Erector Spykey – Kit spy Robot

Erector Spykee – Kit Robot

This DIY kit Robot has caterpillar type tracks and has a camera, Wi-Fi and an in-built microphone. Spykey even comes with its own software to enable it to be controlled from anywhere on the net. It has a functional webcam and a VOIP (Skype compatible) speaker phone. We only wish it would come in black or a Darth Vader model. 

While the Spykee set can be built into three different robot models and is compatible with other Erector sets, the most intriguing aspect of the $280 kit for me is the telepresence capability: Spykee serves as a fully functional webcam and VOIP speakerphone; it’s even Skype compatible. 

How Undersea Cables are Laid by Cable Ships?

Recently there was a disruption on the SEA-ME-WE 4 cable connecting SEACOM to London through the Mediterranean Sea.Due to this we had various questions asking us exactly how undersea cables are laid. This short video explains the process SEACOM took while laying the undersea cable.With the global explosion of world-wide telecommunication, the demand for underwater communication has become increasingly requisite. Underwater cables are laid from specially designed cable ships which can stock thousands of miles of coiled cable in their holds. The special amplifiers, spaced about 25 miles apart, within these undersea cables, are used usually to boost up the voltage of the signals carried in them in order to prevent the losses in the cable.
However, the cable ships must take necessary measures while laying out the fiber optic cables in the sea bed to ensure that they do not break and the amplifiers do not get damaged, and can work for many decades uninterruptedly. 

Burj Khalifa

Burj Khalifa , known as Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft).

Construction began on 21 September 2004, with the exterior of the structure completed on 1 October 2009. The building officially opened on 4 January 2010,and is part of the new 2 km²  development called Downtown Dubai at the 'First Interchange' along Sheikh Zayed Road, near Dubai's main business district.

In March 2009, Mohamed Ali Alabbar, chairman of the project's developer, Emaar Properties, said office space pricing at Burj Khalifa reached US$4,000 per sq ft (over US$43,000 per m²) and the Armani Residences, also in Burj Khalifa, sold for US$3,500 per sq ft (over US$37,500 per m²).He estimated the total cost for the project to be about US$1.5 billion.

The project's completion coincided with the global financial crisis of 2007–2012, and with vast overbuilding in the country; this led to high vacancies and foreclosures.With Dubai mired in debt from its huge ambitions, the government was forced to seek multibillion dollar bailouts from its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi. Subsequently, in a surprise move at its opening ceremony, the tower was renamed Burj Khalifa, said to honor the UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his crucial support.

Records

• Tallest existing structure: 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously KVLY-TV mast – 628.8 m/2,063 ft)
• Tallest structure ever built: 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously Warsaw radio mast – 646.38 m/2,121 ft)
• Tallest freestanding structure: 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously CN Tower – 553.3 m/1,815 ft)
• Tallest skyscraper (to top of spire): 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously Taipei 101 – 509.2 m/1,671 ft)
• Tallest skyscraper to top of antenna: 829.8 m (2,722 ft) (previously the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower – 527 m/1,729 ft)
• Building with most floors: 163 (previously Willis (formerly Sears) Tower – 108)
• Building with world's highest occupied floor
• World's highest elevator installation (situated inside a rod at the very top of the building)
• World's longest travel distance elevators
• Highest vertical concrete pumping (for a building): 606 m (1,988 ft)
• First world's tallest structure to include residential space
• World's second highest outdoor observation deck: 124th floor at 452 m (1,483 ft) When it first opened, the observation deck was the highest outdoor observation deck in the World, but it has since been surpassed by Cloud Top 488 on top of Canton Tower.
• World's highest installation of an aluminium and glass façade: 512 m (1,680 ft)
• World's highest nightclub: 144th floor
• World's highest restaurant (At.mosphere): 122nd floor at 442 m (1,450 ft) (previously 360, at a height of 350 m/1,148 ft in CN Tower)
• World's highest New Year display of fireworks.
• World's second highest swimming pool: 76th floor (world's highest swimming pool is located on 118th floor of Ritz-Carlton Hotel at International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong).

