Vax LiFE unplugged pick-up demo Video

Vax LiFE unplugged pick-up demo

A Roomba For The Mean City Streets

Could street-cleaners someday be replaced by robots? Olga Kalugina thinks so, and has designed the Scarab, an oversized, outdoor Roomba, to do it.

The Scarab would first be deployed in shopping malls where it could easily cruise, clean and polish the smooth floors, but we see a day when robots scour the sidewalks for trash and keep our streets sparkling clean.

Looking like a giant vacuum cleaner, the Scarab uses a pair of webcams to seek out mess and then brushes the trash into an internal tank, which it can empty by itself. It also has a grabber-arm to pick up larger items — discarded Slurpee cups, for example, and runs on electricity instead of an engine like many manually operated street-sweepers.

The big problem, though, is that while a Roomba is safe inside your house, Kalugina’s concept design would be out amongst ranks of terrifying teenagers, bent on teasing the poor machine or even just kicking its face in. Stick this out into the real mean city streets and you’d lose the entire fleet in days, stolen and repurposed or just sold. No, a real street-smart robot would need some kind of defense. A taser, perhaps, or at the very least an electrified shell.

And there you have it. The perfect street cleaning robot would in fact be R2D2. We welcome the future

Electrolux Upright Vacuum Cleaners For The Ultra Richs

We’ve seen Swarovski crystal cell phones, diamond mp3 players and pimped cars but this is the first bling vacuum cleaner that we’ve come across.
The Electrolux upright vacuum cleaner was created by Polish fashion designer Lukaz Jemiol and is said to be a one off design. The unit itself is covered in 3730 Swarovski crystals and is valued at $19,400.

According to the Guinness Book Of World Records, this upright is the world’s most expensive vacuum cleaner.
An Electrolux spokesperson did indicate that this was a one off design but that they “could arrange to have another one made to order if anyone desired”. It just goes to show that the ultra rich can have a pimped out vacuum cleaner to clean carpets with, but then again, if you’re that rich, wouldn’t you have maid service