Roomba owners should really shut their bots off before leaving the house and arming the alarm system. Here’s why. A Roomba in a Denmark home got all hopped up on dust and dirt and tripped the motion sensors. It was just jonesin’ to snort some debris while its owners were out on the town.

The alarm was tripped, and the authorities were automatically phoned. They arrived to see that the little bot had gorged itself in a shameless and lonely orgy of filth. Otherwise all was well.

They decided not to press charges as it had nothing to handcuff.

[Bad Roomba]

To mark the release of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Warner Home Video commissioned a study into the role of AI in the future of law enforcement.  Robots are already being integrated with policing efforts, but what does the future of lawbots look like?  University of Sheffield AI Professor Noel Sharkey executed the two-month study, and concluded that by 2084, advanced humanoid robots will be patrolling alongside traditional police.

He predicts that these robots will have human features and expressions.  Because of their ultimate robo-strength and inability to feel pain (and emotion) they would be well equipped to make arrests.  They would also be outfitted with sensors to detect drugs and weapons on would-be tough customers.  The robots would be able to pinpoint things like public drunkenness and other kinds of mischief and act accordingly.  One idea that is central to Sharkey’s findings is that these bots will be able to access or store huge amounts of citizen data, thus making them able to quickly identify people and keep track of criminal movement.  Sharkey finds that autonomous police cars should appear around 2070, being able to spot speed-demons, read license plates, and perform drug and alcohol tests on drivers.

The report’s conclusions are based primarily on leading robotic developments from Japan, South Korea, Israel, China, UK and USA.  These law-enforcement robots would help human officers in many ways and would lower the crime level, but, Sharkey warns, at what cost?  Sharkey says, “in the wrong hands…robot law enforcement could be a major blow to individual privacy and basic human rights.”  He says that Hollywood’s portrayal of future robots in counter-criminal work is often dismissed as “fantastical”, but his report suggests that robots will play a “much bigger role in society over the next 75 years than previously anticipated.”

So in 2084, when you’re hobbling down the street (to the hover-wheelchair repair shop) and Officer Bolts blows you to smithereens because he x-ray sees the machete concealed under your Botropolis Brand robe, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

[Sheffield Telegraph]

iRobot has a new robot in the works. The iRobot Negotiator is designed for “public safety organizations” can’t afford the $100k PackBot 510. The Negotiator will provide basic reconnaissance to police and fire departments etc, complete with an optional “civil response kit” that will enhance its spybot techniques and give it chemical detection. It should start shipping in the 4th quarter of 2008 for about $15,000. With accessories make that $20k, which also gives it flippers to climb stairs.

Consider this Robocop’s grandfather.

[iRobot]

From the Licensing International Expo in New York, comes this first look at a poster for MGM’s remake of RoboCop.

Robocop was cool and all, but as cyborgs go, he was always a bit on the lame side. I would have expected that they would have updated the look a bit more. All they did was add a Battlestar Galactica Cylon look. Here’s to hoping we get something superior to the original movies, but with the same kind of weird humor.

[Poptherapy]

Temuzatsuku is a female robot police women. Mostly because they can dress her up as one. She’s a non-threatening cop who doesn’t even carry a gun. Local police have found her to be an effective tool in educating kids against street crime. Temuzatsuku has already been inducted into the force as she was given an appointment book for one day. Not since Angie Dickinson in the TV show Police Woman, or perhaps Cagney and Lacey, has a female cop risen so high so fast.

[Softwareheadlines]