The obvious solution would be to get hold of a telepresence robot. That’s the technology that allowed Edward Snowden to trundle onto stage at TED2014. But those are expensive, and I love trying to build things myself. I had an iPad with FaceTime, and I thought I might be able to use it to get a seat at the conference table.
Thus, after much garage tinkering, allow me to introduce… the Rotate-mo-tron 4000! With this handy little ‘bot, I’m able to control the iPad from 3,000 miles away. I can rotate it 180 degrees to look left and right, letting me follow the conversation and make eye contact with individuals as they speak. Co-workers can pick up the stand and tote me around the office if there’s a last-minute room change — and I once chatted with a fellow iPad-enabled remote worker in the office kitchen. Two iPads talking to each other; great fun. And, best of all, it uses the iPad’s built-in wi-fi to control the rotation, making it effortless to connect to my remote web controls.
Interested in building something like this? You’ll need:
Hardware:
- A bluetooth-enabled Arduino (I’m using the Blend Micro from RedBearLabs)
- A servo
- A Bluetooth 4-enabled iPad (older iPads would work with a different Arduino and iOS app)
- A Lazy Susan stand to hold it all (mine was CNC-routed thanks to the guys at SuperFab)
- A couple of USB cables, soldering equipment, and a few other odds and ends.
Below, find the very surface, basic instructions. If you are planning to start building, please check out my GitHub repo, with more information and project files »
- Cut/route the pieces for your iPad stand using ½” plywood. A CNC pattern is included in the project files. I also hand-routed two ¼” ledges for the servo mount; consider adding them in the file.
- Glue together the layers for the base and neck, sand and apply your favorite finish.
- Drill and place a hanger bolt to hold the iPad using a Grifiti Nootle tripod mount (or similar).
- Find the center of the circle for gear placement and your Lazy Susan attachments. (This part is tricky; improvements welcome!)
- Attach the neck to the circle, then connect the circle and base using a 6″ Lazy Susan part.
- Mount the servo and gears. I used a standard Futaba servo like this, and two 1″ gears.
- Splice a few good-quality micro USB cables together to provide 5v power to the iPad, servo, and Blend Micro. Apple’s micro USB to Lightning adapter is easier (and cheaper) than hacking actual Lightning cables.
- Solder and heat-shrink the splices.
- Use a strain relief connector to prevent the USB cable from being yanked out.
- Mount the Blend Micro and use cable clips to keep the wires organized.
- Attach the bottom door with a single hinge and attach the feet.
The gluing process, and a look at the innards of the Rotate-mo-tron.
Software:
- A web app with a slider to control the device via the internet.
- An iOS app to listen for slider adjustments.
The software instructions are a little more complicated. If you are interested, hop over to the project files »
Happy building!
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Engineer and musician Gil Weinberg builds musical robots that improvise. This robotic drumming prosthesis can play beats no human can. Photo: Courtesy of Gil Weinberg
Gil Weinberg creates musically included robots so good they can improvise. The founder of the Music Technology program at Georgia Tech, he also creates innovative music apps and has contributed his technologies to many a band and ensemble.
Sam Roth, an 11th grader in New York City, was excited to interview Weinberg about his experience speaking at TEDYouth 2014. Below, an edited transcript of their conversation.
How did you get involved with music technology?
I was a musician first — I played piano until college. Only when I got to college did I start to get interested in computation and computer science. Then I thought that it could be an interesting idea to combine both of them. I was playing with a jazz band and, at some point, I thought maybe I could write software to listen to my music and improvise. I thought it could be something new and unique. So I started to write software that actually analyzed music, that complements and improvises.
It went from music to computation. When I got to Georgia Tech after I finished my PhD studies, I started to get interested in robotics. I just grew tired of the electronic sound that comes from speakers. Since everything I did was software and all the music came from speakers, it wasn’t rich. It didn’t have the expression that acoustic sound has. It was the same kind of idea — let the computer inspire me to create something interesting — but this time with acoustic sound.
You came to the U.S. from Israel. How was your work impacted by both the American and Israeli tech scenes?
I believe that we’re global citizens. My inspiration actually came at places here in the States — places that were full of people from all over the world. The MIT Media Lab and Georgia Tech are very international. My horizons were opened more by having more nationalities around — and people with different ways of thinking — than by any single national culture.
Here, roboticist Gil Weinberg (left) is interviewed by 11th-grade reporter Sam Roth (right).
What is your favorite part of what you do?
Unfortunately, since I became a professor and started teaching, I haven’t been coding as much as I used to. You find yourself less connected to the wires, so to speak. Whenever I do, I enjoy it very much. One way I do stay connected is in actually playing music. I try to have a set point, when the robot is ready, where I can play. So at least I get to be connected to the low-level mechanism with the music.
What I spend the most time on is thinking. Designing with my eyes. Then I take out a pencil and start brainstorming. I come up with ideas on what’s missing in the current state of the project, to take it as far as possible — but also to have it be buildable. We’re working on brain waves controlling a robotic prosthetic arm, which sounds impossible. The trick is to take something that sounds a little bit science fiction-y and find ways in which you can actually do it.
What made you decide to speak at TEDYouth this year?
I was very excited about interacting with teenagers. I think it’s a very cool idea to have an event with kids who are willing to think about big ideas. I had read the list of speakers, which was very interesting. And I wanted to meet all of them. But mostly I was excited about the interactions before and after my talk. I wanted to see what the kids had to say.
Since a big theme of the conference was changing the future, what would be your one message to the next generation?
