A father an son have made a business out of creating these giant Transformers out of scrap metal and spare car parts. The first took three years to make in an abandoned warehouse based on photos they got online, but they've now turned their hard work into a thriving business; they made about a million RMB (over $160,000 USD) last year.
1997, Japanese machine shop owner Hitoshi Takahashi started building this 17-ton robot. Two diesel engines allow the machine to walk at a brisk 2.5 MPH, which is just fast enough to walk straight into my mecha-loving heart.
MentalFloss reports that this real-life Optimus Prime Transformer was created by a Turkish company named Letvision. This beast is dubbed Letrons, and you've gotta think that happened cause of some folks over at the Transformers franchise.
Microsoft just deployed a new robotic security robot, the K5.
Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus was being policed last week by five of these roughly human-sized 300-pound (136 kg) robots, each equipped with enough cameras, sensors, artificial intelligence, and alarms that they can replace most human security patrols.But who knows how long until they teach themselves how to craft weaponry. We've all seen enough movies to know what "artificial intelligence" actually means.
Pixar technical director Alonso Martinez made this adorable little robot that's sure to give you the awwws. Described as a "desk companion," Mira is capable of tracking faces in order to play a game of peek-a-boo with the user. According to Martinez,
Mira is a desk companion that makes your life better one smile at a time. This project explores human robot interactivity and emotional intelligence. Currently Mira uses face tracking to interact with the users and loves playing the game “peek-a-boo”. As her understanding of the world and people's emotions get richer so will her ability to interact with people in a more meaningful way.
When Mira sees you during a game of peek-a-boo, she wobbles and chirps with excitement, which surely makes long days stuck at a desk easier. There's no word on whether or not Martinez plans to bring Mira to the consumer market, but if he does, you can bet I'll be first in line to buy one.
The headline here says it all, guys...This piece of news sounds like something pawned off the script of Pacific Rim or something. And let it be known here that we're just a few mere months away from Megabots, Inc. sending off its deadly robot to take on whatever Japan has put together. Take a look for yourself though, of this badass bot:
