Researchers have recently succeeded in controlling groups of cockroaches with insect-like robots known as "insbots." The insbots are mobile cubic robots around the size of a thumbnail, and they use infrared and light sensors to guide their way. Before they enter the presence of cockroaches, they are coated with roach pheromones to ease their transition into the group. In testing, the roaches interacted with the insbots and eventually followed the insbots' movements, even if the movements were contrary to the group's common behavior. It's obvious that the researchers are planning to use this technology to create an off-broadway production of 1996's Joe's Apartment. Although, training roaches to sing and dance won't be as hard as convincing Jerry O'Connell to star; I know for a fact that he's a busy man.
The Persuasive Mirror, a project being developed by Accenture, displays an age and behavior-progressed representation of the viewer. The image presented by the mirror will be adjusted based on a "series of sensors and data analysis tools" that monitor the viewer's activity throughout the house. For example, the mirror could be combined with "health-tracking personal sensors," and if the user eats poorly and neglects exercise, the mirror could project an image of the user as overweight. The idea is to persuade people to live better lives by scaring them into submission with grotesque images of their future selves. This technology is still in its planning phase, so even if it could evaluate your life based on your significant other, it'd still be too late... too late.
The Xbox Controller Controller project is an attempt to access and command an Xbox controller over the internet. The buttons on the controller are physically pressed by stiff wire "arms" that are attached to individual servos. The collection of servos is controlled by a Basic microcontroller which accepts processed directions from a small circuit board computer with a wireless internet card. This controller hack has been operated wirelessly through a Nintendo DS and a Sony PSP. I too have created an Xbox controller controller, but my controller just consists of giving my unemployed older brother a bag of peanut M&M's and telling him to sit by the Xbox and a phone for a few hours. Although, I bet this guy doesn't come home to find his controller passed out in front of a Family Ties rerun with chocolate all over its face.
Researchers at Gifu University's Graduate School of Medicine have developed a robot patient that will provide helpful support for students who are learning to diagnose medical conditions. The humanoid robot is programmed to suffer from one of eight different medical conditions, and it uses sensors to determine the pressure placed on its skin. When students press on a localized area of the robot, the robot will verbally tell the student whether or not it feels pain in that area. The robot has a total of 24 sensors embedded under a layer of soft, warm synthetic skin, creating numerous points for medical students to place their sweaty hands on those lonely Friday nights. Studying with this robot will familiarize students with the physical symptoms of particular human medical conditions and finally give them the experience they need to drop out of medical school and open their own robot massage parlor and escort service.
The Micro.Spheres project invites human visitors into a room filled with 16 autonomous robot balls. The presence of the visitor sets off the sensors in the balls, which move around the room to achieve a new state of equilibrium. If the person in the room is continuously moving, the balls are too. If the person stands still or leaves the room, the balls will find a state of balance and stop moving. The project is supposed to address changing social structures, but if they added a few spikes to the balls and swapped out the word "micro" with "death" or "danger," they could have a successful movie franchise on their hands. Did I say successful? I meant terrible.
Leave it up to those whacky scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to invent another animal robot that has absolutely no use for anyone anywhere ever. The OCTOR (sOft robotiC manipulaTORs) project is focused on both creating tentacle-like robots and completely destroying the foundation upon which acronyms are based. DARPA is researching robot tentacles in an attempt to create a robot appendage that can navigate narrow spaces and manipulate oddly-shaped objects. The "Octarms" that have been developed so far are powered by compressed air and fitted with pressure sensors on its surface and a camera at its tip. It is unclear about the eventual use of these Octarms, but researchers may use them for "bomb disposal tasks," since slapping a bomb around with a pool noodle is probably the safest way to deactivate it.
