I-FAIRY TELLS TALES
The I-Fairy (produced by Kokoro), made an appearance
at the recent CES 2010. She can be used as a guide or
receptionist as she has voice recognition and goes into
her routine when approached by humans. She comes with
text-to-speech and motion software, and has a limited 9º
freedom in her head and arms (although her wrists, fingers,
knees, and toes must be moved manually).
Future owners of the I-Fairy will have the perfect
robot to attract people to their booth or to welcome
visitors to their event/show. Depending on your needs,
I-Fairy could either be completely autonomous (cannot
walk) or just rephrase what you are saying through a mic.
Perched atop a pedestal, the Tinkerbot costs approx.
$70,000.
ROBOTS UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Qatar’s Public Works Authority and the Qatar
Science Club are cooperating to develop solar
powered robots that will help guide traffic around road
construction sites. They’ll be replacing the people who
hold the reversible STOP and SLOW signs when two
lanes have been reduced to one by a backhoe or
something. This is something a robot would be good at,
it’s probably going to directly or indirectly put a human
out of a job. Hypothetically, giving a robot a job that a
robot would be good at allows humans to move on to
jobs that humans are better at, which implies something
more interesting, (or at least something with more
variety).
SAY WHAT?
Meet Insultabotz. You can load it up with one or several evil messages up to
15 seconds apiece and let it loose in your workplace or home. When it comes in
contact with any object detected by its IR eye — such as people, pets, or water coolers
— it will stop, reverse direction, and issue an insult. The six-legged robot is simple to
assemble and is no doubt simply annoying.
24 SERVO 03.2010
