The threat of Big Dog

[fondue]

Uh-oh. There's a robotic petting zoo....

http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/14/4835782/minimaforms-petting-zoo-features-artificially-intelligent-tentacles

"Minimaforms says that its programming enables its pets to "develop personalities" over time, enabling "intimate exchanges that are emotive and evolving.""

[TychoCelchuuu]

T-Minus 1 month and counting until a robot intimately exchanges someone's heart out of their chest.

[Ucantalas]

  On 10/14/2013 at 11:57 AM, fondue said:

"Minimaforms says that its programming enables its pets to "develop personalities" over time, enabling "intimate exchanges that are emotive and evolving.""

Don't worry, that's just marketing talk for "The developers added a random number somewhere in the code."

[Fhnuzoag]

http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/130911/srep02627/full/srep02627.html?WT.ec_id=SREP-639-20131001

  Quote

Abrupt rise of new machine ecology beyond human response time

 

Society's techno-social systems are becoming ever faster and more computer-orientated. However, far from simply generating faster versions of existing behaviour, we show that this speed-up can generate a new behavioural regime as humans lose the ability to intervene in real time. Analyzing millisecond-scale data for the world's largest and most powerful techno-social system, the global financial market, we uncover an abrupt transition to a new all-machine phase characterized by large numbers of subsecond extreme events. The proliferation of these subsecond events shows an intriguing correlation with the onset of the system-wide financial collapse in 2008. Our findings are consistent with an emerging ecology of competitive machines featuring ‘crowds’ of predatory algorithms, and highlight the need for a new scientific theory of subsecond financial phenomena.

[Dewar]

IE, enough people program enough machines with buy and sell orders that trigger at a certain price point, and then pandemonium ensues when too many trigger at once.

[clyde]

This is a good point. I can see how removing the sense of danger and urgency could reduce civilian casualties.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2013/1018/War-robots-will-lessen-killing-not-increase-it?utm_campaign=rand_socialflow_facebook&utm_source=rand_socialflow_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

[plasticflesh]

Is this thread a good place for general purpose "robot news"? 

 

Today I watched an HNK feature about 2013 Robocon ABU. 

 

HK World TV had a good presentation of it, but I can't find it online. The following youtubes in the spoiler below give a good feel for a typical round of the 2013 game play.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

This shows a typical round of game play. 

 

Here Japan is in the blue uniforms and "Vietnam team A" in red uniforms, at least as NHK called the teams. This has better close in views, and shows off Vietnam's automatic-robot that turns in circles to register position on dropping the puck.

 

It is a competitive robotics event held by broadcasting company ABU, for Asia-Pacific countries. The rules change every year. For the 2013 version, each team makes two robots, one manual controlled with a gamepad, and one automatically controlled with script written between rounds. First, the manual-controlled robot is operated to pick-up up 6 large pucks, and drop 3 of them into certain holes. Then it delivered the last 3 pucks to the automatic-bot, which receives the pucks and places them into holes, then grabs an arrow and delivers it back to the manual-bot, who shoots it as to land on a table, marking the end of the round and them the winner. There are checkpoints between phases, so they can try it again, but with a 3 minute cap on the whole round.

 

Sorry if it's been mentioned, hopefully it's neat enough to be repeated. I tried search here and found nothing. NHK World TV had a good presentation of it, but I can't find it online. It's listed in NHK's schedule at the very bottom here.

[dibs]

[Joewintergreen]

i had not seen this before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5C0Ya51DTM

[tegan]

Every time I see that cheetah robot video the sound just makes me think of this.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-wv4pFodIQ

[feelthedarkness]

http://cyberarms.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/chinese-clothes-irons-coffee-pots-and-online-thermostats-that-can-hack-you/

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/10/meet-badbios-the-mysterious-mac-and-pc-malware-that-jumps-airgaps/

 

TLDR: criminals installed chips in coffee pots and irons that seek networks within 200m and try to gain access.

 

A different new mystery virus transmits itself from computer speaker to microphone circumventing the whole need for network. It still works on unplugged machines. 

 

This is how it starts people. Don't trust a big dog. 

[SecretAsianMan]

The Cyborgs are coming and they're DIY

 

Edit: There are some possibly gross images of a box shoved under the skin of a guy's arm.  Consider yourself warned.

[tegan]

  On 11/2/2013 at 1:29 AM, SecretAsianMan said:

The Cyborgs are coming and they're DIY

 

jesus fuck augh

 

Normally I'm not all that squeamish about body modification and this is something that I'm really fascinated by in theory, but I give that guy maybe a 50/50 chance of keeping that arm. I mean, that's a fucking massive oblong foreign object placed in an area that moves around a ton, installed by some guy who seriously used ice as an anesthetic.

[Ucantalas]

Ugh. I dislike the look of overly stretched skin and flesh... seeing that box in his arm is just... gross.

It's cool, but... uck.

[Twig]

  On 11/2/2013 at 1:46 AM, tegan said:

jesus fuck augh

 

Normally I'm not all that squeamish about body modification and this is something that I'm really fascinated by in theory, but I give that guy maybe a 50/50 chance of keeping that arm. I mean, that's a fucking massive oblong foreign object placed in an area that moves around a ton, installed by some guy who seriously used ice as an anesthetic.

Kinda what I was thinking. Good lord. 

[SecretAsianMan]

Oh god, I just noticed they're based in the same town as me.  THEY'RE ALREADY HERE!

[brkl]

For something that does so little, it sure is huge. It looks bigger than an Arduino. 

[subbes]

I'm... I'm barfing everywhere.  So many barves.

[stewmull]

that is horrible...

[Roderick]

I don't find it nearly as apalling as most here, but I'm equally surprised at how large it is. It seem bigger than an iPhone, which should be way more tech than you need to do some biometric tests? Well, doesn't matter. Very excited in any case. Cyborg technology is fascinating and I can't wait to get to the point where it'll actually augment our capabilities, rather than being peripheral add-ons for scanning and measuring.

[Laxan]

Sir, you are being stabbed.

 

[TychoCelchuuu]

Good lord, all the robot needs to do is get its "no" flipped to a "yes" accidentally and it's literally a stabbing machine.

[gavku]

the ad

 

 

CODE THOSE SWARMS!!!!

 

http://gizmodo.com/you-wont-believe-these-perfectly-synced-drones-arent-1460768867/1460939970/@jesusdiaz

 

 

 

 

 

[subbes]

Tenga, makers of sex toys for men (of the "this cylindrical prism has a hole in it" variety), have demo-ed the "VR TENGA," an Oculus Rift/Novint Falcon/Tenga monstrosity which Kotaku, bless their clickbait blog titles, labelled a "virtual sex robot handjob."

 

I am not linking it because I don't want to be "That Person."

[Frenetic Pony]

  On 11/9/2013 at 7:10 AM, gavku said:

the ad

 

 

CODE THOSE SWARMS!!!!

 

http://gizmodo.com/you-wont-believe-these-perfectly-synced-drones-arent-1460768867/1460939970/@jesusdiaz

 

Except they're covered in razor blades and fly at your face. I think I just found a good image for my sci-fi blockbuster movie trilogy I'm beginning to piece together.