CB2 Child Robot is possibly the most disturbing machine ever built - Engadget
Topic: Technology
10:06 am EDT, Jun 4, 2007
Imagine if someone, somewhere managed to find the exact formula for producing the most perfectly awful example of the uncanny valley (say, for a horror movie or something). Now, accept the fact that this organization is the Japanese Science and Technology Agency, and that they managed to produce the most disturbing machine you've ever seen, without even realizing it. The 33 kilogram CB2 is literally beyond words in its freakiness, not only in its nailing of the uncanny valley, but in its description. Apparently it emulates "the physical ability of a 1- or 2-year-old toddler, can turn over and stand up with assistance," has 51 compressed air-powered actuators, and has 200 tactile sensors in its "skin." It sends so many shivers up our spine to think of the CB2's lifeless putty coating as "skin" that it's a wonder we're even able to continue typing. Seriously, just so that we can stop and move onto something else a little more human (heck, even a motherboard feels homely next to this), go check out the video after the break of the horrifying little thing writhing about on the floor.
All of the potential uses for such a thing are all bad. I think Asimov forgot to make a law here.
BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Teleporting' over the internet
Topic: Technology
10:19 am EDT, Jun 1, 2007
Professors Todd Mowry and Seth Goldstein of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania think that, within a human generation, we might be able to replicate three-dimensional objects out of a mass of material made up of small synthetic "atoms".
Cameras would capture the movement of an object or person and then this data would be fed to the atoms, which would then assemble themselves to make up an exact likeness of the object.
They came up with the idea based on "claytronics," the animation technique which involves slightly moving a model per frame to animate it.
"We thought that a good analogy for what we were going to do was claymation - something like the Wallace and Gromit shows," Dr Mowry told BBC World Service's Outlook programme.
"When you watch something created by claymation, it is a real object and it looks like it's moving itself. That's something like the idea we're doing... in our case, the idea is that you have computation in the 'clay', as though the clay can move itself.
"So if it was a dog, and you want the dog to move, it will actually move itself. But it is a physical object in front of you - it's not just a picture or hologram or something like that."
Made by Meccano, Spyke is the first robot to be built that you can transform and control from a computer through a WiFi connection! Moreover, you can control him from anywhere in the world via the Internet!
Spyke comes with a video camera, a microphone, a loudspeaker and 2 motors.
He is a Spy Robot, and can move, watch, hear, speak, take pictures, record video and sound.
He is equipped with light and sound effects, video filters and…Spyke is a telephone!
He can be used as a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone & webcam and is compatible with Skype 3.0.
Spyke is a Digital Music Player that allows you to listen to your own music, or keep the dog entertained by putting his favourite songs on while you’re at the office!
Spyke is a video surveillance device! When a movement is detected, Spyke activates an alarm or sends you a picture by e-mail.
When the battery charge gets low, Spyke returns back to his recharging station automatically!
Approx. Dimensions: 35(H) x 25(W) x 25(D) cm
Technical Spec.
• PC & MAC compliant • WiFi / 802.11 b/g • Joystick compliant • PC requirement / software: Windows 2000 / XP with .NET framework 2.0 • MAC requirement / software: Mac OS X • Open source software • MMI software details: 1.1 Mb / user interface in Microsoft.net • Compatible with Skype 3.0 (PC) technology • Camera: 320x240 – local mode:15 fps / distant mode: depending on the Internet connection • Speaker: 2W / no driver required
Nurses are to be replaced by robots. No, really, it is not April Fool’s Day. It is going to happen in a hospital near you. Soon.
Nurses, those caring people who have pulled many a patient back from the brink with their expertise, brow-wiping and tender words, are likely to be replaced soon by yards of wiring, transistors, hydraulics, a motherboard and light-emitting diodes. Enter the Robo-nurse.
I'm surprised we're closer to making robot nurses before sex-droids. Maybe robotics developers are fetishists. Dirty old men will be disappointed.
