Category: Robots
Tilted Twister – Lego robot solves Rubik's Cube in six minutes
File this one under ‘awesome’. It’s a Lego Mindstorms robot which can solve a Rubik’s Cube on its own in just six minutes, with an average of 60 faceturns. It uses a colour sensor to work out what’s where, then takes a moment to work out a plan, then executes it with blinding efficiency. Check it out at double speed in the video above.
Tilted Twister (via @Rodreegez)
Related posts: Happy birthday, Rubiks Cube: Thank you for 25 years of frustration | Cube-Kun robot can solve Rubik’s Cube faster than you can
Sexy dancing robot ladies look at you, in some clever artistic commentary on CCTV society
If you want the thrill of seeing a woman dancing on a stage but without the risk of being seen entering the establishment or having to make eye contact with a live female, here’s a perfect futuristic solution.
This collection of moving, gyrating, female-like components can be seen in action at the Mutate Britain exhibition, where you can stare all you want without being made to feel sad or guilty because…
Like Japanese food? Get the Motoman industrial robot to cook it for you
Visitors to the International Next-Generation Robot Fair in Osaka who get a bit peckish can head over to the stand where the Motoman SDA10 robot has demonstrated its culinary abilities.
This two-armed robot can do a range of things, and cooking okonomiyaki is just one thing on its impressive resumé. It’s even more impressive because it can take orders from customers using speech recognition technology and then create the dish using standard kitchen utensils. It even flips the pancake-like dish…
Rotundus GroundBot – surveillance of the future
Crossed somewhere between something out of the Prisoner, my nightmares and my nightmares about the Prisoner, the Rotundus surveillance robot completely freaks me out. It’s not this picture that does the damage but the video of it in action on its home site looking all too much like a future I’m not sure I want to be a part of; a future where we not only have 1,001 CCTV cameras but where they actual patrol around us as well…
Creepy robotic head copies your facial expressions
This is a damn creepy robotic head, put together by researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He’s called “Jules”, and can watch your facial expressions and copy them. In the video above, he’s copying the expressions of the scientist behind the camera, while you hear the scientists’ voice.
Dunno about you, but this one, for me, falls firmly into the uncanny valley. Especially if it was copying my facial movements exactly. It’s a bit like that friend everyone has who doesn’t quite ‘get’ social interaction and always behaves a little bit odd. Robotics is great, but we’re still some way off realistic human expressions, it seems.
(via the Daily Mail)
Related posts: Robot maid knows how to clean and wash, but will never feel emotions | Robot Plant Pot seeks out the brighter side of life
Honda Asimo in "actually has real life applications" shocker
The morality if capitalism is a complex business. On the one hand it turns millions of poor people into what is essentially slave labour, but on the other hand it lifts millions of others out of poverty and into an unsustainable consumer lifestyle like we enjoy in the rich countries. Honda, the Japanese car maker, is trying its best to make this an even cloudier moral minefield by despite being an evil polluting car maker, inventing cool technology that could help the disabled to walk.
Robot maid knows how to clean and wash, but will never feel emotions
Tony Blair famous said that “we’re all middle class now” – what he failed to point out though, was that it was because we can now build a new working class of robots trained to do the menial stuff that rich people used to employ poor people to do.
Robot Plant Pot seeks out the brighter side of life
This is a “Solar seeking botanical augmentation”, to quote the Play Coalition, who are building the thing. It’s basically a plantpot on legs which has a light sensor and moves around your room in order to find the best, brightest spot…
AI software nearly passes the Turing Test – expect robots on Parkinson within the next decade
There's a theory that says that when a society develops artificial intelligence, it's only a matter of time until machines develop a better version of themselves, destroy humanity, and the planet becomes devoid of life and contains only a computer humming away to itself. I think this theory was posited by The Matrix.
We've just got another step closer to that day. Some AI software written by just one man has got within 5% of a passing grade for the Turing Test…
Humans hit evolutionary limit – here's how SCIENCE should intervene and make man BETTER
According to some scientist, humans have stopped evolving. This means we’re not going to get any better – at least not naturally.
So I propose science steps in to make us better, seeing as Mother Nature can’t be bothered any more. Here’s how. These are the evolutionary steps scientists need to introduce to our gene pool ASAP.
1. SIDE EYES
Seeing as our ears are always in use listening to MP3s of 1980s cover versions, it’s hard to hear cars, bicycles and lorries coming toward you. I therefore suggest moving our eyes to the sides of our heads, like horses, so we’re less likely to step out in front of buses because we can’t hear them coming. You never hear about horses never get run over because they’re too busy listening to the new Oasis album to listen out for cars, do you?
2. WIDER EAR CANALS
Dunno about you, but my ear holes are never big enough to accommodate all these so-called “in ear” earphones. You know, the ones you’re supposed to ram right in. I ram them in so hard it hurts and my brain pops, yet they still fall out after three minutes when the cable snags on my shirt. I therefore suggest we evolve wider ear holes for better audio clarity and comfort “on the go”…
