Korea starts testing ‘recharging road,’ might make it part of its public transport system
Time to set aside the chains of worry that have prevented us from jumping on the electric bandwagon — Korean researchers have figured out a way to make us forget all about charging stations and cruising ranges with their magnetically recharging road. The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) you see here went into service yesterday and can now be found towing three bus-loads of tourists around a Seoul amusement park. It operates on a battery five times smaller than conventional EV juice packs and can collect its power through non-contact magnetic transmission from the recharging strips in the ground. We’re also told running costs for this system are a third of what a typical EV would require, and should it prove successful and find itself expanded to the public transport system, only about 20 percent of bus routes would need to be electrified — at bus stops, crossroads and the like — with the rest being covered by the power stored inside the OLEV. Here’s to hoping it all works out.
Korea starts testing ‘recharging road,’ might make it part of its public transport system originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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North Korea’s Red Star OS takes the ‘open’ out of ‘open source’
Gallery: North Korea’s Red Star OS
North Korea’s Red Star OS takes the ‘open’ out of ‘open source’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Robot Teachers Enter the Education Workforce [VIDEO]
You may have had some instructors during your school years that seemed like they were simply carrying out pre-programmed, robotic orders, but not quite as literally as these profs. Singularity Hub reports that robot teachers have successfully passed a first round of testing in Korean and Japanese classrooms.
Thanks to trial work by the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the Nippon Institute of Technology (NIT), robots are expected to enter the “workforce” in 500 preschools by as early as next year. By 2013, robotic teachers could be holding court in as many as 8,000 preschool and kindergarten classrooms in Korea, backed by $44 million (USD) in funding.
In general, the Korean robots will be more geared to address younger audiences, with the Japanese robots designed for older students. NIT’s e-Nuvo is a Japanese humanoid robot with a built-in projector — a feature my high school chemistry teacher surely lacked. Nor was she sporting that futuristic Astro Boy look.
All joking aside, it will be interesting to see how well robotic instructors will fit into classrooms and what roles they’ll be able to fill. Do you think a robot teacher can ever actually replace a human instructor, or will the e-Nuvos of the world be relegated to the position of sophisticated classroom sidekick?
Tags: e-Nuvo, education, japan, korea, robotics, robots, tech
LG’s LU2300 set to challenge Samsung’s M100S for Korean Android dominance?
Eternal archrivals-to-the-death Samsung and LG have a tendency to match one another tit for tat in virtually every consumer electronic category, but for whatever reason, LG’s been far less interested in going for broke with Android over the past year — though a preoccupation with Windows Phone 7 Series is a solid guess at this point. Things may be changing, though, now that we’ve got news out of Telecoms Korea that they’re prepping a more brutal assault than the weakling GW620 could ever provide in the form of a so-called LU2300 for the domestic market (we’re assuming the actual thing will be a little more… well, “designed” than the snow-white mockup above). The site is playing up LG’s announcement that the phone will bundle a bunch of popular apps in ROM (awesome?) but the real news is the impressive spec sheet, which is said to include a Nexus One-like 1GHz Snapdragon and WVGA AMOLED display paired with Android 2.1 and a 5 megapixel cam capable of 720p video. It certainly sounds like it’s ready to give Samsung’s M100S a run for its money, but we’ll need to wait until its second quarter release to know for sure.
LG’s LU2300 set to challenge Samsung’s M100S for Korean Android dominance? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Robot teachers to invade Korean classrooms by 2012
Robot teachers to invade Korean classrooms by 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Avatar available to watch in 4D, but only in Korea
Yo Carl Sagan, we found the fourth dimension! It was hiding in a South Korean movie theater all this time, and you can go try it out for the eminently affordable $15.80 a pop. CJ-CGV, an enterprising Korean cinema operator, has been offering its 4D experience for a year now, but Avatar’s sellout success has led it to open three more “4D plexes.” The way the company finally cornered that elusive fourth dimension is by engaging all five senses: moving seats, wind, water sprinkling, lasers, and synthetic smells are all used in time with the movie. Sure, it’s a gimmick and takes a loose interpretation of what the word dimension means, but at least it’s unlikely you’ll fall asleep during the movie, as some of us may or may not have done while watching the 3D screening.
Avatar available to watch in 4D, but only in Korea originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Robot Land theme park gets investors, conceptual renders
Gallery: South Korea’s Robot Land theme park
Robot Land theme park gets investors, conceptual renders originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.