Himawari

I just found this cool stuff posted in GizmoWatch.com. Worth bloggin it. Take a peek.

A geekly-cute artistic creation, merging nature with robotic instincts, Himawari is a robotic sunflower, which instead of moving towards the sun (heliotropism, sunflower’s basic instinct), follows the hand movement, mimicking the real flower in process.

Himawari - Japanese for Sunflower

Designed by Akira Nakayasu of Kyushu University, Japan

The impulse to follow the hand motion has been inculcated into the robotic flower by stationing an infrared camera within its head. A cluster of 48 white LEDs on the head reflect light corresponding to the hands waving nearby, the information is captured by the camera and informed to an attached PC (acting as the control unit), which processes data and directs servomotors in the robots stalk to turn its sunflower head towards the movement. Jump down to see the sunflower robot in action.


You can get the exact picture at 0:51

DEFINITELY GEEKY!!

source: www.gizmowatch.com