Can we Love Robots?

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MIT professor Sherry Turkle says no but she’s intrigued about some of the deep and meaningful emotions they can provoke in humans.

Turkle stresses that although we are still very far from the point where robots are indistinguishable from humans- as in the movie Blade Runner, based on Phillip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?- humans are capable of forming attachments to robots. During the interview Turkle discusses some of the issues raised through her studies with Cynthia Breazeal, founder and director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab.
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Busy at the Office?

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Who couldn’t use the help of a  CoBot?

The CoBots are being developed my Professor Manuela Veloso and her team at the CORAL (Cooperate-Observe-Reason-Act-Learn) research group at Carnegie Mellon University. Tasks are easily assigned to them through a special program online and then they are ready to  navigate carefully through the workplace delivering items from one office to the next.
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ABC’s at ages as early as 1, 2, and 3?

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Dom Massaro investigates how we can use technology to help children learn written language in a more inherent way

Children appear to learn spoken language rather effortlessly at around 18 months through mere exposure. However, it’s a common belief that the average child will begin to read much later, around the age of 6.

While great individual diversity exists with regards to the age at which children reach these milestones, it’s generally maintained that the cognitive capabilities
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European Robotics Week

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November 28th-December 4th, 2011

Are you curious about the growing application of robotics in Europe? There’s no need to to be a robotics expert to attend the events that are part of this year’s first ever eu Robotics Week.  Events will include: exhibitions, lab tours, public talks, and competitions all organized locally in cities through out Europe.

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The Human Revolution

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¨I’m now filming your bionic hand with my bionic eye¨

Protagonist of  Eidos-Montreal’s new video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution,  Adam Jensen is a crime fighting cyborg in the year 2027. Like real-life cyborgs, the video game character underwent radical surgeries to merge his body with mechanical parts after a devastating accident.
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Has IBM Taken a Trip Back to the Future?

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According to scientists in the field, neuromorphic chips are old news

In last week’s IBM press release, the company revealed its creation of a ¨ new generation of experimental computer chips designed to emulate the brain’s abilities for perception, action and cognition.¨ The two prototype chips are part of IBM’s   SyNapse project (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics) which employs principles from Neuroscience,  Supercomputing and Nanotechnology to form the basis of ¨Cognitive computing¨.
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¨One Small Step for a Robot and One Giant Leap for Robot-kind¨

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NASA’s International Space Station welcomes its first non-human crew member

The humanoid robot R2, developed by NASA and General Motors, was launched as part of the STS-133 mission  on the Discovery shuttle on February 24, 20011.  Up until last week R2 was asleep, packed away in its box but now R2 is active and ready to be up and running. R2 even  has its own twitter account!
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Wiggling to the Rescue

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Check out the worm-bot

This robot is modeled after the Caenorhabditis elegans,  a tiny roundworm whose very simple nervous system allows it to carry out complex body movements. Its designer Dr. Jordan Boyle, from the schools of Computing and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds, hopes that this robot can one day be used for rescue missions.
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