3d illusion arts: Walyou

Walyou

Budgee Rolling Robot Carries Luggage So You Won’t Have To
Sad Theory About Why Parents Die in Disney Movies
MSI GS30 Gaming Dock Puts Alienware’s Graphics Amplifier to the Test
Diamond Encrusted Apple Watch Now Available for Pre-Order
Sony at CES 2015: what’s new and what’s to come

Budgee Rolling Robot Carries Luggage So You Won’t Have To

Posted: 06 Jan 2015 06:32 AM PST

It would seem that technology enables us to get lazier and lazier with each passing day. Just in case you’re not in the mood for carrying your own baggage, the Budgee rolling robot can get that off your chest.

Developed by 5 Elements Robotics and unveiled these days at CES, Budgee is a robot that’s programmed to do one task, and one task only: let you walk freely even when you have shopped for hours. The developers of this rolling robot did not get discouraged by the failure that was their Kickstarter campaign from back in February, and looked for funding somewhere else, promising that it would start delivering Budgee in December of last year or at latest, this January.

I think that Budgee is more appropriate for shopping than for carrying luggage at the airport. Right after parking your car, you can unload Budgee and strap the device that controls the distance between you and it to your belt. After doing so, the robot will maintain that distance, meaning that at no point will he invade your personal space. However, as demonstrated by The Verge‘s Ben Popper at CES, Budgee is sometimes shy and does not follow you as it should.

People who have learned about this robot’s existence fear that someone else could grab their luggage while it’s being carried by Budgee. I assume that 5 Elements Robotics have taken some security measures to ensure that the bags are strapped properly to the robot and that no one else can get them. It wouldn’t harm if the developers also taught Budgee a few martial arts moves.

5 Elements Robotics claims that its robot can be used both indoors and outdoors, but I don’t think it’s really good as a travel companion. What do you do with it at the airport or at the train station, after you no longer need it? I admit that it would be interesting if airports would pack some of these to help travelers carry their heavy cases over short distances

One thing that Budgee is missing (besides accuracy) is the ability to climb stairs. I believe that a stair-climbing tracked robot with some storage capacity would be more appropriate for carrying your luggage.

If you’re too lazy to carry your own bags, you can get Budgee for $1,400, which really isn’t that much in terms of modern robots. But just before you do that, take a look at the above video and see if it’s really worth it.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the unlicensed Wall-E restaurant from China that uses robots as waiters, or IHMC Robotics’ ATLAS robot that knows karate.

Sad Theory About Why Parents Die in Disney Movies

Posted: 06 Jan 2015 06:00 AM PST

Why do parents always die in Disney films? From Bambi’s mother to Elsa and Anna being left alone in Frozen, this tragic event seems to happen in quite a lot of the Disney films involving main characters having to grow up.

According to Don Hahn, the producer of films such as ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and is still a producer on several Disney projects, it’s simply part of the genre. It’s about growing up within a certain time frame, and the easiest way to do it is bumping off the parents.

The movies are 80 or 90 minutes long, and Disney films are about growing up. They're about that day in your life when you have to accept responsibility. Simba ran away from home but had to come back. In shorthand, it's much quicker to have characters grow up when you bump off their parents. Bambi's mother gets killed, so he has to grow up. Belle only has a father, but he gets lost, so she has to step into that position. It's a story shorthand.

But there is another theory as to why Disney films are notorious for the hero’s parents dying off very early in the films. It might be less about the story telling, and more about Walt Disney’s own tragedy with his parents.

The other reason—and this is really odd—Walt Disney, in the early 1940s, when he was still living at this house, also bought a house for his mom and dad to move into. He had the studio guys come over and fix the furnace, but when his mom and dad moved in, the furnace leaked and his mother died. The housekeeper came in the next morning and pulled his mother and father out on the front lawn. His father was sick and went to the hospital, but his mother died. He never would talk about it, nobody ever does. He never spoke about that time because he personally felt responsible because he had become so successful that he said, 'Let me buy you a house.'

This story does appear in Disney’s own biography, which he collaborated on. So is all this parental death coming from his own personal tragedy, influencing years of Disney features years after his own death?

It’s worth remembering that in the 1938 film, Dumbo also loses his mother during the movie. That occurred before the death of Disney’s parents, so this might all be a storytelling device, and a very effective one at that.

If you’re in a brooding kind of mood, check out excellent artwork of Superheroes when they’re feeling down.

MSI GS30 Gaming Dock Puts Alienware’s Graphics Amplifier to the Test

Posted: 06 Jan 2015 05:30 AM PST

Considering how much better desktop graphics cards are compared to their mobile counterparts, gaming notebook manufacturers are now focusing on creating GPU enclosures that deliver desktop performance on a mobile platform.

Just launched at CES, the MSI GS30 is a 13″ FHD gaming notebook, but judging a mobile device by its size is not relevant anymore, these days. Whereas a few years ago gamers thought that the bigger the laptop display, the better they can play, nowadays a 13 or 14-inch gaming notebook is more than they need. MSI’s latest is already a very capable device in its own right, packing an integrated Iris Pro 5200 graphics processor, a Core i7-4870HQ CPU, 16GB DDR3 RAM clocked at 1600Mhz, and a pair of 128GB SSDs in RAID 0 configuration. The gaming dock that’s bundled with it only makes it better.

