Slashdot Mirror
Giving Avatars Real Bodies
trogador writes "Researchers are working to associate online avatars with physical bodies, connecting virtual reality robots with steel and software counterparts. The unification of software and mobility like this results in the so-called 'Ubibot' (ubiquitous robot), which the researchers predict is the future of interactive robotics. In the future, avatars on your pc/cell/pda screen may be able to bring you your tea or scratch your back. 'Two key components of the interface involve the sensor mapper and behavior mapper. The sensor mapper helps Rity get physical (ultrasound) sensor information from Mybot, enabling the virtual avatar to use physical information. The behavior mapper helps Rity actually perform physical behaviors using Mybot in a real environment, enabling the avatar to interact physically with human beings in real environments.'"
In a particularly memorable SeaQuest DSV the world is destroyed by two huge Robotech style robots and they are still running around when the crew gets to the end of time vis a vis the mobius. Turns out it's two kids playing a video game in the same room controlling the robots that destroyed humanity.
Andromeda Ascendant, is that you?
Now I won't ever have to leave WoW to get food or drinks! Can the avatar shower for me, too?
I stole this sig from a more creative user.
So basically, if I somehow make my virtual pet/person/robot/whatever kill another virtual person, but the real world physical counterpart ACTUALLY went and kill someone as part of their expression (either intentionally or unintentionally...like hugging someone till it crush them). Does that count as the robot killing them or me?
Lastly, another step towards iRobot or the Terminator?
I thought of this some time ago, but for outsourcing. Imagine if you could pay $4000 for a ubibot, then pay someone in the third world $0.50 an hour to do housework, yard work, etc. for you through a VR interface.
They get a safe job that pays reasonably for their area, and you get cheap labor.
I think this links back to the story earlier about sex with robots http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/14/1555245/.
Although sex with my female Troll from WoW would be kind of awkward.
Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
We all know where this is leading to...
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
Scratch my back? Bring me beer? Make with the sexbot like other scientists promised and I'll use a stick and put my beer in a cooler nearby.
Did anyone else misread that? Or are my eyes going bad on a Friday evening?
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
So the Unibomber manifesto could someday be read as prophecy after all...
I've got mixed feelings. Yeah, having a real-life thing to be your companion sounds nice but if you want that kind of companionship you might want to get a real pet. Then again in areas like South Korea and Japan - where these things would likely flourish - people don't own pets that much. Here's where I can see this going: for a group of nations whose children grew up watching things like Astro Boy, of course they'd have an appreciation of this real world robot/digital world avatar. But we westerners having been raised on I, Robot have a negative outlook on robotics.
Are we robophobic in the United States?
and cleaning them up is a very, very messing business. Just ask Harrison Ford.
The Spice Must Flow!
...Bring you tea...
...Scratch your back...
...Snap your neck like a twig.
YOU'RE NEXT!
6765742061207265616C206675636B696E67206A6F6200
One string, one floating point number: Sid 6.7
Doesn't anyone pay attention to 90s cyberspace movies?
I for one welcome our new Personal Masseuse Robot Overlords.
Ah, Mr. Robot!
http://www.moonpod.com/English/about_mr.robot.php
Given that this is Slashdot, and the only exercise that "some" (not all... I didn't say all...) Slashdotters get is in the jackatorium, obesity among Slashdotters on average is only going to escalate, if we develop a robot that will do it (punch the munchkin) for them. See this article for further reference. Get a girlfriend. A real one. Even if she's not Princess Leia.
Other than this text, there is no discernible information contained in this sig.
Oh, ok. I thought you said "romo".
... and then they built the supercollider.
sounds to me like a future add-on for Second Life
I thought it was cheaper to put a cockroach on a trackball than a robot to control it. Most of the people I know are barely smarter than cockroaches... cant I just program my univeral remote to load my favorite hentai bot into my wifes empty skull?
"In the future, avatars on your pc/cell/pda screen may be able to bring you your tea or scratch your back."
How fucking lazy will I have become by this point? I can get up and make my own tea! I've got a back scratcher or, failing that, my wife! And I can scratch her back, too.
