Culture

This samurai-sword-swinging robot arm might be better than WWDC (Tomorrow Daily 190)

Ashley and Khail touch upon the major announcements from Apple's WWDC 2015 keynote, discuss the winners of the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, and enjoy watching a robotic arm mimic a samurai master's sword skills.

Ashley Esqueda Senior Video Producer

Ashley Esqueda is an award-winning video producer and on-air talent based in Los Angeles. She has been playing video games since she was 3 years old, and loves the history of television. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband Jimi, son Wolfgang, and two very squirrely Italian Greyhounds.

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Ashley Esqueda

June 8, 2015 5:35 p.m. PT

We're not 100 percent sure about both major tech conferences this year from Apple and Google. They were both important for the furthering of each's respective OSes. However, we didn't really get super-excited about the content of either, so I guess we'll just have to enjoy videos of robots falling down and/or slicing up tiny objects in a samurai sword challenge.

Seriously, everyone. That's a real thing. Some engineers in Japan decided to capture the movements of a real-life samurai (who also happens to be a master swordsman) and upload them into a robot arm, which then defeated the samurai in a duel of skill.

Watch this: This samurai-sword-swinging robot arm might be better than WWDC (Tomorrow Daily 190)

26:49

Podcast

Here are some links and notes for all the things on the show today:

We recap the WWDC 2015 keynote, if you missed it
The winner of the DARPA Robotics Challenge is crowned
Robotic arm learns how to swing a samurai sword just like a real-life samurai master
Back It or Hack It: HidrateMe, a smart water bottle to help you drink more water
User Feedback: Your #TDCharacter feedback, and our Phonetographer of the Day

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