Polymorph robot mimics human joints and muscles, puts curtain rings to good use
[Via Hacked Gadgets]
[Via Hacked Gadgets]
Scientists train robots to love punk music
We've seen plenty of robots that are capable of showing their appreciation for music, but few have as refined a taste as this trio of bots designed by a team of UK artists and scientists, which have been trained to like punk music and nothing else. That was apparently done by employing "adaptive resonance theory," which allows the robots to build up a history of patterns relating to different sounds, and analyze songs on the fly, matching the patterns against other types of music it has already listened to. As you can see in the BBC's video available at the read link below, the bot's were apparently easily able to recognize a band that they hadn't heard before and, if you hurry, you can actually check 'em out first hand, as they'll be doing their thing at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts until July 5th.22-foot tall robot crafted entirely from excess styrofoam
[Via TechDigest]
Video: Choe U Ram's creepy robotic art
Gallery: When robots and art mix
[Via Impress]
Mr. Asahi robot bartender makes its public debut
Asahi Beer has experimented with robot bartenders in the past, but it looks to have really outdone itself with its new Mr. Asahi bot, which just made its public debut at Selfridges in the UK. Apparently, the robot was built in about 200 hours and spent a full six months fine-tuning its bartending skills, which includes being able to serve customers in less than two minutes. That's done with the aid of a discreetly-hidden PC that controls the compressed air and the robot's various switching mechanisms, not to mention its pleasant demeanor. Be sure to head on past the break for a video of the bot in action courtesy of Channel Flip.
[Via Tech Digest, image courtesy of Asahi Beer]
[Via Tech Digest, image courtesy of Asahi Beer]
UMass Mobile Manipulator pushes things around, learns ways of the world
[Via CrunchGear]
Shape-shifting, organ-probing chembots coming soon
The current generation of robots, whether they're the gun-carrying or child-coddling variety, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes to suit their intended purpose. But if research going on at Tufts University comes to fruition, future robots might feature designs that are rather more flexible. Scientists at the school are working on so-called "chemical robots" with no solid parts. Chembots could squeeze under doors, slither through cracks in walls, and even squirm into your orifices, performing internal diagnoses before slowly dissolving away, leaving nothing more than a feeling of creepy violation behind. What about assuming the shape and voice of John Connor's adopted mother? We're hoping that's still a few years off.Pleo's site turns one, little bugger's price temporarily drops over $100
Although Pleo's only been out for about six months, UGOBE opened up shop at PleoWorld about a year ago, and to celebrate they're selling the robo-dino-pets at over $100 off the regular $350 price tag. The promo goes on until July 11th, and apparently all you need to do is pop in a promo code (PLEOWORLDISONE) and you'll get yours for a cool $235, which is an especially great deal if your intention is only to slaughter it.
Zappos hires robots to take over inventory floor
[Via CNET]
Robotic Copycat Arm promises to taunt you with ease
While mind-control interfaces are all well and good, sometimes a simpler solution makes a bit more sense, and that's where this so-called Copycat Arm comes in. Developed by a group of researchers at the University of Tsukub, it makes use of a high-speed camera to monitor a person's movements, which are apparently instantly (and creepily) mimicked by the robot arm.Eventually, the researchers say the same system could be used as a computer interface, which they say could eliminate the need for a mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a video of the arm in action, but those heading to SIGGRAPH 2008 will apparently be able to check it out first hand.
WowWee RoboRemote slips out into availability, gets reviewed
WowWee has been talking up its all-controlling RoboRemote since CES at the beginning of this year, but it looks like it's only recently found its way into availability, and it's now thankfully gotten reviewed as well. According to the folks at RoboCommunity, the remote fully delivers on its promise to control any IR-based WowWee robot, with the software (XP/Vista only, unfortunately) straightforward enough for most anyone to use, but apparently not so basic as to turn off more adventuresome robotics enthusiasts (who'll no doubt find some ways to use this without the basic software anyway). Couple that with the $20 price tag, and they say that this is a "must-have gadget" for any WowWee robot owner.
[Thanks, Matt]
[Thanks, Matt]
Neurotic gigs see "pogoing robots" bebop to punk
[Via MAKE]
Expression recognition turns humans into remote controls... for robots
Human: (frowning)
Robot: Aw, my meat bag is sad, I will now give it a hamburger and turn on Golden Girls.
Fortunately, human teachers who've somehow missed out on the billions of years of biologically evolution required to recognize the "oh face" can take advantage of this research as well. See a video demonstration of that after the break, face-controlled video here.
Readybot cleans a living room, our hearts continue to flutter
Nuvation shows off air hockey-playing robot
While robots are still quite a ways away from being able to challenge humans in sports like soccer, it looks like at least one company has managed to create a robot that's able to prevail in one somewhat athletic activity: air hockey. According to Nuvation, its otherwise unassuming robot arm here can not only hold its own against its human opponents, but beat them about 90 percent of the time. That, as you might have guessed, is done with the aid of an optical sensor that's programmed to follow the conveniently shiny puck and react like an old air hockey pro. Still skeptical? Check it out in action in the video after the break.
