Posted by on under nuts and bolts, humanoid robot, upper torso, coue, voice commands, dance moves, acti, ups, counterparts, pals, panasic, knees, robots, nbsp, decades | 
It's been a while since we've seen a humanoid robot this size do anything very new or interesting -- mostly they seem busy with their
slow-mo dance moves -- but the new ROPID bot by Tomotaka Takahashi, the man behind
Panasonic's Evolta bots, not only has a few new tricks up its plastic sleeves, but has personality to spare. The bot can rotate its upper torso, which seems to help immensely in keeping it balanced while jumping, running and skipping around. It's still the tried-and-true "bent knees" method of balance, but ROPID is "rapid" enough to make it look almost lifelike. The movements are expressive enough, but with some slightly articulated hands and a moving mouth, ROPID ups the adorable-ness factor over some of its nuts and bolts counterparts. ROPID can also respond to a few voice commands and speaks as well. Takahashi designed and built the bot himself, which makes us wonder what we've been doing with our lives that's so-very-important for the past couple of decades. Video of ROPID in action is after the break.
[Via
Plastic Pals]
Continue reading ROPID the adorable humanoid can jump 3-inches into the air, sweep you off your feet
Filed under: Robots
ROPID the adorable humanoid can jump 3-inches into the air, sweep you off your feet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tagi: nuts and bolts, humanoid robot, upper torso, coue, voice commands, dance moves, acti, ups, counterparts, pals, panasic, knees, robots, nbsp, decades
Posted by on under boing boing, typeface choice, public toilet, woody allen, nerd, ld, pals |
Here's a shirt that's bound to infuriate your type-obsessed pals: the word Helvetica, set in Comic Sans. Helvetica (via Making Light) Previously:Campaign to ban Comic Sans typeface - Boing Boing Futuristic public toilet in London Boing Boing Story about Woody Allen's favorite typeface - Boing Boing Strange Architectural Typeface Choice - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Helvetica to Arial: I'm gonna git you, sucka...
Tagi: boing boing, typeface choice, public toilet, woody allen, nerd, ld, pals
Posted by on under councilors, cues, sketches, pals, social skills |
Thelasko writes "I'm sure many here have been the victim of bullying at some point in their lives. A new study suggests why. '...now researchers have found at least three factors in a child's behavior that can lead to social rejection. The factors involve a child's inability to pick up on and respond to nonverbal cues from their pals.' The article sketches out some ways teachers and councilors are working with bullied kids to help them develop the missing social skills."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: councilors, cues, sketches, pals, social skills
Posted by on under university calculus, mental math, technoccult, henders, th interview, wrg, number of cards, boing boing, game theory, drinking beer, vowel, face down, drinker, primates, mathematician, punk rock, coke, pals, brains, excuse |
I've just signed up for Tom Henderson's Math for Primates podcast on the strength of this interview he conducted with Technoccult about his theory of punk mathematics. My dad's a mathematician and I love math, but stopped taking it after first year university calculus and stats and feel like I'm losing it by the year. I like Henderson's approach to the subject! Bonus: Tom helped Jane McGonigal and pals make the awesome Superstruct game. So, the concept I pitched to Nick was, "Let's talk about math from the platform of 'Math that humans are likely to want to know, because it's about other humans.'" Social conflict. Sex. Beauty. It gives us an excuse to talk extensively about game theory. And, game theory is a key place to teach humans mathematics, because we seem to have some optimized "cheat detection" in our brains. Let me give you an example, it's something like, uh... There are four face-down cards on a table. There is a rule: "If the number showing is even, then the back of the card MUST have a vowel." Now, given an E, 3, 8, D, what is the smallest number of cards you need to flip over to verify that the rule is being followed? Maybe I fucked up the puzzle. But, anyway, the answer as I've phrased it is NOT E and 3. You need to make sure that 8 has a vowel on the back, and you need to make sure that D does NOT have an even number on the back. Everyone gets this wrong, basically. Well, non-mathematicians always do, and I'm pretty sure I got it wrong because I get every answer wrong on the first try. Punk as fuck. Now, if you ask the same people a logically equivalent question: "You see four people. Two are drinking beer and two are drinking coke. Whose IDs do you have to check?" No one says you have to check the ID of the coke drinker. Because who cares how old they are? If it's the same puzzle, but phrased as a problem of possible social cheating, we nail it. The Philosophy of Punk Rock Mathematics - Technoccult interviews Tom Henderson (via Beyond the Beyond) Previously:Boing Boing: Reasons to take math in high school Monkeys do mental math - Boing Boing Boing Boing: Math proves you can stop table-wobble by rotating The math of faucet-fiddling to get a constantly warm shower ... Do plants know math? - Boing Boing Math and physics visualizers - Boing Boing...
Tagi: university calculus, mental math, technoccult, henders, th interview, wrg, number of cards, boing boing, game theory, drinking beer, vowel, face down, drinker, primates, mathematician, punk rock, coke, pals, brains, excuse
Posted by on under social networking service, boing boing, derrick comedy, jesse thorn, funnyvideo, pals |
Donald Glover and his pals in Derrick Comedy have a timely funnyvideo out today on a new social networking service called Gink. I think it needs an asterisk at the end. (thanks, Jesse Thorn)...
Tagi: social networking service, boing boing, derrick comedy, jesse thorn, funnyvideo, pals
