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Machine Gun Sentry Robot Unveiled
mpthompson writes "Samsung has partnered with a Korean university to develop a robotic sentry equipped with a 5.5mm machine gun. Meant for deployment along the DMZ between North and South Korea, the $200,000 robot employs sophisticated pattern recognition software for targeting humans. No three laws here, but the robot does include a speaker that can be used to politely issue a warning before taking the target out. The promotional video is both scary and funny at the same time."
real-life aimbot
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
I guess after a half-century mediation by America and China, the Korean Peninsula conflict has degenerated into the Crazy Olympics.
--
make install -not war
We need some improvements in pattern recognition before this is a feasible idea. There is a lot of cognitive processing that goes into seemingly simple decisions like 'Is this a person?' and 'Is this person an enemy?' and 'Is this person armed?'
It does not appear to have the capacity to tell the difference between an unarmed intruder and a heavily armed one, so defeating it is not hard: Approach it with some kind of heavier firepower, and while it talks, you blow it away.
And 200K? For 200 I could do the same thing: a home-depot motion sensor, a voice chip with loudspeaker, and a handful of fertilizer/oil land mines.
Am tired of the same old joke.
This thing would pwn jehova's witnesses!
it doesn't like to hunt for it's own bacon.
...can I program it to say "Get off my lawn!"
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
> politely issue a warning before taking the target out
I could have given them some to use:
"Dead or alive, you're coming with me!"
"Your move, creep!"
"Stay out of trouble!"
And the list goes on.
But knowing them, I bet they'll just go with "You have 20 seconds to comply".
"You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
But can it tell the difference between trees and... aliens?
I could very much see something like this being very useful in the US if the armament was different. I'm picturing something armed with essentially a paintball gun loaded with balls of marker dye... Might be very useful for places like prisons, etc. It might even be useful as a part of a bank security system. Have it mark them with paint as they leave..
Of course, the liability of it hitting someone in the eye would be a killer, but it is at least interesting to think about what could be done with such a system if armed with non-lethal weaponry.
-Matt
I'm sold! Imagine how much better we will all be able to sleep once these bad boys are deployed along the Canadian border!
So I guess these bots will pretty much serve the same purpose as landmines did: If you enter a certain zone you are likely to die.
There are some nicities though, such as being able to turm them off if required, as well as them being a little bit more visible. It would be cool if these things had a skeet shooting mode where you could rapidly throw targets into the air and watch the bots shoot them down. Sayyyy! I wonder if you could use them for rabbit shooting? That would have been cool here in Australia a few years ago, sure beats running around killing rabbits with your bare hands or trying to pick them off with a .22 rifle.
Australian running a company that does C# / C++ / Java / SQL / Python / Mathematica
You can't just up and *ban* the U.S. Marines!
After being thwarted yet a third time in the past, Skynet outsourced time line assassinations to Samsung and the rest they say is history.
When people escaped the DDR (East Germany), specifically over the Berlin Wall - the West Germans helped them in any way possible with open arms, short of provoking war.
Now we shoot them?
And 200K? For 200 I could do the same thing: a home-depot motion sensor, a voice chip with loudspeaker, and a handful of fertilizer/oil land mines.
Yeah, but when yours gets hit by lightning will Ally Sheedy be able to dance with it? I think not.
Reminds me of this scene. Hope they beta test it...;)
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
E.D.-209: Please, put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply.
...
Guy: But, but, but....
E.D.-209: Please, put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply.
Guy: Please, I put it down already. Don't shoot!
E.D.-209: Please, put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply.
Guy:
E.D.-209: Thank you for your compliance.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
It's a machine gun for the Korean demilitarised zone.
There's nobody in there that isn't an enemy, and there's nobody in there that isn't armed (or at least, it doesn't matter if they are or not).
And if it accidentally shoots the odd deer, then nobody cares.
Further, the whole point of talking is to prevent accidents with North Korean troops seen by accident out fishing or something.
You can bet your ass at the first sign of real trouble, they'll all be set to "kill on sight".
Take another look at the context of where this thing will be actually used, then try commenting again.
As others have pointed out, this concept has a tremendous number of issues that would have to be overcome for it to be worthwhile. First off, these units would be incredibly vulnerable to long-distance fire from heavy-caliber anti-material rifles. It's practically the most ideal target imaginable for a .50 BMG shooter: large, immobile, limited lethal range, and no human suffering upon destruction.
