A mix of posts on gesture, HCI, perception or robots and some personal information.
I came across an old draft that struck me. It was written about two years ago when the IDF bombed Beirut. Back then, I did not want to post it, because this is not a political blog, but today’s situation in Gaza is so sad. The greatest sadness of it all comes, for me, from [...]
What you might hear in an English song if you are a Dutch native speaker.
In my own research ambiguity in signs is a recurrent issue. Context can change the meaning of signs. And if you are unfamiliar with a sign you may try to project anything that comes to mind on the incoming signal. These [...]
In celebration of getting a new job at TNO, with great opportunities to do all sorts of interesting stuff with gesture recognition and robots!
Also, a merry X-mas and a happy new year to you all too! Thanks for the tip to Björnd, my brother, he owns one of these lovely old robots, called Mr. DJ [...]
It purrs, it’s furry, and a bad example of a ‘robot’.
In the words of Wowwee, the creators of these cuddly toys:
WowWee Alive™ Cubs are life-like, huggable baby animals that feature plush bodies and animated facial and vocal expressions triggered by users’ touch. Forget trudging through a bamboo jungle or embarking on a safari to [...]
I read a news item about robots on the Dutch news site nu.nl (here) about the ethics of letting robots take care of people, especially kids and elderly people. The news item was based on this article in ScienceDaily. Basically it is a warning by ‘Top robotics expert Professor Noel Sharkey’. I looked him up [...]
There is a fun company called Crabfu, which is basically one guy called I-Wei. He creates great steam powered robots, 3D art and animation and all sorts of robots with cute motion control (swatchbots). The funny thing about his swatchbots is that he uses direct control of the actuators which create the movement, see for [...]
Paro, a present for some Dutch elderly people (source)
In the local Dutch news I read that another Paro, a robot baby seal, had reached our shores. More specifically, a Paro seal entered the homes and hearts of the good people of verpleeghuis Van Wijckerslooth in Oegstgeest.
It is altogether fitting that Paro has come to Oegstgeest. [...]
Wu Yulu’s ‘talking and walking robot’
Wu Yulu is apparently some chinese guy who has built robots on his own. This fella, named La Yang Che (a translation anyone?) can actually walk and sort of talk. The visionary design of Yulu manages to capture a hitherto disregarded aspect of human face-to-face interaction: The flapping of the [...]
Spykee is a fairly new robot by Meccano, which explains why you need to assemble it from a bunch of plastic and metal parts. AvB describes the assembly quite well on his blog.
Does Spykee actually ‘do’ anything of its own?
For me, it is a bit weird to see that somehow Meccano managed to transform the idea [...]
This time the robot, Robosaurus, is not from WowWee, nor is it cute, small and safe. There are quite a few robots that you can rent for shows or trade fairs and such. Honda’s Asimo, Titan (Cyberstein), Mico … feel free to add what you know here.
There is a small company called rentarobot. But their [...]
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