Looking like a mix between good ol’ R2D2, a lamp and a golf ball, here comes the Robocco from Asahi.
As you might have guessed from the title, this robot’s only task is related to beer: it should take one out of its belly, open it, and pour it in a mug. And this is what it does.
Initially only available as a prize for a contest, it is now on sale at CScout Japan.
We’ve seen the oddly-shaped ZMP Miuro before – the bonbon-like iPod speaker dock has a WiFi connection built in and can follow you around the house playing your music. Of course, you could also record the sound of a nagging partner to give you that “married two years and the gloss is wearing off” feeling. Well, ZMP have been beavering away behind the scenes and giving Miuro the smarts to better justify that stonking $900+ pricetag: the gift of creative dance.
At a demo on Thursday engineers showed the prototype conjuring up its own dance routines, spinning and pirouetting according to a new “chaotic itinerancy” software that uses the same mathematical patterns as a bee uses while hovering around a flower. That sounds daft, but the upshot is that Miuro now moves more freely and spontaneously, turning it from a hifi on wheels into a virtual pet of sorts. Read the rest of this entry »
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