Robot lawnmowers and digital unicycles: Five insane vehicles you never knew Honda made

 

Honda’s got a new wheeled machine to show off today. But it’s not a new hatchback or an electric taxi to rival Nissan’s new black cab. It’s a robot lawnmower that cuts the grass for you and never needs maintenance.

Sounds bizarre? For the Japanese auto-giant, it’s anything but. The company has a rich heritage of quirky cars and robot servants and everything that blurs the boundaries between them. Remember Asimo, the plucky robot spotted doing everything from playing football to conducting an orchestra? He’s just the start. We’ve picked five of the best Honda creations you’ll never see stuck in traffic on the M1.

The robot lawnmower

Meet the Honda Miimo, the Roomba for your garden. This critter roams around using three sensors, charting a random route to avoid wearing your precious lawn out. It can get round gardens of up to 3,000 square metres – about one half of a football pitch – every few days, and returns to its docking station every night to charge up.

It can’t be stolen – you need to punch in a PIN code every time you pick it up – but best of all, it never needs emptying. Because it trims the grass just a few millimetres at a time, every few days, the tiny trimmings are left in the turf to decompose, not that you’ll see them. It’s just been launched today in Europe, and goes on sale early next year. Honda doesn’t give a price, but hey, if you have to ask…

The intelligent unicycle

Unlike the Miimo, the Honda Uni-Cub isn’t commercially available, but then having this much fun might not be legal anyway. It’s a Segway-style unicycle that balances itself, and can be turned with a simple tilt to the side – plus you can pack it up and pull out a handle so it’s easy to carry, and needs no case. With a cruising speed of 3.7mph it’s not designed to get you about in a hurry, but with an aging population, Honda’s hoping it could be a next generation mobility solution.

The motorized Zimmer frame

Speaking of which, Honda’s got another great vehicle for those who find walking difficult or impossible. Weighing just 2.4kg, the Honda Stride Management Assist is a pair of robot leg braces that can help you walk at a brisk pace of up to 2.8mph for more than an hour on a charge. It’s not commercially available just yet, but earlier this month, Honda announced that Japan’s National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology was carrying out trials with 40 patients.The real life Tron bike

OK, it’s actually a tricycle. But still, Honda’s quirky single passenger vehicle looks like a light cycle. The Honda 3R-C is glimpse into a future where we all get around busy cities in nippy little solo vehicles, cutting down on congestion and fumes – it’s electric of course. Dreamt up for the 2010 Geneva Motor Show by Honda’s Italian design team in Miln, it’s sadly not going on sale anytime soon.

The car from the future

But what about those times when you really do need to fit another person in the car with you? Honda’s P-NUT car (Personal-Neo Urban Transport, for those in the know) will get at least two people from A to B in the future. Even if it’s just a prototype, it’s how Honda sees most of us getting around in the future: it’s spacious and leggy on the inside, with a modular engine so you can use clean electricity nipping around town, and petrol for those long distance journeys. Cleverly, the windscreen also acts as a screen, displaying a feed from the rear view camera straight on to the glass.

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Top 5 sports kit for summer of sport 2012

 

With the summer of sport in full swing, there isn’t a better time to feel motivated about getting fit. To help kickstart your fitness regime or enhance your existing routine, we’ve picked out five awesome bits of sports kit to help you stay active and keep in shape.

From trainers with performance-tracking sensors built-in to the cleverest pair of dumbbells you’ll ever flex a muscle lifting, here’s our top 5 sports kit to get fit. 


Nike LunarGlide+ 4 Premium

If you purchase a new pair of running shoes this year, make them the Nike LunarGlide+ 4 Premium. The trendy treads pack Nike’s ‘Lunarion’ cushioning for a softer, springier ride, and is made from threads that Nike say cradle the foot as you run. The best bit is the ability to pair the shoe with Nike+ and the Nike+ Training app that when combined, help you to get fit, and stay fit.

Adidas Transformer Dumbbells

Working out from home usually means stacks of dumbbells cluttering up your personal space, but not if the Adidas Transformer Dumbbells can help it. What makes these dumbbells so special is the ability to adjust from 3kg to 18.5 kg in 2.5kg increments to adapt to the increasing intensity of your strength training, helping you up your workouts, and save space. You also get a nice stand. 


