Smallist

You know those dumb things they sell in sharper image? Shrink it down to microchip size, and it could be a great way to cool a computer.

This handheld turbine can supposedly generate 2.6 kW by spinning at 600,000 rpm. That’s more than twice the power supplied by a standard household solar array, and plenty more than a typical household needs, all in a device the roughly three inches long.

This little robot mimics Jesus, albeit only in its ability to walk on water. More at the Register.

Of course, Jesus can also fly. Luckily, another tiny little robot can do that. Now we just need a tiny robot that can hunt vampires and we’ll have the major gospels covered.

No, it’s not athletic protection for Humvee drivers, it’s a race for speed and agility at the microscopic level. Part of the RoboCup competition, the tiny devices competed to see which could pass by a series of obstacles the width of human hairs. There was also a two-millimeter dash.

Via Engadget.

i-Sobot is the world’s smallest humanoid robot. Guinness says so. Their official site is here.

Designed to work alongside solar panels on your roof, this horizontal, modular wind turbine looks like a workable alternative to the giant pinwheel sort. It comes from an inventor in Australia.

Via Engadget.

Are you a doctor with a small practice? A hypochondriac in a studio? A batshit insane celebrity? Then you’ve got to have the latest in ultrasound: The Acuson P10 is a handheld ultrasound, designed to be carried around by the physician like a stethoscope. I thought these things required a goo layer on the belly to work, but who knows. It weighs 1.6 pounds and boots up in 5 seconds, but it uses the slower EDGE network and requires a two year contract with AT&T. Oh wait a minute, that’s the iPhone. Via Engadget.

This robotic submarine, designed by scientists in Israel, has a diameter of 1mm. Using magnetic induction as a power source, it can crawl through blood veins. At the moment, that’s about all it can do — it’s still in the design phases. And it seems that the design doesn’t allow for a great deal of control, as of yet. But it’s a promising development. And for some reason the linked article concludes with an oddly in-depth synopsis of
Fantastic Voyage.

This won’t be your next computer, but it’s still an accomplishment: a tiny computer, capable of running Linux, on a usb key. 64 megs of ram and 256 megs of onboard storage, plus an ethernet port and two usb outs. At a 190 MHz chip speed, you’re basically talking about a 1997 desktop computer, shrunk to the size of a thumb. Minus a few cd drives, video and sound and peripherals of course, but still. It’ll probably be used to create specialized products, rather than being sold to the public as a computer.

Now that’s a small computer. The Space Wire Cube is a 2 inch square with a 200 or 300mhz processor, 64 MB of ram, and 16 MB of internal flash memory. That’s not much flash memory but the device will also take a CF memory card, which would presumably be the spot for the OS. Via Technabob.