Keep on creating and building. Keep on questioning what you have and what’s around you. Always ask yourself if there’s something else that you can create or make better. I’m not a religious guy, and some people relate not believing in some kind of higher power with not being a believer. But I’m a very big believer. My belief is in being creative and coming up with new ideas.
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Marco Tempest and EDI the Robot. Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Techno-illusionist and veteran speaker Marco Tempest returns to the TED stage with a new friend: EDI (pronounced “Eddie”) the robot. EDI, which stands for Electronic Deceptive Intelligence, is Tempest’s latest techno-aide, a friendly Baxter robot who ponders the difference between artificial and human intelligence.
“Robot,” the newly awakened EDI interrupts, was coined in 1921 in a science-fiction story by Czech playwright Karel Čapek. It comes from “robota,” meaning “forced labor.” Says Tempest, mechanical robots of yore, the Victorians’ performing “thinking machines,” were mere illusions compared to today’s intelligent robots. EDI, on the other hand, is very real, with a 360-degree sonar detection system and two 7-axis arms.
Marco Tempest and EDI the Robot. Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Says Tempest, “We are intrigued by the possibility of creating a mechanical version of ourselves. The perfect robot would be indistinguishable from the human — and that scares us.” Since we can’t read the facial features of robots, for example, we can’t anticipate their actions — but that goes both ways. EDI agrees: “Humans are unpredictable. And irrational! I literally have no idea what you guys are going to do next.”
One way to build trust, grins Tempest, is through layers of deception. The duo reveal the charming grand finale: a classic ball-and-hat magic trick performed together.
(Bonus: Watch a behind-the-scenes clip of EDI the diva at the Vancouver Convention Centre.)
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Marco Tempest: A cyber-magic card trick like no other
Illusionist Marco Tempest (watch his cyber card trick and his electric take on Nikola Tesla) has a new assistant — Baxter the Robot. The star of this talk from roboticist Rodney Brooks, Baxter is a life-sized robot that has eyes that glance where he is about to move and arms that react to human touch, plus common sense and the ability to learn movements over time. Tempest hopes that this robot — which was designed by Rethink Robotics to work with humans in factory environments — will be the perfect ‘bot to assist him on stage. The trick: programming Baxter to be ultra flexible in order to adjust to the subtle differences in performances rather than doing exactly the same thing every time.
Rodney Brooks: Why we will rely on robots
Tempest tells Mashable that he plans to customize Baxter with actual hands. And as he goes, he’ll be sharing the programming for the robot with both MIT and GitHub. As Tempest tells the site, “It’s time for magicians and technologists to collaborate.”
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A scene from the 1957 movie Desk Set, starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, with a mainframe computer in the leading role.
Roy Amara’s classic quote goes: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”
Rodney Brooks: Why we will rely on robots
In today’s talk from TED2013, Rodney Brooks invokes this law to talk about robots. While people panic about robots taking their jobs over the course of the next few years, the focus should be on guiding the development of the technology so that, in the upcoming decades, we’ll have robots that can work with an aging world population. As Brooks points out, we are amid a major demographic shift as the number of working-age adults in the United States, Europe and China drops and the number of people past retirement age swells.
The key, says Brooks — the MIT professor who founded iRobot (makers of the Roomba vacuum) and who now heads Rethink Robotics — is robots that everyday workers can easily interact with. Rather than the complicated robots in factories now, which require knowledge of 6-dimensional vectors to operate – we should create robots more like the TUG from Aethon, which helps out nurses with tasks like bringing dirty sheets to the laundry so that they can focus on patients. To this end, Brooks reveals Baxter, a robot for manufacturing environments who has common sense and the ability to learn as humans do, by trial and error. Because Baxter has eyes that move where he looks, and because his arms respond to human touch, Baxter could not only help older workers stay relevant on the job longer — he could also help them maintain independence and dignity at home. Meet Baxter in this fascinating talk.
In a hilarious aside in the talk, Brooks recalls Desk Set, the 1957 movie in which Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn butt heads over a mainframe computer, nicknamed “Emmie,” being brought into a television network’s research department. While the technology was very new at the time (the first mainframe computer was delivered in 1951 to the U.S. Census Bureau) the tension at the heart of the movie — can computers replace human beings? — was highly prescient and continues to produce anxiety today.
The allusion to this delightful movie made us think: what other movies anticipated technology that would eventually change our daily lives? Here, a look at other old movies that foresee common technology.
The heavyweight champion of films that predicted future tech: Minority Report, the 2002 Tom Cruise thriller set in the year 2054.
John Underkoffler: Pointing to the future of UI
For this film, director Steven Spielberg famously brought together 15 tech and science experts for a think tank. One of the coolest outcomes: computer interfaces operated by a swipe of the hand in the air. Many believe this movie actually created the desire for touchscreens. TED speaker John Underkoffler was a science adviser for the film, and in this talk from TED2010 he demos g-speak, the real-life version of the system. Some more TED Talks that are related to concepts in Minority Report: Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry on the SixthSense user interface, Shyam Sankar on the idea of predictive policing, and Alessandro Acquisti on facial recognition and personalized advertising.
Tex Avery, creator of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, was also well-known for his World of Tomorrow shorts. In the supercut below, which includes cartoons from 1949 to 1954, the show anticipates the rise of designer prefabricated homes, a computer-like machine that answers kids’ questions (hello, Google) and the pressure cooker of 2050 — even if that one was a little off.
The Wold of Tomorrow! (According to Tex Avery and MGM in the 1950s) from Kyle McArdle on Vimeo.
