Jun 23, 2007
What’s cheaper than a miniaturized, flying insect-like robot controlled by artificial intelligence? A miniaturized computer chip embedded as a control device in a natural organism. One of DARPAs projects involves injecting a chip into a Moth during the larva stage, the larva effectively adapting to the chip as part of its body. Once the moth hatches, machine learning is used to control it — to translate the signals and responses from the moth’s organic body — and effectively making it a mechorganic hybrid spy device; a cyborg moth.
Jun 17, 2007
An obvious disadvantage of steel beings, when compared to us meatmachines, is that they lack they ability to regenerate and heal after having suffered damage. But the future isn’t bleak for them — we’re inching closer to realistic solutions to this problem.
Jun 12, 2007
It doesn’t seem too long until humanoid robots for the home become as advanced as Sony’s late QRIO, judging by the humanoid robot RoGun from the Korean company KornTech. This impressive robot is one of the latest models from Korea, and needless to say, sports some of the latest of technological innovations in the fields of robotics and A.I. I talked with the company’s marketing director, Lee Jea-Hyun, to provide you with an in-depth article on this new and very impressive humanoid.
Jun 7, 2007
Transforming robots are fascinating, and perhaps even necessary for work in certain environments — as has been hinted at by several renowned roboticists. I’ve come across some videos of transforming robots in my days, and thought I’d round them up in a neat little post. Here are videos and information on 6 noteworthy transformer projects.
Jun 6, 2007
Just when you think Hiroshi Ishiguro is busy amplifying the uncanny valley effect of one of his previous androids, he rolls out a new model. This time, it’s a gigantic bionic baby. Boasting about 200 sensors (optical, auditory and tactile) and 51 air actuators — the 1.3 meter tall robot is designed to mimic the physical motions of a two year old.
May 29, 2007
The following videos are the amazing mechanical artwork of U-Ram Choe from Seoul, Korea. Somewhat reminiscent of Giger’s designs (minus Giger’s taste for sloppy edges), the smooth and organic motions of Choe’s machines provoke in me a soothing feeling of an alien and distant future. His design, the vertebrae and head shapes fit my taste exactly. Quite inspiring, aesthetically superior machinery.
May 28, 2007
I just put together a YouTube Think Artificial Channel as an experiment. For those unfamiliar Channels, they are a user’s collection of videos (neatly categorized) that others can view and subscribe to. Up until this point I hadn’t used YouTube channels, but seeing as I often post YouTube videos, I thought it might as well be good to actually keep a collection of them all in one place — along with the various videos I like but don’t get around blogging about.
May 12, 2007
All this Transformers talk reminded me of this video of a robot called WR-07, that morphs from humanoid form to car. It was created by Nakamura san at Himeji Soft Works in Japan. See video below.
May 6, 2007
The Emergence of Artificial Culture in Robot Societies is a four year projected aimed at investigating how artificial cultures emerge within a group of robots.
Spearheaded by Professor Alan Winfield at the University of the West of England, his team will create around 60 miniature robots organized into groups — or villages. I’ve found no specific details on the robots other than that they interact and imitate eachother.
