Culture

This soft robotic limb can shake your hand without crushing it (Tomorrow Daily 264)

Ashley discusses a robotic limb with the ability to adjust its grip during a handshake, a HUD designed for doctors to use during surgeries and a working combination safe made entirely of Lego bricks.

Ashley Esqueda Senior Video Producer

Ashley Esqueda is an award-winning video producer and on-air talent based in Los Angeles. She has been playing video games since she was 3 years old, and loves the history of television. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband Jimi, son Wolfgang, and two very squirrely Italian Greyhounds.

See full bio

Ashley Esqueda

Oct. 26, 2015 3:44 p.m. PT

2 min read

On today's show, we're swinging back around to robotic limbs; in particular, roboticist Rob Schraff's 3D-printed prototype with the ability to exchange a warm handshake with a human via air chambers inside the robotic palm. The overall project is designed to find new ways to combine tactile materials and robots in order to make human-robot interactions more natural and comfortable for us humans.

It might not be out to revolutionize the wearable market, but Vivi's creator Method believes it could help doctors greatly while they perform surgery on patients. Vivi is a plastic device that clips onto a headband and offers a fast, easy glance at a patient's basic vitals to a doctor during surgical procedures. A companion app lets a doctor choose which vitals to monitor, and Vivi sends an alert if those vitals change dramatically at any time during an operation.

Lego enthusiast Jason Alleman is making headlines with his combination safe made entirely of Lego bricks. The small three-combo lock is fully functional and can store small valuables, but a dedicated would-be thief could easily smash the safe on the ground to access its contents. So, if you're going to build a Lego safe, the obvious solution is to make it so large that nobody can lift it.

Today's "Back It or Hack It" is Eora 3D, a portable 3D scanner that harnesses the power of your smartphone to create high-resolution, accurate 3D models, no matter where you are. Usually, higher quality scanners cost thousands of dollars, putting them out of reach for hobbyists, but Eora 3D is selling its scanner for just $255 USD (and less if you can get into an early bird backer level). We're intrigued...

Watch this: This soft robotic limb can shake your hand without crushing it (Tomorrow Daily 264)

06:23

Podcast

Of course, you can find us everywhere on social media. Like, follow and heart us as you desire!