Rockman Elysium

Am I the only one hearing loud shrieks from their version of X over this?:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/920802,robotsoldier042908.article

Robots like this are potentially the future of ground warfare, Pike said.

"A robot does what it's told, and you'll be able to get them to advance in ways it's hard to get human soldiers to do. They don't have fear, and they kill without compunction."

More importantly, he said, "A robot means you don't have to write a condolence letter."

http://www.pal-robotics.com/newweb/specifications.html

We're getting there, quietly and surely...! This one's from the UAE. (hmm, makes me think about an article I saw the other day about concerns that terrorists would capture and reverse engineer such robots... what a world that would be!)



REEM-B is the evolution of the first humanoid created by Pal Technology Robotics, the REEM-A. The first prototype was designed to play chess with the Hydra chess engine and to be used as development platform. With REEM-B, Pal Technology comes astonishingly close to its final goal; to create a humanoid service robot that will be able to help humans in the future with sophisticated tasks. Our robot can walk dynamically, recognize and grasp objects, lift heavy weights and go around by itself inside any building complex, avoiding obstacles.

( Further specs )

The current issue of SEED Magazine features a lead article called "Out of the Blue" which is a detailed article about a current bleeding edge computer program, Blue Brain, that attempts to reproduce, in digital form, the physical workings of a slice of an organic brain.

Some startling and interesting points I wanted to share from the article by Jonah Lehrer, with my emphases in bold: ( Clicky for iiiinteresting data! )

Edit: Another press release for a Spanish robotics drive I just found :
http://www.machineslikeus.com/cms/tekniker-ik4-leads-robotics-project.html
( Read me! )

Edit the third: LOL SUFFERING CIRCUIT with bonus pic of Marvin the Paranoid Android: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/21/scicomp121.xml

Remorseful computers that dwell on their mistakes could be better at dealing with people than the conventional kind of machine, scientists have found. Computers are already able to learn from their mistakes, just like we do. But now scientists have discovered they behave even more like people if they possess a sense of "regret." And this could help the worlds of humankind and computerkind to rub along.

This is just unbelievable. But imagine the potential for Reploid skin and internal processing- not to mention that it could explain how Reploids can gank each other's weapons by altering their DNA to match the PHYSICAL WIRING of an opponent... The whole concept of robotic-"DNA" might NOT be so ridiculous after all!

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/05/nanowire-dna.html

The reaction uses and produces no toxic chemicals and takes place at room temperature and room pressure; no elaborate set-up is needed. The wires maintain their properties for three months.

(...)

It could also be used to create tiny circuit boards and computers or anything that uses electricity.

As Sri Sridhar, a professor of physics at Northeastern University, points out, researchers are borrowing tricks from Mother Nature.

"It's a very hot thing right now," said Sridhar. "While DNA is the basis of life, we are not using those properties," he said. Instead, researchers are "taking the tricks that evolution developed as a basis for a new type of electronics that is DNA-based."

Thinking about it, this could also explain the seeming inpermanence of stolen weapons- why X and Zero don't have their captured weapons from one game to the next. They melt away after a certain period of time!

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07287_Invention_of_the_Year.html
HAMPTON, Va. - A device that can act like muscle and nerves to expand and contract surfaces is the 2006 NASA Government Invention of the Year.

NASA's Macro-Fiber Composite, or MFC, can be attached to a structure to bend it, reduce vibrations and monitor force. A team at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., created the flexible and durable material that uses ceramic fibers. By applying voltage to the MFC, the ceramic fibers change shape to expand or contract and turn the resulting force into a bending or twisting action on the material. Likewise, voltage is generated in proportion to the force applied to the MFC material.

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1397 (with awesome pictures!)
Takao Someya lead a group of University of Tokyo researchers that same year in creating a robotic skin consisting of pressure-sensing and temperature-sensing networks laminated together. The resulting artificial skin can detect both properties simultaneously. The transistors used in the circuits and the semiconductors both use "organic" materials based on chains of carbon atoms, so maybe robots will "feel" a little bit more human.

How will artificial skin conduct sensation for human beings? Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes can make the surface of prosthetic devices feel like the the covering you were born with. In the example shown above, a nanotube is shown delicately balanced on top of gold filaments, and threaded through a rubbery polymer. The polymer/nanotube skin will transfer heat from the surface to the sensor network below as quickly as your skin communicates this information. The nanotubes enhance the piezoelectric effect inherent in the polymer. The sensors can then generate a signal to the brain.

HAHA! *point!!* Conduit-layered synthskin!! XDDDD *SO vindicated!*