Archive for the 'Rise of the Machines' Category
Giggling Robot Becomes One of the Kids
November 6th, 2007Via: New Scientist: Computers might not be clever enough to trick adults into thinking they are intelligent yet, but a new study shows that a giggling robot is sophisticated enough to get toddlers to treat it as a peer. An experiment led by Javier Movellan at the University of California San Diego, US, is the […]
iRobot Warrior X700
October 19th, 2007Via: Army Times: iRobot has unveiled a 250-pound, weapons-firing, stair-climbing, ammo-carrying military robot that will one day run a four-minute mile, iRobot developers said. Early versions of the multimission iRobot Warrior X700, the latest offering from the Burlington, Mass.-based robot makers, are slated to be ready by the second half of next year. “It is […]
Robot Cannon Kills 9, Wounds 14
October 19th, 2007Via: Wired: The South African National Defence Force “is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday.”
Orgiastic Spending on Technologies of Political Control
September 27th, 2007Via: Reuters: Americans are facing a brave new world of post-September 11 technology marvels that could soon find their way into billions of dollars of projected homeland security spending. Gee-whiz know-how — from swarms of tiny airborne sensors to ever-sharper satellite imagery — is being developed by companies chasing potentially lucrative federal, state and local […]
Step Right Up: Public Demonstrations of Raytheon’s Directed Energy Pain Gun
September 26th, 2007Will it re-heat your freedom fries? Via: Daily Mail: “Where do I put my finger? There … OK? Nothing’s happening … is it on?” “Yes, it’s on. Move your finger a bit closer.” “Er … ow! OW!” Not good. I try again. “OWWW!” I pull my hand away sharpish. My finger is throbbing, but seems […]
U.S. Robots Deployed for Ground Combat in Iraq
August 3rd, 2007It’s not quite up to ED-209 standards (from Robocop), but it’s getting there. Also see, Deal of the Century. HAHA Via: Wired: Robots have been roaming the streets of Iraq, since shortly after the war began. Now, for the first time — the first time in any warzone — the machines are carrying guns. After […]
Robot Air Attack Squadron Bound for Iraq
July 15th, 2007Via: AP / MyWayNews: The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It’s outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles. The Reaper is loaded, but there’s no […]
iRobot Corp.: Arming Robots with Tasers
July 1st, 2007Via: AP / MSNBC: RoboCops and robot soldiers got a little closer to reality Thursday as a maker of floor-cleaning automatons teamed up with a stun-gun manufacturer to arm track-wheeled ‘bots for the police and the Pentagon. By adding Tasers to robots it already makes for the military, iRobot Corp. says it hopes to give […]
DARPA’s Better Bionic Arm
June 28th, 2007Via: Popular Mechanics: It’s an ambitious deadline: By 2009, DARPA hopes to have a mechanical arm whose functionality is on par with a flesh-and-blood limb. A new arm developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is just as ambitious, allowing its user to actually feel an object in his grasp. […]
Farms Fund Robots to Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers
June 23rd, 2007What do you want to bet that “Robot Compatible” cultivars will be developed… After all, if it can’t be grown/harvested by a robot, is it really worth it? I know! They can send smaller versions of these robots into the skyscraper farms to replace the idiots roaming around in lab coats. Via: Wired: Vision Robotics, […]