The GPU enclosure made by MSI can host graphics cards of up to 14.3″ in length, so you’re covered for almost every model on the planet, except for the water-cooled ones. On top of that, the MSI Gaming Dock has room for a 3.5″ storage drive and a speaker to which the notebook’s audio can be routed to.

So what does the Gaming Dock have that Alienware’s Graphics Amplifier doesn’t? Well, besides the storage and the audio part, there’s the bandwidth. MSI claims that the Graphics Amplifier limits bandwidth to PCI-e 4x speed, whereas with their device, gamers can get the full performance of PCI-e 16x.

As it happens most of the time, amazing gaming accessories (if you could name the Gaming Dock that) are rarely affordable. The bundle consisting of the MSI GS30 gaming notebook and the Gaming Dock will cost north of $1,700, depending on the configuration. Bear in mind that for that money you get an empty GPU enclosure, which you will have to populate with a modern graphics card that’s worthy of being GS30′s companion. That means that you’ll have to spend extra for the GPU (and HDD, in case you want do expand the storage capacity of your laptop), but to be frank, anyone who can afford this $1,700 bundle will most likely also have the dough for a GTX980 or the like.

I’m looking forward to seeing more such GPU enclosures from other manufacturers, as well, and I have a feeling that ASUS’ Republic of Gamers line will include one in the near future.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, or the mean-looking Alienware Area 51.

Diamond Encrusted Apple Watch Now Available for Pre-Order

Posted: 06 Jan 2015 04:00 AM PST

With the Apple Watch release date on the near horizon, one jewellery company has made a diamond encrusted version available for pre-order.

September, 2014 was a big month for Apple. In addition to the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, the Cupertino, Calif. electronics maker also officially revealed the Apple Watch, its much rumoured wearable device.

The Apple Watch, as its name suggests, was a hi-tech piece of watch gadgetry. Rather than the bog standard time-telling that we’re used to from non-smartwatches, the Apple Watch allows users to accept phone calls, browse the web and download specially created mobile apps.

But with these features failing to make the device a standout from the smartphones and tablets that so many of us own, people were hard pushed to find reasons to buy an Apple Watch. And with the normal version of the device set to retail for over $300, a new diamond encrusted Apple Watch is all the more expensive. But at least it looks good.

The diamond encrusted Apple Watch has been created by Mervin Diamond Importers. For $30,000 you’ll get a watch with 18-karat rose gold and eight rows of ‘high grade’ diamonds which will reportedly total over 15 carats. Some high quality stuff.

Mervin’s Apple Watch also provides a flashier alternative to the luxury gold version of the Apple Watch which is rumoured to cost $5000 when it launches early 2015. While it’s not clear just who in their right mind would pay for a device that has yet to prove its actual worth (other than y’know, looking good) it’s hard to deny that the diamond encrusted piece will make a statement.

There’s also the valid concern that the diamonds will fall off. While Mervin Diamond Importers will likely have factored this into the design, with people wanting to show off their ‘bling’ day in day out, there’s still a good chance that you’ll be looking at missing sparkles a little further down the line.

The jeweller also explains that those who pre-order the device can expect it to be delivered mid-2015 so you can visit their website for more info.

Source: Cnet

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories, Apple Watch Could Launch on Valentine's, Cost as Much as $5000, Apple CEO Tim Cook Is 'Proud to Be Gay'

Sony at CES 2015: what’s new and what’s to come

Posted: 05 Jan 2015 09:14 PM PST

Sony had a fantastic CES conference, and geeks around the world had a very effective confirmation that a great year lies in front of us. Join us, as we recap the highlights of Sony’s keynote at this CES 2015.

Sony had an interesting situation coming into this note, with a successful year with the PS4 selling like mad around the world, but the whole hacking & The Interview situation along with that, and this clearly influences everything they had to say. Because it proved effective after PSN was hacked in 2007, they decided to open this confirmation addressing the elephant in the room and talking about what they did, and how they fought these hackers. But gadgets and gizmos were the reason people were here so they quickly jumped to that instead.

Sony dropped a bomb: their upcoming UHD TVs not only measure only 0.2 inches (that is, way smaller than most cellphones), but they also will all feature Android OS. That’s right, every Bravia will now run Android TV from here onwards, which is huge for all parties involved. Good luck competing with that, Tizen.

Sony also introduced their new HandyCam, which is ridiculously small but also ridiculously powerful. It’s capable of filming high definition video at 4K while being lightweight at the same time – and although great, it will set users back for about $1000 USD. Ouch. And speaking of ridiculously small cams, Sony also announced that they would compete head-on with GoPro with their ActionCam, also capable of 4K, which was introduced by Tony Hawk himself, who also teased a new Tony Hawk game coming for PS4.

Despite all of this, what truly stole the show was the return of Sony’s first big triumph: the walkman, which has been reborn as a Hi-Res audio player. Although the idea is fantastic, and there is definitely a market for it amongst audiophiles (more so now, that Apple seems to be slowly letting go of their iPod classic line) this device is really expensive at $1000 USD.

All in all, Sony had a great conference where they showcased fantastic tech, although really expensive, which in the end undermines all they’ve accomplished. It would seem the PlayStation division has learned and realized the importance of better price ranges and tags, yet the rest of the company seems set in their old ways.

Don't forget to follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter. And read more related stories at Sony to release a 12-inch tablet in 2015 and Sony hack might have North Korean perpetrators, says FBI.