Here’s one for Marty McFly fans. Back to the Future II takes place in the year 2015, but was made in 1989. We’re continuously amused by the hilarious video chatting scenes in the movie, which far predate Skype, Google Plus or Facetime. And check out the scene from the movie, which has characters wearing what looks a whole lot like Google Glass but mostly works as a telephone. “Dad, it’s for you.” (Read the TED staff’s thoughts on Glass.)
The rocket launch in Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Moon looks remarkably real … considering that it was released in 1929 – a full 28 years before Sputnik was launched into space via a rocket. It showed space travel to audiences long before the concept was real to most.
Jurassic Park seemed like pure science fiction … until Stewart Brand’s talk from TED2013, “The dawn of de-extinction.” At his followup event TEDxDeExtinction, Brand and some like-minded friends made the case that we have the tools and technology to bring back extinct species, from the woolly mammoth to the Tasmanian tiger, though not so much dinosaurs. Unless Jack Horner’s TED Talk comes true …
Short Circuit, the Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg flick from 1986, tells the story of an $11 billion anthropomorphic robot who escapes his military makers. It got a lot right about unmanned ground vehicles and military robots that are a part of our life today. (See the best of TED robots, and watch this TED talk on military bots.)
Yes, the 1998 film The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey, was amusing. But in many ways, it also predicted not just reality TV, but also the non-stop socially shared life brought about via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Sherry Turkle mused on this: Are we connected, but alone?
As this great article from HP’s Input Output points out, when Star Trek first aired in 1966, the automatic door was a brand-new invention. Yet the show included many pieces of speculative technology that now exist, from so-called “replicators” (which are a lot like our 3D printers) to androids, retinal implants, voice-enabled computers and the handheld “tricorder.”
When You’ve Got Mail appeared in 1998, online dating was still uncommon — and thus the perfect backstory for a comedy. By this year, though, a recent study found that a third of new marriages in the United States in 2013 started online.
Special thanks to Emily McManus, Michael McWatters and Morton Bast, who contributed heavily to this piece.
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Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Technology thriller author, most recently of the book Kill Decision, Daniel Suarez has been thinking about drones for some time. But as he says, as he stands onstage at TEDGlobal 2013, he’s not here to talk fiction. “I’m here to talk about very real autonomous combat drones,” he says, adding that he doesn’t mean remotely piloted drones such as the Predator or Reaper, where a human being still makes combat decisions. Instead, he’s talking about “fully autonomous robotic weapons which make lethal decisions about people on their own.” The technical term for this, he explains, is “lethal autonomy,” and the fact that there’s a technical term for it should tell us this is something worth minding.
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
“As we migrate lethal decisionmaking from humans to software, we risk not only taking the humanity out of war but also changing our social landscape entirely,” says Suarez. “The way humans resolve conflict shapes our social landscape.” He spins through a quick history lesson of combat innovations, from the armor worn by a knight on horseback, to gunpowder and the cannon, to the nation-state, by which time leaders were forced both to rely on and share power with the people. Autonomous robotic weapons, he says, are just such a step forward. “But by requiring very few people to go to war, they risk re-centralizing power into very few hands, possibly reversing a five-century trend towards democracy.” Knowing this, we must take decisive steps to preserve our democratic institutions — and soon. Suarez details three powerful factors driving the ever-faster development of drones:
1. Visual Overload
In 2004, the U.S. drone fleet produced 71 hours of video surveillance for analysis. By 2011, that figure was 300,000 hours annually, and that number is only going to increase. Cameras such as the Gorgon Stare produce so much footage no human could possibly review it all. “That means we’ll have to program visual intelligence software to review it; and that means very soon drones will tell humans what to look at, not the other way around,” says Suarez. You can feel the weight of this thought sink in around the room.
2. Electronic Warfare
In 2011, GPS signal on a U.S. RQ-170 sentinel drone was confused by a “spoofing attack” and captured. Moving forward, drones will be programmed so that such interference cannot happen. “They will know their objective and they will react to circumstances without human guidance,” says Suarez. Drones won’t rely on outside influence, in other words, but will make their own decisions.
3. Plausible Deniability
In a world where cyber-espionage is not confined to science fiction, who knows who does what where, or who knocked off which company, when. “Sifting through the wreckage of a suicide drone attack, it’ll be very difficult to say who sent that weapon,” says Suarez soberly, to glum murmurs from the audience. “This raises the very real possibility of anonymous war. This could tilt the geopolitical balance on its head and make it very difficult for a nation to turn its firepower against an attacker. That could shift the balance away from defense and toward offense, making military action a viable option for not only small nations but for private enterprise, powerful individuals. It could create a landscape of rival warlords, undermining the rule of law and civil society.” Gulp.
Suarez isn’t done with the bad news for those living in the developed world. Not only do they have no advantage over those in developing nations, they might actually be at a disadvantage. Big data, he says, makes those of us living in the west vulnerable, perfect targets for autonomous weapons. Where a marketer might use data to send you personalized product samples or services, a repressive government could use it to eliminate political opposition. “Popular movements agitating for change could be detected early and their leaders eliminated before their ideas achieve critical mass,” says Suarez. You can hear that proverbial pin drop; the audience is both spellbound and open-mouthed.
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Now the call to action. “We need an international treaty on robotic weapons. In particular, a ban on the development and deployment of robotic weapons,” says Suarez, pointing out that treaties already exist for biological and nuclear weapons, and robotic weapons might well be just as dangerous as those. (Do also see the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, sponsored by former TED speaker, Jody Williams.) “We need an international legal framework for robotic weapons, and we need it before there is a devastating attack or incident which causes nations to rush to adopt weapons before thinking through the consequences.”
