The ever-expanding list of professions which might soon be replaced by hi-tech. solutions is still growing strong. Sony Interactive Entertainments Inc. (Tokyo) has just been granted a US patent for its Robot As Personal Trainer Embodiments of the present invention disclose methods and systems that are used to assist a user to perform an activity, […]
Tag: robot
Robotic Barbery on the Lawn: Hedghogs
Peace has yet to be attained between robotics, lawn care specialists, and hedgehogs. This study wades into the vexatious arena: “Wildlife Conservation at a Garden Level: The Effect of Robotic Lawn Mowers on European Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus),” Sophie Lund Rasmussen, Ane Elise Schrøder, Ronja Mathiesen, Jeppe Lund Nielsen, Cino Pertoldi, and David W. Macdonald, Animals, […]
De-humanizing Humanoid Robots [study]
Humanoid robots are often experienced as unnerving, a psychological phenomenon called the “uncanny valley.” The Uncanny Valley is quite a problem for ‘humanoid’ robot designers – who currently struggle to make their robots 100% convincing. A newly proposed solution involves ‘dehumanizing’ ‘humanoid’ robots. By, for example, removing the robot’s face to expose bare electronic circuit […]
The Wombot and the Wombats
Ig Nobel Prize winner Scott Carver, at the University of Tasmania, and colleagues demonstrate and explain the wombot—their wombat-sized robot for wombat research—in action, in this ABC News report: The 2019 Ig Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to Patricia Yang, Alexander Lee, Miles Chan, Alynn Martin, Ashley Edwards, Scott Carver, and David Hu, for […]