Google Car

Vehicles have changed alot in sinces thet were invented in 1885. Firts with the change that improved the engines anffd the in the power, the materials and, in the last years, the reduction of the emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere with the electric an hibrid cars.

However, this is not enought for Google, who has give an step forward and has presented his new project: the Google car. Google says that most of the accidents occurs by driver´s mistakes and, because of that, they want to remove it.

Google has designed a prototype starting for the Toyota Prius. The car has a sensor above the car that creates a tri-dimensional map in 70m around the car and measures the distance with the car in front. The sensor sent data to the car about the things that happen around the cars and controlls the speed.

This system is not only for people who doesn´t know how to drive or are too lazy for it. It can be used for unexpert drivers or those that or irresponsible ones thar try to drive drunk or sleep while they are driving. But this car won´t make disapear the steering wheels so, thos people who like drivings can keep calm.

In United States, many states has aproved a law that allows the selff-driving cars and, I think that the
self- driving cars are going to be something normal in future but, in will tooke some years so, for the moment, we have to be content with learn to drive.

HTC Vive

Nowadays, the virtual reality world is well-know. Some years ago was presented the Oculus Rift, the first virtual reality glasses. The first screen hasn´t a lot of resolution but it gave a real virtual reality sensation.                                                        

Some years later, the Oculus was improved and other companies stanted their own virtual reality project, like the Samsung, with the Samsung Gear VR( that need a Samsung Galaxy S6 or Galaxy S7), Sony, with the Playstation VR( that needs a Playstation 4) and Valve, that has made the HTC Vive glasses, the VR glasses designes for Steam games.

This glasses have a camera in the frontal part and, for use it, you need the controllers, two sensor, that are placed on the walls of the room where you are going to play and, of course, the glasses. Headphones aren´t necesary but wear them improve the experience. For uses the VR glases, you need a computer, a very powreful comoputer. Al least, you need a Core i5, a Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, an HDMI port and 4GB of RAM memory.

For the moment, there are only a few of games for the HTC Vive and they are beta games or very short games which don´t cost more than 10 euros. But lots of videogames companies are interested in the Valve VR glasses and they´re developings games for the plataform in the future.

If you want the HTC Vive you can order them for 899 euros. They can look very expensive and surely they are, however, this is a new technology and, I think that in the future the prizes will drop and everybody would enjoy the VR world.

Project Jacquard

Google want to make our live easier and make technology arrive to all the normal objects. We have seen how mobile phones, TVs and watches became smart. However, google have give a step forward and has begin a project to make clothes smart. Yes they want to make possible controll our smartphones with a jacket or a pair of trousers.

This Google projet has been called Project Jacquard and it´s a colaboration whith the clothes company Levi´s. They have make it possible connect the clothes to the gadgets with "smart
yards" that are made of the combination of natural and synthetic materyals like cotton, polyerster or silk and metallic alloys, which coduce electricity. This electric yarns act like a touchscreen: when they detect pressure, they send an electric sign to the little wireless connector and then the sign is sent to our smartphones.

Each day more and more products are becoming "smart" andf in the future, I personally feel that we could slide down the blind or close the door with our trousers or T-shirt.

LEGO MIndstorm EV3

The robots are becoming more and more popular each day and  people are more intersted in them. Because of that, today I´m going to talk abou the LEGO Mindstorm EV3.

The LEGO EV3, it´s a robotic paack for making your own robot and programming it for make however you want. This is the third version of LEGO Mindstorm:

• LEGO Mindstorm RCX: The first version was implemented in the market in 1998 and it took a few sensors and an electric engine.

• LEGO Mindstorm NXT: The second version was launched a few years later and it took more sensors and two more electric engines. IT can be connected to smartphones, computers or other gadgets by bluethoot.

• LEGO Mindstorm EV3: This is the last version of the LEGO robotic kit. It has more or less the same sensors and enginees that the NXT, however, the programming program and the robot interface has been improved. And it has more connections ad ports.

The EV3 has various versions with diferent pieces for making diferent robots like the SPIK3R, which  looks like a scorpion and can shoot balls and grip objets; and the R3EPTAR, designed for avoid obstacles. However, all the different versions come with lots of common pieces and can do more or less the same things. An example is this color classifier that some frieds and me made last winter. It had a little fail but, in general, it worked well:

Apart from the pre-designed robots, you can desing, set and program your own robot, and this is the most interesting feature of the LEGO Mindstorms. It comes with hundreds of pieces so, you can desingn your robot and give it thousands of shapes. It comes with various different sensors (ultrasonic, touchpad, infrared, microphone...) , for adapt your robot to its "habitat" and it has a very good software to program your cration, which can be understood by everyone.

The LEGO Mindstorm EV3 looks like the perfect learning robotic kit, but has problems too.
It has a prize of 400 euros and the licenses have to be bought too. Apart from that its a very good tool for schools.

I personally think that in the future, robots will be as popular and common as smartphones are now and that there will be robots whose work is shop assistant or waiter and, for sure, they are going to to our lives easier.