Geek In Me

via ubergizmo.com

It seems to me as though the Valtra RoboTrac will be able to transform at any moment, but don’t let the name fool you. It is rather small compared to the more industrious tractor, since it was specially designed to be a fully programmable, automated farmhand that will help round out a farm team whenever something is lacking. Some of the tasks it will take to (without any complaints, to boot) include tilling, plowing, disking, planting, harrowing, spraying, weeding, and other tasks you normally perform in Harvest Moon, er, I mean, actual farming. Unfortunately, the Valtra RoboTrac is but a concept at this point in time, and I hope that the costs will be kept low should this be manufactured since plenty of people in Third World countries could make do with something like this.

by Darren Murph via engadget.com

Yeah, as in, it actually wants a “psychologically inspired object recognition system.” What’s that, you ask? It’s giving robots and mechanical creatures the ability to see objects the way humans do and make reasonable judgments based on those sights. Essentially, the military would love to see bots have something similar to spatial memory, which would enable ‘em to “mentally rotate objects in order to match the object to different representations.” When looking at the main objective of this here endeavor, however, we can’t help but have mixed feelings. We’re kosher with increasing “robotic control,” but creating “exponential expansion of robotic capabilities and intelligence” might not be the smartest thing to do in the long run.

by Darren Murph via engadget.com

Not that robots with emotions are anything new, but a project going on in Europe could perfect the art of crafting mechanical people that can “learn when a person is sad, happy or angry.” The Feelix Growing project is getting even more advanced with software that gives robots the power to understand how a person is feeling based on feedback from cameras and sensors. The bots look at a human’s facial expression and key in on their voice and proximity to determine what kind of mood they’re in.

via ubergizmo.com

It is amazing to see how far artificial intelligence has progressed thus far - the Robofish you see here is able to work not only on its own but as a group. Each of these underwater robots are roughly the same size of a 10-pound salmon, featuring fins in place or propellers and will be able to “co-operatively track moving targets underwater, such as groups of whales or spreading plumes of pollution, or explore caves, underneath ice-covered waters, or in dangerous environments where surfacing might not be possible.” Well, what can I say? The positive benefits are surely there for us to reap - hopefully nobody takes one of these and reverse engineer it for nefarious purposes.

via ohgizmo.com

When you go shopping for a GPS, what are the features you look for? Maybe you want a bigger screen, Bluetooth capabilities, or one that is really cute. Okay, so I doubt that many of you are looking for a “cute” GPS, but if you are, few are going to top this robotic teddy bear.

While not the most practical GPS out there, this bear will provide directions by speaking aloud and point its arms to indicate which way to turn. Don’t try getting behind the wheel drunk, because this little guy won’t bear (sorry, couldn’t resist the obvious pun) it, thanks to the alcohol detection unit in his neck. Sure, without a display this won’t be of interest for most people, but it’s still interesting to see what people come up with.

by Nilay Patel via engadget.com

Most of the bots we’ve seen recently have either been targeted at performing human-like tasks or simply too adorable to actually fear, but SRI International’s wall-climbing robot is doing its best to put some terror back in the bot game, using something called “electro-adhesion” to cling to nearly any building material and climb with surprising alacrity. Electro-adhesion is apparently relatively low-power, and SRI researchers say that the bots can even climb walls that are covered in dust or othr debris. Interesting — just don’t give the thing any cameras or lasers, okay?