Filed under: Robots

We’ve seen methods for hooking house plants up with their own Twitter account, but there’s hardly anything more satisfying that building a robot to read back all those feeds from the thousands of people you’re undoubtedly following. Ganzbot is a decidedly low-budget robot that relies on an Arduino Decima to control the head actions and a USB cable to receive up-to-date status information. Have a look at the innards as well as a few words being spoken just after the jump.

[Via MAKE]

Continue reading Video: Ganzbot reads Twitter feeds aloud, looks fashionably low-rate

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Filed under: Robots

Here’s your afternoon dose of cuteness, ready or not. David McGoran’s Heart Robot has made its way into London’s Science Museum, and for good reason. This intelligent robot not only possesses a face with moving eyes and an external heart that blinks depending on what’s happening, but it actually encourages people to hug and cuddle it like a real human. Seen as being “among the first robots to signify a new era of emotional machines used for medical treatment and enjoyment,” this creature could one day become a mainstay in nursing homes where the elderly could interact with it and hopefully benefit in some metaphysical manner. Check out the read link for a video oozing with adorableness.

[Via TimesOnline]

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Filed under: Robots

Not that robots with emotions are anything new, but a project going on in Europe could perfect the art of crafting mechanical people that can “learn when a person is sad, happy or angry.” The Feelix Growing project is getting even more advanced with software that gives robots the power to understand how a person is feeling based on feedback from cameras and sensors. The bots look at a human’s facial expression and key in on their voice and proximity to determine what kind of mood they’re in. As with the recently announced UMass Mobile Manipulator, this creature too learns from experience, and there’s a video explaining just what we mean waiting for you in the read link.

[Via Physorg]

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