Meet Bina48. She’s It’s a body-less robot that manages to exhibit some compelling advancements that will surely lead to Judgement Day, but also reassures us that J-Day isn’t coming anytime soon. Bina48 was created by David Hanson of Hanson Robotics and it’s based on a real life person named Bina Rothblatt. Though the robot is pretty adept at answering simple questions (like any chatbot it can scour the Internet for relevant information), what’s most exciting (and rather frightening) is it’s eye movement and facial expressions and reactions. It seemed distracted when the NYT reporter asked it questions, but when the answers did come I was impressed. Watch the robot-human conversation go down in the video above. And let’s all pray to our respective saviors that Moore’s law doesn’t apply to humanoid robotics. Ah crap it does.
Tag Archives: humanoid
NASA and GM are sending world’s first humanoid into space
NASA and General Motors are collaborating to send a robot to the International Space Station to aid the human astronauts who reside there. Sure we’ve sent robots into space before; you’ve heard of the Mars Rover, right? This is different. Robonaut 2, nicknamed R2, is preparing to become the first humanoid robot to enter space. It’s got arms, legs, a body, and head. R2 looks like one of us. So what’s it going to do up there? According to The New York Times, it “will be monitored in space to see how it performs in weightlessness, but NASA hopes to eventually use R2 to assist astronauts during space walks and to work alongside engineers in the space station.” R2 is scheduled to leave for space via the Space Shuttle Discovery in September. To infinity and beyond, I say! Look after the break for a video that takes you behind the construction of R2.
Continue reading NASA and GM are sending world’s first humanoid into space