When you look into a mirror, can you recognize that you are looking at your own reflection? Hopefully you can; humans are among a select few animals (including primates, elephants, and dolphins) that are able to distinguish that they are looking at their own reflection. With such few organisms being able to accomplish this seemingly simple task, it is […]
MindMentor is a robot developed by two psychologists, and consequently has become one himself! It resides on a website on the web, and charges $8 per hour of therapy. Can it replace a flesh-and-blood psychologist? Probably not. But it’s a heck of a great alternative. Say hi! MindMentor asks question about what’s worrying you, why […]
Robotic hand technology in the last decade has largely focused on making the machines simpler and lighter. This setup, while neither lightweight nor simple, displays an extraordinary precision and speed. These fingers are able to dribble a ball 10 times per second, using multiple high speed cameras to track the motion of the ball. The hand is amazingly […]
Imagine a cardboard version of Pixar’s Wall-e character, but with added über-cute human voice, and you’ve got a fair picture of Boxie, Alexander Reben’s documentary-video-making robot. “The idea was to create a robot that was interesting enough for people to engage with it and offer to help it, carrying it around and up and down […]
The NAO robot, made by Aldebaran Robotics, is a platform created to play during the Robocup. Not only does it play soccer, but it has a on board computer that is fully programmable, and an assortment of sensors including an inertial sensor in the case it falls over, a tactile sensor for human interaction, two […]
Recently, Google has been testing a prototype of an auto-driving car. Sounds absurd, but its true! Using the Toyota Prius as the medium, members of the project have used a spinning laser on top of the car to sense the environment in all directions. Inside the car, a GPS receives input from the laser, and […]
A team from Aarhus University uses Lego Mindstorms to create a Turing Machine. The video is overdramatic, but they include an extensive blog about building and programming the machine. +40
