Golden Age Comic Book Stories has an awesome collection of sci-fi Christmas illustrated covers by Ed Emshwiller.
Space helmets on reindeer!
I love this series so much. See the rest here.
Tag: robots
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Just a few snapshots of odds and ends…
I dug out the holiday lollipops Louisa gave me last year, to find that they had been exposed to too much heat and had melted slightly. This only adds to their greatness.
Santa candle got it too (check out that leg)…
If you’re curious about how Hubert Cumberdale is doing (which you probably are not), he’s enjoying the festivities in his new residence:
And last but not least, we have our nativity scene, SheWalksSoftly style:
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Welcome to the uncanny valley. These singing robot heads (in an installation by Nathaniel Mellor) remind me of a horrific setup in a serial killer’s basement.
Don’t they look like the final scene in a Tales From the Crypt episode?
Here, let the Haunted Mansion singing busts show everyone how it’s done (a cappella):
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I love Ryan Abegglen’s mechanical beasts. The component parts in the diagrams are genius. Who knew these benign creatures could be mechanized murder beneath the surface?
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I love hard copy books, so I will not be undertaking this project. But I have to share since it’s rather amazing.
Bioephemera drew my attention to this tutorial on how to make your own book scanner.
Look at this thing! It’s like a robot overlord! Do you dare create one?
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This is a fantastic stop-motion short film about a robot who falls in love with an electric kettle. There’s been much “humanization” of robots in the media lately, and I have to admit I find it rather moving.
Warning: not all love stories end happily.
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You all know I love robots. But this bridal droid unnerves me.
It’s easy to create a 2-D fantasy nowadays, even edit film or produce 3-D moving images of perfection. But when we get our hands on tactile materials and attempt to construct an interactive fantasy…something goes terribly wrong.
I’m disturbed by the look on this robot bride’s face. If anything could prove that robot sentience exists, it’s THIS expression (which I interpret as “assaulted”). I dare say it’s a grim foreshadowing for this poor bot, if she ends up in the hands of a feisty fetishist.
Solidifying the creepiness is this runway clip, complete with Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” (hardly a traditional selection for either fashion OR matrimony).
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Well, there’s a title that may disappoint some eager google searchers. It refers to these hand warmers:
My hands are perpetually ice cold, and although this is not the most practical design in terms of shape, I think they’re pretty cute.
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My source for this image strip is entirely in Japanese, so I have no background info. It appears that a crafty fan has constructed a fancy, bejeweled Gundam. This type of project lends itself to all kinds of commentary, but I’ll refrain and let you all draw your own conclusions. I, for one, am impressed. As a lover of contradiction, I feel pretty comfortable with florid, lacy robots.
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I come across many robots in my online perusals. Here are a few recent highlights.
Researchers at the University of Hertfordshire are working on a robot named Kaspar that perceives tactile sensations in order to help children with autism.
The goal is to make the robot able to respond to different styles of how the children play with Kaspar in order to help the children to develop ‘socially appropriate’ playful interaction (e.g. not too aggressive) when interacting with the robot and other people.
(Honestly, I’m not sure if such a creepy looking robot is the best tool for the socialization of children)
Saya-Sensei Synthetic Substitute Teacher:
Students in Tokyo were recently “delighted” to come back to school after the holidays and find their teachers replaced with this (terrifying) robot.
The robot, which can speak multiple languages, uses facial expressions to facilitate communication. With an array of motors in her head that stretch the soft synthetic skin into various positions, Saya can display emotions ranging from happiness and surprise to sadness and anger.
However, Saya needs to work on improving her classroom management skills. At present, she can’t do much more than call out names and shout orders like “Be quiet.” But that does not make her any less popular with the kids.
Following the recent trend of “emotional robots,” we have Kobian, the bipedal emotional humanoid machine.
KOBIAN can express seven different feelings, including delight, surprise, sadness and dislike. In addition to assuming different poses to match the mood, the emotional humanoid uses motors in its face to move its lips, eyelids and eyebrows into various positions.
This photo really needs a caption:
To cleanse your palate, I offer you PARO, the therapeutic seal robot.
Paro can learn to behave in a way that the user prefers, and to respond to its new name. For example, if you stroke it every time you touch it, Paro will remember your previous action and try to repeat that action to be stroked. If you hit it, Paro remembers its previous action and tries not to do that action.
PARO has been found to reduce patient stress, stimulate interaction between patients and caregivers, improve relaxation and motivation, and help the socialization of patients with each other and their caregivers. It was even proclaimed the World’s Most Therapeutic Robot by the Guiness Book of World Records.
I’ll close out this post with a few awesome Maker Faire bots, photos courtesy of my friend Damon:
One day I will get to the Maker Faire and witness delights like these in person!
SheWalksSoftly 