Anyone else notice that those prototypes look to have M249 SAWs in them? You can see the tail end of a belt feeding in during part of the video, and it's the most likely possibility for a small 5.56 belt-fed. Except there doesn't seem to be any provisions for decent ammo storage. That tiny box that the weapon sits in isn't nearly large enough to hold more than a hundred rounds or so at most, and it doesn't really look like the weapon is designed to be fed from the base (ammo exposed to the elements; feeding issues; turret rotation and elevation interfering with feeding).
Overall, it looks pretty well useless.
This is perfect as it is.
The existing armament won't hurt anybody because people just aren't that stupid. OK, maybe ONE idiot tests it out.
For those that think the current border is "cruel" because of the harsh desert and mean ranchers, this is better. People will cross when the chance of death is only a few percent. They won't cross if death would be nearly certain. Thus, fewer people die.
This is probably cheaper than using a laser or that skin-heater beam. Despite the robot part, it's kind of low-tech.
That was covered by Starcraft, which ripped off Aliens.
My script don't crash! She crashes, you crashed her!
they use the theme song from Pirates of the Caribbean as the soundtrack to their promotional vid...
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
What about:
- inability of current computer vision and AI technology to make sufficiently informed decisions about threats
- massive moral issue of allowing an autonomous device to kill humans without specific targeting by a human operator
- probable violations of laws of war and humanitarian laws as a result of the above
- fact that military-industrial complex can waste money on shit like this when there are people starving on the same planet
I see these as slightly more problematic than whether it has enough frigging ammo.
Read Pynchon.
I mean, it is not like the NK will not have week, month or year to map map out where those are, then prepare artillery bombardement on those coordinate. Or pass through the holes between the coverage zone of those gun. And it is not like anarmored vehicule would not roll those over twice. And I wonder also if there isn't ways to simply camouflage yourself : have a very wide light weighted tube for the infrared, go in the center with something for sight, and advance slowly toward the sentry gun. Or advance slowly under a thermal carpet. Or in a camouflage of bushes. OR snipe it out with explosive bullet or destroy it with mortar. It sound like this things would need an incredible AI to handle the various way to camoufalge yourself, but it seems only to have IR camera, normal camera and be smart enough to distinguish between trees and human. Just disguise yourself as a tree and that is it.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
And you have? Come on, this is Slashdot. Righty doesn't count.
(sorry, I was going to mod you up, but the opportunity was just too good)
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
You! Shrub! Put down that human...you have 20 seconds to comply.
...but that musical score is fucking fantastic!
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
You make atheists such as myself and other unbelievers look bad. But you'll grow up some day. People are not stupid for believing in one or many gods. There is no way to prove conclusively that a deity or deities exist or do not. I believe they do not; others may differ, and we cannot prove who is right. Soon enough we will know. So why fight about it? Why argue and bitch and whine? Those who attack a person's faith (or lack thereof) with such vitriol are merely insecure in their own beliefs.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Could you imagine if Microsoft made this robot?
Robo-sentry.NET Vista Live: It looks like you're trying to enter a demilitarized zone! Would you like to:
Either that, or they'd try and sell trespassers V1AGRA
Seriously, if you want to learn anything when it comes to threads like these, tune your preferences to demote posts marked "funny". You'll be amazed.
You mean that you don't think that the Americans have a strong interest in maintaining a balance of terror in north east asia?
The situation on the Korean peninsula means that the yanks have a fantastic excuse to maintain both Japan and South Korea as their pet states with strong American military presence in the region.
Then theres the economic powerhouse that a unified Korea would have been (prior to the north becoming a total basket case).
The two Koreas would complement one another very well indeed.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
I think there should be an international treaty banning all lethal weapons without a brain attached to the trigger.
In what way must the brain be attached? Would duct tape work? How about staples?
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
This makes me wonder how long it'll be until this sort of tech gets miniaturized enough to fit on a portable gun, so we end up with people toting Aliens-style M56 Smart Guns. You could imagine it being coupled with some sort of friendly-fire deterrence system like they use with aircraft.
However, religion can cause people to think they can make better predictions than they actually can, i.e. it gives them a false sense of security. It can also make people unnecessarily vulnerable to con men disguised as holy people.
Sure. But I can sell dirt to homeless people, and I'm not religious. And I know plenty of nonreligious people who think they can "make better predictions than they actually can." Overconfident and/or stupid people and all that.
What? You just said that we can't know. Now you say that we will?
I said that we cannot prove whether a deity or deities exist. But I figure we'll have some inkling after we die, yes?
That's a rather large generalization. Evidence?
Experience. Your mileage may vary.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
I'm not just throwing around random insults. If you believe in unproven and especially disproved things, you are in fact an idiot. So by simple definition, MOST religious people (all billions of them) are in fact idiots.