The danger is that drones “concentrate too much power in too few hands. They would imperil democracy itself,” he says. “No robot should have an expectation of privacy in a public place.” Instead, they should be stamped with an identifying marker in the factory. And an international treaty would help us to take advantage of any benefits from autonomous vehicles, while preserving civil society. “Let’s not succumb to the temptation of automated war,” he concludes. “Let’s make sure killer robots remain fiction.”
Daniel Suarez’s talk is now available for viewing. Watch it here »
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Photo: James Duncan Davidson
“Athletic” is a term we use to describe human beings. But could it also be used to describe a machine?
In a demo recorded yesterday in his robot lab at TEDGlobal 2013, systems engineer Raffaello D’Andrea shows us that the answer is yes. He demonstrates with quadcopters, mechanically simple flying robots with four propellers. Their design and small size makes them agile — able to zip and roll through the air — but they are fairly unstable, and need positioning feedback.
By understanding the physics of how the quadcopters move, D’Andrea and his team create mathematical models and synthesize them into algorithms, “the magic that brings this research to life.” As the small audience ooohhs and ahhhhs, D’Andrea shows how clever algorithms, coupled with bits of reflective material read by an indoor positioning system, allow a quadcopter to perform physically impressive feats, like balancing a long pole and — even a glass of water — as it flies. Even if the copter is made to wobble.
Next, D’Andrea poses a question: “Can a machine perform with extreme physical damage?” Essentially, could a machine pull off a Kerri Strug?
To demonstrate, D’Andrea dramatically cuts four blades from the quadcopter’s propellers, leaving it only two working props. And yet it is still able to fly, remaining easily airborne by spinning like a top. An algorithm helps these bots handle damage by deciding which functions they can still control. And like human athletes, quadcopters learn what works through practice. D’Andrea demonstrates by showing a drone in the process of learning to do a triple backflip. It attempts it blindly, notes where it ends up in space, and learns how to do it better next time. Repeat.
But can a quadcopter play ball? Certainly. D’Andrea demonstrates how a quadcopter can learn to hit a ball using a small racquet attached to its body . Similarly, three quadcopters can work together, holding the corners of a skynet (the term causing a few flinches in the room) to toss a ball through a quick, coordinated upward motion. The group can throw the ball — and catch it. Meanwhile another quad with a GoPro attached at bottom films them from above.
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
They know about teamwork. But could a quadcopter work with a human coach? D’Andrea uses a Kinect game controller to command two copters, both of them moving backward and forward in space as if tethered to his arms. With a flick of his wrists, both do backflips. Finally, he shows how a tweaked algorithm can fool the machines’ understanding of physics, showing a drone that thinks it’s in a viscous liquid, and juggling three drones who believe they’re under the gravity conditions of Pluto .
“What impact will this new breed of machines, these machine athletes, have on our way of life?” asks D’Andrea, as he wraps up his talk. “Like all our past creations and innovations, they can be used to improve the human condition, or they can be misused and abused … Let’s make the right choice.”
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Raffaello D’Andrea’s TED Talk has been posted. Watch it here »
Author Daniel Suarez says his book about drones is a “cautionary tale.” He’ll explain what that means at TEDGlobal 2013.
Daniel Suarez is a former systems consultant turned novelist who will speak in session two at TEDGlobal 2013. Officially subtitled “Those Flying Things,” this is unofficially known as the drone session, and it will feature various speakers tackling the topic of unmanned aerial vehicles. For his part, Suarez will expound on some of the themes he examines in his most recent book, Kill Decision, a fictional romp through a world in which swarms of autonomous drones sink ships and systematically hunt and kill people. Here’s the most horrifying thing of all: it all sounds entirely plausible.
Wanting to find out just how scared we need to be, we gave him Suarez a call. An edited version of our conversation follows.
So first things first. What’s up with Kill Decision? It’s terrifying!
It’s a cautionary tale! I want to get people to pay attention. I don’t want to scare them. Honestly. I look at what I do as looking over the horizon to spot icebergs. It’s not that I don’t like technology — after all, I spent 20 years as a systems analyst. But it’s all in the way we implement it. This was to suggest something of a course correction.
It all sounds terribly realistic, including detailed descriptions of drones and systems which do really exist in the world already. What’s your research process for a book like this?
Typically I’ll start with a subject that interests me, so with Kill Decision that was lethal autonomy. I’ll read about the state of the science in the field, so I read two dozen books on various things including swarming intelligence, robotics, military policy, quadrennial reviews of the Pentagon, and so on. I want to know: what’s the collective thinking, what’s the reality, and then what’s just over the horizon. I wanted to focus on robotic weapons that were possible, and after reading a lot about swarming intelligence I became fascinated with robotics and different forms of intelligence in the biological world. We might have the largest brain, but there are other creatures and strategies that are more effective in certain circumstances. If you put the brain of a weaver ant into a robot with weapons, and you make many of them, simulating their society algorithmically seems very possible. And because it’s possible, I want people to be aware of it. To be clear, I emphatically don’t want us to do it! But that’s a great rule for fiction. I get to spin scenarios and ask “what if,” and hopefully people learn new things and get to share my excitement in the research.
Many of the characters in your book are academics, deeply immersed in the world of research. Yet their work is co-opted by people who want to harness that insight for deeply selfish and entirely nefarious means. Should we worry more about the connection between academia and business or policy?
It really is up to society to decide how that goes. A scientist pursues science. Society has to ingest it and figure out what to do with it. In my view an open exchange of views is better than “you should never look into this.” I’m not into that. If you keep things hidden, that doesn’t stop things from happening. Open science helps to protect us more than secrecy ever would.
