Category Archives: evil robots

according to bill gates, robots are here to stay. already we have robots that do serious things like shoot rockets and clean the floor. but recently we have also had robot versions of normal products: a robot boom box, a robot alarm clock. given all of today’s concern with energy and pollution, how can we […]

while everyone’s busy making robots to do household chores, and we’re genetically engineering food, why not genetically engineer animals to serve as robots? a lot of the mechanics would be simplified and it’s just a problem of mind control…maybe they could be trained by robots! well, these seeing-eye dogs can put a card in the […]

instead of worrying about making robots more intelligent, the machine perception lab is trying to make them more affectionate: by placing two robots in the UCSD daycare center for a few weeks, his team was able to program them to have more realistic affect. their research (paper) reveals that children as young as 10 months […]

at least 1,000 american construction workers a year die from accidents on the job. construction robots can achieve many menial exhausting and dangerous tasks better than humans without the risk of injury or death: such as the concrete floor polisher (top left), steel frame welder (top right), concrete floor layer (bottom left) and facade de-laminator […]

how soon will we have smart furniture? robotic seats already exist in a number of forms: dean kamen’s incredible ibot robotic wheelchair (top) not only balances on two wheels and tackles stairs; it allows the wheelchair-bound to interact with standing adults at eye level (watch this video). makes this japanese effort look downright complex (middle). […]

in case anyone doesn’t know, the japanese have robotic toilets that can make you feel above it all: complete with in-seat ventilation, robotic bidet (for men or women, with adjustable aerated water temperature and pressure) and optional blow-drying, perfume and noise-making (for embarassing bathroom sounds) because these toilets don’t make noise when they flush. also […]

now that we can touch and feed our pets remotely, we may not even have to – recent findings suggest that robot pets confer some of the same health benefits as real ones. the paro seal type mental commit robot pictured is designed for just that – this video of him playing with japanese senior […]