Archive for August, 2007
Wooden Robot. You Know - For Zombies
Australian artist Ashley Wood, beloved for breathing new life into Tank Girl, is producing a limited edition wooden robot (Bertie?) drawn from his brilliantly named “Zombies vs Robots” 2-issue mini-series comic.
They’re a little grittier than the Take-G wooden robots from earlier this summer, but who could possibly say no to a tiny wooden robot with a bazooka?
Link to more photos. (via NotCot)
Baca Robo 2007: Japan’s Funny-bot of the Year Competition.
If you’ve been working on building your own hysterical robot, we’ve found the comedy venue of your dreams. Japanese entertainment conglomerate Yoshimoto Kogyo is sponsoring a star-making funny robot competition in Tokyo this fall.Baca Robo (”Foolish Robot”) 2007 takes place this November 4th at the “Lumine the Yoshimoto” theater, with a cash prize of 500,000 yen ($4265.00!).
They’re accepting entries through October 5th, and robots that make it through the qualifying round will have 2 minutes to make the audience laugh. Judges for the competition include Mayway Denki president Nobumichi Tosa, writer/director Shinji Higuchi, and professor Masahiko Inami. According to the official rules, qualifying robots must be autonomous, under 7 feet tall, make people laugh, and must do so without the use of explosives, sparks, fire, or liquids.
As the old robot joke (as told by robots) goes:
“Waiter! Waiter! What’s this robot doing in my soup?”
“It looks like he’s performing human tasks twice as well, because he knows no fear or pain.”
<Ba-dum Bump!>
We can only assume this extends to comedy.
Translated Link (via PinkTentacle)
No commentsRobot Termite Terminators
Maruading insects are destroying your home. Sightless, relentless, and nigh-undetectable, termites gnaw away at the American (and presumably Japanese) dream. Before they eat you out of house and home, it’s time to call in the robots.
Two new robot home inspectors from Japan are gearing up to guard your home and castle. This Yamato House Inspection Robot, a joint project of The Chiba Institute of Technology and Tsukuba University, crawls through your crawl-spaces (where else?) and sub-flooring. It seeks everything from termite invaders to water damage, and relays the evidence back to its human handlers. It’s slated for mass production in April 2008, at an approximate cost of $10,000.
Once your insect enemies have been identified, bring in Asante/NPO’s “Mirubo” to finish them off. Aside from a camera and lighting package, this water-proof, dust-proof robot comes equipped with a fearsome pesticide sprayer and poison-supply hose. A few video clips of Mirubo rescuing the historic Kamakura Shrine from termite invaders are posted on the Robot Watch article.
Translated Links (1,2) to the RobotWatch and RoboNable articles.
2 commentsBuy N Large Robotics - Fictional Robot Vendor of the Future
From the makers of the forthcoming Wall-E sanitation robot, Buy n Large Robotics promises to bring us Sall-E the vaccubot, Gar-E the yardbot (fully automated yard solution), Nanc-E the Nannybot (every aspect of your child’s health and happiness has been addressed) and Wend-E the (washing, drying, folding) washbot.
What could make for better eye-candy than personal robots as rendered by Pixar?
They’ve put together a fun shiny (marketing) site for next summer’s CGI robot movie, Wall-E. News tidbits from the site include Buy n Large plans for offering multi-tiered police service, the Buy n Large Xanadou Shopping Euphoria Pill, the “Ms. Nancy” line of teaching robots, and the “BnL Artificial Mate.”
Teaser trailers for Wall-E are here and here.
As for the robots, well, please put me down for one of each.
Link (via notcot.org and FilmSchoolRejects)
3 commentsI Have Heard the Robots Singing Each to Each
While other robotic (and robot-assisted) musical groups have employed everything from robot guitarists to electro-mechanical xylophones, Maywa Denki is the first to use a true robot vocalist.
The music group/concept art/design company Maywa Denki has brought the world some incredible “Nonsense Machines“, music machines, and toys. But their robotic vocalist, shown in this “product demonstration video” along with their robotic “Mecha Folk” quartet, is over the top brilliant.
The robotic vocalist, dubbed “Seamoons,” is a combination of mechanical bellows and a computer controlled rubber vocal chord that’s monitored and modified in real time, sounding something like a tiny electric Yma Sumac.
Links (1,2,3) to the two Maywa Denki product demonstration and a (completely mad) performance video. (via Metafilter) 5 comments
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