So apparently Taser international thinks it’s a good idea to arm robots with stun guns to they can hold prisoners unconscious while the humanoid fleshbags get their asses out of the donut shop and onto the streets. While I’m sure they have the best of intentions (to make a tidy profit, of course), the Japanese will be happy to know that on the day of the robot armageddon (twenty years, tops) they won’t be the only ones to blame.
When miss Miriam Sy showed me this link, I just HAD to put it up. Control a robot with your DS with this sweet package from natrium42.com. See, this is what we need to do. CONTROL the robots, not give them AI. For $99, this little gadget is highly impractical, but I can imagine having a date over at my place, asking her if she wants a drink, then bringing out my DS and maneuvering the robot over with two bottles of San Mig Super Dry. Or…maybe not.
Check out pics and info after the jump.
Really, they don’t want to be left behind by their neighbor Japan, so they figured they’d take the initiative and develop robots themselves, complete with a charter to “set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots”. You know, so they don’t go apeshit on their masters. It’s sort of creepy that South Korea’s answer to a low birth rate is to make robots that will become “key companions” for humans in the future.
My suggestion? Let’s ship half the Philippine population over to South Korea. That should take care of their frickin service needs.
And when giant robots stomp the human race out extinction, it’ll be their fault. Students at Waseda University have built a prototype of said human stomping legs and called it the WL-16IV(Waseda-Leg Number 16 Refinement Four). The robot uses a mix of algorithms and special hydraulics in order to move about on two legs, even allowing for movement on stairs (unlike the ill-fated asimo :P), and of course stomping useless human meatbags.
In a decidingly unthreatening move, the robot populace has created a cutesy robot aimed at bloggers too lazy to put up their own goddamned multimedia content. As far as I can tell, the PaPeRo robot absorbs information through conversations with its “master, which it then uses to upload and post multimedia that it “thinks” its master would like to share with the world.
You know, this might be more threatening than I first thoght. Can you imagine the kind of filth Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan’s robots will unleash on the blogging populace?
Holy shieeeeeeeeet is all I can say. That’s gotta be the coolest, geekiest lantern ever built in the history of lantern parades. Made in the Taiwanese district of Jiayi, this Gundam model’s sure to make rabid gundam fanboys wet there pants when they realize it’s built in 1:1 scale. That’s right kids, if you can find your way inside that ginormous lantern you can pretend you’re piloting your very own Gundam.
I’ve always been a fan of the steampunk genre of fiction (or rather, art), and this little robot totally blew my mind. Well, it’s not much to look at really, and it’d probably get beaten up by Bumblebee, but it runs on steam, for chrissakes! How cool is that? Very cool.
Oh, and for more steampunkery, click here.
In a bit of lighthearted Valentine news, it seems that I was mistaken in my previous apprehension for robots, because they can be a force for good, just like the man-bot 2007. Not only can the man-bot replace the men in women’s lives, they can also be switched to “gay-mode” for the times when women just need a little understanding.
What I wanna know is, when are the fem-bots coming out? You know, the anatomically correct fembots that provide constant companionship, aren’t schizophrenic crazies for a week every month, can actually make up their minds, can be one of the boys but at the same time be a smoking sexpot in bed?
Ok, I like the transformers as much as the next guy who grew up in the 80s, but seriously, shoes? Nike shoes? That transform? Nike running shoes that transform? I have no (more) words.
Foolish, foolish Japan. When will you see the error of your ways? Your robophile culture will surely turn on you someday, and the consequences will be devastating. However, until that day comes, feel free to give your future masters shiny metal awards so that they look upon you with a little less disdain once they take over the world.
In other words, click the link to read about Japan honoring the innovative robots of 2006.
