Top Ten Weird yet Cool Robot Stories in the Past Year
And now it's time for...
The Swirling Brain's Top ten really weird yet cool robot stories in
the past year.
10. Oral
Rehabilitition Robot
Everyone knows you don't take the mask off the Lone ranger and you don't
mess around
with Jim. But what happens if you mess around with Jim? You might need
to go to an
orthodontist for some more teeth, but then you might also have to get an
appointment with
the Waseda Asahi Oral Rehabilitation Robot. Of course, if your mouth is
OK, you may
just want to get an appointment with the WAO-1 for your regular facial
beauty massage.
9. Are RoboDragonflies
Monitoring Political Events?
Could it be that the government is using aerial dragonfly robots to spy
on you? Probably not,
but could be! Some people think so. Should we be worried? Naw! ...or
should we?
8. Electronic Nose
Update
You smell! No really, most of us do. Robots on the other hand usually
can't smell anything
unless they have an electronic nose. Developments now allow conducting
polymers to
differentiate between several classes of odors. Although probably not
as good as
a human nose, an an oyster or a dog, it does at least smell and probably
detects some
odors too.
7. Origami using
Surgery Robot
How much would you pay for a surgical robot? But wait! Now, how much
would you
pay if that surgical robot could make tiny origami swans no bigger than
a penny? Me neither but
hey, it's cool! It's unclear if the robot is autonomous (I don't think
it is) but it's really amazing.
Check out the video.
6. Talk To The Swami
For Only 75 Grand!
I've heard it said that the first lady Mrs. Reagan used to talk to a
wacko psychic before Ron's
every big presidential decision. No telling how much she paid for that
service, but I'm guessing it wasn't
cheap. She could have gotten off relatively cheap by purchasing and
using a robotic Swami for only $75k! No
really, a robotic Swami! I didn't make it up. Truth is stranger than
fiction.
5. Machine Vision
Based on a Cat Brain
Why someone would want machine vision based on a cat's brain rather than
a human brain is
beyond me, but that's what these guys are trying to do! It's probably
the precursor to human
vision but it just seems a weird precursor to human vision. Like how do
they sense what cat
brains see? No, never mind, don't tell me.
4. French Robot Gives
Birth
I suppose a birthing simulator is not all that weird but what's weird is
the detail
to which this birthing simulator recreates a woman's pelvis and a baby.
This simulator
is like the ultimate simulator, like a really expensive one you would
see designed for
a jumbo jet aircraft (no similarities to jumbo ladies)! It even moves
the baby along
the ahem canal just as a real baby would move. It also senses and
records the pressure on
the baby presumably to tell if the doctor operating the simulator is
doing the birthing
procedure correctly. It's really mind blowing to think someone
went to this extreme to make a birthing simulator robot. It's probably
one really sick dude.
3. Dicing Arthur
Dent's Brain
Is it possible to reverse engineer the human brain? No, I didn't think
so either, but that's
the goal of this ambitious project. Already, they've
found out some really cool stuff about the human brain by looking at
thin icky slices but
still they have their jobs cut out. What if someone could reverse
engineer your brain?
Would you want that? Probably not, unless you were already dead. Just
think about it.
2. David Byrne Teams
up with Hanson's Talking Head
What happens when you get together two beautiful minds and you put them
together? One
makes strange uncanny heads and creepy Philip K. Dick androids. The
other is a strange music spewing head.
Hey, I think they're a little strange from what they do but I also think
they're cool for what they do.
You may disagree. But, what do you get when you bring android maker and
music maker together?
Singing androids of course! Then they call it art. They say it's
non-traditional art. Really, shrug.
1. Zoltan and His
Robot Girlfriend
I'm not sure this can be categorized as cool, more like creepy, but this
guy named Zoltan
(creepy name) actually married a robot. Is this a first? Is this legal
in California
or wherever he lives? We do know he lives with his parents. That's got
to tell you something.
Imagine what kind of parents let their son named Zoltan be married to
girlfriend robot.
Well, yes, tis weird, and since it's probably a first, it's sort of
cool, not that I'd do it or anything. Blech!
http://robots.net/article/2586.html
