GEEK.com: New Honda Hands ad is two minutes of video sorcery

Honda is best known for making and selling reliable, practical automobiles produced in equally practical manufacturing facilities. The company also makes other things, though. For example, motorcycles, robots, and amazing commercials to show off the cool stuff it makes. A few years back Honda won massive praise for the “cog” advert, and now it may have outdone itself with the fabulous Honda Hands commercial.

The two minute spot was debuted online a few days ago, and it’s one of the most magical two minutes of advertising you’ll ever see. It’s basically a static shot of a person playing with miniature versions of Honda’s greatest creations. This clever video starts out with a nut rolling past.

The object morphs into all manner of Honda products in surprising ways. There are dirt bikes, cars, Asimo, jet engines, and even a solar-powered concept car. These are the innovations Honda is most proud of over the last 65 years.

The Honda Hands ad simplifies the technological journey the company has embarked on in the last few decades. Honda has gone from a second fiddle to Toyota, to a respected innovator and manufacturer.

Honda says this ad “celebrates the curiosity of Honda engineers.” I’m willing to grant that — it’s human curiosity that drives science to take the tools we have and build new things. Though, a significant component of this ad is also the desire to make a really cool animation that people will talk about. If your ad is good enough, you don’t have to buy airtime.

Source;
http://www.geek.com/news/new-honda-hands-ad-is-two-minutes-of-video-sorcery-1561208/

Honda's little radiation-proof robot does nuke duty

Boldly goes where no man can, in crippled Fukushima plant

TOKYO -- In the highly radioactive crucible of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, there are simply some areas too hot and hazardous for humans to venture for cleanup.

Now, Honda Motor Co. is parlaying its expertise in robotics into a helping hand -- quite literally a telescoping, cancer-impervious surveying arm that will see what's going on inside the dark, dangerous hulk of the ruined reactor building.

Honda today unveiled the remote-controlled robot, which it created with Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. It starts work this week.

Honda engineered the robotic arm. The institute developed the crawler tread and platform that it rides on.

The arm incorporates many sensing technologies Honda developed for its pint-sized humanoid Asimo robot: 3D imaging of the surrounding areas and control systems that allow the arm to absorb impact when it collides against obstacles in the dark.

"The robot uses a zoom camera, laser range finder and dosimeter located at the tip of the arm to confirm detailed images, collect 3D data and identify the source of radiation," Honda said. It's designed to probe high, narrow, hard-to-reach areas.

The gizmo evokes the star minibot in the animated Disney movie "Wall-E." It's a compact box on petite tank treads, brandishing an extendable arm tipped with a camera lens that mimics an eye.

The project was originally reported two years ago by Japan's Asahi newspaper. But at that time, Honda denied such plans.

The idea is to spare human workers dangerous exposure to radiation at Fukushima. The plant was slammed by a tsunami spawned by Japan's March 11, 2011, earthquake, and has been leaking radiation ever since. Some estimates say it will take at least 30 years to fully decommission the polluted plant.

In the early days of the crisis, Japanese officials were criticized for using foreign-made robots, instead of domestically developed ones, to venture into the plant.

It's two years late, but Honda is finally heeding the call.

Source;
http://www.autonews.com/article/20130617/BLOG06/130619886/hondas-little-radiation-proof-robot-does-nuke-duty#axzz2WU1EKus6