Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 7 of December , 2007 at 7:10 am
This is an absolutely stunning short film by award-winning Italian director Alessandro Pacciani, showing a possible future for police robots in Japan. I’ve uploaded a copy to YouTube (above), but it got pretty well butchered in the process, so you should definitely click here to go to Pacciani’s website where you can watch it in glorious, 116mb Quicktime goodness. It’s worth it, I promise.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 7 of December , 2007 at 7:01 am
Here at BotJunkie, we don’t shy away from robot sex. That said, some of you may be a bit leery about our past coverage, so let me assure you that this post is purely satirical and literary in nature and is SFW.
The Good
WIREDSex Drive columnist Regina Lynn has made up a list of “10 Reasons I’d Rather Marry a Robot” after reading David Levy’s new book, Love + Sex With Robots, which I am currently in the middle of and highly recommend. Here are her first two reasons:
1. Robots are more than sex machines.
Levy gives an example of a robot that can predict human movement well enough to dance without stepping on its partner’s feet. Fancy footwork might even be the top reason women will choose robotic partners: Sex is easy to find, but dancing? Good luck finding a man who is both a) available and b) willing to try.
2. Artificial intelligence is still intelligence.
While a robot partner would never be my equal in a relationship — it can’t be, as long as I control the on-off switch — it could still challenge me intellectually. According to Levy, romantic robot AI will include emotional and social intelligence as well as analytical smarts. And if AI advances so much that robots develop self-will? The whole “could a human love a robot?” question becomes moot, as the robot is now officially a person. Either that or the roles will reverse, and the robots will use us as sex slaves.
Click here to read the other eight reasons over at WIRED.
After the jump, we get to bad+ugly (and hilarious, if you ask me). (Read more…)
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 7 of December , 2007 at 6:40 am
I’m no violinist, and neither is this robot, but still… Wow. That’s pretty good, I’d say, since playing a violin (I imagine) takes a lot of finger dexterity and precision control. Heck, robots playing the violin well is a work in progress even in 2366. The humanoid robot (android, rather) is 1.5 meters tall and weighs 56 kilos. It has 17 joints in its arms and hands, and is designed to be helping us out with household chores by 2010 (which is really not that long from now); they’ll begin testing in hospitals and Toyota-related facilities next year. By the way, when the violin solo was done, I clapped. That’s right, here in front of my computer at 3:41 am, I clapped for that robot violin solo even though nobody in the audience did. Just wanted you to know that.
The second robot is a “mobility robot.” It has a top speed of 6 kph, and a range of 20 km (!) after a 1 hour charge (!!). It can climb slopes of up to 10 degrees and avoid obstacles. Although it’s designed for people who really need one (the elderly, for example), it’ll hopefully be available to lazy people like me around the same time as the violin robot.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 6 of December , 2007 at 6:17 am
These robot bugs, by artist Mike Libby, are kinda cool in a creepy sort of way. They are non-functional, of course, and are constructed from real insect exoskeletons and antique watch parts:
“One day I found a dead intact beetle. I then located an old wristwatch, thinking of how the beetle also operated and looked like a little mechanical device and so decided to combine the two. After some time dissecting the beetle and outfitting it with watch parts and gears, I had a convincing little cybernetic sculpture. I soon made many more with other found insects and have been exploring and developing the theme ever since.”
I just wish insects really had watch parts inside, instead of all that gross goopy stuff… Then we could get rid of all of our pest problems by just not winding the little buggers anymore. If you want one, Mike will create one for you, out of any insect you’d like. Contact him directly for pricing and more info.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 6 of December , 2007 at 6:04 am
It’s always nice to hear about an armed robot that can’t actually kill you. Robovie-X has 17 fully programmable degrees of freedom, as well as optical distance sensors that allow him to recognize and shoot targets with a plastic missile launcher attached to his left arm. Most impressively, as you can see in the video below, Robovie-X doesn’t have to change his stance to face the object he’s shooting at. Instead, he’s able to move his arm in relation to his body to accurately point at the target:
Manufactured by JR Robotics, Robovie-X should ship in February for about $860. Supposedly, more weapon modules are on the way. Awesome!
