Delivery Boy

Posted By: Paul - Sat May 26, 2012 - Comments (6)
Category: Explosives, Geeks, Nerds and Pointdexters, Mad Scientists, Evil Geniuses, Insane Villains, Movies, Robots

Tobor the Great

Does the world need a sequel to Tobor the Great?



According to wikipedia, someone at Diamond World Pictures thinks it does. But this is a case where I'm not sure whether to believe wikipedia.

Bonus strangeness: some guy built a full-size Tobor replica.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 24, 2012 - Comments (7)
Category: Movies, Robots

Robot Clappers

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 02, 2011 - Comments (4)
Category: Robots, Asia

Leave It to Roll-Oh

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 13, 2011 - Comments (2)
Category: Domestic, Robots, Advertising, 1940s

Cool Robots TV promo

I guess this is from the T4 channel (England?) and a mash-up of some robot promotional spots.

T4 idents from double g studios on Vimeo.

Fun stuff -- gotta love the robots!!

Posted By: gdanea - Mon Jan 17, 2011 - Comments (3)
Category: Robots

Robot Beats Up Scientists

You knew it was coming. The day the robots took over and started bullying the scientist in the schoolyard. But in this study, Borut Povšej subjected himself to the 18 punches before his other volunteer scientists.

He is trying to help design the systems for robots to obey the first law of robotics -- "a robot may not injure a human being".



At one time or another, these tests would have to be run to determine what hurts a human, but I don't know if I'd want to be one of the test subjects. They were subjected to two kinds of punches -- blunted and sharp.

Here's the link to the story from "The New Scientist":

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827826.700-robot-arm-punches-human-to-obey-asimovs-rules.html

The findings were presented this week at an IEEE conference in Turkey this month. Click here for a list of what else was presented:

http://www.smc2010.org/

Some cool cyborg stuff is there!!

Posted By: gdanea - Sat Oct 23, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Robots

Weird Science – Watch and Learn

Outside it is not much to look at, little more than a discoloured rock dredged up from the sea floor. But an x-ray scan of the object, actually a pocket watch recovered from a 17th century shipwreck, has revealed that the internal mechanism has been perfectly preserved. The computer aided tomography system used was sensitive enough to pick out the tiniest details, included the engraved name of the master watchmaker, one Niccholas Higginson of Westminster, London (Gizmodo).

As if more proof were needed that they don’t build them like they used to, a UK group has started collecting donations to build the first fully working version of Babbage’s “Analytical Engine”. The original design, dating from 1837, was never completed, possibly due to a combination of the strict engineering tolerances needed and Babbage’s notoriously prickly temperament. If the final machine works as advertised, it will be very strong confirmation of the claim that Babbage designed the first general purpose, programmable computer (BBC News).

Meanwhile, in Slovenia, Borut Povse and his team are busy teaching a modern descendant of Babbage’s design to hit people. Somehow Povse has convinced six volunteers to let an industrial robot hit them on the arm with various sharp or blunt implements in an effort to determine how much pain each blow causes. Obviously this has a beneficial use in that robots can be programmed not to exceed certain levels of force near a human obstacle, but will also be of immense interest to the machines during any future robot uprising (New Scientist).

Another robot out to supplant humans is HRP-4, a gynoid (female android), that has learnt to sing by copying the inflection and expressions of a human performer, right down to the breathing. The hope is to make robots behave in a more convincingly natural way, and so overcome the so called ‘uncanny valley’. From the video, it looks like they’ve still got a way to go (Daily Mail).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Fri Oct 22, 2010 - Comments (5)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Charities and Philanthropy, Futurism, History, Archaeology, Injuries, NGOs, Robots, Science, Technology

Weird Science – Yet More Robots

In a strange case of the left manipulator not knowing what the right manipulator is doing, here are two more robots that I somehow managed to miss off yesterday’s post.

First up is the obvious and long overdue companion to yesterday’s beer fetching robots; a robot that can flip pancakes. Obviously there have been automated pancake makers around for a while now, but this robot from the Italian Institute of technology has learnt how to flip a good pancake by seeing how humans do it. Please, Dr. Kormushev, teach it to fry bacon next (Vimeo).



But if some groups are concentrating on robots that ply you with beer and pancakes, Autom’s mission in life is to help you lose weight and live healthily. The brainchild of Cory Kidd, who had the idea while at MIT, Autom first asks you for details of your diet, fitness and exercise regime, then it has daily 'conversations' with you during which it will dispense diet and exercise advice. Apparently a major insurance company intends to trial Autom in the US sometime next year, so we can all look forward to having one of these nag us each morning as a mandatory requirement of our health plan (Engadget).



Hmm, perhaps I could teach the pancake robot to flatten the annoying little thingamajig with its frying pan before making my breakfast stack?

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Fri Jul 23, 2010 - Comments (5)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, Futurism, Health, Inventions, Robots, Technology

Weird Science – Invention Is The Mother Of Necessity

Build a better mousetrap, it is said, and the world will beat a path to your door. The implication being that there are some problems which are just crying out for a solution. And then there are the solutions crying out for a problem - those inventions that, while inspired, are just a tad “out there”. It is this later category I shall be celebrating today.

First up, how clean is your cow? This age old problem has nagged at the minds of farmers down the ages, are their cows clean enough? And why isn’t there an easier way to clean cows? Well these merchants of the soil need worry no more thanks to a Swedish company that has developed the fully automated “cow wash”. Supposedly improving the health and yield of cows that use it, the cow wash uses a free swinging revolving brush to groom the cows while simultaneously stimulating their circulation. Apparently the cows enjoy using it and the makers DeLaval have sold over 30,000 in Sweden alone (Daily Mail).

Bigwigs in the US military will also soon be able to sleep sounder in the knowledge that the men under their command are safely in their underpants. We’re not just talking about any undies though, these have been specially designed by University of California professor Joseph Wang. Not only will his techno-trunks monitor the vitals of the personnel wearing them, they can even administer painkillers or antibiotics as the situation demands (Post Chronicle).

And if your pants don’t save you, at least your modesty will be preserved when you are taken to hospital, all thanks to the University of Montreal. For it is from that fine establishment’s School of Industrial Design that our next invention hails, a hospital gown that isn’t quite so revealing. The DUO gown is the brainchild of Noemie Marquis and Denyse Roy and consists of two overlapping panels, front and back, that is easy to put on and requires no fasteners making life simpler for both patients and staff (Medical News Today).

Meanwhile British scientists have been working on an altogether sterner cover. Nicknamed “bullet-proof custard” by its inventors, Bristol based BAE systems have developed a liquid armour consisting of layers of Kevlar combined with a secret “shear-thickening” liquid that hardens as force is applied. The company’s eventual aim is to produce lighter, more-flexible body armour for the military (BBC News).



More in extended >>

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Thu Jul 22, 2010 - Comments (9)
Category: Animals, Farming, Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles, Futurism, Hospitals, Inventions, Robots, Science, Technology, Underwear

A Robot That Parks Cars

No, not Marvin (ref.), this one is from the Computer Science Department of Stanford University and it not only parks cars, it does so awesomely!



The only disappointment is that it doesn't come with a little row of strobing red lights on the front.

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Thu May 13, 2010 - Comments (10)
Category: Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Robots, Science, Technology, Computers, Cars