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Automated Sentry Robots
jimbob5 writes "New Scientist reports that you can now buy your own automated Room Defender. 'Who would like this gift? Any child, or anyone who saw the director's cut of Aliens and dreamed of owning one of those automated sentries.'" The New Scientist gift guide looks pretty useful.
All you have to do is train your dog to sit/stay obediently, then get him to take the shots for you until the ammo runs out. You're free to pillage the room unmolested after that.
This isn't impressive.
If it said anything about actually TRACKING the target, I'd be impressed.
As it is, it appears to be little more than a light sensor attatched to a rapid-fire nerf gun. i.e. Dumb-fire, no aiming.
If it says otherwise, I'd love to know... but I saw nothing to indicate that.
...that can really persuade people to go away .
sigs, as if you care.
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
"For thousands more years, the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming onto the first planet they came across -- which happened to be the Earth -- where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog."
She will likely have to defeat my current wife in combat first...
That's a great idea! We can oil them both up and broadcast it live. The first ever Slashdot Pay-Per-View.
BTW the first yahoo to make the "Broad-cast" pun gets a -1 mod.
Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard disk?
A .357 would have to be aimed. This 'bot doesn't have good enough aiming capabilities for a handgun to be effective.
Swap out the foam-disk shooters with a pair of shotgun shells, and now you're talking. Fire both shells simultaneously, because the recoil will probably send the 'bot flying backwards.
For bonus points, weigh the 'bot down or screw it into the floor/ceiling/wall, and belt-feed shells into it. Affordable firepower!
It shouldn't be too hard to get something that 'looks' like it's tracking an intruder. Stick 4 motion sensors on the front with a narrow beam and have a motor turn the turret to whichever sensor was tripped. It probably couldnt handle tracking a horde of aliens but it should be enough to convince a little brother to fear it.
D
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Good ol' ED-209.
"Swap out the foam-disk shooters with a pair of shotgun shells, and now you're talking. Fire both shells simultaneously, because the recoil will probably send the 'bot flying backwards.":
Hmmm dunno, IMHO a flamethrower/TOW missle combo would be more aplicitable. Neither really have a recoil, plus flamethrower doesn't really need to be aimed much and the TOW has all the targeting stuff built in.