I wish I could say that I’ve never met a bot I didn’t like, but I’ve actually met several I don’t like. Thankfully Tri-Bot is one awesome robot, with a ton of nice features packed into his compact form. You’ve all seen him in various videos and pictures, but I have to say, this bot is twice as awesome in person. He’s a wise-cracking and highly energetic bot, which might make him seem like he would be annoying, but trust me, his personality will win you over as soon as you take him out of the box. Read on for the full experience. Read the rest of this entry »
The first user videos of the Meccano Spykee WiFi robot are beginning to surface, showing the open-source bot in action. This one is a full demo of Spykee in parts, then assembled and scaring kids. It also shows off the internet interface and how you can control Spykee from anywhere with a network connection. It’s pretty cool.
WowWee’s Tri-Bot is still listed at eToys for official US release on August 21st, but a sharp-eyed visitor to a Radio Shack near San Francisco spotted the robot on the shelves. Interesting, because there’s no sign of Tri-Bot on Radio Shack’s online store, and it’s still listed for pre-order at WowWee.
Either Radio Shack got a secured a pre-launch window to sell the Tri-bot, or this store is shooting their wad early. Could also be that the robot is playing games with us.
An experiment, conducted by neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, involving a pair of macaque monkeys with electrodes implanted in their brains, have the monkeys operating a robot arm like it was their own. They are even able to feed themselves much of the time, which is pretty impressive.
Research has been going on since 2000 and a similar break through occurred in 2003, but now they were able to make a monkey walk on a treadmill at Duke University and control the motions of another robot in Japan. This could lead to a breakthrough in prosthetics, where the user might train himself to close a prosthetic hand by shrugging his shoulder, and the brain will adapt, with the shrug motion eventually becoming second nature.
Or monkeys and robots might team up and give us a Terminator/Planet Of The Apes future.
Great for prosthetics, but it could also apply to normal people controlling machines with their minds in the future, whether your car or computer.
WowWee has been talking about it’s all-controlling RoboRemote since CES at the beginning of the year, but it looks like it’s only recently become available, and it’s already been reviewed. According to the good people over at RoboCommunity, the remote delivers on it’s promise to control any IR-based WowWee robot, with the software. (XP/Vista only) It’s easy enough for almost anyone to use, but not so basic that it turn off other robotics enthusiasts. At $20, you pretty much have to give it a try.
