Animatronic Shark Swims in a Hotel Pool

Posted on 16/08/2016 by Conner Flynn

If you see this shark swimming in your hotel’s pool, you know it has to be fake, because how did it get there? But there’s still no way you are entering that pool. There’s just no damn way.

This amazing animatronic creation is the work of artists at VFXLAB special effects. They are the sick minds who put it in a hotel swimming pool to test it out. There’s actually a guy underneath controlling it. It is pretty impressive and real enough to give people a heart attack.

No way would I go for a swim in there, even knowing that this thing is fake. Because what if it isn’t? You just don’t take chances with sharks in a pool.

[via Sploid via Geekologie]

Animatronic Mario Machine: The Mario Wish Granter

Posted on 25/04/2016 by Conner Flynn

Have you ever wanted your own wish machine? You know, like those old machines you see on the boardwalk or at some carnival? Starlite Amusements want to make all of your dreams come true, via Mario. All you have to do is control this animated Mario machine with an NES controller and make a wish.

This handmade machine has a plush Mario with extra electronics inside. Mario opens his eyes, blinks and moves to the sound of music when you push the Start button on the connected controller. Pressing A or B cycles through the music and sound effects from the original “Super Mario Bros” NES game!

There are lights, a flashing Mystery Box and an animated mushroom that moves around. After a set time, Mario gets sleepy and closes his eyes, and the lights dim. It doesn’t do anything outrageous and he looks sleepy most of the time, but it is a fun machine that will thrill Mario fans of all ages. Check it out in the video:

If you buy this thing for $795.00(USD) you will be granted unlimited wishes for sure.

Robotic Spider Dress Reacts to Nearby People: Spider-Sense Tingling!

Posted on 23/12/2014 by Lambert Varias

The Spider Dress isn’t as powerful as Peter Parker’s Spider-Sense, but it’s designed to react to potential danger as well. Designed by “technological couture” specialist Anouk Wipprecht, it has six spiky limbs on its shoulders that move based on the wearer’s mood and the movement of people around.

According to Fast Company, the dress is equipped with “wireless biosignals, and aggregates this information with measurements of others’ proximity and speed of approach (it can detect movement up to 22 feet away). The dress changes according to these various data inputs, gauging how the wearer is feeling about the people around her.”

The limbs are normally folded as shown in the image above, but if the dress detects an unwanted presence – someone approaching too fast or someone that the wearer is reacting to adversely – the limbs will extend outwards in a threatening manner. On the other hand, “if you approach calmly and slowly, these limbs might beckon you forward.”

Spin a web browser and swing over to Fast Company for more on Anouk’s bad ass creation.

LEGO Animatronic Coin-Op Machine

Posted on 21/11/2014 by Conner Flynn

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen a LEGO machine like this. It’s a custom built animatronic coin-operated machine and it is a lovely sight to see it in action. Just put your coin in and watch the little LEGO people come to life.

The whole thing is basically a construction site. It’s one of those things that the kid in us loves to watch. The seven animatronic items are:

Crane moves up, down, left, right, with the joystick
Backhoe is lifting a section of the water pipe up and down
Mining car goes in and out of the tunnel
Welder is welding away at the base of the crane
Worker spins around as he helps put in the water main
A jewel/cave robber and his friend are working the same mine as the construction workers
Dumptruck lights flash as the crane loads him up

Check it out in action in the videos below:

You can buy it for $6,500 (USD) from Etsy seller All Things Pretty Store.

The Ultimate Zoidberg Costume: Woop Woop Wear

Posted on 09/05/2014 by Conner Flynn

This video comes from Tested.com. It documents the production of a life-like animatronic Zoidberg costume from effects artist Frank Ippolito. It looks pretty stunning to see Zoidberg come to life like this. It is also kind of creepy, which in this case is a compliment.

Check out the video to see how they brought this simple cartoon character into the real world and also how they got all of that amazing detail. The best part has to be the motorized tentacle bits:

Once it was complete, they took the costume to WonderCon 2014 for everyone to see and it looks like it was a hit. I would totally hang out with this Zoidberg, no matter how bad he smells.

At one point they were thinking about making him more of a scary monster. Personally, I’m glad they kept things close to the cartoon version.

[via Tested]

DIY Animatronic Iron Man Suit: Arduino Reactor

Posted on 04/05/2014 by Lambert Varias

This Iron Man suit replica was made by two Tony Starks. Greg Hatter built the suit itself, then he asked his friend Jerome Kelty to make some of its parts move. In his very detailed Instructables and Hack A Day posts, Jerome shares how he pulled off the complicated hacks.

