Holy Crap. Watching that thing move scared me. I don't know why, but I just envision a swarm of them inflating and deflating and rolling after me in the dark of the night...
Watching this, I couldn't help but think that this is the video that human historians will dig up in an attempt to figure out why their distant ancestors thought it wise to develop the robots that would eventually enslave the entire race...or maybe it was just the music selection?
That some things in science fiction have come true is NOT a good reason to bring up a fucking robot apocalypse every time a robot is posted to hacker news.
I pay attention to these things. It really is pretty much every time a robot is brought up that someone who thinks they are clever says "Terminator!"
As was already pointed out here, this is so far from a sentient robot it isn't even funny. It is also really far from the T-1000. Really, really far.
People, please learn a thing or two about robotics or AI before making such an infantile assertion. Did you ever think it is bad for society to be so wild? You know, the popular idea in media where science = mad lone wolf scientist? Robots are pretty much the coolest way to learn engineering, and I'm just sick of people who add nothing to the conversation.
I apologize if it wasn't clear. My comment was in no way intended to add a cliche to the noise so much as to comment on the music selection. Perhaps robotics researchers would be taken more seriously if they took themselves more seriously.
For example, I've seen dozens of Asimo video clips. Asimo is magnitudes closer to being a sentient robot than this rubber ball thingy, but I've never seen an Asimo video clip that devolved into Hollywood style quick cuts with apocalyptic background music. So, I've never thought to make this sort of comment regarding Asimo.
Actually you don't know much about ASIMO if you think it is closer to being sentient than the rubber ball. It is a dumb mobility platform with a few sensors that aren't really used.
There was nothing in the music that made it ominous to me. It was trying to show a dynamic mobility platform. Electronic music != robot apocalypse.
It's morphable, not sentient. Besides, rupturing the inflatable components will remove its morphing ability. Not exactly as resilient as T1000, wot? :p
In the event that robots eventually enslave the entire race, I doubt there will be any video record. It'll all be on youtube, owned by — guess who — the machines.
That machine in the video is not what we would most likely implement. Imagine robots with articulations more fine than "motor1, turn 39 degrees clockwise. motor2, turn 68 degrees clockwise", etc. Possibly more compact robotic limbs that better replicate natural animal movement. More precision.
Strangely, during the development of the robot, several members of the team were plagued by persistent, unexplained nightmares. An official spokesman for iRobot attributed the nightmares to high stress and said that the affected researchers were recovering on vacation. Requests to contact the researchers were rebuffed and their current location is unknown. When approached for an interview, the project director gave only the cryptic statement, "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!"
No firm date has been set for commercial release of products using this technology, a spokesman giving only a figurative release date of "when the stars are right". However, he assured us, that it would "definitely be... soon."
