These robots cheer for absent fans at South Korean baseball games

File this one under "weird." The South Korean baseball team, The Eagles, havent won the championship in 15 years; theyre commonly know as The Chickens! But still their loyal fans come to watch and cheer their side on. So of course, being South Korea, it was natural for them to create robots who could cheer for absent fans. An unusual use of the concept of telepresence. Watch the video below to see how its done. This story was brought to my attention by my colleague Mark.



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The Plan to Build a Massive Online Brain for All the World’s Robots

This is a clever idea (in fact I thought of it a few years ago as well). Now with excellent WiFi and 4G connectivity there is no need for an individual robot to carry all its processing power onboard. Instead they can delegate some decisions to the cloud. Wired recently reported on a project to do just this - to build a massive robot brain in the c loud. Indeed I believe that Googles driverless cars can also use the cloud to aid their decision making. I cant find a link for this so would be grateful if a reader who knows a relevant URl could comment.

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The rise of the Bots Robots Surgeons and Disruptive Technology

If youre in Auckland next Wednesday evening (22nd Ocotober) you might be interested in attending a free public lecture by Dr Catherine Mohr titled "The rise of the Bots: Robots, Surgeons and Disruptive Technology." Surgery has been changing rapidly in the last 10 years with the advent of surgical robots and the increase in minimally invasive surgical techniques. Dr Catherine Mohr will talk about these changes in surgical practice, the technologies that underlie them, and what we might see in the future as new technologies such as earlier diagnostics, advanced imaging and regenerative medicine bring disruptive changes to healthcare around the world.
Dr Mohr is Vice President of Medical Research at Intuitive Surgical, where she evaluates new technologies for incorporation into the next generation of surgical robots. She also is a consulting Assistant Professor in the department of Surgery at Stanford School of Medicine and on the Medicine and Robotics Faculty at Singularity University. A frequent speaker on the topics of surgical robotics, innovation and the importance of science,at national and international conferences, she is also the author of numerous scientific publications and the recipient of multiple awards. You can get a ticket for the lecture here.

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Tate Britain Is Offering Everyone Remote Tours Using Robots

One of my favourite art galleries recently offered remote tours of its exhibitions by robot after hours. Wired reports that "Since at least the 1960s, weve romanticized night time visits to art museums. In From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, published in 1967, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a 12-year-old runaways chosen hideout destination." I really wish Id been able to take a tour and I hope other museums take up this idea. In the meantime this video will have to suffice.



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Robotic musicians in New Zealand

Radio New Zealand National recently broadcast an interview with Prof. Dale Carnegie the head of Victoria Universitys School of Engineering and Computer Science. Amongst other research his group have been collaborating with the School of Music to design and build robotic musicians that play specially designed instruments. The really interesting thing is that these "musicians"  are not limited by human physiology; they can play faster than a person, they can play chords a human hand couldnt physically span and of course they can play longer. You can see a video of a robotic bass performing a cover of Hysteria by Muse. I have some friends who are bass players who will love/hate this!


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Should killer robots be banned

Lethal autonomous weapons systems, or "killer robots" as the public prefer to call them, are almost a reality. In fact in certain cases, such as Israels Iron Dome rocket defence system, they already exist. Should the ability of a robot to identify a target and execute an attack without human intervention be outlawed? Many people believe it should, arguing that a robot can never act morally, whilst others argue that in certain circumstances robots may be less dangerous than frightened, stressed and fatigued soldiers. A week long meeting at the UN in Geneva is currently considering the issue. The UK government has already declared that it opposes an international ban on developing "killer robots" as described in this article in the Guardian. An international coalition of NGOs called the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is lobbying to have a ban established before the technology is upon us. What do you think?

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MegaBots giant fighting robots

MegaBots Inc. is planning to create giant robots that will fight each other in arena duels. Theyve recently laid down a challenge to a Japanese robotics company for a duel in a years time. Theyve also partnered with the CAD company AutoDesk to run a robot design challenge with a  top prize of $2,500. Details of the competition are here.


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