Episode 208 – Aibo Aibo

My grandma and your grandma sittin’ by the fire, talking about Aibo.  Aibo?  Aibo-abio-a-be! Robotics and robot dogs factor in this episode in a major way, with the second and much improved version of Sony’s Aibo robot dog.  An interesting fact about the new Aibo, is that this dog starts off as a bit disobedient, just like a real dog, and (machine) learns from it’s owner over time.  Could such a cute robot find its way into your home?   Well, if not a robot dog, how about a robot symbiot, such as LG’s CLOi SuitBot, a human-centric wearable robot?  … Continue reading

Episode 207 – Artificial Security

This weekend, the song “Eyes Without a Face” by Billy Idol must have played on the Eighties on Eight on Sirius Radio at least three times, and seems like a great way to introduce this week’s show.     Michael and Michael start off dealing with the challenging issues of security & privacy where biometrics are starting to be used in US airports to speed international flight identity checks.  Moving from facial recognition to facial mimicry, and maybe a little creepiness, the co-hosts take a look at SEER, the Simulative Emotional Expression Robot, which conveys an enormous set of feelings … Continue reading

Episode 206 – Searching for Spiders

In all the wrong places — the example for this show, as surgical robots!  But before we get to that, let’s start with the latest news in augmented reality. Michael and Michael explore the newly announced Magic Leap One Creator Edition AR glasses, using a couple of links & videos to discuss the merits and challenges.  The co-hosts struggle to come up with the right word to describe the look — steampunkesque was among those suggested. Moving to robotics, which is becoming more and more of a trend on the podcast lately, this time surfaces in the form of exoskeletons … Continue reading

Episode 205 – Fashionable AR

Michael and Michael start off this episode with a ready to weAR t-shirt from Curiscope, that displays the wearer’s heart rate in addition to a representation of heart & other organs in the torso.  This leads to a conversation on what more could be done in a hospital setting, to allow for a visualization for the medical professionals seeing & absorbing data about their patients in a new way.  Continuing the fashion theme, the team turns to the reward structure that Tommy Hilfiger is building into the Xplore line, with embedded IoT chipset & companion app to reward influencers for … Continue reading