Gizmodo: robot dog

Robots Make Picking Up Chicks Easier... and Harder

Wilson Rothman — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:00:00 EDT

In this powerful morality play, a young man observes the pros and cons of picking up hot girls (and their robot dogs) using a clumsy bipedal cyber-friend. The best part is the translated narration.

Oops! I can't believe!
Oh. I'm sorry. My dog did anything extraordinary.
No no, my robot "Retro" cooked off. I'm the one who should apologize. He scared you.
Wanna go to cafe? I'll buy you a cup of coffee to make up for it.

The moral? If you can't talk to the only person who you share a cubicle with, you know, that girl who reads Package Business magazine, figure out a way to get your personal robot to cook off, making her electronic dog do anything extraordinary. This will scare the hell out of her, allowing you to then, only then, skip any and all introductions and invite that Venus for a cup of coffee. You know, "to make up for it." [YouTube via BotJunkie]

Caption Contest: Girl and Her Robot Dog

Mark Wilson — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:30:00 EDT

"At least she's not riding an octopus, for once."

An artistic recreation of the Boston Dynamics robot, which DARPA is quite interested in as of late. [bbGadgets]

Artificial Dogs are Better for Some Applications, Trust Me

Mark Wilson — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EDT

It's hard to imagine a world in which we abandon man's best friend for an electronic replacement, but it's also hard to imagine a dog ever holding a paper book without turning poor Kafka into a sponge. Luckily, designer Charles Kalpakian is here to provide us with this canine book stand concept that lights up when you pull the tale. While this unit is not for sale, we can only hope that version 2.0 has teeth to convey that pulling a dog's tale is not the best way to treat it. [Yanko Design via Ubergizmo]

WowWee Wrex the Dawg Bot Gets Video Review

Kit Eaton — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:22:00 EDT

The guys over at RobotsRule.com have just come up with this review of WowWee's new Wrex the Dawg toy robot. And sure, it's no Aibo, or even the robot dog from yesterday, but it's got a certain something. It's remote-controllable, programmable and has a suite of 18 tricks to act out, depending on its mood. And you can leave it in Guard mode, ready to stir itself and terrify your cats with some very strange noises. Check out those worryingly hypnotic rotating, flashing eyeballs too. If this 'bot tickles your fancy, you'll have to wait, as there's no info on release date— but it'll cost about $170. [Geek Alerts]

Robot Dog from Hell Is Terminator's Best Friend, My Worst Nightmare

Jesus Diaz — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:15:00 EDT

Although it's not as scary as the spooky Big Dog—actually, it looks as friendly as the hilarious Fake Big Dog—I can imagine this prototype of a security robot dog developing into something capable running at 50mph behind you and tearing apart your thorax with pure steel fangs and claws. Fortunately, for now the rest of the videos show him to be friendlier than my own furry best friend.

[Gizmodo Japan]

HPI's G-Dog Robot Kit Ain't No Aibo, Big Dog

Kit Eaton — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:00:06 EDT

Yo, suckers! You want this robot dog to guard your home? You're a nut! Mr. T only likes Big Dogs or hot dogs! HPI's little G-Dog thing is way too small, like Murdoch's stupid dog Billy. And it's some kind of kit, so you got to be putting all those fiddly parts like plastic pieces, three-axis acceleration sensor, servos and 7.2V nickel hydrogen batterys together. With no spark-welding, man! But if you're into this crazy robot stuff: I ain't gonna stop you. You're gonna have 15 x 5.3 x 7.5 inches of robot with some crazy motion processing software stuff, and it's gonna be doing robo-doggy do on your desk. What's it gonna cost? Cool it: we don't know the price. But you can get it from July, in Japan. [Robot Watch]