Better living through toy robotics.
Via Gwenda, ‘Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a “female” android called Repliee Q1.’ My god, look at those man-hands!
JERRY
The hands of a man. It’s like a creature out of Greek Mythology, I mean, she was like part woman, part horrible beast.
I always liked the Transformers more than Voltron, but like every good kid I watched the Voltron cartoon and played with the Voltron toys. Don’t quote me, but I think my Voltron action figures ended up at the bottom of a lake in Florida (result of the experiment: they didn’t float), which is a far more glamorous death than most of my toys, which usually ended up being eaten by one of my dogs.
Anyway, there will be a Voltron film, and I’m sure it will be crappy, but it’s got robots, so hey.
Fucking hell! [via]
A secret Google data center is now decorated with a fantastic robot mural. I want one!
It’s the April 27th entry at the Googleblog, in case the permalink isn’t working.
Well, not me. These guys. Let the age of the Robosapiens begin!
In a continuing effort to position LittleToyRobot.com as the premier information source for robotic events in Atlanta, I am pleased to pass on news of the opening of Scandal! It’s an improv soap opera set on a Moon Base/Casino featuring the Internet’s own Clunky Robot as a robot named The Altair 9000, who is in charge of higher base functions, and randomizing the casino numbers.
Scandal! runs every Friday night at Dad’s Garage. I’ll be there this Friday if you’d like to plan an assassination attempt, but for once I will not be the one dressed in an upside down garbage can!
Hey, the cover story of the upcoming issue of Wired is about Asimov’s robot stories.
But, it’s written by Cory Doctorow.
I can see the affinity; both are known for being Idea writers with no strong talent for literary style or character development. Not that I could do better, but I do have my opinions as a reader!
I am not going to see I, Robot at the movies. I am going to borrow it from Netflix when it’s out on DVD (which will probably be three days later) and pretend that Alex Proyas was not involved in the project.
The robots are rebelling. We knew it would happen.
But we didn’t know it would happen this way.
There is a new entry in “Robots I Have Known.” This one is called “The Nanny at the End of Time.” It moves slowly through the story of a very special robot as she nears her death. This recollection mashes together robots from a novel (The Hollow Lands), a comic book series (X-Men), and a television show (The Jetsons), so I hope it’s apparent that I’m not taking myself too seriously with these and am just enjoying myself.
Robots.net, via Noah Shackman, notes that the Canadian Navy is looking for their Battlespace Preparation Autonomous (i.e., robotic) Underwater Vehicle:
The bright yellow BPAUV weighs 800 pounds, is 122 inches long, 21 inches in diameter and was last seen off the coast of Norway where it was taking part in a military exercise.
Have you seen it?
If so, please return. Thanks!
Extra points go to coverage of the search that uses the phrase “little lost robot,” referencing a story in Asimov’s I, Robot.
I was thinking about ways I could use my free time even less wisely, and I had an idea: What if I pretended that Little Toy Robot was a time-traveler who decided to blog about his adventures with the great robots of fact and fiction?
Introducing Robots I Have Known, at i.littletoyrobot.com. Once or twice a month I’ll be writing bite-sized essays in which I insert myself into my favorite robot stories from books, comics, movies, and history.
The first one features Robbie, the title character of the first story in Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. He’s a sentimental favorite, one of the first famous robots of fiction, and I tried to write the piece in a naive style as a tribute to the source.
A little bomb-detecting robot paid a visit to the neighborhood Little Toy Robot works in today. Look at him go!
Run for the hills! Or, errr, Stone Mountain!
Were LTR still in NYC, you could bet your bottom dollar that he would be at Godzilla Conquers the Globe: Japanese Movie Monsters in International Film Art, an exhibit at the Columbia University Library celebrating 50 years of the big feller.
Instead, he is settling for renting Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla on Netflix. A robot Godzilla? Is anything better than that?