  Facts
  Official Name	Burj Khalifa
  Former / Other Name	Burj Dubai
  Type	building
  Status	Completed
  Country	United Arab Emirates
  City	Dubai
  Proposed	2003
  Start of Construction	2004
  Completion	2010
  Global Ranking	#1 tallest in the World
  Regional Ranking	#1 tallest in Middle East
  National Ranking	#1 tallest in UAE
  City Ranking	#1 tallest in Dubai Figures Height: Architectural 828.0 meter / 2717 feet Height: Occupied 584.5 meter / 1918 feet Height: To Tip 829.8 meter / 2723 feet Height: Observatory 452.1 meter / 1483 feet Floors Above Ground 163 Floors Below Ground 1 # of Elevators 58 Top Elevator Speed 10 m/s Tower GFA 309,473 m² / 3,331,140 ft² # of Apartments 900 # of Hotel Rooms 304 # of Parking Spaces 2957

  The below image is the picture taken from Burj Khalifa..

List of tallest buildings and structures in the world

The world's tallest man-made structure is the 829.8 m (2,722 ft) tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai,United Arab Emirates. The building gained the official title of "Tallest Building in the World" at its opening on January 4, 2010.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an organization that certifies buildings as the "World’s Tallest", recognizes a building only if at least fifty percent of its height is made up of floor plates containing habitable floor area. Structures that do not meet this criterion, such as the CN Tower, are defined as "towers".

There are dozens of radio and television broadcasting towers which measure over 600 metres (about 2,000 ft) in height, and only the tallest are recorded in publicly available information sources.

Category	Structure	Country	City	Height (metres)	Height (feet)	Year Built	Coordinates
Skyscraper	Burj Khalifa	United Arab Emirates	Dubai	829.8	2,722	2010	25°11′50.0″N55°16′26.6″E
Self supporting tower	Tokyo Sky Tree	Japan	Tokyo	634	2,080	2011	35°42′36.5″N139°48′39″E
Guyed Mast	KVLY-TV mast	United States	Blanchard	628.8	2,063	1963	47°20′31.85″N97°17′21.13″W
Clock building	Abraj Al Bait Towers	Saudi Arabia	Mecca	601	1,972	2011	21°25′08″N39°49′35″E
Mast radiator	Lualualei VLF transmitter	United States	Lualualei	458	1,503	1962	21°25′11.87″N158°08′53.67″W ; 21°25′13.38″N158°09′14.35″W
Twin towers	Petronas Twin Towers	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	452	1,482	1998	3°09′27.45″N101°42′40.7″E; 3°09′29.45″N101°42′43.4″E
Chimney	Ekibastuz GRES-2 Power Station	Kazakhstan	Ekibastusz	419.7	1,377	1987	52°1′26.3″N75°28′34.5″E
Radar	Dimona Radar Facility	Israel	Dimona	400	1,312	2008	30°58′6.93″N35°05′49.64″E ; 30°58′32.46″N35°05′55.25″E
Lattice tower	Kiev TV Tower	Ukraine	Kiev	385	1,263	1973	50°28′16.49″N30°27′11.97″E
Electricity pylon	Zhoushan Island Overhead Powerline Tie	China	Damao	370	1,214	2009	29°56′2.78″N122°2′10.12″E ; 29°54′41.39″N122°1′26.38″E
Partially guyed tower	Gerbrandy Tower	Netherlands	IJsselstein	366.8	1,203	1961	52°00′36.24″N05°03′12.87″E
Guyed tubular steel mast	TV Tower Vinnytsia	Ukraine	Vinnytsia	354	1,161	1961	49°14′30.04″N28°25′25.25″E
Bridge pillar	Millau Viaduct	France	Millau	342	1,122	2004	44°05′09.97″N03°01′17.94″E
Meteorological tower	Obninsk Meteorological tower	Russia	Obninsk	315	1034	1958	55°06′42″N36°35′34″E
Blaw-Knox Tower	Lakihegy Tower	Hungary	Szigetszentmiklós-Lakihegy	314	1,031	1933, 1968	47°22′23″N19°00′16″E
Dam	Nurek Dam	Tajikistan	Nurek	300	984	1980	38°22′17.09″N69°20′53.57″E
Concrete dam	Grande Dixence Dam	Switzerland	Val d'Hérens	285	935	1965	46°4′49.89″N7°24′13.13″E
Minaret	Hassan II Mosque	Morocco	Casablanca	210	689	1993	33°36′28.71″N7°37′58.16″W
Wind turbine	Two on lattice towers	Poland	Nowy Tomyśl	210	689	2012
Cooling tower	Niederaussem Power Station	Germany	Niederaussem	200	656	2003	50°59′45.91″N6°40′16.79″E
Monument	Gateway Arch	United States	St. Louis	192	630	1965	38°37′28.62″N90°11′5.87″W
Water tower	Main tower of Kuwait Towers	Kuwait	Kuwait City	187	614	1979	29°23′22.75″N48°00′11.57″E
Wooden structure	ATLAS-I at Kirtland Air Force Base	United States	Albuquerque	180	600	1980	35.029898°N 106.557574°W

