Robot sunflower follows hand movements, your chance to play the sun
A robotic flower - sounds absurd alright, but I’d definitely like to play the sun. A geekly-cute artistic creation, merging nature with robotic instincts, Himawari is a robotic sunflower, which instead of moving toward the sun (heliotropism, sunflower’s basic instinct), follows the hand's movement, mimicking the real flower in the process.
Designed by Akira Nakayasu of Kyushu University, Japan, Himawari (Japanese for sunflower) is on display at Robosquare in Fukuoka. 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 toward the movement. Jump to see the sunflower robot in action.
Via: CNet
