Killer Robots

Training robots to anticipate our needs.
Training robots to anticipate our actions.
Training robots to figure out where we’re hiding and exterminate us, says I.

The multidisciplinary team of the EU-funded Joint Action Science and Technology (JAST) project first analyzed human-human collaborations, seeing what kind of behavior and brain function are at play when we work (or don’t work) well together, and then applied the research into building proactive robots.

The eventual aim is to build robots that can ask questions, discuss and explore possibilities, assess their companion’s ideas, and anticipate what their partners might do next.

There’s an article at Hack-A-Day that shows an actual carnivorous robot. Someone please tell me I’m being punked.

I just watched a video of a friggen robot make sushi. Dear, God…

I don’t know whether to be scared, excited, or to ask this guy if I can join Voltron.

Army Mechanic’s Garage Tinkering Yields 18-Foot Mecha Exoskeleton,
27 hydraulic cylinders bring the Mecha to life, its movements matching those of the person inside it.

the better to hunt us with.

Yes, now scientists are cooking up ways to teach robots to
walk on water!

No, I’m not kidding. Walk on freaking water!
The only guy I ever heard of doing this was considered pretty freaking special, but no, let’s figure out how to get robots to do it.

A robot that can walk on water: such a miracle is one step closer to reality, thanks to some new research that learns from the work nature has done with water striders. Walking on water may seem like a superpower and the name scientists have give the property of the striders’ legs is fitting: super-hydrophobia.

Super-hydrophobic legs repel water, and it is exactly this super property that scientists have tried to simulate with a (you guessed it) supercomputer. Professor of Chemistry at University of Nebraska-Lincoln Xiao Cheng Zeng worked together with colleagues — and the supercomputer — at Japan’s RIKEN Institute, Takahiro Koishi, Shigenori Fujikawa, and Toshikazu Ebisuzaki and Kenji Yasuoka of Keio University.

Super hero powers: Robots – 1, Humans – 0
Thanks guys!

Yes, we continue to train the robots to hunt us, and this time on the social networking sites.

Ibn Sina Robot is joining Facebook, seeks friends

Named for a medical doctor, the Ibn Sina Robot wants to shed his scholarly ways and you know, hang out, make friends, have a bit of fun. The prototype robot is based on a PeopleBot machine from ActivRobots. It features face recognition and language modules that allow it to carry on real-time conversations with its database of friends. The plan is to put the bot on Facebook where according to the BBC it will "foster meaningful realtionships with people.".

At least it kinda looks like UBL, so we won’t trust it right off the bat. But if they make it look like a 15-year old girl the gamer boys will be in trouble.

Another piece of the puzzle comes together as a bunch of scientists in Switzerland invented robots that "lie" to each other to get food. Seriously, why not just give them the planet now and save us the trouble…

Seriously?
SERIOUSLY?!@?

In what universe is this a good idea? Let’s make humans food for robots! Freaking vampire robots, that’s what we need!

I think I saw this movie. It was called ‘The Matrix’.

Yeast cells feeding on the glucose in human blood might one day power implants such as pacemakers. A living source of power that is able to regenerate itself would eliminate the need for regular operations to replace batteries.
A team at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, has created tiny microbial fuel cells by encapsulating yeast cells in a flexible capsule. They went on to show the fuel cells can generate power from a drop of human blood plasma.

The Japanese always try to make the robots look cool, just look at the names they’ve picked for this one. But really, this thing’s just one step closer to cyborgs.

Is it me, or does this look like a hybrid of RoboCop and Voltron characters?

It starts with robots being used for exacting, and repetitive work, and then move to assisting humans in completing tasks. Next thing you know, they’re signing you up for cerebral port to connect you to the network.

… had gone to see a team of Japanese engineers from the company proudly showing off their new mobility technology — a pair of wearable robotic “Walking Assist Devices.” Strapping the powered gadgets to our legs felt silly, but after taking them off, the sensation of being cast back among unaugmented humans, forced to walk completely under our own primitive power, was a distinct comedown.