Step 1 - Give avatars robotic bodies to interact in real world
Step 2 - Give avatar-robots real weapons to act human in real world
Step 3 - Deploy avatar-warriors in some country to forcably impose peace whether they like it or not
Step 4 - Destroy documentation on creation of avatar-robot-weapons
Step 5 - Blame the opposite political party for the problem of rampaging avatars fragging the landscape.
The sad thing is I'm probably going to be modded funny for this.
Giving a human a physical avatar has been done a few times. This has even led to some useful applications like IvanAnywhere so telecommuters can interact with their physical co-workers.
To provide an excessively obscure and nerdy example: The upgraded version of the Tachikomas from the second series of Stand Aloe Complex exhibit this. They have both a physical and virtual avatar, both visually consistent. Spoilers follow:
They are also are based on a remote server, so their physical avatar really is an avatar.
Link leads to known shock site.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Where both of you have a mechanical representation getting it on with the other person. Has it's issues though.
...
"Oh god! Oh god! Oh gooooooooooooooood! Yes! YES! I'm gonnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
"LAG?!?? NOT NOW!!!"
Isn't this called a remote control? Just because they moved it into a phone, etc. doesn't change that. I think they already have these.
The only problem would be that now a hacker could take control of your robot from anywhere in the world. Might have worked out better for Syndrome if he had gone that way, but sounds like a waste of effort to me...
Clones are people two.
didn't the Andromeda series have a ship that had an avatar body? Rommi or something was her name. (probably a shortening of "Andromeda", which was the ship's name) Until that point (fairly early in the series) the ship had a sentient avatar that presented herself anywhere in the ship as a grainy hologram, but could only communicate and couldn't interact with the environment or leave the ship. One of the crew converted a maintenance bot of some sort to match the holographic projection, allowing the ship's avatar to walk the halls of the ship, which is an interesting concept just in and of itself.
I thought that was a refreshing change. Most other sci fi series that had sentient ships had a viewscreen or something else to represent the ship's presense. I don't think any other series has given the ship an avatar as a humanoid. Somewhat the opposite of what's seen more commonly in sci fi, where the humans have a ship as an avatar. (think Voltron or pick your assembly mech series)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
To the person who tagged this article as "fragging furries", wouldn't "yiffing furries" be a more likely outcome of this? After all, the avatars would likely resemble plushies.
This sort of reminds me of Pullman's dæmons, which are kind of like life-long furry avatars of people in the Dark Materials universe. I think it'd be cool if we could have some sort of physical "avatar", albeit a robotic one not a living one as in the books.
Suppose a person has a sufficiently advanced and intelligent robotic avatar, maintaining a database of all sorts of stuff about him. It could serve as the person's representative not just online but in real life as well, doing all sorts of tasks that would normally require the person's presence. On the software side, this kind avatar would do a whole lot more than merely be a cute graphical element for people to see. It would be able to connect to all of the person's online accounts and manage/use them according to instructions.
Finally, physical avatars would be excellent companions (like in the books), depending on what sort of personality is programmed into them
(Off-topic side-note: Probably no one cares, but just in case someone gets me wrong, I'd like to clarify that I don't actually like the Dark Materials trilogy. Though I've read Pullman-related articles in Wikipedia and found some fascinating concepts like the aforementioned dæmons, I find the anti-Catholicism in the books extremely off-putting.)
- Francis Ocoma
Please wait while Sig Request is being processed...
In a few years, we'll probably see a finalized version of such a device stored in a giant evidence bag as a possible murder weapon.
In the meanwhile, have we seen any cases yet where someone remotely connects into a complicated mechanical device, in an attempt to kill anyone nearby? I know there was once a lot of speculation about this kind of thing back when cyberterrorism was popular topic within the media... as though someone in china could potentially hack into some factory or utility overseas and create a deadly malfunction by changing a random setting here and there.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Ubi-bot would mean something like Kil-o-Bot in English.
In other slavic languages as well.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Make make furless, except on top, please.
UBIBOT! JACK IN!
Okay seriously I've just run out of pointless things to say.