Solar Powered Touchdown Concept Car

 Touch Down is a futuristic car concept which provides you a glimpse of what a green four-wheel drive may look like 20 years hence. Designed by Guo Ke, the concept recently won the Silver Award of Best Harmonious Beauty at the First “Science & Future” International Concept Car Design Contest. The completely zero emissions car runs on batteries charged by solar or wind power plants. Touch Down’s rear is equipped with a battery tank which contains a total of six high-capacity batteries that can be removed and recharged independently. Green credentials apart, this futuristic car which claims to take you on a ride at the speed of an aircraft has an eye-catching sleek design with a low body and electric motors in its tires allowing in-wheel drive.

Straddling Bus

 A company in the southern Chinese town of Shenzhen has done Tried designing a vehicle that takes up no road space. And make it partly solar powered.  To address the country’s problems with traffic and air quality, Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment has developed a decidedly odd-looking, extra-wide and extra-tall vehicle that can carry up to 1,200 passengers.

Though it is called the “straddling bus,” Huashi’s invention resembles a train in many respects — but it requires neither elevated tracks nor extensive tunneling. Its passenger compartment spans the width of two traffic lanes and sits high above the road surface, on a pair of fence like stilts that leave the road clear for ordinary cars to pass underneath. It runs along a fixed route.

Huashi Future Parking’s outsize invention — six meters, or about 20 feet, wide — is to be powered by a combination of municipal electricity and solar power derived from panels mounted on the roofs of the vehicles and at bus stops.

A pilot project for the vehicle is in the works in Beijing, and several other Chinese cities have shown interest.

The company says the vehicle — which will travel at an average speed of 40 kilometers an hour, or about 25 m.p.h. — could reduce traffic jams by 25 to 30 percent on main routes.

The straddling bus could replace up to 40 conventional buses, potentially saving the 860 tons of fuel that 40 buses would consume annually, and preventing 2,640 tons of carbon emissions, said Youzhou Song, the vehicle’s designer.

The cost of construction — 50 million renminbi, or $7.4 million, for one bus and about 25 miles of route facilities — is roughly one-tenth what it costs to build a subway of the same length, he said.

