Category: Robot

Man reveals the truth of his two year ‘relationship’ with a sex robot

On By A.P.In Robot, sexLeave a comment

David Mills has opened up about his two year ‘relationship’ with a doll.

The 57-year-old has just celebrated his second anniversary with Taffy, his £5000 “RealDoll2”, with silicone skin and steel joints.

He has revealed that some women are turned on by the doll and he’s even shared a threesome with one woman.

The twice-divorced dad says he still dates and gets differing reactions if he tells them about his sex doll and some would “freak out”.

He told Men’s Health: “They’ll be like, ‘Don’t call me anymore, I’m unfriending you on Facebook, stay away from me and my children,’ that sort of thing.

“But I’ve met some women who were into me because of the doll. I’ve had sexual experiences that I never would’ve had without Taffy.”

The American bought the sex robot from a Californian company two years ago and paid an extra £300 for added freckles, to make her more realistic.


The robots come with a £5000 price tag and latets versions will even come with a pulse.

According the website of sex doll suppliers Abyss, Taffy has an “ultra-realistic labia,” “stretchy lips,” and a hinged jaw that “opens and closes very realistically.”

In the first few months, he revealed, he would often come home, see the frozen figure sitting on a chair, and let out a blood-curdling scream.

David recalls one occasion when he brought a woman back to his house after a date, without telling her about his silicone companion.

He added: “I didn’t want my date to walk into the room and suddenly see Taffy, because if you’re not expecting her, she’s kind of terrifying.”

“So I say to this girl, ‘Give me a minute.’ And I run into the bedroom and quickly throw a sheet over Taffy.

“That was a close one.”

David laughs as he recalls one particular act with Taffy which would be impossible with a real woman.

He said: “Sometimes, when I just don’t feel like looking at her, I’ll take out her vagina.
“She stays in the bedroom, and I just walk around with her p***y. Isn’t modern technology wonderful?”

But David is keen to point out that his ownership of a sex robot doesn’t mean he is crazy.

He said: “I wouldn’t exactly call this a relationship.

“I think one of the misconceptions about sex robots is that owners view their dolls as alive, or that my doll is in love with me, or that I sit around and talk to her about whether I should buy Apple stock.


Sex robots are big business in the States and are becoming more advanced all the time.

He also revealed his 20-year-old daughter aware of Taffy’s existence.

“We don’t really talk about it,” he added. “Just like we don’t talk about my television set or washing machine.”

Sex robots have become much more sophisticated in recent years and experts say walking, talking dolls won’t be too far away.

The “RoxxxyGold” robot from True Companion — with a base price, before the extras, of £4,800 — offers options including “a heartbeat and a circulatory system” and the ability to “talk to you about soccer.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/1198869/ive-met-some-women-who-were-into-me-because-of-the-doll-man-reveals-the-truth-of-his-two-year-relationship-with-a-sex-robot/

First robot designed to cause human pain and make us bleed

On By A.P.In pain, RobotLeave a comment

By Jasper Hamill

Experts fear it’s only a matter of time before robots declare war on humans.

Now the tech world has taken one small step toward making this nightmare scenario a reality.

An American engineer has built the world’s first robot that is entirely designed to hurt human beings.

The pain machine breaks the first rule in science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s famous “laws of robotics,” which states that machines should never hurt humans.

“No one’s actually made a robot that was built to intentionally hurt and injure someone,” robot designer and artist Alexander Reben told Fast Company.

“I wanted to make a robot that does this that actually exists.

“[It was] important to take it out of the thought experiment realm into reality, because once something exists in the world, you have to confront it. It becomes more urgent. You can’t just pontificate about it.”

Luckily for us humans, the pain-bot is not quite the shotgun-wielding death machine depicted in the “Terminator” films.

Its only weapon is a small needle attached to a long arm, which is used to inflict a small amount of agony on a human victim.

The robot randomly decides whether to attack people who are brave enough to put their hands beneath its arm, although it’s not strong enough to cause major injury.

Reben said the aim of the project wasn’t to hasten the end of humanity. Instead, he wants to encourage people to start discussing the prospect that robots could soon have some terrifying powers.

“I want people to start confronting the physicality of it,” Reben says. “It will raise a bit more awareness outside the philosophical realm.”

“There’s always going to be situations where the unforeseen is going to happen, and how to deal with that is going to be an important thing to think about.”

