The ABE (Autonomous Benthic Explorer) has used its on-board acoustic transponders and five thrusters to scan the seafloor for over 15 years - locating, mapping, and photographing hydrothermal vents, volcanoes, and other features of the great deep. Marked with "NCC1701" due to its resemblance to Captain Kirk's ship, ABE has performed more than 200 missions collecting valuable data for researchers worldwide. But something went wrong last Friday on an expedition off the coast of Chile and ABE just stopped - nothing was ever heard again. No word yet on whether ABE can be located or recovered.
That’s why the robot, which is equipped with sensors and laser beams for sorting out and allocating the six different types of plastics that can be reused, is so important. Human workers lack this ability, and this is where one can see how beneficial robots can really be. Digging through the trash may not sound like the most glamorous job ever, but someone has to do it if we are to get back on the right track.
The robot itself looks more like a storage box, which is sort of what it’s supposed to be. It has a garbage slot tray with a weight scale, a transfer basket and recycling box, and a main display at the front, which contains the lazar senses that identify the different types of plastic. It is actually quite large in size, measuring up to 5ft 6ins (1.7m) by 6ft 9ins (2.1m).
Initially, a smaller version of the robot is going to be tested out at stores in Osaka and Nara, and is being released by the manufacturing company IDEC Corp. If the trial proves successful, more robots like this will be sold and put to work all over Japan for around $US 55,000.
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Steven Hawking chimes in on the debate about whether to spend valuable resources sending humans on planetary exploration missions, or to use robots. After all, it's a lot cheaper to send a machine that doesn't need oxygen, isn't sensitive to radiation, and doesn't need to be returned to their family at the end of the mission. But there are some legitimate scientific reasons to send humans including real-time tweaking of the chemistry experiments looking for life, and to initiate unplanned tests based on unexpected observation. Also, the tax-paying public gets more emotionally invested in human missions and would possibly be more willing to continue funding. The ultimate answer is likely a mixture of the two, but exactly what that mixture will be is still being hotly debated.
Want to give a special gift for your child? This camera seems to be the right choice. Besides can be used to take pictures, with this camera, the creativity of your child can also more sharply through the lego game.
Lego Digital Camera, so the name of the gadget itself. There are two advantages to be gained from this colorful camera. First, sharpen the creativity of children through the game loading tide. Second, children can learn photography by taking pictures of interesting objects in the vicinity.
Quoted from Gather, Monday (1/3/2010), the specifications presented 3MP camera are:
- 4x digital zoom
- Built-in flash and fixed focus
- 1.5-inch LCD screen
- Capacity of 128MB which can contain up to 80 photos
- USB cable to transfer photos to PC
- Lithium-ion rechargeable battery
- Lego blocks on the top and bottom of the camera
- Has a size of 4″x2, 5″ x1, 5″
This camera can be purchased at a price of 49.99 pound sterling, or about U.S. $ 76.
Note: Lego is one of the companies in the field of robotics and a leader in robotics innovation. Lego often conducted robotics training and robot competitions.
That’s right—Korean researchers have developed robot teachers that can be used in classrooms to help students with their lessons. The first wave of such robots has already been released as assistant teachers in schools lacking in educators, a project that will cost $45 million. Current plans are to install these AI helpers in 8,000 preschools and kindergartens by 2013.
The idea behind this next step in Korean education is largely fueled by the lack of English teachers in the country. Many students want to learn the language and continue their education abroad, and Korea is always bringing in foreign teachers to try and meet ever-growing demand. Using robots to fill in the spots might be expensive at first, but in the long term could save the system a lot of money. Robots don’t need salaries or retirement plans, after all.
For now, these robots are only acting as assistants, but if this experiment proves successful, could they start replacing real teachers and putting them out of work? The Korean Times interviewed and found out that Korean teachers themselves aren’t too concerned by this possibility. Robots can be programmed to read lectures or communicate learned phrases with the students, but are still a long way off from offering the human quality which constitutes great teaching.
The video and pictures make the bot seem more like a nanny than an actual teacher, and maybe the Korean teachers are right to dismiss any worries. You can’t quite see this thing operating in a larger environment, like a high school or even a middle school. But one always needs to take the first step.
Watching the below video of a little girl interacting with the robot clearly shows that there is still much work to be done before these English teaching robots are truly useful in the classroom.
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