I've spent most of my waking hours this week managing an event in the Antenna gallery called 'Robot Playground'. To get a flavour of our very own robot extravaganza, check out at these different accounts from the Telegraph, Times, Sun (including a photo of yours truly) and New Scientist. We also covered the event on our website.
The star of the show was undeniably 'BERTI', a slightly scary robot that can mimic human gestures (see the video below). But what really caught people's attention was the fact that BERTI can play (and usually win) games of 'rock-paper-scissors' against his human master, Paul Bremner of Bristol Robotics Lab.
Craig Fletcher and Graham Whiteley, the two guys who built BERTI were also on hand to chat about the technology used (it's damn complicated) and the next robot they're planning. Craig and Graham told me that BERTI Mark 2 is going to have a face-shaped screen that can have images projected onto it, which sounds eerily like the scramble suits from Philip K. Dick's 'A Scanner Darkly'.
Alongside BERTI we featured a 'robot nursey', populated by baby bots whose personalities are shaped by interacting with people. There's loads of information on this project in the New Scientist video and on the researchers website.
Image: Gaetan Lee/Science Museum
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2 comments:
Did you get to play rock paper scissors with it Louis? And did it win?
Also, when it plays rock paper scissors, does it just pick its movements at random? I presume the movement for each implement (a rock, paper etc) are pre-programed.
Rock paper scissors isn't bad, it would be better if it did the YMCA.
Sadly I didn't - Paul Bremner wasn't keen to let other people don the control glove as the robot is both very valuable (it was insured for £200,000) and delicate.
BERTI's hand and arm movements can be programmed and then put on random when playing rock-paper-scissors. The motion-sensor glove tells the robot what symbol the person it's playing against has opted for.
Luckily BERTI's gestures don't include anything rude, at least to my knowledge...
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