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John Hawley and His Dr. Who-Inspired Robot K-9 (Video)
By day John Hawley is a mild-mannered open hardware evangelist for Intel. But after hours he is the master of K-9, a robot dog he works on a little at a time. Yes, this is a Whovian thing, which is why John's K-9 looks so much like the Doctor's. But K-9 is also a pretty good dog on his/her own. No vet bills, no constant hunger, no barking at feral cats in the middle of the night, obeys every command... so maybe Dr. Who and John Hawley have the right idea when it comes to canines. Except.... aww.... my dog, Terri the Terrorist Terrier, just licked my hand. What a sweetie! Terri may not take orders from a hand-held remote, but she has a lot of other fine characteristics, including affection. K-9 is very cute in a squared-off, mechanical way, though. Hard to resist, despite a lack of soft fur and no tongue for licking his/her master's hand. (Alternate Video Link)
Are you blabbering on about? Get an editor... oh wait, you are one.
But this honestly doesn't impress me as a K-9 replica. Sure, it seems like it's a decent start on one, but it looks far from finished. Even if all that is really left to do on is just "spit 'n polish" to make it look like the genuine article, it seems almost as far from a replica of K-9 as it would be to apply the term 'light saber replica' to a painted broom handle.
And its head doesn't even move... no extensible nose antenna or waggy ears or tail.
Nope.... just nope.
Like I said though... maybe I've just gone to too many cons or something, because I've seen vastly more impressive replicas of K-9 and other famous robots than this in recent years.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'