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Chris Jacob
Let's not forget that we have not solved the fundamental problem here: identifying obstacles and targets. In this case all of the obstacles were identified by the pink color (target in blue) and asimo had access to a bird's eye view of the field (would it even work if the camera was mounted on asimo's head?).
It sort of looks like they developed an algorithm for playing Mario Bros. I think robotics is awesome but machine vision still has a ways to go...
Not too many real-life targets will have a blue dot on them :)
@ysirotin: Agreed, but at the rate of technological development, we'll have fully-capable, navigating robots in a decade or less. The time it takes for tech to evolve is almost frightening.
@Cyberization: Yes, processors are becoming faster and memory larger, but segmentation of images and identification of objects are problems not just waiting for better hardware.
They are waiting for new algorithms. Navigating around well marked barriers and arbitrary environments are by far several orders of magnitude different.
So I think it will not be a simple issue of Moore's law, but a breakthrough in computer science or neuroscience that will make this possible... who knows when that will be.
@GitEmSteveDave_HasADDWRTRouter:
I certainly acknowledge the idea of artificial intelligence as "taking over" is legitimate concern; the technology we develop will surely bring us to the point of independent artificial intelligent machinations.
However, since the Cold War, humanity's technophobic sentiments have run rampant. The whole lot of us have read/viewed/heard about robots as the harbingers of death. I think we've immersed ourselves in the negative so much that it has seeped in to our preconceived notions of what a robot is and will do.
Regardless of whether or not you hold a technophobic or technophilic attitude, let's hope developers incorporate programming laws in to their robots--something similar, perhaps, to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.
P.S.--Let's hope that sentient A.I. doesn't become an issue. Otherwise, no matter how many programming laws we integrate, we're S.O.L.
The balance it had was cool. They'd better hope it doesn't have emotions before they teach it how to throw a right hook after all that shoving they've been doing to him. lol.
Robosexuals like you disgust me! It's goddamn unnatural wanting to mate with a robot. And any lady who would date a robot deserves to choke on a Cinnabon.
@Kaiser-Machead: Looks to me like putting on that piece of puffy bloat-wear would make you so clumsy and awkward you could not help but fall down stairs.
Robots have no chance of revolting as long as there is no A.I. As soon as you implement that, you're done for. They'll slowly realize they are superior and kill us all merely because it can.
Or we can install a morality core. That'll prevent them from flooding the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin.
@OmniZero: I can just imagine the clerk at the Aperture Science Center looking through invoices, and coming across a huge sum spent on a massive supply of neurotoxin, and a contracting invoice to have a large gas piping system installed in the GLaDOS control room.
So basically, we're talking about animatronic avatars of the modern soldier? Sounds nifty, but sounds goofifyingly expensive. Why bother with robo-avatars when you can send a dozen stealthy aerial kill drones and barrel through the streets with remote control tanks? Why use complicated designs, like elaborate mimicry of the human form, when you can use simpler machines, like wheels and wings and engines, that can travel several times faster?
@Kaiser-Machead: If we wanted to plain flatten cities and ignore collateral damages, then yes. In fact, that kind of warfare would make the army and the marines completely pointless.
@Pessimipposaurus: Just the same, the inherent complications of a humanoid robot design goes largely ignored in science fiction for the sake of fiction. A good example is the ASIMO. We've still got a long way before a humanoid robot can even run up and down the stairs, let alone have enough portable power to even do so. As cool as this technology sounds, once you strip away the fantasy element, humanoid robot soldiers will probably never replace real soldiers, because speed and efficiency just isn't possible in a robot of identical physiological makeup (yet).
@Pessimipposaurus: Perhaps. Maybe I'm just bitter because we'll get humanoid killbots before I get a humanoid robot slave. Is it so wrong to want a [robotic] slave? Aren't I entitled to a [robotic] slave?
True- but what about cloning humans with a computer in their head instead of a brain? No ethical problem no brain= not human and perhaps they could be cheapily mass produced. Its total SF of course.
@Kaiser-Machead: Yeah, all told, humans are not the most deadly or agile creatures in the physical makeup department. We can hardly fend off poisonous insects unarmed, let alone fight off wolves, tigers, bears, etc. Our way of movement is decent for super-long distance (or so marathon runners have said), but we're super slow in sprint speed and low on jump height.
We'd be better off with cat robots: fast, agile, climbs many surfaces, survives large drops...and very unfriendly to people it doesn't like. Mount a gun on it's back, and you've got a killing machine.
@kagekiri: And despite all of our most apparent frailties, human beings have managed to spread across the earth and flourish in all sorts of hazardous conditions.
08/23/09
It sort of looks like they developed an algorithm for playing Mario Bros. I think robotics is awesome but machine vision still has a ways to go...
Not too many real-life targets will have a blue dot on them :)
08/23/09
08/23/09
They are waiting for new algorithms. Navigating around well marked barriers and arbitrary environments are by far several orders of magnitude different.
So I think it will not be a simple issue of Moore's law, but a breakthrough in computer science or neuroscience that will make this possible... who knows when that will be.
08/23/09
If Isaac Asimov were alive he'd be grinning alongside me.
08/23/09
08/23/09
I certainly acknowledge the idea of artificial intelligence as "taking over" is legitimate concern; the technology we develop will surely bring us to the point of independent artificial intelligent machinations.
However, since the Cold War, humanity's technophobic sentiments have run rampant. The whole lot of us have read/viewed/heard about robots as the harbingers of death. I think we've immersed ourselves in the negative so much that it has seeped in to our preconceived notions of what a robot is and will do.
Regardless of whether or not you hold a technophobic or technophilic attitude, let's hope developers incorporate programming laws in to their robots--something similar, perhaps, to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.
P.S.--Let's hope that sentient A.I. doesn't become an issue. Otherwise, no matter how many programming laws we integrate, we're S.O.L.
08/23/09
Pick it up at about 3:28
08/03/09
"Smile now, but my time comes.
08/02/09
08/02/09
08/03/09
07/24/09
Robosexuals like you disgust me! It's goddamn unnatural wanting to mate with a robot. And any lady who would date a robot deserves to choke on a Cinnabon.
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
Spot on.
07/24/09
Seriously... I would not wear this thing even on Halloween.
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
07/24/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
Giant Crab that transforms into a tank transforms into a robot!

05/20/09
Robots have no chance of revolting as long as there is no A.I. As soon as you implement that, you're done for. They'll slowly realize they are superior and kill us all merely because it can.
Or we can install a morality core. That'll prevent them from flooding the enrichment center with a deadly neurotoxin.
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
05/20/09
True- but what about cloning humans with a computer in their head instead of a brain? No ethical problem no brain= not human and perhaps they could be cheapily mass produced. Its total SF of course.
05/20/09
05/20/09
We'd be better off with cat robots: fast, agile, climbs many surfaces, survives large drops...and very unfriendly to people it doesn't like. Mount a gun on it's back, and you've got a killing machine.
05/20/09
05/20/09