I mean, if you truly believe that some guy died for your sins 2,000 years ago and that your belief in him somehow will be your salvation "in the next life", or in some made up location like "heaven" or "hell", which clearly we have absolutely no evidence for, then you ARE in very simple terms, a moron.
Lots of people believe the earth is flat. What do you call them?
Now, there is a possibility in some backwards cultures and societies that these believers are in fact ignorant and not morons, but with the advent of the internet, at least in most countries where you have access to so much knowledge for free (wikipedia, etc.), ignorance is no excuse, and in fact if you REMAIN ignorant, that is in itself a form of idiocy.
Stop defending ignorant people who willfully refuse to accept the reality they live in. They are idiots, and they're hurting themselves, their families, the planet, and most of the good things that humanity and individuals IN humanity have achieved over the last few millennia. It's inexcusable. Stop defending them. They are idiots, by the very definition of the word.
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Invading North Korean soldier
or South Korean Soldier (or just a tourist) who lost one's way........
Clippy:
"It looks like you're intruding South Korea.
Would you like a perfect headshot?
*Get shot immediately.
*Run still a bit and get shot then.
[ ] Don't ask again."
"Hannibal's plans never work right. They just work." Amy/A-Team
No. But that kind of politically correct tolerance does. It takes only cursory look of medias over the years to see that many many leaders use the god/faith-card to make stupid sheeple do their bidding.
That is irrelevant. Violence, forced fairytales of ID and others, hiding of everyday matters like sex must stop. Religious nutjobs who can't keep their insanity to themselves and STFU must be stopped.
Preserve old classics: copy your collection onto all hard drives.
Realistically the land mine treaty is a waste of time. Mines will not be abolished from the battlefield for the forseeable future because they are an extremely effective weapon. Here you have a simple device that can be deployed by minimally skilled troops, it is cheap to manufacture, hard to detect and neutralize and can be deployed from aircraft with great speed for rapid denial-of-terrain as the US military likes to call it. Of all the things that tank commanders fear, they fear mines the most. You can see or detect another tank or a helicopter before it strikes, you can even stand a chance to evade, detect or even destroy and LGB or a missile with a counter measures system but a mine the tank commander can't see or detect rapidly in combat. The same pretty much goes for the infantry, they fear few things as much as mines and snipers. Here is an object that costs what? $50 to manufacture that has the power to scare the shit out of the crew of an M1 Abrams tank that costs $4.3 millon to make and better yet it stands a very good chance of destroying it. You can't beat that combination in terms of value-for-money. Trying to ban mines, land or naval, will go the same way that the various attempts back in the 1930s to outlaw the areal bombing of civillians. It is deplorable, but unfortunately also true.
...bad people do bad things and good people don't.
In a world *with* organised religion bad people still do bad thing and good people do bad things in the name of religion.
...self-proclaimed "chosen people" who are somehow smarter...
After reading your post and some of the replies in the thread, I have difficulty understanding in what way you are different. Sure, you're not knocking on doors, but your stated desire to "round 'em ALL up and put 'em in a sandbox", strip them of public office and do violence to people for talking to you puts you in the same category as the worst of them.
In some posts, you say you think {some,all} people are genius and idiot at the same time in different areas, including yourself. However, you seem to view other peoples idiocy as inherently and dramatically worse than yours. This comes across as very arrogant.
http://marriedmansexlife.com/
Can anyone imagine what would happen if one of these would be lt loose in a busy place like a christmas shopping mall, a crowded airport or atoher place where loads of people are available and unprepared for such a device? Sounds like the perfect massacre tool to me...
What if it doesn't want to be switched off?
I was born a Jew and I will die a Jew. Judaism has done so much for me, set me in the right path, and made be a better person. I will not forsaken all my relatives and ancestors who died for a belief. You may take my life, however you will never take my religion from me.
Since you are very proud of your rational approach to life, you might want to go a step further and investigate a-priori an a-posteriori knowledge. You'll find out that the only things that are provable are the ones that are uninteresting - bachelors are single, and stuff like that. Belief is an intrinsic part of everyone's life, because outside of the mathematical and the semantic, nothing can actually be proven. It can only be inferred with a degree of certainty.
Even though you believe (yes, believe) that your approach is based on rationality, it isn't. Furthermore, you also haven't figured out the reason that religion exists - to provide answers to questions we can't answer, and where the answers provide peace of mind. Your blanket categorization of all things believed as stupid, less than worthy and below you on the totem pole of human quality therefore does cast a bad light on others who might believe similar things, but who do it without the snobbery that you display.
I don't think your approach is wrong, but I think you stopped a little early in your decision making process.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
You want to cure "compliance, order, and irrational submission to authority" by having an authority tell people what to believe? I think you need to think that one through a little more.