Snack-slinging robot restores faith in Yankee ingenuity
The Consumer Electronics Association is concerned about America's future. "The culture of entrepreneurship and relentless innovation has made America home to the greatest advances in technology," they argue. "But today, that culture is under threat." The CEA's leadership has not, it appears, had the good fortune of visiting …
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American entrepreneurial spirit is only exceeded...
...by the greed of Chinese IP pirates
I fully expect the Popinator to be produced in Shenzen with no royalties paid to the naive originators of the idea.
Arrrr!
Re: American entrepreneurial spirit is only exceeded...
Only in America would someone invent a machine that shoots out pop corn.
Another reason never to leave the sofa, eating popcorn whilst drinking from a nearby gallon coke dispenser.
No wonder there are so many fat people there.
Re: A quick search
Shows they failed to patent this. So no worries, the idea is free to be used.
Re: A quick search
"Shows they failed to patent this."
I think that's because it isn't their idea.
There was a Uk show (gadget geeks?) that designed and built a prototype hot-dog launcher at a speedway circuit or something. You basically texted it your seat number and it shot it at you from about 100 yards away.
Limited success :) but the idea was there.
Make one that dispenses skittles...
... and I'll be first in line.
Re: Make one that dispenses skittles...
...Oi! You could 'ave someone's eye out with that!
Re: Make one that dispenses skittles...
Peanut M&M's for me!
Would work better
Skittles are much more aerodynamically predictable than popcorn, after all. I should know -- I did my master's thesis on that very subject.
No mention of the Tuxedo Chocolate popcorn?
Dark and white chocolate drizzled popcorn, yum! No, really -- I thought "eww" when I first saw it but to their credit, they do it nicely and it's really tasty. Would make a mess of the crackerjaculator, though. :p
«-- popcorn's always better with beer
Re: No mention of the Tuxedo Chocolate popcorn?
I gotta give you a upvote for "crackerjaculator"
<-- and a bill for a new keyboard.
Re: No mention of the Tuxedo Chocolate popcorn?
Your newly coined word "crackerjaculator" has scored you a whopping big hit of 2 links found by all of Google. Both of them refer to this article.
Well done.
Salted peanuts.
That's what it needs, peanuts.
But even though popcorn tastes like expanded polystyrene, I *still* want one!
Made a non voice controlled one many years ago
you cant be accurate with popcorn over any reasonable distances - and this thing is within arm reach and you could have got a good fistfull and be back reclining faster than this delivered.
I am however selling a voice controlled disruptor air jet for anyone in an office who has a colleague who purchases one....
Insert paintballs and change the voice trigger..
.. and you have the best home defence system a geek can buy. Or change the trigger to "f*ck" and encourage your kids to expand their vocabulary instead (that's the theory, in reality, hey will stand behind you and then swear :) ).
And, of course, you'll do this in a place that needs redecorating anyway.
Re: Insert paintballs and change the voice trigger..
http://youtu.be/E28-9zH1nSM
For your enjoyment
Lawyers dream?
How long before the personal injury court cases start - hit in eye, choked on piece hitting back of throat, etc. ?
"binaural popcorn delivery system"?
Has this got something to do with delivering the popcorn to both ears at once?
Yorkie?
Anybody want to bet on how long until somebody's dog discovers how to modulate a bark to be "close enough" to "pop" to trigger this?
It's a hoax, people.
Turns out it's all camerawork & remote control. The thing doesn't work as advertised. The film was made to get !GooMyFaceYouMSTwit hits. Don't feed the trolls.
Re: It's a hoax, people.
just watching it I figured it was fake. They never show it making two shots in one take, and looking at the empty one there is no way for the popcorn to get from the bin up to the "gun".
No...it may well not be
You can see the feed tube near the bottom of the box in the photo. I once saw a system to deliver tablets to a testing machine that used compressed air, and I'm guessing this is how it works; suction draws popcorn into the tube (perhaps with a little vibration to reduce blockages) and when an optical sensor detects popcorn at the base of the feed unit, it is blown up.
The acoustic sensing is perfectly feasible. An ARM processor is easily able to deal with the processing required.
My guess is that it isn't real only because the air tank and compressor are quite large and external to the unit.
Re: It's a hoax, people.
Yes. Two microphones won't give enough location information to do what this appears to do.
Nice film though, good model and good marketing.
Re: No...it may well not be
Yes, it is a hoax. As reported by the news station KGO7 (one of two good news stations local to ElReg's SF office) a full 9 days before ElReg "broke" the story. See:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/bizarre&id=8818328
DARPA Interested?
No need to weaponize it - popcorn is already a deadly product of the American "food" industry.
Evolution in action. (was: Re: DARPA Interested?)
What kind of mouth-breather buys this shit, anyway?[1] I mean, seriously, store-bought pre-popped popcorn and store-bought microwaveable popcorn? WHY? It's not exactly rocket-science to pop it on your own stove-top, and flavo(u)r it to your own taste ... or, if away from your kitchen, in the nearest microwave with homemade pre-flavo(u)red microwavable pouches. It's a hell of a lot cheaper, too ... especially if you purchase the kernels from bulk bins. Don't know how? Try searching TehIntraWebTubes[tm]; I'm sure somebody has a page or two on the subject.
[1] Probably the same idiots who buy figs at markets at this time of year (a little later, persimmons & quince) in the SF Bay Area ... or the complete morons who actually pay for bay/laural/myrtal leaves.
Re: Evolution in action. (was: DARPA Interested?)
Nurse!
jake needs his meds!
Bacon Sarnie Launcher?
In our office we could really use a Bacon Sarnie Launcher, one for the Reg SPB?
It seems, though
that there IS a kernel of truth to the article.
So to speak.
No butter, please.
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