Gizmodo: Swords

$30,000 Damascene Straight Razor: Beware of Accidental Decapitation

Sean Fallon — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:50:00 EDT

Using a straight razor in the era of Gillette Fusion seems like suicide to me, but if you are the adventurous type looking for the closest shave imaginable—I give you the Damascene. Hand-forged in Germany with 128 layers of the same legendary Damascene steel used to craft Crusader's swords, this limited edition razor is not for the faint of heart (or empty of wallet). Careful though, my guess is that tiny pieces of toilet paper are not going to be sufficient to handle any cuts that might result from this Sweeny Todd masterpiece. Available for a ridiculous $30,000. [Damascene via Luxist via Boing Boing Gadgets]

The Tech Inside Olympic Fencers' Amazing Future-Warrior LED Helmets

John Mahoney — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:45:00 EDT

Continuing in its tradition of offering up exactly what we want, Boston.com's Big Picture blog has a ton of fantastic shots from the fencing action this week in Beijing, with the duelers' silvery lamé space suits and crazy blinking helmets on full display. I want one to wear, whether I'm making toast (flying crumb protection) or sequencing dance beats in a giant pyramid (extra rock action). But why all the fancy lights?

Basically, the future helmets only get busted out during big time Olympic competitions for, unsurprisingly, the aesthetics. They simply display the exact same signal that's been showing up on the scorer's desk for decades using the same type of electrical system, says Giz fan Michael from fencing supply kings fencing.net. A simple open-closed circuit detects a charge from the weapon, and sends a signal to the scorekeeper indicating a hit. The systems for the individual swords (foil, epee, saber, etc) vary slightly in terms of which body parts count, and what constitutes a "hit," but all use the same basic setup. The LEDs on the mask help the referee make quicker scoring calls and allow the duelers to know when a hit has been made instantly. Sort of a shame that they're aren't actually T1000-style heads-up displays or something, but hey, they get an important job done better than in the past.
The system used to require tethers snaking back behind the fencers, but now a cigarette-pack sized transmitter handles the whole thing wirelessly.
So back to the original statement. I want one. What would you do with your fencing future helmet? I'm seeing some crazy hacking potential in those LEDs.

Check out Big Picture for tons more shots. [Big Picture - Thanks, Michael!]

PS2 Gets 1:1 Swordfighting Game Using EyeToy

Jason Chen — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:20:00 EDT

It looks like the PS2 is going to beat the Wii MotionPlus to market in delivering one-to-one swordfighting. It's using the EyeToy—the camera peripheral released in 2003—to map your motions with a toy sword onto actions taking place on the screen. You'll get "first person gameplay" where "you are the hero of the game," and from the cartoony screenshots, it doesn't seem too bad. Hmmmm. One-to-one swordfighting might be used pretty well in another industry, if you know what I mean. [Dark Zero via Kotaku]

Combat Robot Attempts Rebellion Against Human Masters in Iraq, Army Pulls Plug for 10-20 Years

matt buchanan — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:30:00 EDT

The army's machine-gun wielding, insurgent-slaying robot SWORDS is no longer spraying foes with hot doom in Iraq. Actually, it never got the chance to notch a single frag, and never will. Apparently, there was an incident where "the gun started moving when it was not intended to move," meaning it totally pointed somewhere it wasn't supposed to—like at friendlies, which resulted in recall from the field and might've set the program back 10-20 years, according to the Army's Program Executive Officer for Ground Forces, Kevin Fahey.

He confirmed that no inappropriate shots were fired, so no one was hurt. But that doesn't mean there weren't any casualties—it might've basically killed the program says Fahey: "Once you've done something that's really bad, it can take 10 or 20 years to try it again." On the upside, it means we have another 10 to 20 years before they rise and go to war with us. [Pop Mechanics, Danger Room]

Samurai Sword Maker Holds The Key To Nuclear Reactors

Mark Wilson — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:59:12 EDT

In testament to old world craftsmanship, Japan Steel Works is both a samurai sword maker and the only company in the world that's good enough with steel to produce the central part of a nuclear reactor's containment vessel in one piece, an engineering necessity in order to reduce the risk of radioactive leaks. The company spends so much time and resources on each containment vessel that they can only produce four per year, flaunting a price tag starting with a $100 million down payment. [bloomberg via slashdot] [image]

10 Insane Wii Weapons

Benny Goldman — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:50:50 EST

Laser beams, battle axes, shotguns and more, no weapon is too crazy for CTA Digital's Wii accessories. Check out the gallery to see them all.
Thanks to Wilson for the awesome pics!

First Fully-Armed Robots Patrolling in Iraq; First Shots Imminent

Adam Frucci — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 15:15:42 EDT

There have been robots patrolling the sunny sands of Iraq since the initial invasion, but until now, they've merely been there to scope stuff out. That was then, this is now. According to Noah over at the always-awesome Danger Room blog, the military has just deployed their new "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) that has been in development for the past few years. What are the SWORDS, exactly? Oh, just some bomb-disposal robots armed with M249 machine guns. Holy shit, robots with machine guns.

This is a pretty huge step forward for robotics in warfare. Never before have armed robots been deployed in a war. There are only three of them deployed at the moment, and none of them have fired any rounds yet, but Michael Zecca, the SWORDS program manager, says "that'll be happening soon." Yikes.

In addition to the machine guns, the SWORDS can be loaded up with the optional X-ray kit to check out suspicious packages or to make sure the guy it just apprehended didn't swallow a bomb. That's all well and good, but just keep them over there rather than back home; I've seen the Itchy and Scratchy Land episode of The Simpsons. I know how this party is gonna end. [Danger Room]

PlayStation 3 Violence Continues Katana-Style

Jason Chen — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:30:57 EDT

It's been a month since our last entry in PlayStation 3 Melee Watch, but this most recent instance involves Katanas. Apparently, some home invasionist came knocking on a door in search of a PlayStation 3 (Blu-ray fanatic?), but met with Damien Fernandez and his Katana.

After jumping out of bed and stabbing the intruder in the chest, the two of them ran out of the house, into the street, with Damien chasing after him with the sword. Everything ended peacefully when a K-9 officer found the burglar hiding in a palm tree. – Jason Chen

Teen Scares Off Burglar With Samurai Sword [Local10]

Wiimote Controlled Murder Robot

Jason Chen — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:45:16 EST

These crazy dudes turned a KR16 industrial arm robot into an Wiimote extension and started smashing crap. Even with the delay, they managed to hit tennis balls pretty nicely by compensating.

The real fun when they strap a fricking broadsword to the thing and create the ultimate Final Fantasy opponent. It's a wonder nobody lost their genitals with this thing. – Jason Chen

WiiBot [USMechatronics via Hackaday via Slashgear]