The molded fiberglass suit’s moving parts are its helmet, forearm missile, hip pods and back flaps. The suit also has boots that light up and play a sound effect when the wearer takes a step. Of course, the suit also has an illuminated arc reactor on its chest piece. Jerome used three Arduino Pro Minis and an Arduino Pro to control the moving parts. He also used an Xbee radio to control the helmet wirelessly, making it easier to take off or separate from the suit. Finally, Jerome attached RFID tags and an RFID reader on the suit’s gloves to trigger the moving parts.

Now that the suit’s electronics are hooked up, Greg took back the suit to adjust how it fits and give it a new paint job. Head to Hack A Day or Instructables for Jeremy’s full walkthrough.

[via DamnGeeky]

Creepy Animatronic Doll Will Dance for You, Not a Good Thing

Posted on 26/03/2014 by Conner Flynn

This is the creepiest thing I’ve seen in a long time. This life-sized animatronic doll will do a dance just for you. A creepy dance that leaves you feeling bad and sad and creeped out.

When I first saw this I was like, oh cool. A sexy robot doing a dance. Should be cool. Nope. Not cool at all. From the neck down it all looks good, but then you see that weird lizard-like face and watch it dance, you are sorry that you are sharing the same planet with it and want to kill it with fire. And its gaze follows you.

Jordan Wolfson’s imagination brought this animatronic figure to life. He had some help from his friends at Spectral Motion. The piece is currently being exhibited at David Zwirner Gallery in New York, where I will never ever go now. It incorporates facial recognition technology, allowing her to focus on, and follow visitors at the exhibition until they shiver and run away crying.

[via Metafilter via io9]

Curio is an interactive animatronic toy you can program and play with (hands-on)

Posted on 22/11/2013 by Michael Gorman

It's always nice to have a little buddy around that's trained to do what you want it to. Some of us get dogs or other furry creatures, but a start-up called Curio is hoping there's a good chunk of folks who would like to have a robotic companion, too. You see, Curio is a cute little bot platform filled with a pair of motors that move its mouth and head, and has a small LCD screen that serves as its face. The toy clips to any smartphone or tablet running the associated app, which in turn allows users to set its facial expression, determine its movements and even tell it what to say.

While the app will come with a bunch of pre-set actions, expressions and sounds, its makers are also working up a programming portion of the app, so tinkerers can create their own custom Curio mods. This programming interface is a series of parallel timelines that allow you to chronologically lay out different facial expressions, movements and audio simply by dragging and dropping them where you like. And Curio's built to be physically customized, too. Company founder Mike Kneupfel thinks that his bots can take advantage of the 3D printing craze by letting folks make their own tails, ears, and other accessories that clip onto Curio. He tells us that he aims to put a bunch of accessory blueprints on MakerBot's Thingiverse to make it easy for folks to print stuff out, but he's hoping that users will get creative and design their own as well.

Filed under: Misc, Robots

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Disney Research robot plays catch and juggles with humans, won’t replace their parents (update: cameras explained!)

Posted on 23/11/2012 by Jon Fingas

It's entirely possible for robots to juggle or play catch. They've usually been relegated to playing with their own kind, however, which is as good an excuse as any for Disney Research to experiment with a ball-tossing robot tailored to games with humans. The animatronic creation uses a depth-aware motion camera -- there's conflicting mentions of using both the Microsoft Kinect and ASUS' Xtion Pro Live that we're hoping to sort out -- to track any mid-air balls as well as throw them back to a human participant. Disney's robot does more than just move the robot's arm to account for imperfect tosses, too, as it knows to feign a dejected look after a botched reception. The company suggests that its invention would ideally bring two-way interaction to theme parks, so it's more likely to show up at Disneyland before it stands in for a parent in the backyard. It's just as well; when the Robopocalypse comes, the last thing we'll want at home is a machine that can toss grenades.

Update: Team member Jens Kober has filled us in on just why both cameras are mentioned. The team started off using the Kinect and switched to the Xtion Pro Live, once it was available, to get hardware-synced timing between a regular camera and the depth camera. The project didn't require the panning motor or microphone array of Microsoft's system.

Continue reading Disney Research robot plays catch and juggles with humans, won't replace their parents (update: cameras explained!)

Filed under: Robots, Microsoft, ASUS

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Via: Gizmodo

Source: Popular Science

Animatronic Admiral Ackbar: It’s a Costume!

Posted on 05/10/2012 by Conner Flynn

Admiral Ackbar is the only fishhead in the Rebel fleet who can smell a trap from miles away. That makes him one of the smartest characters in the Star Wars galaxy. Anyone would be proud to dress up as the Admiral on Halloween, but your costume won’t be as cool as this one.

I present to you the most amazing Admiral Ackbar costume ever. Built by a guy named Mr. Bungle, this costume has actual facial expressions for when you need to alert others of a trap. The head and gloves were each custom molded then loaded with electronically controlled servo motors for realistic movements. Check Ackbar out in action in the video clip below.

Your Rebel force will be in good flippers for sure if you’re wearing this costume.

[via The RPF via Obvious Winner]

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