Last year, world-famous British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking claimed robots and artificial intelligence could wipe humans off the face of the planet.

Billionaire Elon Musk agrees, having spent much of the past few years warning about the apocalyptic scenario of a war between man and machine.

Both Hawking and Musk signed a letter last year urging world leaders to avoid a military robotics arms race.

It is likely that the battles of the future will involve machines capable of killing without needing to be directed by a human controller.

“[Robotic] weapons are ideal for tasks such as assassinations, destabilizing nations, subduing populations and selectively killing a particular ethnic group,” the letter said.

“We therefore believe that a military AI arms race would not be beneficial for humanity.”

http://nypost.com/2016/06/13/this-is-the-first-robot-designed-to-cause-human-pain/?utm_source=applenews&utm_medium=inline&utm_campaign=applenews

Robot outperforms highly-skilled human surgeons on pig GI surgery

On By A.P.In Medicine, Robot, surgery, Sutures, The Future, The SingularityLeave a comment

A robot surgeon has been taught to perform a delicate procedure—stitching soft tissue together with a needle and thread—more precisely and reliably than even the best human doctor.

The Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), developed by researchers at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., uses an advanced 3-D imaging system and very precise force sensing to apply stitches with submillimeter precision. The system was designed to copy state-of-the art surgical practice, but in tests involving living pigs, it proved capable of outperforming its teachers.

Currently, most surgical robots are controlled remotely, and no automated surgical system has been used to manipulate soft tissue. So the work, described today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, shows the potential for automated surgical tools to improve patient outcomes. More than 45 million soft-tissue surgeries are performed in the U.S. each year. Examples include hernia operations and repairs of torn muscles.

“Imagine that you need a surgery, or your loved one needs a surgery,” says Peter Kim, a pediatric surgeon at Children’s National, who led the work. “Wouldn’t it be critical to have the best surgeon and the best surgical techniques available?”

Kim does not see the technology replacing human surgeons. He explains that a surgeon still oversees the robot’s work and will take over in an emergency, such as unexpected bleeding.

“Even though we take pride in our craft of doing surgical procedures, to have a machine or tool that works with us in ensuring better outcome safety and reducing complications—[there] would be a tremendous benefit,” Kim says. The new system is an impressive example of a robot performing delicate manipulation. If robots can master human-level dexterity, they could conceivably take on many more tasks and jobs.

STAR consists of an industrial robot equipped with several custom-made components. The researchers developed a force-sensitive device for suturing and, most important, a near-infrared camera capable of imaging soft tissue in detail when fluorescent markers are injected.

“It’s an important result,” says Ken Goldberg, a professor at UC Berkeley who is also developing robotic surgical systems. “The innovation in 3-D sensing is particularly interesting.”

Goldberg’s team is developed surgical robots that could be more flexible than STAR because instead of being manually programmed, they can learn automatically by observing expert surgeons. “Copying the skill of experts is really the next step here,” he says.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601378/nimble-fingered-robot-outperforms-the-best-human-surgeons/

Thanks to Kebmodee for bringing this to the It’s Interesting community.

Robo Faber – a robot that can generate infinite number of unique abstract ‘hand-drawings’

On By A.P.In Matthias Dörfelt, Robo Faber, Robot, robot art, robot artist, robot drawing1 Comment

robot art8

robot art7

robot art6

robot art5

robot art4

robot art 3

robot art2

robot art 1

It might not be Van Gogh, but this robot’s work certainly provokes a reaction.
When let loose on paper, the robot runs riot drawing bold, bizarre and seemingly random shapes.

The machine, named Robo Faber, is programmed with an algorithm created by Los Angeles-based artist Matthias Dörfelt.

‘I did a lot of work recently where I wrote custom computer software to generate drawings that look very similar to my own hand drawn ones,’ creator Mr Dörfelt told MailOnline.

‘Creating a robot that would actually use a pen to bring these drawings into a physical form was a logical next step.’

Robo Faber is a custom built differential drive robot consisting of two dc motors with encoders at each of the motor shafts.
Each piece of art is entirely unique and there is no clear logic to how the pieces fit together.

According to Mr Dörfelt, the intention was to leave it open to the audience to find the connections that make sense to them.
‘The reactions have been extremely positive,’ said Mr Dörfelt.

