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Robotic Bins and Benches in Cambridge

Posted by Zonk on from the my-bench's-name-is-jeff dept.

OldBus writes "According to the BBC robotic bins and benches have been installed in Cambridge. According to the article, they 'move and chuckle' and 'sing when the sun comes out.'" From the article: "Mr Bogen hopes the cutting edge technology would help keep the bins and benches safe from theft. The Junction has a three year maintenance contract with Greyworld and plans to name all the bins and benches individually to make carrying out repairs easier."

5 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Large-scale irritation by ettlz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Safe fom theft, yes. But this will not go down well. They're like twisted appliances from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. These bins will be a certain target for vandalism --- especially after they've annoyed the hell out of all-and-sundry with their cheerful singing. Pah! It just confirms what people in the UK have known all along: local councils are full of rubbish.

    1. Re:Large-scale irritation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Perhaps the bins should squeal in 'pain' whenever used, and maybe even bitch and moan about people throwing all the garbage into them. And I don't just mean one line repeated over and over, I mean dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of lines, partially randomized and partially keyed to the weight (or other attributes) of the items being thrown away.

      I bet people would throw away every bit of trash they could find (and perhaps some things that aren't trash ;-) just to see how the trash can would react.

      It's not a pleasant commentary on humanity, but I bet it would work better than singing to greet the sunrise!

  2. I'll let you know what they're like... by Toby+The+Economist · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Junction is five minutes bicycle ride from here.

    --
    Toby

  3. Re:A good hack would be to give them Dalek voices. by ettlz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This does have the makings of a Doctor Who episode. A bunch of cyberbins form a collective intelligence and stalk the streets of Cambridge in their murderous gangs. Only one Timelord can stop them...

  4. Thiefs wont want to.. by drspliff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    steal pointless crazy stuff like this, they have no re-sale value (I doubt the components are that expensive, most of the £110k was probably development time and research etc.). Then I saw this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/10/kidnapped_ dalek/

    Somebody stole a pointless crazy thing (e.g. a rare original dalek from the Dr.Who series) and their trying to ransom it back..

    Putting £110 worth of equipment anywhere in most places in the UK and not bolting it to the ground is always a bad thing...