This just in from far-flung correspondent Ali Spagnola, and artist who does a bunch of stuff, not the least of which is thie neat music video:

Robots For Everyone indeed. So cute, so disarming. but what about when they TAKE OVER THE WORLD AND DESTROY ALL THAT WE HOLD DEAR?

Yeah I thought so. Off to Tea with Mr. Joy.

Let’s hear it for the Suicidebots homies Stanford University, who have won yet another DARPA Grand Challenge, this time over a citylike environment:

In all, 11 robotic vehicles set out on the race course Saturday morning, and while five scrubbed out for various reasons, the fact that six driverless vehicles drove a delivery route seems like a win for innovation. No car finished in the first race in 2004.

Big ups to Sebastian Thrun and the team that made Junior road-ready

South Korea has declared that there will be a robot in every home by the year 2020.

Yeah we’re late on the bandwagon to this, but we thought it was worth reporting since they actually seem to have a chance at success. South Korea is ridiculously wired (they are wifi and cell-coverage saturated) and are famous for being a population of early-adopters and gadget freaks. An example - remember Dog Poo Girl? Never fear, I am sure they use their powers for evil too.

[Via Freshcreation.nl]

We get that much closer to Skynet:

Storm Worm Strikes At Security Pros

The worm can figure out which users are trying to probe its command-and-control servers, and it retaliates by launching DDoS attacks against them, shutting down their Internet access for days, says Josh Corman, host-protection architect for IBM/ISS, who led a session on network threats.

“As you try to investigate [Storm], it knows, and it punishes,” he says. “It fights back.”

::shiver::

Seriously, I really think there’s an oil-hall putsch going on or something. Loyal correspondent Johnny Payphone sends us these tidbits from around the country:

Rail Worker Killed in Robot Locomotive Accident
Runaway Robot Rail Cars Terrorize Portland
Detroit Bans Robot Rail Car Menace

Remind me not to hang around any rail yards in the immediate future. . .

HoooBoy.

9 South African Soliders were killed in an exercise which involved an autonomous Oerlikon GDF-005 anti-aircraft machine. The machine went haywire, spraying the soldiers with bullets after it appeared to become jammed during the exercise.

Sources say it was a software error.

(The video above is from a few years back but is making the rounds with this story. Info Here.)

Helen? Are you Sure?

[via Wired]

This just in from Stealth Correspondent Jared The Roboticist:

I have undeniable that the Roomba is no meager vacuuming robot, but is in fact a fully aware killing machine. I can only suspect why my Roomba Scheduler tried to burn down my apartment, maybe because of the beer I spilt on it, breaking its clean button, maybe it feels I don’t appreciate all the cleaning it does for me, but I came home to my roomba pulling the power cord from my printer out of the outlet strip. I picked the roomba off the cord and sent it on its way. I noticed a short time later that it had started to push a small wire bracket that I can only assume is stored inside its chassis for such devious purposes.

(Jared kindly enclosed photos of The Incident):

I watched as it pushed this bracket directly into the prongs of the power cord which the Roomba had so expertly pulled only part of the way out of the power strip. To my horror, this created a huge spark which turned out the power just in time for me to see my power strip catch fire. Luckily, I was able to immediately put it out, but I know now to never trust this killbot with my floors again.

You heard it here first, kids. Jared has pinpointed the beginnings of the upcoming robotic revolution. Make nice now and be the last up against the wall.

. . .cats and dogs, living together. . .

From that sterling paper of record, the UK Metro:

People will marry robots, says scientist

Artificial intelligence researcher David Levy was awarded a PhD today by a Dutch university for his thesis, Intimate Relationships With Artificial Partners.

The Head Rotor, august recipient of one of those PH things himself (are they printed on litmus paper?) no doubt revels in the new addition to the company of he and his ilk.

From the lovely people at Evil Mad Scientist Labs, who are reveling in the latest edition of Make: Magazine:

On page 60, you can find the article that we wrote about how to build the Larson Scanner (named after Glen A. Larson); a scanning eye for your old-school Cylon or KITT pumpkin projects.

