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Artificial Retinas Can Balance a Pencil On Its End

Posted by samzenpus on from the for-all-your-pencil-balancing-needs dept.

mikejuk writes "A team of researchers has built a neural information system that is good enough and fast enough to balance a pencil in real time. If you think it's an easy task, try it! The Institute of Neuroinformatics, ETH / University Zurich have used what look like video cameras to do the job but in fact they are analog silicon retinas. They work so fast that even with fairly basic hardware they can balance a pencil."

2 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Amazing by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: -1, Troll

    Anyone knowledgeable enough on the subject to speculate on the implications or interesting uses of this technology?

    First, read the article. It will work like this: pixel(s) report(s) a spike, gun platform rotates theta and phi and then fires on the pixel(s) which reported the spike. The Arab problem will be solved a piece at a time.

  2. Yet another example of why humans are better. by tomhudson · · Score: 0, Troll
    The robot expends lots of energy trying to balance the pencil on it's end, always adjusting, and never gets it quite right.

    The human (me) turns the pencil on it's side, and balances it in the middle.

    Call me back when you have a robot that's smart enough to actually solve the problem, and I'll be impressed.