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 204 – Hot to Trot Bots

Michael and Michael make a rare recording appearance at their favorite coffee shop, Bean Traders, in Durham, NC, to talk about coffee, robot dogs, and much more.   This week’s episode is fueled by discussions on artificial intelligence, machine learning, power storage & delivery, as well as the future use cases for bots both big & small.  Kicking things off with Dominic Tan’s Domo Arigato poster with 262 robots, Michael & Michael then move on to the physical robots, starting with a robotic arm with a dodecahedron grasping mechanism, designed to capture delicate undersea creatures, like jellyfish.  Continuing on with … Continue reading

Episode 203 – Robotic Monks

After a quick vacation week Michael R. brings a meditative view back to the show with a Robotic Monk designed to welcome young visitors to temples in China. He then takes us deep on synthetics and their new religious beliefs as shown on the TV Show Humans. We then look at new robots from MIT that can walk, run, and climb stairs that are littered with debris – all with out any visual inputs. And we wrap the show with a bit of a discussion around the addictive behavior of games. Show Links Robotic Monk – https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/02/a-buddhist-temple-in-beijing-built-a-robotic-monk-to-spread-the-word/ Fisher Price Little … Continue reading