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 5 of December , 2007 at 4:39 am
I don’t care how cool the ads are: there’s still no way I’m going to install Norton AntiVirus on my computer. Click here for the exciting conclusion. NORTON PUNCH!!!
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 5 of December , 2007 at 4:21 am
Most of the time, armed military robots don’t phase me that much. I mean, I can understand why they’re useful and important and generally a great idea when it comes to protecting living people. But, I’m starting to wonder if I’m deluding myself after watching this video of a concept armed rover from Robotex:
The video makes it quite obvious that this robot is designed to kill people, and do it efficiently. It’s pretty scary, if you ask me. Of course, robots like TALONSWORDS are designed to do the same thing, but the designers of those robots have chosen to emphasize both versatility and safety, while the Robotex bots do only one thing. This, incidentally, makes them about 1/6 the cost of the TALON system at between $30,000 and $50,000 each. The Robotex system currently on the market (in the pics above) mounts an $8,000 Atchisson Assault-12 shotgun, which “delivers the lead equivalent of 132 M16s. … [The robot is] two feet tall, travels ten miles an hour, and spins on a dime. Remote-controlled over an encrypted frequency that jams nearby radios and cellphones, it’ll blow a ten-inch hole through a steel door with deadly accuracy from 400 meters.”
As if that wasn’t enough, part of the system includes semi-autonomous Neural Robotics miniature helicopters, also outfitted with automatic shotguns:
I think what bothers me about all this is not the robots themselves; rather, it’s the fact that the people marketing these robots have one thing on their minds: selling armed robots to kill people and make money. Whether or not this is (in general) a good thing or not is debatable, and whether or not other companies developing armed robots are doing effectively the same thing (just less bluntly) is also debatable.
Like it or not, I can’t help but be certain that this is the future of the military.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 4 of December , 2007 at 6:19 am
Military supply convoys are one of those necessary evils when it comes to any major operation, and the US Army is looking to shift resupply duties over to unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) as soon as it’s feasible. Carnegie Mellon (winners of the DARPA Urban Challenge) have landed a $14 million grant to improve their “Crusher” UGV, adding a more advanced suspension system and upgrading the hybrid electric drive. The real interesting part, though, is the software, which allows Crusher to autonomously navigate through complicated and unfamiliar environments by combining GPS with a suite of onboard sensors, as well as (optionally) a little scout UAV.
The vehicle itself is already pretty burly. Weighing in at 6.5 tons, it has a top speed of 26 mph, a range of 450km, and (as you can see from the video) is quite a climber, able to move over rugged terrain with little trouble. Most importantly for the army, it can haul over 25% of it’s own weight in cargo. Now all it needs is some spinners on those six wheels and it’ll be good to go… You know, just a little bling to break up those drab army colors.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 3 of December , 2007 at 5:26 am
Reuters reports: “Dec. 2 - Robots from around Japan have been competing for the title strongest two-legged robot in the world. Around 25 powerful world-class competitors gathered for the Robo-One ground championships at Tokyo’s convention centre. The spectacle strikes a close resemblance to a real boxing or mixed martial arts match as robots trade jabs, dodge punches and eventually knock out opponents with a crushing blow.”
“Crushing blows” include a totally awesome balloon head missile, and robots that must have been designed to destroy through the medium of overwhelming holiday cheer. Click here to view the championship match over at Suicide Bots.
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 3 of December , 2007 at 5:08 am
Yeah, I admit it, I listen to NPR. On Sunday’s Weekend Edition, there was a story on artificial intelligence, from the 2007 Singularity Summit held in San Francisco in September. Specifically, the story (and the summit) was about what artificial intelligence is, and where it’s likely to go. I was particularly interested in the two separate types of AI; specialized and generalized. It seems like we’ve gotten pretty good with the specialized AI (robots that can perform one task, like vacuuming), and generalized AI is the next necessary step when it comes to evolving adaptive complexity (in the software sense) in robots. So far, I think the best we’ve been able to do is to create robots with lots of specialized AI that kind of pretends to be generalized AI… But maybe that’s a good thing, because whether we really want robots to be making (for lack of a better word) inexperienced decisions is a tough (and potentially scary) question.
Click “Listen Now” at the link below to hear the story. The picture, by the way, shows one possible destiny: humans as food, from The Matrix.
