MIT made a shapeshifting snake robot and it creeps us out (Tomorrow Daily 276)

[MUSIC] Greetings citizens of the internet. Welcome to Tomorrow Daily, the best geek talk show in the known universe. I'm Jeff Cannata and you are watching one of our shorter daily episodes. On Thursdays, we deep dive into all the news you see here, so be sure to check out those. But, right now, let's hit the headlines. [MUSIC] When you think of Of futuristic robots, you usually think of humanoid forms, automatons, human communication. Well, this is none of those things. No, this is a multi-function robot that looks like your pet snake. That's the project MIT Tangible Media Group is currently working on. It's called Lineform. And it's a soft robot that looks kind of like a super smart snake. An Arduino mega controls the dozens of servomotors on board, and its skin is actually a spandex tube covered in sensors that can detect touch. In the video, MIT It shows offline form, changing from a wrist wearable that offers Haptic feedback to a phone with multiple forms, to a responsive flash light and even to a device that could constrain motion and replay specific movements. There are other uses shown in the video including manipulating vectors and using the robot as a ruler and a shape guide. The best part of the paper though Public reaction to the robot. Quote one initial observation is that the large line form can startle users when it quickly changes form un quote. Yea I'm sure it will also startle users when it strangles them in their nightmares tonight. Line form. No. Down, Lineform, bad Lineform. All right, I have to tell you about Ford's drugged driving suit before the smart snake kills me. Ford unveiled its drugged driving suit recently. It's a companion suit to the drunk driving suit it created about a year ago. And aims to show young drivers the danger of driving under the influence of drugs. Strategically placed bandages and weights slow reaction times and balance. Headphones play random sounds to increase distractions and a tremor generator makes the driver's hands shake. To complete the suit, vision impairment glasses add tunnel vision Flashing lights and colorful auras to distort a driver's perception. Ford believes using suits like this in it's driving skills for life program will help young drivers understand just how dangerous driving under the influence can be, even if they think they feel fine. That program is actually free, and you can learn more about it on their website. I want one of those suits Just for Halloween. [LAUGH] All right, you've heard about powdered milk and you've heard about powdered sugar, but how about powdered glue? A team of researchers at the Osaka Institute of Technology have developed a new kind of glue that starts off in a powder form. They're actually tiny beads of liquid inside a layer of solid particles. Each bead is a few millimeters wide and the glue works by pressure activation. So you pour in some of these little glue beads and when you smash them, the adhesive is exposed to whatever surface you're trying to glue together. So why powdered glue? The research team thinks their glue could be used in repairing or assembling objects that require adhering parts with complicated shapes. Because you pour the spheres and have control over where they're placed, gluing together weirdly shaped parts or getting glue into precise locations inside a product would likely be helpful. Just don't store them next to your Dippin Dots. Also, note to self. Glue is not food. All right it's Monday! That means it's time for crowd funding. [MUSIC] Today we are discussing crowd funding for a 3D printer that claims it's going to be the fastest one on the market. This is the NEXA 3D NX1. NEXA 3D says this is a 3D printer for everyone from hobbyists to professional makers. NEXA's biggest boast over other 3D printers is they claim the NX1 can print very fast, one minute for every centimeter in height. The company claims it's up to 40 times faster than other 3D printers on the market. It's Wi-Fi enabled and uses a standalone OS, so you'll be able to control it from a PC, tablet or smartphone. A special cartridge system supposedly makes refilling resin tanks easy. So this might be a good choice if you're new to the world of 3D printing. There is just under 30 days left in the campaign and there are little over a third of the way to their goal of 170,000 bucks. If you want in, you'll have to show out at least $1488. But, if you missed the early bird, you'll be paying 1700 for a standard issue Annex One. Man, I am ready for 3D printing, but 1700 bucks is a little steep. It's not gonna go mainstream until it can get that price down. All right, speaking about getting down, let's get down to some of your photos with phonetographer of the day. [MUSIC] Today's phonetographer of the day is Jimi who took this picture on an iPhone 6S Plus. Jimi writes, hi Ashley and Jeff. My job sometimes takes me across the country, and I took this photo on my iPhone 6S Plus white on the coast of Oregon. I hope this photo brings you some zen in an otherwise busy day. You have my permission to use this photo. Thanks. Well thanks, Jimmy. I can always use a little more zen in my life. If you wanna be our phonetographer of the day, send your photo to us. You can sent it to TOMORROW@CNET. COM. Always remember to give us permission to use your photo, and let us know what device You took it on. We love hearing that. Hey, that's gonna do it for this episode of the show. Thanks for watching. You can always follow us on Twitter. I'm at Jeff Kanata. Also you can follow Ashley at Ashley Esceda or at Logan Moy, our illustrious producer who's always awesome behind the camera. Also, guys, Don't forget, especially this Thanksgiving week, be good humans. 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