Thinks

A stream of links and notes and pictures and articles on new technology, augmented reality, new media, cross-media, TV, mobile, Internet, artificial life, digital entertainment, social networking, inspiring art. That sort of cool stuff.

2ne1.com

Robots requesting help navigating a city

Both ends of the spectrum:

ACE, the Autonomous City Explorer from Martin Buss’s team at the Technical University of Munich, uses cameras and AI for finding humans, a speaker and screen to ask directions, and a touchscreen and gesture recognition to identify when the robot has been pointed in a new direction. More information in the New Scientist article.

The tweenbots have a no smarts; just a flag with their desired destination and a motor that carries them forward until they get stuck. They rely on human kindness to rescue them from peril and set them on the right tracks.