But you can’t put the autonomous killing machine genie back in the bottle, can you? How can you ensure that the bad guys don’t win?
There is a long list of technologies that should have rightly annihilated us, but we’ve created a society that’s more advanced than ever. That’s what gives me optimism. We’ve created international treaties for things like biological and nuclear weapons. It’s not perfect, but those are world-destroying weapons and the reason the world has not been destroyed is that humans in the main don’t want to destroy the world. That’s why you distribute power. Democracy is such a great thing, as ugly as it can be at times. So we have to come to a consensus about what to do with this new technology and drag it to the to public square for a big public debate. Yes, drones are not going away. Biological weapons and nukes are still here too — and so are we. I’m hopeful that as long as we take the time to understand the issues and have honest debate we will be able to incorporate unarmed autonomous vehicles into our daily lives without having robotic weapons flying around the place.
Are you going to scare everyone silly at TEDGlobal?
I don’t want to be all doom and gloom, I promise! I’m excited to be there in general and I’m eager to hear everything everyone else has to say on this topic.
Photo: SGVN/Staff. Photo by Walt Mancini/ROSE
]]>Guy Hoffman isn’t just a roboticist — he’s also an animator and a jazz musician. And so as he set out to build robots that communicate with people, he took inspiration from what he learned in animation school and focused on subtle, fluid movements — the kind created by going frame-by-frame. He also took an acting class, so he could think more about how emotions are expressed through movement. And of course, he wanted robots that could enjoy music with him.
Watch today’s talk — Robots with “soul” — to see two of Hoffman’s creations in action. First, there’s Shimon, a robotic marimba player who is able to improvise with a human pianist or freestyle with a rapper. And then there’s Travis, a two-headed robotic speaker that jams to music along with you.
Naturally, Hoffman’s work reminds us of a few prior inventions that attempted to make a robot more like a companion. See them in chronological order below.
Giga Pets
Often credited as the “first virtual pet,” Giga Pets were released in 1997 by Tiger Toys. While the 2-bit graphic keychain critters seem quaint now, they were much-loved at the time for their ability to tell their owners when they were hungry. (Yes, they grew with proper care.) Below, a vintage commercial.
The Furby
For anyone who scoured toystores and braved unthinkable lines during the holiday season of 1998 — in hopes of getting their hands on a Furby — the concept of an electronic pet will sound familiar. The owl-like robotic toys started out speaking “Furbish.” But over time – with human interaction – they learned bits of English and developed personalities. According to Wikipedia, more than 40 million were sold in their first three years on the market. Hasbro revived Furbies in 2012 – this time with an app that allows people to translate Furbish as well as feed the little guys.
AIBO
A year after the Furby, Businessweek ran an article about a new offering from Sony – the robotic puppy AIBO. The article opened, “Toshi T. Doi, Sony Corp.’s leading computer engineer, is obsessed with robots. His small, third-floor lab is a breeding ground for robotic pups taking their first wobbly steps, chasing balls, and barking for attention. ‘We’re getting ready for the age of digital creatures,’ says Doi.” These cute pups, which cost more than $2000, lasted through 2005.
i-Cybie
AIBO inspired many a robotic dog—the cutest of which was i-Cybie, from Silverlit Toys. I-Cybie could respond to voice commands, a la “wag your tail,” and exhibited what seemed like real emotions. The adorable metal dog could even pick itself up if it fell down. Read this New York Times piece on how this virtual pet arrived in the U.S.
PARO
PARO, the “healing robotic seal,” comes to life when you say his name. Thanks to tactile sensors, writes Mashable, he responds to petting and coos excitedly when you rub his forehead. Why was he designed? Japanese company AIST explains on their website that he was created to provide the benefits of animal therapy – reduced stress, emotional stimulation – to people in hospitals and other environments where a real-life pet wouldn’t be allowed. He’s been covered in The New York Times … and tested by Barack Obama.
Pleo
Who wouldn’t want a miniature dinosaur? In the TED Talk “Caleb Chung plays with Pleo,” the famed toy designer introduces us to Pleo, a robotic dinosaur that acts like a pet. Pleo is curious about the world around it and explores, plays and even learns. The bot responds to touch and, of course, cuddles. Reborn in 2010 as Pleo rb, these bots now have born-in personality traits — think courage and obedience — and go through a four-stage life cycle.
Romo
And finally there’s Romo, “your robot friend,” who takes advantage of the powerful processor available in every smartphone. Your iPhone docks into a robotic base that looks a bit like a white and blue tank and, when you download the Romo app, it springs to life — giving you facial expressions and responding to your movements. Romo can be driven, and perform simple tasks, like being your roaming photographer or videographer. Romo was created by childhood pals Keller Rinaudo, Phu Nguyen and Peter Seid, and at TED203, Rinaudo showed what Romo can do. “We think if you’re going to have a robot in your home, that robot should be a manifestation of your imagination,” says Rinaudo in his talk, “A mini robot — powered by your phone.” “We don’t know where the future of robots will go. But what we do know that it isn’t 10 years or $10 billion away … The future of personal robotics is happening today.”
Here, some staff picks of smart, funny, bizarre and cool stuff on the interwebs this week. First, happy (late) World Poetry Day! Celebrate the occasion with 8 talks from spoken-word poets.
