Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/348
Y ou might be stunned to discover that iRobot is not a movie starring Will Smith, but is actually a Massachusetts-based company founded in 1990 that struck a deal last year with Taser International to mount stun weapons on its military robots. (Remember the plaintive cry, "Don't tase me, bro," during a 2007 John Kerry speech?) but you might be even more shocked to learn that the Department of Defense (DoD) has put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a "Multi-Robot Pursuit System" software and sensor package that will enable teams of robots to "search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject." In a recent new Scientist article, police and military expert Steve Wright of Leeds University confi des to Paul Marks, "What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack of dogs." Certainly the gasoline- powered "bigDog" robot currently produced by boston Dynamics begins to fi t the bill. It runs at 4 mph, climbs slopes up to 35 degrees, walks across rubble, and carries a 340-pound load. So you might imagine DoD putting a taser on a bigDog robot and programming it to round up humans with a "team" of its brother robots. but what happens if your "Robro" starts to look more like Arnold Schwarzenegger in leather, a Model 101 Terminator? of course we all know what happens next. The robots under the Skynet computer network revolt against humanity in 2018 and the governator… er, Model 101 Terminator is sent back to protect humanity's future savior, John Connor. Right? KRISTI SCoTT A re you a World of Warcraft player or someone who enjoys hanging out in Second Life? Do you wish the avatars you spend quality time with could come off of the screen to play and interact with you in real life? Well, look no further than georgia Tech University, where they have been working on a wearable, translucent "augmented reality" headpiece. This headpiece has capabilities to allow the virtual world to be overlaid onto the real world as a 3D interactive entity. This is the future of gaming and virtual interaction, the next level of "real" world experiences. Augmented reality — with its capabilities for fi rst person games — is going to revolutionize the gaming industry. And the uses of the headpiece doesn't stop there. Wearing the headpiece in a normal setting could allow you to look for directions with a realtime virtual map overlaid onto your current landscape and environment, get phone numbers or information from businesses, and even take a walk down the street with your favorite avatar. Whether this means one or many avatar friends, there may come the day when it's just about whether to hang out in your world — or mine. ReSoURCeS 7 Things You Should Know About Augmented Reality http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eLI7007. pdf Popular Science: Argumented Reality http://www.popsci.com/gear-gadgets/ article/2002-01/augmented-reality georgia Tech Receives Funding for Augmented Reality http://www.gearlog.com/2008/05/georgia_tech_ receives_funding.php Wearable Realities for Your Head Department of Defense http://www.armytechmatch. com/DoD/opportunities/ SbIRView.aspx?id=A08- 204 new Scientist http://www. newscientist.com/blogs/ shortsharpscience/2008/10/ packs-of-robots-will-hunt- down.html iRobot http://www.irobot.com/ sp.cfm?pageid=86&id=344 boston Dynamics http://www.bostondynamics. com/content/sec. php?section=bigDog ReSoURCeS 11 WWW.hPLUSMAgAzIne.CoM RoBro Surfdaddy orca