Draganflyer X8

Draganflyer X8 8-Rotor UAV Helicopter Provides High Definition Wireless Video and High Resolution Photographs The latest in aerial photography and videography is this Draganfly X8, a unique machine powered by eight motors, each with its own rotor blade! This stable flyer can carry 1.7 pounds of equipment and features 11 onboard sensors and a sophisticated autopilot to self-stabilize during flight. Its foldable carbon-fiber frame makes transport easy. Police departments across the U.S. and Canada are already using the Draganflyer X6, a smaller UAV, in search and rescue operations, training, surveillance and even homicide investigation. Draganfly Innovations Inc. is announcing the release of the new Draganflyer X8 helicopter, a miniature UAV for commercial/industrial aerial video and photography. The unique design utilizes eight main horizontal rotor blades and allows the Draganflyer X8 helicopter to hover efficiently and maneuver rapidly using differential thrust. Eight industrial electric motors allow the Draganflyer X8 to carry heavier and more advanced payloads while providing more safety features than ever before. The Draganflyer X8 will also be compatible with our latest technologies, including the handheld Ground Control Station (GCS) and IP video camera systems.The increased payload capability of the Draganflyer X8 has allowed it to carry a select variety of digital SLR cameras and various 1080p video cameras. The Draganflyer X8’s industrial-strength electric motors provide increased thrust over the Draganflyer X6, which allows the Draganflyer X8 to carry an increased payload.Innovative new camera systems will be offered as options for the Draganflyer X8 UAV, including the new IP video cameras. IP video cameras work by transmitting digital video over an 802.11n wifi connection. Digital video is less susceptible to random noise than analog video. Digital video is also more secure because IP cameras work over their own wireless network, which can be encrypted to protect the video stream from unauthorized viewing. Because the IP cameras are digital, they can record video to a buffer in internal memory before streaming it to the receiving station. This means that the cameras can be used to capture high resolution still pictures while video is being recorded. Video from the IP cameras can be streamed over the internet easily, allowing you to transmit your video live to almost anywhere in the world.The Draganflyer X8 UAV will be our first UAV helicopter to offer the new handheld Ground Control Station (GCS) as an option. The GCS is currently in development; when complete, it will effectively contain all the features of both the handheld controller and the video base station in one handheld package. Running a Linux operating system on an Intel Atom™ processor allows the GCS to run our existing DraganView software and provide helicopter control at the same time.Safety and durability have been incorporated into the design of each Draganflyer helicopter and the Draganflyer X8 is no exception. It offers more safety features than ever before. Even if an in-flight collision causes one of the motors to stop working, the Draganflyer X8 helicopter, with dual motors on each of the four arms, will still be able to fly using the remaining seven motors. Other safety features include high intensity LED navigation lights for distance or low-light flying and auto-landing if the radio link between the helicopter and its controller is lost. An onboard flight recorder stores telemetry and flight data in a removable memory card. This information can be used for post-flight analysis with our DraganView software.The Draganflyer X8 UAV helicopter has been designed with a unique folding carbon fiber frame. This allows the Draganflyer X8 to become conveniently compact for storage and transportation. Once the Draganflyer X8 carbon fiber frame is folded, it fits securely in its back-packable case.The Draganflyer X8 is a fully functional, miniature, unmanned, electric powered helicopter. Aimed at industrial and commercial use, it provides reconnaissance and inspection information using onboard wireless video (equipped with digital video recorders) and still images. The Draganflyer X8 helicopter achieves its stability by using an onboard processor running custom-designed Draganfly software and receiving data from eleven onboard sensors (three gyros, three accelerometers, three magnetometers, one barometric pressure sensor, and one GPS receiver). It is easily piloted by users with minimal training. The Draganflyer X8 helicopter determines its own orientation and motion, moving where the operator instructs it, automatically handling the complex attitude and altitude adjustments that would normally require an experienced pilot.The Draganflyer X8 helicopter can be put into GPS hold mode where it will maintain its position without any user input. This means that once the GPS hold is activated, the pilot can concentrate on framing the shot using one of the various cameras that the Draganflyer X8 can carry.The Draganflyer X8 helicopter is flown using a custom-designed handheld controller with a 2.8” color OLED touchscreen that displays telemetry and flight data. The Draganflyer X8 handheld controller receives streaming video sent by the helicopter and in turn, sends this video to a pair of video goggles. The video goggles enable the operator to view what the helicopter is seeing in real-time while also keeping an eye on the helicopter itself.


 The increased payload capability of the Draganflyer X8 has allowed it to carry a select variety of digital SLR cameras and various 1080p video cameras.

The World’s First 3D Printing Pen that Lets you Draw Sculptures

Forget those pesky 3D printers that require software and the knowledge of 3D modeling and behold the 3Doodler, the world’s first pen that draws in three dimensions in real time. Imagine holding a pen and waving it through the air, only the line your pen creates stays frozen, suspended and permanent in 3D space.Well it certainly looks like it, watch the video above to see the thing in action. The 3Doodler was designed by Boston-based company WobbleWorks who recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to sell the miraculous little devices that utilizes a special plastic which is heated and instantly cooled to form solid structures as you draw. I don’t know about you but for me this might have just won the most impulsive Kickstarter purchase in history.

 The World’s First 3D Printing Pen that Lets you Draw Sculptures

Forget those pesky 3D printers that require software and the knowledge of 3D modeling and behold the 3Doodler, the world’s first pen that draws in three dimensions in real time. Imagine holding a pen and waving it through the air, only the line your pen creates stays frozen, suspended and permanent in 3D space. Sound like magic? Well it certainly looks like it, watch the video in the given link to see the thing in action. The 3Doodler was designed by Boston-based company WobbleWorks who recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to sell the miraculous little devices that utilizes a special plastic which is heated and instantly cooled to form solid structures as you draw. I don’t know about you but for me this might have just won the most impulsive Kickstarter purchase in history. 

3Doodler is the world’s first and only 3D Printing Pen. Using ABS plastic (the material used by many 3D printers), 3Doodler draws in the air or on surfaces. It’s compact and easy to use, and requires no software or computers. You just plug it into a power socket and can start drawing anything within minutes.

 As 3Doodler draws, it extrudes heated plastic, which quickly cools and solidifies into a strong stable structure. This allows you to build an infinite variety of shapes and items with ease! Most people will instantly be able to trace objects on paper, and after only a few hours of practice you will be able to make far more intricate objects.

3Doodler works on almost any surface, including plastic, allowing users to personalize items such as iPhone cases, or anything else they feel like 3Doodling on. 3Doodler can even be used for minor repair work.