Tag Archives: robotics

The Houston Chronicle reports: Houston City Council on Wednesday updated its rules on sexually oriented businesses, instituting changes that could bar plans for a store that allows customers to try out sex dolls on the premises from opening near the Galleria. Toronto-based KinkySdollS had planned to open a Houston branch where it would sell “adult love dolls” constructed of synthetic …

Politico reports: The United States and Russia were among a small number of countries that blocked the U.N. from moving toward talks on whether to ban so-called killer robots. During a week of meetings in Geneva, which ended in the early hours of Saturday, a group at the United Nations’ Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) discussed whether to take negotiations …

The Verge reports: In the study, published in the open access journal PLOS One, 89 volunteers were recruited to complete a pair of tasks with the help of Nao, a small humanoid robot. The participants were told that the tasks (which involved answering a series of either / or questions, like “Do you prefer pasta or pizza?”; and organizing a …

The New York Daily News reports: A robotics company known for its widely shared videos of nimble, legged robots opening doors or walking through rough terrain is preparing to sell some after more than a quarter century of research. Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert said Friday that his company plans to begin selling the dog-like SpotMini robot next year, likely …

The Verge reports: We’ve seen Boston Dynamics robots open doors before, but this egress is different. Outfitted with an articulating arm and clamp similar to the one it used to wash dishes in the original video, we see the new SpotMini locate, recognize, and deftly operate a door handle, and then hold the door to let its arm-less sibling march …

The New York Times reports: President Trump has finally arrived at Walt Disney World. And, yes, he speaks. After a delay that prompted online conspiracy theories, the most common one being that Disney was trying to silence Mr. Trump, Disney World unveiled an audio-animatronic robot in his life-size likeness on Monday as part of its famed Hall of Presidents exhibit. …

Phys.org reports: It was a spooky sight: two lifelike disembodied robot torsos discussing the pros and cons of humans in front of a nervously tittering audience in Hong Kong Wednesday. Artificial intelligence is the dominant theme at this year’s sprawling RISE tech conference at the city’s harbourfront convention centre, but the live robot exchange took the AI debate to another …

The Guardian reports: Robots will help a national news agency to create up to 30,000 local news stories a month, with the help of human journalists and funded by a Google grant. The Press Association has won a €706,000 (£621,000) grant to run a news service with computers writing localised news stories. The national news agency, which supplies copy to …

Via Mediaite: On Monday morning, CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted a photo from Walt Disney World in Orlando. The Hall of Presidents show starts with a film presentation before revealing animatronic versions of every president. Speeches are delivered by the representations of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the then-current President of the United States, Barack Obama. The Obama robot was added …

Get away from her, Amazon! Via Gizmodo: What would you do if you were a billionaire? Elon Musk is trying to get to Mars. Peter Thiel wants to live forever. And Jeff Bezos, well, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apparently wants to rule the world in a gigantic robot. At least that’s the impression you might get from the photos and …

Holy crap. Wait for it to jump. From the clip description: Handle is a research robot that stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4​ ​feet vertically. ​It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge. ​​​Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance …

Yes, really. Quartz reports: Robots are taking human jobs. But Bill Gates believes that governments should tax companies’ use of them, as a way to at least temporarily slow the spread of automation and to fund other types of employment. It’s a striking position from the world’s richest man and a self-described techno-optimist who co-founded Microsoft, one of the leading …

AFP reports: A giant South Korean-built manned robot that walks like a human but makes the ground shake under its weight has taken its first baby steps. Designed by a veteran of science fiction blockbusters, the four-metre-tall (13-foot), 1.5 ton Method-2 towers over a room on the outskirts of Seoul. The hulking human-like creation bears a striking resemblance to the …

Via TechCrunch: Boston Dynamics, the company behind some of the most impressively terrifying and terrifyingly impressive robots of the past decade, is demonstrating its softer side with a video showcasing the Alphabet-owned firm’s latest creation. The SpotMini is a sort of tiny robot giraffe capable of an impressive battery of skills, demonstrated in the video by jaunting up a flight …

Collider sets up the clip: HBO has just released a new trailer for the highly anticipated new sci-fi drama series Westworld. Executive produced by The Dark Knight screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J.J. Abrams, Westworld is based on Michael Crichton‘s classic tale of an amusement park where you enter a fake, robot-filled Western realm. The 1973 feature film adaptation …

There’s a scene in the 1971 George Lucas film THX 1138 in which Robert Duvall visits a confessional where he reveals his shortcomings to a government computer who then grants him the “blessings of the state.” New York City is getting something similar next week, minus the blessings. The Verge reports: Have you ever wanted to confess your crimes, bear …

Some wise guy has made a minute-long supercut of Rubio saying his favorite line. Watch below.

Over 7 million views in one day. From Boston Dynamics: A new version of Atlas, designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings. It is specialized for mobile manipulation. It is electrically powered and hydraulically actuated. It uses sensors in its body and legs to balance and LIDAR and stereo sensors in its head to avoid obstacles, assess the terrain, help …

Via Gizmodo: If you thought waking up on Christmas morning to above-average temperatures and no snow on the ground was scary, Boston Dynamics gives us a far more terrifying glimpse into a dystopian future where Santa’s reindeer have been replaced with (highly kickable) trotting robotic dogs. In this (what’s the opposite of heartwarming?) holiday video we see three of Boston …