Geek In Me

by Darren Murph via switched.com
Though it’s certainly not the first time a robotic surgeon has made news after joining the staff at a Canadian hospital, history has just been made in Calgary. Doctors (the human kind) were able to use remote controls, an imaging screen and the neuroArm in order to successfully remove a brain tumor from a 21-year old woman. Hailed as the first procedure of its kind, the team already has a line of patients waiting to receive similar surgeries, and the mechanical hand is being praised for its precise movements and delicate nature. Unfortunately for the arm, no pay raise (or extended vacation) is in sight.

by Paul Miller via engadget.com

Most bug-inspired robots do a much better job of creeping us out than giving us the warm fuzzies, but this here Swashbot R/C robot from Crabfu is just too cute for words. It kind of looks like he’s trying to find his little robot buddies so they can sing a song about slushies before nap time, while simultaneously dragging a cinder block behind him. You know, cute.

by Addy Dugdale via gizmodo.com

A hair transplant performed by a robot could be less painful and give a more natural result, claims a US firm. Restoration Robotics has created an automaton that works in a similar way that other robot surgeons do when synchronizing with the movements of a beating heart, and can bestow a full head of hair on a slaphead in around five hours.

By Andrew Liszewski via ohgizmo.com

The only thing better than having your own robot servant is having a robot servant you can actually ride. RINGBO is kind of a hybrid between the Radio Shack bots of yesteryear, and those electric carts used by the elderly and disabled. Unfortunately it’s specifically designed for kids aged 2-3, so if you’re thinking it would make those long walks to the copy machine at work a bit more bearable, be aware that it has a 66 pound weight limit. RINGBO is controlled via a pair of joysticks mounted on its head, and also features what I assume to be a touch-screen LCD. What it’s used for though, I have no idea. On a 6-8 hour charge your kid can spend an hour crashing into furniture and terrorizing the family pets, since I’m pretty sure they aren’t protected under Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics.

If you happen to be in New York on May 14 or 15 you can check out RINGBO in person at the Koreannovation Trade Show.

by Terrence O’Brien via switched.com

You may not be aware, but prosthetics aren’t just for humans anymore. Oh no, now medical artisans spend quality time designing and fitting wild creatures with replacement parts after tragic accidents. 

Braces to help dogs walk are nothing new, but some adventurous body part sculptors are taking on more demanding project like a new beak for a bald eagle and a tail for a dolphin. One DIY’er even strapped a pair of model airplane wheels to his turtle after its rear legs had been crushed by a car.

The prosthetics are far from perfect. In fact, they’re barely functional. Winter got her new dolphin tail so she could swim, but will never be able to return to the wild. The same is true for Beauty, the bald eagle who lost his beak to a bullet back in 2002. His new bill will allow him to eat food with out the assistance of caretakers with forceps, but he’ll never be able to hunt or rip apart fish again. [Sources: Daily Mail, AP/AOL News, Make, National Geographic]

 

Never mind getting tesla coils to fix your supper, just hit the on switch on your own personal humanoid. Reportedly, the creature you see above has been loaded with learning algorithms that enable it to repeat actions that it learns. Wonder if anyone realized that this totally demented critter just learned to slice more than ham?