Vijay Kumar: Robots that fly ... and cooperate
Just when you thought Vijay Kumar’s robots that fly and cooperate were creepy enough, he and his team have developed a drone that can pick up objects at high speed using a bird-like claw. [The Verge]
A piece by Ed Yong takes an in-depth look at new findings on the mechanics of swarming, a phenomenon that has baffled scientists. Awesome quote: “Cannibalism, not cooperation, was aligning the swarm.” [Wired]
Beautiful photos from Christo’s “Big Air Package” — which is being called the “largest indoor sculpture in history” — being installed at the Gasometer Oberhausen, due to premiere in December 2013. [This is colossal]
Ed Boyden: A light switch for neurons
Congrats to Ed Boyden, who was named one of the winners of the 2013 Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Prize earlier this week for his work on optogenetics. Watch Boyden’s 2011 talk, about using fiber-optic implants to control specific neurons in the brain. [MIT news]
What is it like growing up in a futurist household? Veronique Greenwood’s mother, a technology consultant, was touting the rise of mobile social networking years before the iPhone had come out and before Facebook had a “Like” button; she had pens printed with the slogan “Remember when we could only hear each other?” a decade before Skype. [Aeon magazine]
More Ed Yong? Yes. Yong takes a look at the pros and cons of de-extinction (a big topic in these parts after Stewart Brand’s TED2013 talk). [National Geographic]
Congratulations to TED Fellow Durreen Shahnaz, whose company, Impact Investment Exchange, has been nominated for the Rockefeller Foundation Centennial Innovation Award.
Timo Arnall’s thoughtful critique of the growing trend to encourage “invisible” interaction design. [Elastic space]
More congrats are in order, to 2006 TED Prize winner Jehane Noujaim, who just completed a Kickstarter to raise money for postproduction on her Sundance Award-winning documentary The Square. [Kickstarter] Read more about The Square.
A father overhears his son talking about coming out of the closet to his mother and him, then leaves him this note. [Twitter] More details from Gawker.
A cute hello from the Axosoft TED Live event from TED2013. Watch for some tasty-looking carrots. [YouTube]
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Today, TED Radio Hour asks two questions many of us are scared to pose: will human beings have a purpose as robots become more adept at performing tasks and projecting emotions? And as technology gets more advanced, how does interaction between human beings change?
Sherry Turkle: Connected, but alone?
In this episode — the third in season two — Sherry Turkle explores whether the fact that technology allows us more points of communication actually makes us all feel more alone. Cynthia Breazeal predicts the rise of personal robots. Andrew McAfee imagines the future of work as droids take our jobs. And Abraham Verghese wonders if human touch may not be the best medical tool.
Check out your local NPR schedule to find out when the show airs today, or listen to it via NPR’s website »
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This week, TEDx took a break from posting talks as the team recovered from TED2013. However, their blog kept rolling with some wonderfully unique spins on the conference and more. Here, find some great pieces from the TEDx Blog.
Dance, tiny robots, dance! The best moments, in GIFS
Just now, session 1 of TED2013 ended, but not without first introducing the TED audience to a whole mess of neat robot inventions — from a robot butler to a smartphone pet that makes the Tamagotchi seem ancient.
One of the highlights was this clip from Bruno Maisonnier’s TEDxConcorde talk, during which he had his tiny humanoid robots — called Nao — do a synchronized dance routine even the coolest b-boys would envy. Here, we GIF the best moments from the tiny Naos breaking it down on stage. See more dancing robots »
Coffee. Hacking. Indonesia: 5 TEDx Talks on Java
When you hear the word “java,” you might think of the pesky window that pops up on your computer desktop every few months, begging you to close all browser windows so you can install vital security updates. Or maybe you think of your morning coffee, expertly brewed by your favorite neighborhood barista. Or maybe you see an image even more lovely — the lush greens of Indonesia’s third largest island.
Whatever it is you’re thinking of — we’ve got a talk for you. So pour your cup of joe, save all tabs, and take a break from your vacation planning to watch these 5 TEDx talks in honor of the word java. Watch the playlist »
The world comes together for TED2013: TEDxLive events around the globe
At the end of February, TED2013 went live far beyond the city limits of Long Beach, California. In 60 countries worldwide — excited TED’xers became TEDsters for a day (or night!) — experiencing “The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered.” in the heart of their communities: inside theaters, schools, local haunts, and cultural centers. These were TEDxLive events — TEDx events centered around a live simulcast of TED2013 in Long Beach.
In Sidney, British Columbia, Canadian TEDx’ers gathered together to watch day three of TED2013 in a local secondary school for the TEDxSaanichPeninsulaLive event. Organizer Sherry Moir said a moving moment of the day came after 16-year-old Jack Andraka spoke about the new method of detecting pancreatic cancer that he developed when he was only 15. Once he finished speaking, Sherry overheard one of the school’s students say, “He might have saved my dad if he’d only done this at age 12!” Read the full story here »
TEDx Intern Picks: 5 favorites for February
It’s that time again — time for another TEDx intern playlist. Today, one of our screening interns provides a glimpse into the vast variety of ideas circling the TEDx community — ideas that confront, surprise, and astound — even when you watch dozens of talks daily. Watch the playlist »
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Sometimes, it feels like your smartphone is your friend. But if Keller Rinaudo has his way, your phone may be more like a pet.
Rinaudo, the co-founder and CEO of Romotive, has created Romo, a smartphone robot. Your phone docks into a robotic base that looks a bit like a powdery blue tank. When you download the Romo app, the bot comes to life. He can smile at you and jumps back if you make a sudden movement. He can be driven, and he’ll snap photos and stream video. He’s affordable (about $150) and highly programmable. But more than that, Romo is intended to be a companion with a personality.
“We think if you’re going to have a robot in your home, that robot should be a manifestation of your imagination,” says Rinaudo. “We don’t know where the future of robots will go. But what we do know that it isn’t 10 years or $10 billion away … The future of personal robotics is happening today.”
