Actually, it’s pretty cool. Then again, it’s not just pretty cool — it’s extremely cool. Icy even.
Most people have an idea of what a robot should do: it should serve us –- cart snacks over to the couch, rub our feet, make the bed. Kind of like a slave, which is when all the worries about robot consciousness crop up. Uh oh!
But the technology coming out of robotics allows your camera to self-focus and gets rid of pink-eye. It’s also allowing for better medical treatment with regard to, for example, prostate surgery (just went to a lecture on this last night, with video).
In fact, maybe someday –- and this is the most fascinating robot-related research I’ve read about recently — you’ll be able to pull a mobile phone out of your pocket and morph it into a laptop. Seriously. I’m shivering over here.
LINKS:
- “Intel Talks Up Our Wire-Free, Robot-Ruled Future”
- “Ready for the Robot Revolution”
Leah Buechley is a postdoc in computer science at UC-Boulder. Sound boring? No way! Her research focuses on e-textiles and she’s part of a Craft Technology group at the university.
I’m not sure this is surprising to anyone: Dogs don’t like robots that zoom around their floor sucking up dirt. They don’t like human-powered vacuum cleaners either. And they don’t like robotic pets, which they see as a threat.