Virtual Hallucinating Device Drives Police Insane for a Day
Topic: Technology
12:41 pm EDT, May 24, 2007
Being crazy is hard, but it's worth the effort. Especially if you're a cop, paramedic, or social worker who may someday need to deal with a person having a psychotic episode. At those times, empathy can be crucial.
That's where Virtual Hallucinations comes in. The training device, created by Janssen L.P., is a rig with earphones and goggles that plunges the wearer into the mind of a serious schizophrenic. The system offers two interactive scenarios. In one, you're riding a bus in which other riders appear and disappear, birds of prey claw at the windows, and voices hiss, "He's taking you back to the FBI!" The other features a trip to the drugstore, where the pharmacist seems to be handing you poison instead of pills, and hostile customers stare at you in disgust.
I hope apple includes something like this in the next generation iPod.
The most effective way to find and destroy a land mine is to step on it.
This has bad results, of course, if you're a human. But not so much if you're a robot and have as many legs as a centipede sticking out from your body. That's why Mark Tilden, a robotics physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, built something like that. At the Yuma Test Grounds in Arizona, the autonomous robot, 5 feet long and modeled on a stick-insect, strutted out for a live-fire test and worked beautifully, he says. Every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield.
Finally it was down to one leg. Still, it pulled itself forward. Tilden was ecstatic. The machine was working splendidly.
The human in command of the exercise, however -- an Army colonel -- blew a fuse.
The colonel ordered the test stopped.
Why? asked Tilden. What's wrong?
The colonel just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg.
Having heard that Vista's CD/DVD burn utility by default uses a nonstandard format, possibly as a result of yet another one of Microsoft's lock-in schemes, I decided to check things out for myself. That would also give me a nice chance to see what Vista was all about.
The plan was simple: 1. Locate a Vista box,
2. Bring empty CD's plus some arbitrary files on a USB stick, and
3. Burn CD's in several ways while making screenshots.
As it turned out, the planning was the simplest part by far. The rest is best described as a tale of frustration.
From the article, it seems that Vista really goes out of its way to try and make the user use a non-standard CD/DVD image format - when it works at all.
AppleInsider | Microsoft eyes Yahoo! in proposed takeover
Topic: Technology
1:35 pm EDT, May 4, 2007
The paper cited sources who say Microsoft, having already made an offer to acquire Yahoo! several months ago, is now urgently courting the web firm to re-enter formal negotiations.
Yahoo!, which is valued at around $50 billion, is reported to have aggressively rejected the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant's initial attempts to discuss a takeover.
For its part, Microsoft is said to be more determined than ever to strike a deal after Google last month snatched DoubleClick for $3.1 billion from under its nose.
"They're getting tired of being left at the altar," one banking source, who has recently had talks with Microsoft , told the Post. "They now seem more willing to extend themselves via a transaction to get into the game."
I hope this doesn't happen. Yahoo has some useful services which MS would inevitably fuck up.
Student suspended for bypassing network security - News
Topic: Technology
12:12 pm EDT, Apr 30, 2007
The University of Portland handed a one-year suspension to engineering major and Air Force ROTC member Michael Maass after he wrote a computer program designed to replace and improve Cisco Clean Access (CCA).
Maass noticed flaws in CCA that would allow it to be bypassed in "antivirus and operating system check." Essentially, a program could be written that fooled CCA into thinking it was receiving correct information identifying a computer's operating system and antivirus as current and up to date.
According to Information Services Director Bryon Fessler, a fundamental purpose of CCA is that it "evaluates whether computers are compliant with security policies (i.e., specific antivirus software, operating system updates, patches, etc.)."
In the design of his computer program, Maass looked at the functions CCA provides and identified vulnerabilities where it could be bypassed. He wrote a program that emulated the same functions as CCA and eliminated some security issues.
He says that the method he chose is "one of six that I came up with."
Maass says his intent was not malicious. Rather, the sophomore says he was examining vulnerabilities so that they could be fixed.
"I was planning on going to Cisco with the vulnerability this summer," Maass says.
