Category: Robots
Artist unveils vision of distopian future where robots have attitude instead of manners
The trouble with scientists is that they’re too obsessed with numbers and efficiency and functionality – its why all of the robots that have been invented so far don’t quite live up to what we’ve come to expect from science fiction. Sure, those robot arms that build cars are probably quite useful, but they don’t really look the part. That’s why you need artists. Artists like Nemo Gould…
Deep Green: pool playing robot – "Trick shot?…….hmm…….tricky….."
This is Deep Green. Deep Green plays pool to above amateur level and it’s training up to make sure you never get a look in at your local pub table.
Developed by a team of Queen’s University egg-heads to play the round ball game, Deep Green is a gantry robot, mounted to the ceiling above the table…
Ride this Robo-Triceratops until you get (dino)sore.
Jurassic Park was a good idea. Not the ‘meddling with genetics’, ‘playing God’, and ‘being eaten alive bit’ – but the bit where the Dinosaurs come back to Earth to be used for our amusement. That is a really really good idea.
Which is why i really like this fantastic toy by Hasbro.
Called ‘Kota the Triceratops Dinosaur’ this terrible lizard is part of the Playskool range aimed at kiddies up to 3-4 years old. Now, up until seeing this, I thought Playskool made simple toys like Sticklebricks and bath-time toys like that turtle with the worried look upon it’s face.. Well, I guess simple toys just aren’t good enough for ‘Playskool’ers anymore, because Kota the Triceratops is anything but simple.
This is a robotic life-sized baby dinosaur. It walks, it squawks, it carries you around on it’s back. Talk to Kota and the thing responds by roaring, stomping it’s feet, or wiggling it’s tail. It has independent head, eye, mouth and horn movements. In fact, this animatronic dino wouldn’t have looked out of place on the set of Jurassic Park. Okay, it would. It really would, but you get the idea. This is one highly advanced toddler toy.
A guitar photocopier, for effortlessly making clones of famous bits of wood
Technically, this is a “wood carving duplicator” but the description “guitar photocopier” seems to fit the automated drilling machine so much better.
“A guide pin follows the contour of the original while a carbide bit does the cutting,” says the listing, creating a precise wooden recreation of your original once it’s finished. It’s so precise it leaves the newly created version only requiring…
Touchy-feely Robot-Skin for Robots (and maybe us)
Everyone loves a robot. Especially a sensitive robot. Just look at WALL-E or Johnny-5. When it comes to a robot who has the capacity to feel, we all go a bit gooey inside. The cold, unfeeling, emotionless robot is a metaphor for that fear we have of losing what it is to be human.
Okay, so i'm playing loose with the double-meanings behind the word 'feel' and 'sensitive', because we're not talking emotional robots, or robots with 'feelings' but rather robots which can feel. Like in objects, and surroundings. LIke we can, physically.
Yes, some rather smug looking Japanese researchers/scientists/tech-bods have stumbled upon the perfect answer to the problem of making Robots completely sensitive to their environment. Be it cold, hot, hard, or soft. The skin they've developed looks like tin foil, gold tin foil like the stuff they wrap around marathon runners at the end of the race. Space Blankets i think they're called. Anyway, it looks like that, but it's not. It's a fine rubbery material that has hundreds and thousands of tiny carbon particles inside which allow conductivity of electricity. The skin can be stretched to 2.3 times it's normal size, allowing it to bend around a robot's metal frame and move with joints like a glove.
Dynamic Fishing: cruelty-free fishing practice
Not that many robotic fish come our way at Tech Digest, but this one’s pretty awesome. It’s a kit which simulates the experience of sitting for hours on end by a river getting cold and hungry, all in the comfort of your own home…
Robots become self-aware, but think that they're rats, so we're okay for now
Scientists at the University of Reading have got a step closer to creating Cybermen – human brains inside a robot – after putting together a small robot that uses rat neurones to control itself.
The scientists have managed to grow around 300,000 rat neurones artificially in the lab by starting off with the brain of a rat faetus. These neurones have gone on to make connections with each other and work in much the same way a regular rat brain does, using electrical impulses to make the brain “do stuff”. The neurons are connected to a regular microchip, where they can be stimulated and the results analysed to see what happens. For example, they’ve built a robot on wheels with an ultrasound sensor, to spot when it is approaching a wall. I guess it’s like giving a rat the Bat-power of echo-location. Maybe.
Robopong – for the lonely table tennis enthusiast
Do you ever find yourself staring forlornly at the Ping Pong table in your garage at 3am? Wanting to bat a table tennis ball about, but feeling that it might be a bit antisocial to wake up your neighbor for a quick knockabout? It’s your lucky day. Robopong is a robot that’ll fire up to 200 table tennis balls at you. It’s heavily configurable – you can adjust the angle, speed and frequency of the barrage, and it comes with a remote control that lets you adjust these variables from the comfort of your side of the table…
Not from the creators of WALL-E: Pictor, the wall painting robot
The day when robots take over all of mankind’s most tedious chores has just got a little bit closer. The Pictor wall painting robot will climb walls all by itself and paint them using various science-fiction sounding techniques. It’ll apparently use a “cleaning laser” to prepare the wall for painting, then use an “airless nozzle” to paint the wall – which apparently results in no “atomised spray”. And apparently that is a good thing…
RoboCop could be a reality on Britain's streets before the 22nd century
The top bod studying artificial intelligence and robotics believes that we could have robot security guards, autonomous police cars, and humanoid traffic wardens patrolling Britain’s streets within the next 75 years.
Professor Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield has been studying the evolution of robots and how they’ll be increasingly used in modern society.
Robots will have access to integrated databases of information on Brits’ bank accounts, tax, vehicles, shopping history, criminal records, and even what they’re doing. This would then allow them to identify who people are (accurately, hopefully)…