Here, see photos of Rinaudo demoing Romo on the TED stage. And below, a video of what Romo can do.
Keller Rinaudo’s talk is now available for viewing. Watch it on TED.com»
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We’ve heard a lot about robots at TED over the years. Demos of amazing specialized robots … talk about what robots can and can’t do … and will they take jobs from humans and is that a good or a bad thing? What’s missing is a concrete example of a multi-purpose robot that can indeed do many tasks. Well, it’s time to meet a general robot that can possibly be that.
Rodney Brooks is a roboticist who invented the Roomba. Now he heads Rethink Robotics, whose mission is to apply advanced robotic intelligence to manufacturing and physical labor.
He begins with the often-repeated observation that demographic changes are happening quite quickly. For him, in light of that, the question isn’t, “Are robots coming too fast?” but rather, “Are we getting robots soon enough?” Invoking Amara’s Law, “We overestimate tech in the short term and underestimate in the long term”; he points out that we have no idea where robotics will take us. For example, in 1957 librarians were worried about losing their jobs to computers, but that didn’t happen for many, many years. On the other hand, at the time they had no idea the changes that were to come.
So, there are amazing robots now — robots that work in war zones and hospitals. For example, in hospitals, there are robots that move laundry around and free up nurses to do medicine. Or take spreadsheets. One of the amazing things about them is that they treated an ordinary worker as capable of programming, freeing them from basic calculation.
Brooks says in the past factory robots awee viewed differently. Ordinary people can’t interact with them, they take advanced mathematics to set up and use, they’re dangerous around humans. And that is partly why they are feared.
And with that, Rodney Brooks introduces us to Baxter. This is a robot that is designed to be easy to work with. It has common-sense rules and design elements that make it feel natural. For example, it has eyes that look ahead to where the robot is about to move, so humans know what it’s going to do. It also has rules to ensure it doesn’t hurt its operator — when its arm is grabbed, it goes into “zero-force mode.” On top of that, it’s easy to program.
That brings Brooks back to the question of whether this will take away jobs. They interviewed a number of workers. Interestingly, he says: “One of the questions we asked was: Do you want your children to work in a factory? The universal answer was no, I want a better job for my children.” The hope is that these tools, like Baxter, will elevate factory workers, and free them from repetitive tasks.
Brooks comes back to demographics. Current trends will change our world in profound ways. The percentage of adults that are working age is dropping dramatically. That means that there will be more people competing for services. But more than that, the caregivers themselves are getting older and older. For Brooks, robotics can help this tremendously. A robot that can assist elderly people gives those people a chance to have dignity by having control, so they don’t have to rely on people.
So, rather than being fearful, Brooks thinks, “We will all come to rely on robots over the next 40 yrs as part of our daily lives.”
Rodney Brooks’ talk is now available for viewing. Watch it on TED.com »
]]>In session 1 of TED2013, we are meeting many new robots. First, we watched the amazing clip above of a troupe of tiny humanoid Nao robots dancing intricate choreography in unison. (They were presented by Bruno Maisonnier of Aldebaran Robotics at TEDxConcorde and beamed straight to the TED stage.) Next, Rodney Brooks unveiled Baxter, the human–like bot who can do mundane tasks for you. And finally, Keller Rinaudo introduced us to Romo, the smartphone robot, an affordable device that makes a cell phone into a pet.
Nearly every year at TED, we get a peek at the incredible advances going on in the fields of robotics. Below, the best robots from TED events past in reverse chronological order.
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The Event: TED2012 The Robots: Autonomous agile aerial robots What they do: These tiny, 8-inch flying quadrotors know where they are without GPS, and their small size makes them able to turn, circle and flip — extremely quickly. But these bots can also work together. Forming teams, they can transport cargo, build things, assess damage after disasters — even map radiation and leaks in unsafe areas. See them in action: Watch them flip at 3:46. Watch one navigate obstacles at 7:17. And fast-forward to 10:05 to see a choreographed swarm. |
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The Event: TEDGlobal 2011 The Robot: SmartBird What it does: Modeled after a seagull, this robot is light and aerodynamic. And it flies by flapping its wings, allowing engineers to study what we can learn from bird motion. See it in action: Watch it start flapping and take off at 2:08, taking several flying loops around the TEDGlobal theater. |
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The Event: TEDGlobal 2011 The Robot: Rezero What it does: This robot can dance. Technically a ballbot, he balances on a single, large ball rather than on multiple wheels — which allows for ballet-like movement. These robots could be used in a hospital to carry equipment, or could even be a form of transportation. See it in action: See Rezero’s balance checked at 1:48. And watch him full-out dance and pirouette at 3:57. |
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The Event: TEDWomen 2010 The Robots: Kismet, Leo and Autumn What they do: Meet the world’s first social robots, able to learn from us, listen to us and even teach us how they interact. The cutest robot around, furry Leo reacts to social cues as he is presented with an unfamiliar object – much like a child, he looks to people to learn how he should react. Autumn is a diet and exercise coach who can motivate you to set healthy goals. These social robots can be used to get kids away from screens and playing physically – as the characters go back and forth between the screen and the real world. See them in action: Watch Kismet listening to one of Breazeal’s teammates at 1:31. See Leo learn in real time at 2:34. Get a glimpse of Autumn at 8:44. And at 11:33, watch the playful robots move between realities. |
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The Event: TEDWomen2010 The Robot: Data What it does: This robot has jokes — and lots of them. Using a database of humor, Data creates stand-up routines on the fly. It learns from laughter and applause, figuring out what is working and what isn’t — and tailors its humor based on the reaction. See it in action: Get ready to laugh at 3:30. |