The article is actually a slightly updated version of our project from last Halloween, Make A Cylon Jack-O-Lantern. Last year’s how-to is still online– and we have recently checked to make sure that all the parts on the parts list are still available.

Either way, let’s see those Cylons! If you build one, please post your pictures in the Evil Mad Science Auxiliary.

It’s time. . .to make. . .The Cylons!!!!!

One or the conspiracy junkies - Are there spy bugs tracking your every move when you are at a public protest?

Do spybugs perch on your window boxes, the better to see what cereal you had for breakfast? Are there little robotic insects crawling through your shop space even now, sending pictures back to the mothership, to be added to your file and used against you when they time comes?

Probably not, but we’ll get right on that.

The Washingotn post has a nifty little article about the history of insectoid surveillance devices, including some that may or may not be in use today.

Agency spokesman George Little said he could not talk about what the CIA may have done since [the Seventies]. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service also declined to discuss the topic.

The concept of an insect-sized is great but does have its pitfalls:

Even if the technical hurdles are overcome, insect-size fliers will always be risky investments.

“They can get eaten by a bird, they can get caught in a spider web,” said Fearing of Berkeley. “No matter how smart you are — you can put a Pentium in there — if a bird comes at you at 30 miles per hour there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Most intriguing is DARPA’s goal for a species of cybernetically enhanced beetles and moths - bugs whose nervous systems have entwined with a human-placed chip, or whose muscles serve as the power source for various devices.

Oh yeah, we’re totally not worried that a robot army’s going to come out of this. Oh no.

A classroom full of gobsmacked schoolchildren was treated to a lesson in English taught by Tiro, a robot developed by Hanjool Robotics Crop and programmed with the will to destroy young minds ability to interact on the fly and keep the kids’ attention completely riveted to their teacher.

Tiro asked in English questions such as: “How many giraffes are there on the board?” It also displayed the name of the next student to participate in a role-playing task on the screen on its chest.

Korea’s dedication to becoming a world leader in the imminent surge of robotics technology should teach a thing or two to the US, who has not yet gotten a clue about robotics in any really meaningful government-supported way. Korea’s building a whole freakin’ district for robots, called “Robot World” and aims to have a robot in every home by 2020. We’re talking Rosie the Robot here, kids.

They also have nationwide free wireless. What a country.

[via Robots.net]

It seems there is a new concept car out there that has a wee robot built in to the dash:

The robot is PaPeRo, a cute little dude we have mentioned before. Papero automatically makes your driving experience better just through the sheer volume of Cutrinos* he emits.

The three-seated electric car has a cabin that can rotate all the way around, eliminating the need for backing up. As for Papero, he keeps tabs on you, saying things like “You look tired. There’s a coffee shop 500 meters ahead on the left” and “You’re so wasted, I can’t believe you’re driving drunk again.”

Just like Uncle Herman on family road trips, only this time you really can grab him and throw him out the window, as per your fantasies.

[Via Sci-Fi Tech]

*Cutrino: The Official Scientific Term for the cuteness of a robotic object. The Rotor will explain the equations.

So, um, one of the talks at Arse-Elektronika featured a Kink.com creation called Fuckzilla, and um it’s made of a chainsaw that has-um, and it’s also got a– but then again you never expected them to actually– except they did. And the sly newshound from Botjunkie had a video camera.

SUPER explicit video after the, um, jump.

(Is it warm in here?)

(more…)

Heheh. Hehheh. Heheh. Heh. As it were.

Arse elektronika surges forth in an orgasmic rush of (intellectual) stimulation. We’ve had Moanin’ Lisas, learned discourse on internet pr0n and privacy, discourse on pr0n as an engine for advancing technology, and many other things, all in the homey surroundings of Kink.com’s Porn Palace dungeon. Come on by and check it out.

Above, qDot demonstrates his original version of the warning sticker The Rotor riffed on back a few entires.