‘I think the drawings have a quality to them that make them interesting on their own, even if you don’t know the whole robot story or that they were created by a robot.’

Mr Dörfelt has previously used computer algorithms to create a wall of randomly generated, unique faces, and hopes to continue to explore how robots can create works of art.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2493412/The-robot-DOODLE-Machine-creates-abstract-drawings–image-same.html#ixzz2nSzL2CX2

Austria media reports on speculated robot suicide

On By A.P.In Austria, Helmut Kniewasser, impulsivity, Robot, robot suicide, suicideLeave a comment

o-ROBOT-SUICIDE-570

Firemen were called to a house fire that broke out after a mechanical cleaning gadget somehow switched itself on and destroyed itself by moving onto a kitchen hotplate.
Local media in Austria have referred to the incident as ‘robot suicide’ and even suggested it was fed up with the constant cleaning it had to do.

Fireman Helmut Kniewasser was one of those called to tackle the blaze at Hinterstoder in Kirchdorf, Austria.

He said: ‘The home-owner had put the small robot on the work surface to clean up some spilled cereal. Once the robot had done its job it was switched off but left on the kitchen sideboard.

‘The 44-year-old house owner, together with his wife and son, then left the house and were not home when the robot set off.

‘Somehow it seems to have reactivated itself and made its way along the work surface where it pushed a cooking pot out of the way and basically that was the end of it.
‘It pretty quickly started to melt underneath and then stuck to the kitchen hotplate. It then caught fire. By the time we arrived, it was just a pile of ash.

‘The entire building had to be evacuated and there was severe smoke damage particularly in the flat where the robot had been in use.

‘I don’t know about the allegations of a robot suicide but the homeowner is insistent that the device was switched off – it’s a mystery how it came to be activated and ended up making its way to the hotplate.’

It took an hour to clean and make the building safe. But the family at least for the moment is homeless as their apartment is no longer habitable thanks to the smoke damage.

The homeowner said: ‘The company that makes the robots is selling dangerous devices, I intend to sue to get compensation. It has ruined my home as everything is smoke damaged.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2503733/Paranoid-android-Cleaning-gadget-switches-moves-kitchen-hotplate-suicide-bid.html#ixzz2nSvEZAqf
F

Samantha West – robot telemarketer that denies it’s a robot

On By A.P.In Kebmodee, Michael Scherer, Robot, robot telemarketer, Samantha West, telemarketer, The FutureLeave a comment

ways-messing-with-telemarketers-6

The phone call came from a charming woman with a bright, engaging voice to the cell phone of a TIME Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer. She wanted to offer a deal on health insurance, but something was fishy.

When Scherer asked point blank if she was a real person, or a computer-operated robot voice, she replied enthusiastically that she was real, with a charming laugh. But then she failed several other tests. When asked “What vegetable is found in tomato soup?” she said she did not understand the question. When asked multiple times what day of the week it was yesterday, she complained repeatedly of a bad connection.

Over the course of the next hour, several TIME reporters called her back, working to uncover the mystery of her bona fides. Her name, she said, was Samantha West, and she was definitely a robot, given the pitch perfect repetition of her answers. Her goal was to ask a series of questions about health coverage—”Are you on Medicare?” etc.—and then transfer the potential customer to a real person, who could close the sale. You can listen for yourself to some of the reporting here: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/10/meet-the-robot-telemarketer-who-denies-shes-a-robot/

If you want, you can call her too. Her number is (484) 589-5611. This number, if you Google it, is the subject of much discussion online as other recipients of Samantha West calls complain on chat boards about the mysteriously persistent lady who keeps calling them. “A friendly sounded woman on the other end claimed I requested health insurance information,” writes one mark. “She doggedly refused to deviate from her script.”

After answering her questions, one TIME reporter was transferred to an actual human who did not promptly end the call, as others had when asked about Samantha. Asked for the company’s website, the real human on the other end of the line said it was premierhealthagency.com, the website of a Ft. Lauderdale company. “We’re here to help. . . because we care,” is the company motto on its homepage. A TIME reporter called the company directly, identified himself and said TIME was doing a story about the robot who calls people on the company’s behalf. “We don’t use robot calls, sir,” said the person who answered the phone, before promptly hanging up the phone.

