Robots

It isn't enough that machines can beat the best of us at chess, Jeopardy, and a billion other things. Now they want to rub our faces in our inferiority by getting into our universities and scoffing at us.

Boffins at Fujitsu Labs are teaming up with Japan's National Institute of Informatics (NII) to create an artificial-intelligence system that would be able to pass the entrance exam for the University of Tokyo, one of the most prestigious schools in the country.

The project aims to build an AI that can do well on Japan's nationwide university entrance exams by 2016, and then pass the more difficult exam for Todai, as the top college is known, by 2021. … Read more

Tovbot, a startup that wants a future full of personal robotic assistants, has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Shimi, which is auditioning to be your own personal robotic DJ.

The robot -- created by roboticists from Georgia Tech, MIT, and IDC -- takes advantage of smartphone technology to play music and pick songs based on your taste or mood.

It's essentially a cute, shiny dancing robot that performs a Pandora-like service and costs $199 (unless you help fund it through Kickstarter -- it's going for as low as $129 there).

"We want it to be your little musical companion," co-founder Gil Weinberg said at TechCrunch Disrupt today during the conference's startup battlefield segment. … Read more

If Borg ships have vermin on them, they look exactly like a project researchers at North Carolina State University are working on.

These intrepid scientists have taken a lightweight chip with a wireless receiver and transmitter and attached it to a cockroach like a little backpack. For the record, large Madagascar hissing cockroaches are the roach of choice. … Read more

Let the human-hunting games begin. Boston Dynamics has a new video of its oversized beast pursuing defenseless human meatsacks through a forest.

The Legged Squad Support System (LS3), aka AlphaDog, is designed to carry 400 pounds of payload and travel 20 miles without refueling. It's funded by DARPA and the U.S. Marine Corps and is meant to support troops in rugged terrain.

The latest video shows the cow-size monster clambering over rocks and up steep hillsides with heavy weights on its sides. It charges through bushes without a thought. … Read more

It's still no match for the human hand, but RSL Steeper's BeBionic 3 looks way cooler.

The company is launching a more powerful, durable version of its prosthetic today at a gathering of the American Orthotic Prosthetic Association (AOPA) in Boston.

The BeBionic 3 has an aluminum chassis, improved electronics, a redesigned thumb, and new motors that increase the power grip strength from 16.8 pounds to 31.5 pounds, according to SteeperUSA.

In hook mode, when a weight is carried by all fingers, the hand can bear 99 pounds, up from 70.5 pounds. … Read more

We've seen many uses of machines in visual art, but few seem as promising as this configuration of dancing lights.

Just check out the amazing vid below, shot in Linz, Austria, at the Cloud in the Net festival.

Ars Electronica Futurelab managed to fly 50 synchronized quadrotors, effectively forming luminous pixels in the night sky. … Read more

Run, don't walk, if you want to get away from this cheetah robot. If you happen to be non-human, you might stand a chance of surviving.

That's because Boston Dynamics' quadruped has set a new speed record and can now outrun the world's fastest human, Usain Bolt.

The DARPA-funded cyber-cat, already the fastest legged robot around, can sprint 28.3 mph, better than Bolt's best 20-meter split of 27.78 mph, the company said, quoting data from the International Association of Athletics Federations. The robot can now run significantly faster than its former top speed of 18 mph because engineers increased its power and refined the leg control algorithms. … Read more

Power suits are getting more commonplace. A paralyzed British woman has become the first person to take home a robotic exoskeleton that helped her walk the London Marathon earlier this year.

Claire Lomas, who finished the 26.2-mile race over 17 days, is setting the pace for home use of the ReWalk at home, according to Israeli maker Argo Medical Technologies.

The 32-year-old mother was paralyzed from the chest down after a 2007 horseback riding accident, but the motorized legs allow her to stand, climb and descend stairs, and walk around independently. … Read more

OK, stop what you're doing this instant! The pinnacle of robotic and viral video achievement (at least for the rest of today) has just been reached in the form of a four-armed, mohawked robot playing the drums in tribute to the Ramones' legendary song "Blitzkrieg Bop." You've really got to see this one to believe it. Seriously. … Read more