Slashdot Mirror
Meet Lucy, The Orangutan Robot
Roland Piquepaille writes "Lucy is not an ordinary robot, driven by software. She's a pure product of artificial intelligence (AI). And after a three-year long training, she's now able to make a difference between an apple and a banana, which is quite handy for an orang-utan, even if she doesn't eat them. Her five microcontroller chips wouldn't like this... In "A Grand plan for brainy robots," BBC News Online tells us that Lucy is the brainchild of Steve Grand, an honorary research fellow at Cardiff University's School of Psychology. And why did he choose an orang-utan design? "I made Lucy as an orang-utan because, can you imagine how scary it would be if she looked like a human baby?," said Grand. More details and references are available in this overview which also includes the cover of Grand's last book, 'Growing Up with Lucy: How to Build an Android in Twenty Easy Steps,' which was already reviewed on Slashdot."
Best quote in the article: "I like 'intelligent' people. It's the thick ones that worry me."
Contender for best story title? =D
The final test will be if she can pull the football away just before Charlie Brown tries to kick it.
that or rip his legs off...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I haven't been this creeped out since the first time I saw that Quiznos Subs commercial.
And what's with that glowing blue Terminator eye? Imagine that thing chasing Linda Hamilton around.Can't he cover that thing with fur or something? Make it look like a toy instead of like something out of madman's nightmare?
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
My girl robot.
he said: "can you imagine how scary it would be if she looked like a human baby?"
did you guys look at the picture of that thing? It looks like my mother-in-law! Thats friggen scary! I guess he spend all the money on research, and not on matching eye's.:)
...to avoid being scary, he's failed miserably.
Can't sleep...orangutan robot'll kill me...can't sleep...orangutan robot'll kill me...can't sleep...orangutan robot'll kill me...
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
- Incredible tree-climbing ability
- Facial-gesture mimicry
- Pick parasites out of fur (useful!)
- Poo-flinging
And I don't know if it's all orangutans, but the ones at my local zoo have an affinity for tire swings. They wear through the rope and then roll the tire into the safety moat.
My sigs always suck.
hi. I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such robot-apes movies as "Bedtime for Bender" and "Bananabots: Gorilla Rampage"
Fur?! Good god man!
A thick blanket is what is needed here!
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
That it not be absolutely terrifying looking.
That is one of the most frightening things I have ever set eyes on in my entire life. I can't imagine that a baby would have been even _more_ terrifying. Look at the cover of the book. It resembles the aliens from "Mars Attacks" to me. Also, according to the article, Frankenstein is a robot? I always thought he was a meat-bag like us? And, do we all have to refer to the hour-too-long movie "AI" every time Artificial Intelligence is referenced? Would it be infringement otherwise? Yeesh, I can't stop looking at that train wreck of a face... haunt me all night. -Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
Is she programmed in Ook?
"Time is an abstract concept devised by carbon-based lifeforms to monitor their ongoing decay." - Thundercleese
Lucy's picture on the book cover is pretty heavily airbrushed... I bet once she looks in a mirror, she'll be in for a lifetime of robot-angst.
"... the cutting edge of artificial intelligence or AI, a title used by Steven Spielberg for his 2001 film starring Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law."
Now that's good journalism: a little background about the history of AI for the lay-people who might be reading this article.
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. -Oscar Wilde
Couldn't they have gotten a better face for the poor thing? It looks like it was dragged out of the dumpster by the dog, and then viciously attacked by mauling centipedes, whereupon it flopped on the metal body of the ape and took on a very sinister appearance. I vote they spend their budget on getting a cute orangutan face!
Chucky, from Childsplay,
And this freaky uncombed urang utang thingy
I think i can understand why they went with this one. ;)