Robotic Hands Taught to Delicately Peel Bananas

Posted on 01/04/2022 by hite

What good is a robot servant if it can’t even peel your breakfast banana without smashing it to bits? With that in mind, researchers at the University of Tokyo’s ISI Laboratory have used AI to teach a pair of robotic hands how to delicately peel bananas. What a time to be alive and not a banana!

To achieve banana peeling success, the researchers first recorded 811 minutes of humans peeling bananas, with the process divided into nine stages, “from grasping the banana to picking it up off the table with one hand, grabbing the tip in the other hand, peeling it, then moving the banana so the rest of the skin can be removed.” The how-to data was then fed to the robots, which can now successfully peel bananas without damaging the fruit a relatively unimpressive 57% of the time. Hopefully, those bananas are going into smoothies, because they certainly wouldn’t pass inspection for banana splits.

There was probably a time just years ago when scientists thought robots would never be able to peel bananas but look at us now. Welcome to the future! We may not have hoverboards, but at least we have banana-peeling robots. Just to be clear, I’m rolling my eyes right now in case you couldn’t tell.

[via Laughing Squid]

Cymbal Clapping Monkey Tape Dispenser

Posted on 29/12/2021 by hite

Just when you thought tape dispensing couldn’t get any more exciting, Amazeko has released this Clapping Monkey Tape Dispenser. Available on Amazon (affiliate link), the monkey happily claps his cymbals whenever you pull on the tape. Obviously, this is going to make wrapping presents in secret a bit more challenging.

The tape dispenser features a non-slip weighted banana base so it stays put while in use, and takes regular 1-inch core tape rolls like 3M or Scotch, up to 3/4″ in width. Considering all my work is performed digitally, I’ve got no real reason to have a tape dispenser on my desk at work. Well, besides taping ‘KICK ME’ signs to the backs of coworkers and getting written up by HR, but I think we can all agree that’s reason enough. Please don’t fire me, the monkey was egging me on with all his clapping!

I just showed it to my wife in my Amazon cart but she quickly looked away with an “Absolutely not,” and now I regret showing her in the first place. In the past, I’ve found it’s best to order things like and schedule delivery to make sure they arrive on days when she’s at work, but I thought she’d actually think this was cute. Oh well, she works on Friday.

[via DudeIWantThat]

Finally, The Banana Cat Bed Your Cats Have Been Meowing for

Posted on 01/12/2020 by hite

Cats: they’re particular. You buy them a fancy memory foam bed for $80 and they sleep in the sink. Enter the Banana Cat Bed, a plush, banana-shaped cat bed, complete with a peelable peel on top. I can close my eyes and already see my cat sleeping in the packaging it came in.

While available in a variety of sizes (18-inch small, $20; 22-inch medium, $25; 26-inch large, $30; and 36-inch extra-large, $41), it is not available in a variety of colors. It’s yellow or nothing.

What the – you’re not a cat! I suppose it also makes a decent dog bed, and not just for small dogs. I mean a 36-inch banana is a pretty big banana. Maybe not the biggest piece of produce I’ve ever seen, but I have been to some serious county fairs. But have I ever won a giant stuffed animal at the ring toss? Not even after throwing $350 of rings in a sitting.

When is a Rubik’s Cube Not a Cube? When It’s a Fruit

Posted on 15/09/2020 by Paul Strauss

The original Rubik’s Cube is one of the most iconic and popular toys of all time. From its deceptively simple design to its frustrating complexity for noobs, to the amazing way that some people can solve them in seconds, they’re a mechanical masterpiece of puzzle goodness.

The original 3x3x3 puzzle has inspired many variants, including much more complicated versions, and shapes like pyramids and dodecahedrons. Now, you can buy some Rubik’s inspired puzzles that look good enough to eat.

These Fruit Series “cube” puzzles are anything but cube-shaped, but they work in a similar way to the original Rubik’s Cube, with a multi-axis pivoting mechanism to scramble then arrange their parts out. The puzzles come in five tasty and nutritious versions, including orange, banana, pear, lemon, and apple. Okay, plastic isn’t actually nutritious.

At first glance, these things look like they’d be more challenging to sort out than a piece of fruit that you already took a bite out of, but apparently, they’re not that hard. Despite the temptation, don’t try and chomp down on one of these, or you’ll certainly chip a tooth.

All of these fruity puzzles are available individually from Hong Kong novelty shop Brando, where they sell for $16 each. The SpeedCubeShop sells a set of three that includes the orange, apple, and banana for just $17.95. I also found a set of four on Amazon for $19.99.