When the number was called a second time, a real live employee of Premier Health Plans Inc., who gave his name as Bruce Martin, answered the phone. He said he was not sure if Samantha West’s phone number, mentioned above, was one of the company’s numbers. “First of all, we use TV, we use radio, we use Internet,” said Martin. He described the company as selling life insurance, health insurance and dental insurance. He asked that TIME publish the name of his company, the website and phone number in the article. “If you are going to publish this in the magazine, I’d like to get something out of it,” he said. The TIME reporter agreed to do just that.

Martin also said he would inquire internally about whether Samantha West worked for the company, but would not be able to respond to the request Monday night. TIME will update the story with any additional information he provides.

UPDATE: As of Dec. 11, one day after this story published, the phone number listed above was no longer answered by Samantha West. Rather, it diverted callers to a busy signal. Also the website, premierhealthagency.com, had been taken offline.

Read more: Samantha West The Telemarketer Robot Who Swears She’s Not a Robot | TIME.com http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/10/meet-the-robot-telemarketer-who-denies-shes-a-robot/#ixzz2nSpfusYd

NASA Mars Rover draws enormous penis in the dirt – almost crashes NASA’s website

On By A.P.In Mars, Mars Exploration Program, Mars Rover, NASA, Penis, Robot, Space and TimeLeave a comment

mars_rover_oo_err

Nasa’s $800m Mars Exploration Rovers have accidentally drawn a penis.

The twin exploration vehicles Spirit and Opportunity were launched nine years ago, in an effort to search the surface of Mars for signs of water erosion and possibly even life.

According to Nasa, since then the rovers have driven over more than 10km of Martian land, directed by teams back on Earth combined with autonomous cameras designed to avoid potential problems with the terrain.

It appears that part of the robots’ programming involves spinning in tight circles to test nearby terrain and find new routes.

Humorously, depending on your age perhaps, that has the unfortunate consequence of drawing a certain shape on the surface, which when discovered by Reddit essentially crashed Nasa’s website.

The image was posted on Nasa’s site and appears to be a genuine picture from the Martian surface – albeit one taken at an unfortunate angle.

It’s not clear which of the rovers drew the shape, or even when it was made.

Nasa lost communication with the Spirit rover in 2009 after it became stuck in some sand. Meanwhile the Opportunity is still traversing the surface on its way to the Endeavour crater.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/24/mars-rover-penis-nasa_n_3144656.html

Risk of robot uprising wiping out human race to be studied

On By A.P.In Cambridge, Center for the Study of Existential Risk, CSER, Huw Price, Jaan Tallinn, Martin Rees, Robot, robot uprising, Skynet, Terminator, The FutureLeave a comment

 

Centre for the Study of Existential Risk(CSER) will study dangers posed by biotechnology, artificial life, nanotechnology and climate change.

The scientists said that to dismiss concerns of a potential robot uprising would be “dangerous”.

Fears that machines may take over have been central to the plot of some of the most popular science fiction films.

Perhaps most famous is Skynet, a rogue computer system depicted in the Terminator films.

Skynet gained self-awareness and fought back after first being developed by the US military.

But despite being the subject of far-fetched fantasy, researchers said the concept of machines outsmarting us demanded mature attention.

“The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern, given how much is at stake,” the researchers wrote on a website set up for the centre.

The CSER project has been co-founded by Cambridge philosophy professor Huw Price, cosmology and astrophysics professor Martin Rees and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn.

“It seems a reasonable prediction that some time in this or the next century intelligence will escape from the constraints of biology,” Prof Price told the AFP news agency.

“What we’re trying to do is to push it forward in the respectable scientific community.”

He added that as robots and computers become smarter than humans, we could find ourselves at the mercy of “machines that are not malicious, but machines whose interests don’t include us”.

Survival of the human race permitting, the centre will launch next year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20501091

Japanese Remote Hand Shaking

On By A.P.In Communication, Inventions, Japan, Osaka University, Robot, Robot hand, Robot hand shake, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

Japanese scientists at Osaka University have created a robot hand so people can shake hands with someone remotely. The robot hand communicates grip force, body temperature and touch. The creators are considering building telepresence robots with the robot hand so they can shake hands with people.
The creators of the robot hand say, “People have the preconceived notion that a robot hand will feel cold, so we give it a temperature slightly higher than skin temperature.”

http://www.sciencespacerobots.com/blog/32820121

Thanks to Kebmodee for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.