Planetary rovers may soon have an eight-legged mechanised side-kick to help them explore distant planets, says NASA. The Scorpion robot is able to descend steep cliffs, climb rough terrain, and squeeze into crannies that are inaccessible to larger, wheeled vehicles. The dog-sized prototype is the brainchild of Frank Kirchner, a robotics specialist at the University of Bremen in Germany. It is currently being evaluated at NASA?s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. This specialised tool can go into too small or rocky areas that are not suitable for a car-sized rover to reach. However, at present the robot is too tiny to carry the power required for complex roving missions.
The world will get its first glimpse of push-to-view (PTV) mobile phone technology when the LG Electronics showcases its latest 3G ?killer application? at the 3GSM World Congress 2005. PTV is state-of-the-art mobile technology that combines networking and multimedia, allowing multiple users to share live video or chat in real time. Evolved from push-to-talk (PTT), PTV checks reception, selects users for video-conferencing and controls transmission.