You can play ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ with banana controllers

Posted on 11/12/2018 by Engadget RSS Feed

The GameCube controller for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate might be sold out all over the place, but you don't need it to dominate the competition with your favorite fighter. All you need, it turns out, is a bunch of bananas. A Twitch streamer going by t...

Banana Surprise Fills Your Bananas with Other Stuff

Posted on 08/11/2018 by Conner Flynn

Are you tired of adding extra flavor outside of your banana? Well, it’s time to get some flavor inside of your banana with Banana Surprise. On the other hand, if you want a different flavor than banana, maybe you shouldn’t have a banana in the first place? Right?

The Banana Surprise is kitchen tool for kids that not only cores bananas but also fills the fruit with any injectable flavor you want. All you have to do is cut the end off a banana, place it in the… um… Yumstation, push the corer into the banana, take it out, then inject your flavor inside. Maybe some jelly or chocolate. Then you have a banana surprise.

Sounds like a lot of work to me. On a side note though, a budding young nurse or doctor can learn how to use a catheter and have a cool snack at the same time. So I guess there’s that. No way I would let this in my house – makes my penis very nervous. In fact, this was a hard article to write with one hand covering my crotch.

[ via Dude I Want That via Geekologie]

Breakthrough in Banana Science Means a Perfectly Ripe Banana Every Day

Posted on 16/08/2018 by Shane McGlaun

Thanks to Gwen Stefani, I can actually spell b-a-n-a-n-a, so that’s good. The problem I have with bananas is that I hate them. I blame the banana-flavored numbing goo my childhood dentist used and the horrid taste of the banana itself. Monkeys only eat bananas because they have never had a pepperoni pizza.

Since I loathe bananas, I am utterly unable to buy them for my daughter, who happens to love them. They are always too green to eat or too ripe ending up “squishy and with super gross black dots” as my daughter tells me. Leave it to the Koreans to improve banana technology for the good of all mankind.

This package comes with six bananas of varying ripeness so you can eat them each day at the peak of ripeness and sans gross black spots and squishy parts. Now if only those Korean banana scientists could just explain to me what the deal is with those stringy things running down the side of a banana, and why we haven’t used genetic engineering to get rid of them yet.

[via Laughing Squid]

Is That a Banana Lamp on Your Desk, or Are You Just Glad to See Me?

Posted on 01/09/2017 by Paul Strauss

While you could decorate your table with a bowl of fruit (real or fake), I like the idea of this shiny golden pop art banana lamp so much more. It looks so good that it just might attract monkeys into your place, and they could make a mess of the joint.

These banana lamps were designed by Belgium’s Studio Job and produced by Seletti. They’re made from a combination of resin and glass, and come in three different designs, named Huey, Dewey, and Louie, which also the names of Donald Duck’s nephews, and the robots in Silent Running.

Choose one to suit your mood, or grab all three if you like your bananas by the bunch. Each lamp sells for $295 over on Gessato, which is a whole lot of bananas if you ask me.

BANANA WAVE Bananamilk an ‘A-peeling’ Non-Dairy Option

Posted on 23/06/2017 by merilee

Move over almond, soy, coconut and other non-dairy milk alternatives....there’s a new and decidedly tasty milk substitute in the supermarket aisle: BANANA WAVE bananamilk. This natural, plant-...

This Phone is Bananas

Posted on 09/05/2017 by Shane McGlaun

Bananas are a roughly phone shaped fruit that begs someone to hold it up and try to talk on it. If you want an actual banana phone, this is what you need. Its shaped like your favorite yellow fruit and connects to your mobile phone via Bluetooth. It’s perfect for conducting all of your monkey business.

The Banana Phone has volume buttons and an answer and end call button as well. The mic is on the bottom and looks like a peeled banana, the speaker is on top. An LED indicator button shows connectivity. It can also activate Siri or Google Assistant. Features aside, what’s important is that it looks like a banana.

The Banana Phone is on Indiegogo and part of the proceeds to to Gearing Up 4 Gorillas, a charity supporting mountain gorillas. A single Banana Phone sells for $40 and includes stickers and a charger. Assuming they reach their funding goal, they should start shipping around September.

[via Laughing Squid]

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Tag Archives: banana

Robotic Hands Taught to Delicately Peel Bananas

Cymbal Clapping Monkey Tape Dispenser

Finally, The Banana Cat Bed Your Cats Have Been Meowing for

When is a Rubik’s Cube Not a Cube? When It’s a Fruit

You can play ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ with banana controllers

Banana Surprise Fills Your Bananas with Other Stuff

Breakthrough in Banana Science Means a Perfectly Ripe Banana Every Day

Is That a Banana Lamp on Your Desk, or Are You Just Glad to See Me?

This Phone is Bananas

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