Eggshell Robotics

Sweet-ugly, 80ies styled robot

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:29:10 +0100

The robot itself is not very interesting from a functional perspective, although I am not very goot at speaking Japanese. It's some sort of robot-human interaction via speech. But the design of the robot is insanely brilliant. I've never seen this for decades, to use simple white screens with dots in it for the eyes!

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How automation changes work

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:47:00 +0100

To all the people, who cry "WACHSTUM! WACHSTUM! WACHSTUM! (growth!)" all the time. Please open your eyes and see, how the world has changed. Not only the internet, but also automation made enormous changes to the "workplace". Why do the people yelling for growth all the time? Yes, because growth should result in work. Well, that was true in history. But look at this:

1952

2009

Also look at this home-automator-robot from Fanuc.

The only thing to think about on the present is money and work. And how to deal and distribute with it. Not necessarily growth! Let's change the direction of thinking! Read i.e. Nicht die Armut, das Wachstum muss bekämpft werden.

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Slope Skiing Robot

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:15:00 +0100

Cute robots in real-life situations are coming. Yehaa! Look at this tiny skiing robot, that is able to really ski down the slope. It was researched by Bojan Nemec at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia. The robot navigates autonomously using video camera and other sensors.

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Sum of the Thrills: Rollercoster Robot

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:19:00 +0200

A robot of an entertaining kind is placed at the "Sum of all Thrills" in the Epcot themepark in Walt Disney World Resort, asking questions of human-robot interaction and trust.

The robot is simulating a rollercoaster-ride. Before you enter, you use a virtual screen to plan your route, the speed, velocity and this sort of thrills. The ride than is simulated on the screen. If you like it, than you can approve it.

Next up you will enter the "robotic-arm". At the top there are seats and video-screens. The rollercoarster-ride will take you up. The screen is showing the ride, while the robot is shaking you, in order to simulate the physics on your human body.

This robot is clearly for fun. BUT... would YOU trust the debugger?

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Speaking Piano

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:48:00 +0200

analog - digital - analog speech synthesis. A piano that is able to speak. Interesting work!

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Funktionide: Emotional Pillow Robot

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:34:00 +0200

Designer Stefan Ulrich made a huge step in interaction design with something we used to call "robot". Look at this soft and wobbly something. A mix of pillow and robot. With this you should also be able to do "intelligent conversation". Ulrich says about the work:

Based on an intensive two month research (in cooperation with FESTO Germany and the EMPA Switzerland) concerning artificial muscles (electroactive polymers) my work reflects upon how new technologies will change future products (and society), and the way we interact with them.

2009 will end as a year of "emotional robotics". More and more concepts arrive, that try to address an emotional relationship between moving machines we like to call "robots" and humans. Lately it was for example this air-breathing toy sloth, this floor wiping worm, this laughing machine or this cute human-robot-interaction study.

PS: For the ones interested, there is also a [making of Funktionide}(http://vimeo.com/5421831) available.

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Voltage-Music-Robots Animation Clip

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:50:00 +0200

Short and intense animation clip with a pure soundtrack. Directed by Filippe Lyra and William Paiva they give an insight into a strange robot-world. The liner-notes:

Just like modular synthesizers, people connect with each other in order to achieve diverse objectives. In Voltage, robots, half-human and half-synthesizer, powered by a huge amount of energy, connect to each other in an electric and chaotic trance.

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Robodonien: 2nd Art- and Robotics-Festival in Cologne

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:53:00 +0200

This is a very short notice on a robot-festival, that is already running. From 18. - 20. 9. 2009 the Robodonien festival is taking place at Odonien, Cologne. The program look quite interesting. Let's go there!

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Homo Evolutis: The future über-human-robot

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:20:00 +0200

Juan Enriquez held an TED talk and took a much more broader picture than most other experts do. He starts with taking a look at the financial markets, but then tool a deeper glance at current trends in science and technology. He merges trends from medicine, microbiology and robots to build a picture of a new step of evolution, that *is* coming.

People only interested in robots skip the first 10 minutes of this talk.

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Mintpass: The remote wi-fi pet-care robot

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:05:00 +0200

Awesome design. Who else of you have to think of good old Commander Keen? The Mintpass Pet Robot has and can the following:

The Pet Care Robot is a Wi-Fi enabled robot with 2 large eyes (cameras), a speaker, microphone and a ball for your pet to play with.

This sounds pretty ordinary, doesn't it? But... it is nothing less than a RE-VO-LU-TION! Just imagine. Here we do not have a robot, that tries to imitate some pet in a clunky manner, but this is a robot, especially designed to play with your pet. See the difference? Not designed like, but designed for! Anyway. I think your pets will need some training as well, to be entertained by this strange looking robot.

How does it work? Well, the robot is designed for home-alone pets. It can play ball with the pet and got cameras to observe the scene. With a special remote-screen you can observe the scene, i.e. from your workplace, and play with your pet from remote - in form of the robot. Totally awesome! Please hand them out the robot-innovation award for lifetime!! Get the whole concept at the Mintpass-Website.

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Vinspired Voicebot: Write a message to your MP

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:47:00 +0200

Robot art. I love it. This one is a new project, dealing with robots, democracy and participation. It is eventually also aimed at members of parliament (MP), who literally read the internet printed out on paper.

The project is made in the UK. You can send there a message to an MP, but the message arrives at this robot. He writes everything you wrote down on paper. Please notice the wonderful handwriting of the robot!

On a more sophisticated level, this art-project shows something very substantial about robots, society and democracy. The machine (aka robot) is part of the communication-process between citizen and member of parliament. Is this one step up the ladder in society for robots? Out of the endless stupid work on the factory-belt, towards being a writer for parliament?

The robot will writing messages until 16. October 2009. It's a special prepared Kuka-Robot. Look at the Vinspired Voicebox Website for every detail.

Lately there has been other art-experiments with human text and robots. The first ones were the Robovox, that were touring to Europe, speaking out loud text-messages from people. The second was the chalk Tour de France bot. He took chalk to write user-generated-messages on the streets, to cheer for the bicycle-guys at the Tour de France.

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Robot Art: WAHHA GO GO laughing machine

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:42:00 +0200

I am absolute speechless about this piece of art by Maywa Denki. The WAHHA GO GO laughing machine is a mechanical controlled sort of "robot", that really laughs. The noise is made by air and a membrane. The video explains the whole system pretty good. Amazing!

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Robot Rehab: Frustrated Robot

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:46:00 +0200

I do not now if this is vid is a little older. But the character of that robot is so... hm... authentic. That's why I want to get sure, that you see this video, too. Really big!

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ROBO Night with bittedeluxe

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:47:00 +0200

Unfortunately I am missing the "ROBO night" tonight in Cologne / Gebäude9. The people from bittedeluxe, a LoFi-Pop-Band, invited some artists and they make a whole night dedicated to the world and spirit of robots (I guess). Some works on their website look quite amusing.

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Where are the Robots in Sci-Fi?

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:50:00 +0200

Here we go. Editors at the io9.com blog made an enlighning diagram, showing shows and movies on television from 1970 until 2009. And the topics they were about, like aliens, monsters, magic and robots. I didn't knew, that we just are past a skyrocket-boom of science-fiction productions on TV. See for yourself:

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