GlowBots – your pattern-learning robot pets
The New Scientist has a little feature on GlowBots, a clever little invention that features at Siggraph 2007.
GlowBots are tiny little flashing, mobile robots that display patterns of colour. If you like a pattern you shake the GlowBot up and down – this makes GlowBot happy and convinces GlowBot to run off and tell the other GlowBots to display the same pattern. Shake GlowBot from side to side, and GlowBot knows that GlowBot is being a BAD GlowBot, making it change colour to something more pleasing.
It’s supposed to be illustrating how robots could work in groups, but we have absolutley zero idea how this application could be used in the real world or in science. It would appear to be a load of engineering students mucking about with a pile of their government’s free money.
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