Hopefully these violent delights don't have violent ends.
Boston Dynamics, the company known for its "nightmare-inducing" backflipping robots, has unveiled two new videos that show them autonomously navigating through different terrains, including an office and a lab, and jogging in a grass field.
The clips released Thursday detail the progress that Atlas, a humanoid robot, and SpotMini, a doglike robot, have made. SpotMini, for example, is using cameras to identify and move past obstacles, such as office furniture.'NIGHTMARE-INDUCING' ROBOTS ARE NOW ABLE TO DO BACKFLIPS
"During the autonomous run, SpotMini uses data from the cameras to localize itself in the map and to detect and avoid obstacles," Boston Dynamics said in the video description. "Once the operator presses 'GO' at the beginning of the video, the robot is on its own."
Meanwhile, Atlas' jump over the downed tree trunk isn't elegant in the way an Olympic hurdler is, but it more than gets the job done. If that isn't shocking enough, SpotMini continues its venture outside near grills, walking along a concrete path. That probably isn't what most people envision when they think of a fun-filled BBQ with friends and the family dog.
The videos, which have racked up a combined 1 million views, are the latest to show off these robots, who have terrified plenty of people. One of them is tech exec Elon Musk, who has repeatedly warned about the perils of artificial intelligence. In November, when Boston Dynamics showed off Atlas doing backflips, he said that was just the beginning.
"This is nothing," Musk tweeted. "In a few years, that bot will move so fast you’ll need a strobe light to see it. Sweet dreams…"
Even Boston Dynamics' founder, Marc Raibert, has acknowledged that its robots can cause fear. In February 2017, he showed off the wheeled version of one of its robots and described it as "nightmare-inducing."
"This is the debut presentation of what I think will be a nightmare-inducing robot if you're anything like me," Raibert was quoted as saying.
BOSTON DYNAMICS' LATEST ROBOT CAN OPEN DOORS
Boston Dynamics, which was sold from Google to Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank for an undisclosed sum last year, has not revealed what it eventually plans to do with its robots.
On its website, the company, which got its start at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it is "changing your idea of what robots can do" and prides itself "in building machines that both break boundaries and work in the real world."
When "Westworld" becomes a reality (or is it already?) and the robot uprising finally occurs, at least we'll know (probably) where it started.
Saturday, 12 May 2018
Saturday, 14 May 2016
Wednesday, 09 September 2015
Shelfie
To begin, users download the free app to their smartphone and create a profile. Then they snap a picture of their bookshelf and upload the image. The platform then searches its database and finds out which books are available. Shelfie then provides free copies of eligible books that the user has already purchased, courtesy of various partnerships with publishers. The platform already has over 100,000 ebooks available, which can be downloaded and read on any device. In addition, users can browse each others’ bookshelves to obtain recommendations and inspiration for their next purchase.
Everything Old is New Again
-- like the old Automat. I used to read about it when I was a kid and wished to visit new York to see it. Anyway, here it is, 21st Century style.
In terms of the front of house experience, it’s fully automated, with all meal ordering done via in-store iPads. Not a human in sight, though there is a team of about five or six back-of-house kitchen staff (or as I like to imagine, magical elves) who are hidden from view and prepare the food. There’s also one attendant on hand to help the tech challenged.
When your meal is ready — in just a few short minutes — it appears in small glass compartments, in a manner that’s reminiscent of the classic mid-20th century automats.