Catch Notes never quite caught on as much as Evernote did, but we'll bet its loyal users will still be upset to know it's shuttering on August 30th. An announcement posted on the company's website reveals that it's terminating its note-taking service, which includes its Android and iOS apps as well as its browser extensions. While the end of Catch Notes is nigh, it doesn't seem the company itself is closing up, as the same announcement talks about moving "in a different direction." Until we hear what the firm has in mind, those who've been using the service over the years can export their notes via Catch.com. You can then import the CVS or the ZIP file to other productivity tools like Evernote, OneNote, Simplenote or Springpad. There's less than 30 days to find a new service that tickles your fancy, but at least you won't have to start from scratch.
[Thanks, Michael]
Filed under: Misc
Apparently, Disney want your kids to spend more time with robots and less with parents. At least that would appear to be their goal judging by this humanoid robot. The robotics experts at the Disney Research lab in Pittsburgh have created a humanoid robot that can play a game of catch for possible use in theme parks.
Well, it’s more like a game of lob, but some day it will be really awesome at a game of catch. This robot can lob a ball to you and when you throw it back, can find, register, and catch it. The robot uses a Kinect to sense and track the trajectory of an object thrown directly at it, adjusting so that it can catch it with one hand.
If it misses the catch, the robot will look around for the ball or shake its head in dismay. Its sensors also track and follow the direction of the human it’s playing with, so it will turn and face its partner if they move out of the way. Looks like robot baseball is coming along just fine.
[via PopSci via Geekosystem]
It's entirely possible for robots to juggle or play catch. They've usually been relegated to playing with their own kind, however, which is as good an excuse as any for Disney Research to experiment with a ball-tossing robot tailored to games with humans. The animatronic creation uses a depth-aware motion camera -- there's conflicting mentions of using both the Microsoft Kinect and ASUS' Xtion Pro Live that we're hoping to sort out -- to track any mid-air balls as well as throw them back to a human participant. Disney's robot does more than just move the robot's arm to account for imperfect tosses, too, as it knows to feign a dejected look after a botched reception. The company suggests that its invention would ideally bring two-way interaction to theme parks, so it's more likely to show up at Disneyland before it stands in for a parent in the backyard. It's just as well; when the Robopocalypse comes, the last thing we'll want at home is a machine that can toss grenades.
Update: Team member Jens Kober has filled us in on just why both cameras are mentioned. The team started off using the Kinect and switched to the Xtion Pro Live, once it was available, to get hardware-synced timing between a regular camera and the depth camera. The project didn't require the panning motor or microphone array of Microsoft's system.
Filed under: Robots, Microsoft, ASUS
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Popular Science