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The Event: TED2009 The Robot: Einstein What it does: This robot has empathy. Rather than bleeping, a la R2-D2, Hanson’s robots have faces — made of Frubber — making them look and act as if they were human. These robots show emotions and react to the expressions of others with facial gestures of their own. See it in action: See Einstein brought back to life at 2:10. |
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The Event: TED2009 The Robots: PackBot, robotic tanks, drones What they do: These robots go to war zones and perform tasks that are too dangerous for humans. Singer begins his talk with the story of PackBot, a robot who went to Iraq to investigate IEDs and lost his life in a blast. In this prescient talk from early 2009, Singer predicts we may see tens of thousands of robots both fighting wars and keeping peace alongside living soldiers. See them in action: At 3:45, see images of the robots currently in use in war zones. |
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The Event: TED2007 The Robots: Self-aware robots What they do: These robots evolve. Hod Lipson applied natural selection to robots – rewarding those that succeeded in moving forward, and denying those that did not. As a result, they’ve gradually become more advanced. Some of these models do not know their shape at first, but learn how to move through processes of elimination. They use programmed “self-models” to understand a unique, unprogrammed way to move. See them in action: Watch a robot learn how to move at 3:57. And at 5:23, watch robots whose form of reward is self-replication — it grows as it absorbs other robots. |
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The Event: TED2003 The Robots: Roomba, PackBot and Kismet What they do: Roomba, the vacuum cleaner ‘bot, easily navigates around objects and learns where to clean as it goes. More complex is PackBot, also described above, which catalogues local information and has the ability to communicate from areas too dangerous to search for survivors. Also, get another demonstration of Kismet’s ability to react and communicate. See them in action: At 2:51, see a demonstration of Roomba at work. Watch 5:00, for PackBot. And cut to 11:02 for Kismet’s response to social cues. And: Rodney Brooks is bringing his newest robot, Baxter, to TED2013. |
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The Event: TED2002 The Robot: The Segway What it does: These robots help you get around, without expending energy, relying on gas or requiring a parking spot. The idea: efficiency in a motorized platform that is the size of a person. See it in action: Watch it all. Kamen gives his entire talk aboard a Segway. |
Stay tuned to the TED Blog for beat-by-beat coverage of TED2013.
Note: This post originally ran as a pre-TED2013 piece. It was updated on February 26, to reflect three new robots appearing on the TED stage in Session 1, “Progress Enigma.”
]]>Dennis Hong shared seven species of robots in his talk at TEDxNASA 2009, from the soccer-playing DARwIn to the cliff-gripping CLIMBeR. In this new video, Hong — the director of the Virginia Tech robotics lab RoMeLa — introduces us to CHARLI, a lightweight robot designed to walk and move like a human. Or, you know, dance to Psy’s “Gangnam Style.”
]]>Everything is a remix, Kirby Ferguson told us at TEDGlobal 2012, explaining that the essence of creativity is the welding together of others’ ideas to form something new. We couldn’t help but think of this when we saw an article on TheVerge.com about researchers at Zhejiang Univeristy’s CCNT lab who have combined brainwave technology and airborne robotics to create a quadcopter that is controlled by thought alone. See how the Flying Buddy 2 works in the video above.
This amazing creation seems like the meeting of two classic TEDTalks. Below, watch Tan Le and Vijay Kumar discuss their advancements in brainwaves and robotics, respectively.
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Tan Le teaches us the intricacies of the technology we see at work in the mind-controlled drone — the algorithms through which they taught a machine to map brainwaves, facial expressions and neuron firings.
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Vijay Kumar gives a demonstration of cognizant flying robots. The robots are so responsive and durable that they can be used as autonomous first responders or to transport cargo.
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Watch Vijay Kumar’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 1,000+ TEDTalks.
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Photo: James Duncan Davidson
Welcome to Autonomous Agile Aerial Robots i.e. flying robots that can move like anything. Vijay Kumar, a professor at University of Pennsylvania, makes robots related to unmanned airplanes. But those are big and heavy and aren’t autonomous — they need humans to pilot them.
The robots he works with are tiny. He shows one built like a cross, with four rotors, each on an end of the cross pointed straight up. Independent control of the rotors, in all directions plus yaw, gives exquisite control.
The advantage of being small is tremendous: The smaller a robot, the quicker it can turn and maneuver. The result is amazing. He shows four videos of the robots doing flips, pirouettes, and rolls.
These robots are far more than novelties. They can be first responders in disasters. They can help with construction, or cooporate with other robots to move large objects. They can also do search and rescue — or mapping nuclear radiation levels after a nuclear accident.
Dynamics of the quadrotor is defined by mathematics in twelve-dimensional space. But there is a mathematical trick to make it tractable — and it can be done in a fraction of a second, even with moving obstacles. The result is breathtaking — a flying robot dodging moving Hula hoops in a scene that, if it were in a movie we’d all assume it took months to plan and film, but it being done in real-time.
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Kumar takes inspiration from nature in many ways. Tiny desert ants can move giant objects (say, a section of a fig) by grouping and moving the fig collectively. Kumar and his team have built programs for the quadrotor that mimic that behavior, and allows teams of them to build extraordinarily complex objects together.
But there’s one last application: a video of the autonomous robots that Kumar’s students Daniel Mellinger and Alex Kushleyev created in the last three days, made exclusively for TED2012. It has to be seen to be believed, but we’ll just say this: The James Bond theme song.
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