There is an old saying that goes “bigger is better” and considering the vastness of the universe we occupy, it’s easy to understand why we human beings might feel compelled to build bigger and better technological achievements. But while our universe may be infinitely large its secrets are microscopically small. For instance, a living cell, the building block for all life on our planet, can be as small as 5 µm. What is µm stand for? Micrometer, one-millionth of a meter. Viruses can reach sizes as small as 7.0xl0-7 µm3. Which is colloquially known in the scientific community as being…
Category: Robots Don’t Wear Belts
Robots Don’t Wear Belts: Diagnostic Robots
Injury and illness are universal parts of the human experience. All of us at some point in our lives get sick or injure ourselves. Luckily modern medicine has advanced to the point where what once were fatal diseases and wounds are now only minor inconveniences. (Which reminds me to remind you: Don’t be a jackass, vaccinate your kids.) That is not to say we don’t have a long way to eradicate all disease but its always nice to acknowledge as a species just how far we’ve come. Its also important to remember that just like we all get sick, we…
Robot Don’t Wear Belts: Animal Robots
Dogs may be man’s best friend, but let’s get real. Since the days of the original Lost in Space, what every little kid has really wanted is a kick-ass robot sidekick. We here at the Eclectic Eccentric say why choose? Shouldn’t we all have a faithful companion who is both a canine and a robot? I think we’ve earned that as a species. Well those of us who believe in science do anyway, screw the flat-earthers and climate change deniers. No Robo-puppies for them. For today’s entry of Robot Don’t Wear Belts we’re going to take a look at one…
Robots Don’t Wear Belts-Thought-Controlled Robots
It’s a fact that the human brain only uses ten percent of its true potential at any given time. Nah, I’m joking. That “fact” is complete bullshit. An apocryphal notion promulgated by bad science fiction writers looking for some pseudo-scientific reasoning that their characters can develop crazy mind powers out of nowhere. The subject of this Robots Don’t Wear Belts, however, promises to show you a cool new thing humans are learning to do with their brains that are firmly rooted in real science even though it might sound like an idea straight out of fiction: Thought-Controlled Robots. Don’t get…
Robots Don’t Wear Belts: Driverless Cars
Robots are the future. There is really no doubt about that. As technologies advance more and more things that we took for granted as human activities will become the responsibilities of automated machines. It will happen sooner than most of us think and the result will be a profound change in our way of life. Perhaps there is no better example of this than the rise of autonomous vehicles. In the United States, there are nearly 800 automobiles for every 1,000 people. Driving is something we do on a daily basis. Even those of us who don’t own cars ourselves…
Robots Don’t Wear Belts- Androids
Its officially 2018, which means the time of our robot overlords grows ever near. At least if you listen to Stephen Hawking or Elon Musk you’d be forgiven for believing that. Those guys are geniuses far beyond me and there is certainly plenty of grounds for concern when it comes to artificial intelligence. But the world isn’t going to fall victim to Judgement Day tomorrow. And to reassure you of that I thought that in this edition of Robots Don’t Wear Belts we’d take a look at the current state one of the most elusive of technological developments in robotics:…
Robots Don’t Wear Belts- CES Review
The world famous Consumer Electronic Show took place in Las Vegas this past weekend and what a better way to start my monthly look at tech series off than with a look at some of the very cool things showcased at this years event. In keeping with my always sunny disposition lets start with one of the winners of a CES Innovation Award the Raybot. Created by ECOVACS Robotics, Raybot is a water-free robot designed for the automated cleaning of solar panels. It uses a blow-sweep-vacuum system to get rid of dust and debris and keep your solar panels operating…