Robotics

[Inevitable Droid]

Japanese Robot of the Year 2007:

[youtube:3fl30xxd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3f6BOrD9Ek[/youtube:3fl30xxd]

Robot housekeepers:

[youtube:3fl30xxd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zD45oO0ZO4[/youtube:3fl30xxd]

[Inevitable Droid]

War machines - recruiting robots for combat: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/28-0

My favorite thing about the military is its constant push for more and better technology.

[Inevitable Droid]

Robot Sumo!  Often the one you think will win - doesn't!
[youtube:hwfxrywr]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJT076-rXFQ[/youtube:hwfxrywr]

[Inevitable Droid]

Hmm.  Looks like a fun movie!  Evidence that the robot is becoming more and more an archetype of global human consciousness, an ever more significant element of the zeitgeist.  Surely this will cause the pace of development to continually accelerate.
[youtube:2dj6ymce]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ql3A_wiedc[/youtube:2dj6ymce]

[Ultima22689]

Yeah, robotics are subject to the same explosive advancement as computers are subject to, they just aren't as far ahead. Advancement in robotics is beginning to explode now, it's only going to get better. I don't know about the insane stuff in that interesting trailer but i'm sure a robot that is physically indistinguishable from a human being is not that far off. Especially since things are going more mainstream.

[Inevitable Droid]

LineScout - Power line inspection robot:
[youtube:zu08cz7u]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEI5LlL0lBM[/youtube:zu08cz7u]

[Inevitable Droid]

More evidence that robotics is gaining prominence in the modern psyche.  This movie is Rockie meets Transformers.  I can't tell for sure if the robots are supposed to be sapient.

[youtube:1wvr7pmy]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAhQA5gT62w[/youtube:1wvr7pmy]


Meanwhile, speaking of Transformers:

[youtube:1wvr7pmy]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qqeoyn58O4[/youtube:1wvr7pmy]

[joeactor]

Nice.  Glad they changed the name to "Real Steel" from "Rock 'em Sock 'em"... kept the initials, though...

[Tom62]

Has anyone seen the low-budget cult movie Dark Star?  I loved the philosophical discussion with intelligent Bomb No. 20 and the results of that discussion.

Thermostellar bomb gets stuck in the bomb-bay, but thinks it was dropped and plans to detonate. One of the spacecraft's crew tries to talk it out of detonating.

[youtube:z8x4u1dx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29pPZQ77cmI[/youtube:z8x4u1dx]

[youtube:z8x4u1dx]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9-Niv2Xh7w[/youtube:z8x4u1dx]

[Inevitable Droid]

Thermostellar bomb gets stuck in the bomb-bay, but thinks it was dropped and plans to detonate. One of the spacecraft's crew tries to talk it out of detonating.

I wasn't able to view the top clip, but viewed the bottom one.  One concept the bottom one raised for me is one I've noted before.  Once we start to think our robots are actually awake to experience in some manner, and thus are more than just complicated wrenches, we will have to face the question of whether we are willing to program them for deliberate and inevitable self-destruction.

Another concept the bottom one raises is the pragmatic precaution of designing hardware and software with the ability to gather input from multiple divergent sources and weigh one input against another.  I got the impression the bomb wasn't able to discern where it physically was.  It also apparently wasn't able to question why any human was in a position to talk to it at all, given its assumption of having exited the bomb-bay.  More common sense should have been applied to such a dangerous robot's design.  I presume the movie was making that exact point, among others.

The bomb spontaneously composing pseudo-biblical commentary was weird.  I don't know what to make of that.

[Ultima22689]

While not a direct break through in robotics, this will greatly impact the field i'm sure.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 091813.htm

[joeactor]

Dark Star - great film!

Bomb 20 raises a whole slew of questions about consciousness, existence, perception, reality, etc.
Amazing how much can get packed into a few short scenes.

[Inevitable Droid]

Robotic English teachers in South Korean schools - http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101228/tc_afp/skoreaphilippinesroboteducationtechnologyoffbeat_20101228051921

Admittedly this trend will be cooler when the robots aren't remote controlled.

[The Magic Pudding]

http://www.economist.com/node/5323427

HER name is MARIE, and her impressive set of skills comes in handy in a nursing home. MARIE can walk around under her own power. She can distinguish among similar-looking objects, such as different bottles of medicine, and has a delicate enough touch to work with frail patients. MARIE can interpret a range of facial expressions and gestures, and respond in ways that suggest compassion. Although her language skills are not ideal, she can recognise speech and respond clearly. Above all, she is inexpensive. Unfortunately for MARIE, however, she has one glaring trait that makes it hard for Japanese patients to accept her: she is a flesh-and-blood human being from the Philippines. If only she were a robot instead.

The Japanese enthusiasm for robots as a cultural characteristic, I don't think it's been addressed.

[Dave]

Some of the latest ideas:

BBC World Service) have a series on 50 things that gave affected economies, today it was robots (first broadcast 4th March on list shown).

Mostly usual stuff but one bit that slightly disturbed me, robot directed human pickers or operators. OK, we all look at instructions in books and now on tablets or smartphones, "passive" instruction by a non-human agency. Will it dumb us down  or enable less that academically able people to complete some tasks to take direct instruction as part of a job ir task? Or both of these plus more?

Now, imagine wearing a pair of earphones or a HUD over which a computer gives you a list of instructions (I will assume that vision units in the 'phones or HUD can see where you are looking, markings identify the area more precisely, then what you are actually doing.):
"Go to Bay 12"
"Locate Shelf 10"
"Locate Box 5"
"Take 5 items"
"Take 5 items"
"Take 4 items"
"Replace Box"

Why multiple "Take" instructions? Because humans may make more counting errors than computers with double digit numbers...

Another point was a poorly remebered quotation, "Robots can do all manner of high level tasks, but they cannot successfully clean the toilet". OK, design a toilet system that efficiently self cleans! There have been attempts at public loos that acheive this. Probably applies more to private bath/shower rooms with all facilities and the mechanics would probably cost more than all the other fittings combined!

(That set my mind off, now cannot shake the image of a long, multi-joint/axis robotic arm, that can reach every surface and corner and that hides behind a flap in the ceiling. It will have an armoury of cleaning and rinsing solutions in sprays, a wet vacuum unit, brushes, sponges, mops etc that it can select!)