375 °C and 1000 °C |
±2.5 between −40 °C and 333 °C ±0.0075×T between 333 °C and 1200 °C |
 |
 |
 |
| R | 0 to +1600 | −50 to +1700 | ±1.0 between 0 °C and 1100 °C ±[1 + 0.003×(T − 1100)] between 1100 °C and 1600 °C |
±1.5 between 0 °C and 600 °C ±0.0025×T between 600 °C and 1600 °C |
|
 |
Not defined. |
| S | 0 to 1600 | −50 to +1750 | ±1.0 between 0 °C and 1100 °C ±[1 + 0.003×(T − 1100)] between 1100 °C and 1600 °C |
±1.5 between 0 °C and 600 °C ±0.0025×T between 600 °C and 1600 °C |
|
Not defined. | |
| B | +200 to +1700 | 0 to +1820 | Not Available | ±0.0025×T between 600 °C and 1700 °C | No standard use copper wire | No standard use copper wire | Not defined. |
| T | −185 to +300 | −250 to +400 | ±0.5 between −40 °C and 125 °C ±0.004×T between 125 °C and 350 °C |
±1.0 between −40 °C and 133 °C ±0.0075×T between 133 °C and 350 °C |
 |
 |
 |
| E | 0 to +800 | −40 to +900 | ±1.5 between −40 °C and 375 °C ±0.004×T between 375 °C and 800 °C |
±2.5 between −40 °C and 333 °C ±0.0075×T between 333 °C and 900 °C |
 |
 |
 |
| Chromel/AuFe | −272 to +300 | n/a | Reproducibility 0.2% of the voltage; each sensor needs individual calibration. | ||||
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POSTED BY: Erico Guizzo // Thu, May 20, 2010
Updated May 20, 4:23 p.m.: Added National Instruments comments; 5:49 p.m.: Added Willow Garage comments; May 21, 11:21 a.m.: Added details on competing robotics software platforms; 1:50 p.m. Added Herman Bruyninckx comments.
Microsoft's new and now free release of its Robotics Developer Studio includes new 3-D simulation environments like this multi-level house.
Over the past year or so, Microsoft's robotics group has been working quietly, very quietly. That's because, among other things, they were busy planning a significant strategy shift.
Microsoft is upping the ante on its robotics ambitions by announcing today that its Robotics Developer Studio, or RDS, a big package of programming and simulation tools, is now available to anyone for free.
Previously, RDS had multiple releases: one free but with limited features, a full commercial version that users could purchase, and an academic version distributed only to partners.
By releasing a single version with full capabilities and at no cost, Microsoft wants to expand its RDS user base, hoping to amass a legion of hobbyists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and other robot enthusiasts who will come up with the next big things in consumer robotics.
I spoke about the new plan with Stathis Papaefstathiou, who leads the robotics group and is responsible for Microsoft's robotics strategy and business model.
"We decided to take out all of the barriers that today our users might have in order to help them build these new [robotic] technologies," he told me.
Papaefstathiou (pronounced papa-ef-sta-THI-u) says that price is a big limitation for mass produced robots. "That means that in the consumer space it's not about sophisticated hardware, it's about the software stack."
He says RDS has been downloaded half a million times since it launched in 2007. The company estimates it has about 60,000 active users.
Those are respectable numbers but they didn't help Microsoft fulfill its goal of kick-starting a vast and lucrative robotics development ecosystem — like MS-DOS and Windows did for the PC.
So over the past two years the robotics group, which is part of of an elite software division called Startup Business Group led by Amit Mital, who reports to Craig Mundie, set about devising a plan to expand Microsoft's stake in robotics.
Not everyone is convinced the new plan makes sense.
"This is all just a non-event," says Herman Bruyninckx, a robotics professor at K.U. Leuven in Belgium and coordinator of EURON, the European Robotics Research Network.
Bruyninckx, an advocate of free and open source software who started OROCOS, or Open Robot Control Software, a framework for robot control, says that making RDS free is not a change in strategy and nobody he knows in the robotics community is "talking about RDS, let alone using or planning to use it."
Papaefstathiou says that in addition to creating a single RDS release, Microsoft is also making the source code of selected program samples and other modules available online, hoping to improve collaboration among users. In particular, the group wants to entice the growing community of hobbyists, do-it-yourselfers, and weekend robot builders.
