Gizmodo: cart

Stanford Cart: When Robots Started Seeing in 3D

matt buchanan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:00:00 EDT

Terminators have night and infrared vision. But they had to start somewhere, right? In 1979, a robot at Stanford called Cart that was radio-linked to a mainframe tracked and navigated 3D obstacles using a sliding camera for stereoscopic vision.

First, they saw chairs littered around rooms. Then they saw us. [CMU]

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Miniature Shopping Carts Let You Play Bag Lady Barbie

Jason Chen — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:10:48 EDT

Have you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a shopping cart-type homeless person? If you did, the Korean store IdeaTopic offeres miniature shopping carts that not only roll around, but fit into each other just like real carts. In fact, if you buy enough, you can even make-believe you're going on a cart run at your local Safeway. Don't know what we mean? Catch the video after the jump. It's pretty much the worst video ever—believe us.

[IdeaTopic via Nexus404]

How to Make a Shopping Cart Bike

Jason Chen — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:50:45 EDT

Whether this bike is used for really fast travel inside a Safeway or really slow travel from Safeway back home is irrelevant. It's a bike attached to a shopping cart, something poor people and the homeless (and enviro-nerds) have been dreaming of for years. This instructables guide shows you how to create one with all the dignity and pizazz that a shopping cart bike deserves. [Instructables via Zieak via Eco Geek via Oh Gizmo]

The Sit-Down Shopping Cart: Because Groceries Are Tiring

Jason Chen — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:40:41 EST

For the disabled, the elderly, or the extremely lazy, this Sit-Down shopping cart takes the hard work out of shopping in a way that only a butler could. The cart weighs only 10 pounds, which means it's easy to carry to and from your car, and supports up to 300 pounds on its seat.

Two things. One, 300 pounds? People (the non-disabled and non-elderly) who use this thing would probably weigh a bit more than 300 pounds. Two, that's really not enough storage space to hold all the food for a 300+ pound man.

Also, surely anybody who uses this sit-down shopping cart doesn't have gams like that. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Maxiaids via ChipChick via uber gizmo]

Transforming Bicycle Cart

Jason Chen — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 23:08:50 EDT

If you're tight for space on the subway and don't mind looking like a doofus on the street, Lutz's bicycle-cart saves you from owning a bike and a luggage roller. Bicycle by day, cart by later that day, the Carry-Bike is useful in both modes.

The next time some BART (that's the mass transit system here in the Bay Area) conductor gives you a hard time about your bike, change it into a carry cart and tell him that his job will never allow him to afford this fancy contraption. Then watch as he beats you with said cart.

Now available for $380 USD. We're just kidding about that conductor jab, too. Seriously.

Carry-Bike [Lutz via Seihin World]