Reebok Speed Rope

Skipping might be a playground pastime but it also happens to be one of the most efficient, and underrated methods of cardiovascular exercise and increasing ones agility. The Reebok Speed Rope has a 3 metre adjustable rope length and to aid in strengthening your grip, removable 50 gram steel bar to create added weight.

CamelBak 2012 M.U.L.E

The CamelBak 2012 M.U.L.E backpack is the perfect accessory to accompany you on your post-work jog or cycle back home. It has enough room to carry your work documents, and is designed for comfort and convenience. A drinking tube lets connect to a water source within the bag to keep you hydrated.

Swimovate Poolmate Pro


This waterborne watch tracks swimmers training by recording performance, before tracking it for feedback on a Mac or PC. The Swimovate Poolmate Pro will even recognise the type of stroke being performed to accurately track average strokes per lap, speed, distance, calories and efficiency. It might be too late to try for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics, but if you want to see how you compare with Britain’s best, the Swimovate Poolmate Pro is just what you need. 
 Seen any other fitness gadgets you’d love to suggest to readers? Let us know.

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The best gadgets that could appear at CES 2012

 

The best gadgets that could appear at CES 2012

 

CES 2012 – the biggest technology and gadgets convention takes place in Las Vegas next month. For three days lucky attendees will get a chance to see future tech and the gadgets we’ll be lusting for in 2012. Big announcements are expected during the course of the show, many of which are being kept a secret. So what can we hope to see at CES 2012?

With CES just around the corner, we’ve been looking at some of the best gadgets that are on their way. Read on to find out more.

Windows 8 tablets 
It looks like the Apple iPad 2 will have serious competition in 2012, because the word is that Microsoft will show off a Windows 8 tablet at the show. Microsoft has already confirmed a public beta release of Windows 8 for February 2012, however, if reports are anything to go by, we’ll have seen Windows 8 working on a tablet before then. Those familiar with the latest Windows interface would agree that it would match tablets perfectly. You only need to check out the Xbox 360 dashboard working with Microsoft Kinect to see the potential, so we can’t wait to see Windows 8 on a new platform.

The World’s biggest iPod dock
Even before the show, the Behringer iNuke Boom iPod dock has been grabbing the headlines. It’s an 8ft wide, 4ft tall dock that weighs over 700 pounds, and can deliver a staggering 10,000 watts of audio. The colossal iPod dock is worth going to see alone, let alone hearing. Just remember to pack the ear plugs. 

Behringer iNuke Boom: The 8ft iPd dock with monster sound

Glasses-free 3D TVsLast year’s show saw glasses-free 3D TV being shown off. These weren’t small televisions the size of a Nintendo 3DS – these were stonking big tellies that do all the active shuttering inside the television set. However, those were prototypes, so expect glasses-free TV to have a bigger presence this time around. Could glasses-free TV reach the high street in 2012? We’ll soon find out.

A new Xbox console? We’re only at the turn of a new year, yet already new Xbox rumours are surfacing. The latest rumours predict that Microsoft will attempt to get another head-start on Sony by showing off the new Xbox console in some form at CES 2012. One suggestion is that Microsoft is planning to release not one, but two Xbox consoles. One of them is said to be in the form of a set-top-box for the living room with Microsoft Kinect built-in. 

New Xbox coming in 2012 Sony Ericsson Arc HD
The Sony Ericsson Arc HD, or Sony Ericsson Nozomi as it has also been known could be the last ever Sony Ericsson phone as Sony swallows up the Sony Ericsson brand. If so, the brand will go out with a bang. The Sony Ericsson Arc HD is a 1.5GHz dual-core phone with a 12-megapixel camera that plays back 720p HD video and has a 3.5-inch display.

ExoPC EXOdesk 
This futuristic interactive desk is a multi-touch digital workspace resembling something straight out of Spielberg’s Minority Report. The desk measures 40 inches and comes with support for apps that are projected onto the desk surface. Users of the EXOdesk will even be able to peep their RSS feed.