He also says there will be closer collaboration with other projects at Microsoft. He mentions Project Natal, a motion tracking user interface that Microsoft is creating for the Xbox 360. He says Natal's ability to track gestures could "be available also in solutions where human-robot interaction becomes important."
Will the new strategy work?
A factory model is now part of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio's simulation environments.
RDS is not a robot operating system — it's a comprehensive set of development tools, samples, and tutorials. It includes a visual programming interface, a popular 3-D simulator, and also Microsoft's CCR and DSS runtime toolkit.
But despite its broad range of tools, RDS works best with the specific robot platforms it supports, including iRobot's Create, LEGO Mindstorms, CoroWare, Parallax, and others.
These are great robot platforms but by no means the only ones. In fact, many budding roboticists today are using Arduinos and programming ATmega microcontrollers to build innovative robots. Why would they need RDS?
Microsoft has plenty of competition as well. Other robotics software platforms include Urbi by French firm Gostai, ERSP by Evolution Robotics, and the Player/Stage Project.
One platform that is rapidly gaining adoption and has shown impressive results is the Robot Operating System, or ROS, a broad set of open source tools by Silicon Valley robotics firm Willow Garage.
Other users, including a growing number of high school students participating in the popular FIRST robotics competition, use National Instruments' LabVIEW tools and controllers to program their robots.
Papaefstathiou acknowledges that there are alternative software packages that can do some of the things — visual programming and simulation, for example — that RDS does, but he insists that "there's no single competitor for the overall toolset that we have."
As for Willow Garage, Papaefstathiou says they're "targeting different platforms and different capabilities," adding that some of the robots they're using are half million dollar systems.
"People are doing a great job in developing robotics technology there, but this is not something that goes into scale," he says. "And we here in Microsoft we are about scale."
Not surprisingly, Willow Garage disagrees.
"We designed ROS to be flexible and open, because researchers and application developers alike need to be able to inspect, improve, and extend the system," says Brian Gerkey, Willow Garage's director of open source development. "As a result, ROS is now used on a wide variety of robots, from inexpensive iRobot Creates to sophisticated humanoids and even autonomous cars. It's only through open source that we can reach this level of adoption and community involvement."
National Instruments, for its part, welcomes Microsoft's move.
"I'm glad to see that National Instruments, Microsoft, Willow Garage and other major players are aligned on a critical missing element to the robotics industry crossing the chasm and really taking off," says Shelley Gretlein, senior group manager of NI's real-time and embedded software. "The key is in the development software. Lowering the software barriers will make it easy to get into robotics."
Microsoft established the robotics group in 2007 under the leadership of Tandy Trower, a software veteran who'd headed some of Microsoft's largest and most successful businesses, eventually becoming a minister-without-portfolio reporting directly to Bill Gates.
Trower and Gates believed the consumer market was the right place for the next biggest innovation in robotics, finding parallels with the beginnings of the PC industry, a view Gates described in a now-famous Scientific American article, "A Robot in Every Home."
But things changed late last year when Trower left Microsoft to start a healthcare robotics company. The company chose Papaefstathiou, an unashamed Trekkie — "Data is very inspirational" – with a background in high-performance computing, as the robotics group's new leader. It's up to him now to turn Gates' a-robot-in-very-home vision into reality.
I do see potential for a big expansion of RDS. But my impression is that it will be strongest among schools and universities. Now any engineering school in, say, Brazil, Russia, India or China, could use it and have students programming robots, or at least simulating them.
The question is, Will promising, cool robotics products for the consumer market emerge from a larger RDS community? I asked Papaefstathiou what kinds of commercial robots he envisions would be around.
He wouldn't give me specific examples, preferring to say it was up to "the community to think broader about the scenarios."
"Consumer robotics is a new product category and building [applications] there requires leveraging the capabilities and inspiration of a broader community," he says. "This is exactly what we want to do."
Microsoft's robotics squad. Left to right: Stathis Papaefstathiou (general manager), Russ Sanchez (creative director), Branch Hendrix (business development), Stewart MacLeod (development), Hunter Hudson (quality), Mukunda Murthy (program management), George Chrysanthakopoulos (distinguished engineer), and Chris Tham (engineering).
Images: Microsoft Robotics Group