Swarm project lets semiautonomous orbs loose

Ah, it doesn't get much better than a smattering of spheres rolling about with absolutely no human intervention, now does it? Said scenario is exactly what members of the Swarm project are attempting to create, and while it managed to make an early appearance at Yuri's Night, the big show won't be unveiled until Burning Man commences. When all's said and done, a number of orbs will "flock, flirt, dance and interact" based solely on instructions beamed out by the directing orb, or mother node. Just be sure not to put yourself in the path of an oncoming ball of fury should you show up for the fireworks -- after all, it's not like a fellow human is directing the act.

[coffee @ Apr 14th 2008 4:53PM]

If these are 3 laws safe, no problem.

[Brian @ Apr 14th 2008 4:54PM]

Sweet, rolling balls of death...

[gabe @ Apr 14th 2008 4:57PM]

waka waka waka!

[Aguiluz @ Apr 14th 2008 4:57PM]

Disco Ball.

[For2itous @ Apr 14th 2008 6:42PM]

Yeah, especially when that's short for discombobulate!

[Sime @ Apr 14th 2008 5:02PM]

i want my balls to roll around like that...

[Stem $ell @ Apr 14th 2008 5:17PM]

Last Man on Earth's dying scream or... Musak of the Spheres?

[Fort2itous @ Apr 14th 2008 5:29PM]

`
"...Semi-autonomous orbs..." Yeah! Where 'semi-' stands for:

Slaughtering
Eviscerating &
Manhunting
Independently!

Skynet arose from the second generation of quad-cores, right?

[Victor @ Apr 14th 2008 5:37PM]

Hmm, anyone remember the planet of bouncing balls in Futurama...should be try and mass produce these things, haha.

[Shadow @ Apr 14th 2008 5:46PM]

Lol its like the rolling balls from HL2!!!!

[STNC @ Apr 14th 2008 6:16PM]

This...is cool

[Fray @ Apr 14th 2008 6:53PM]

I, for one, welcome our spherical robot overlords.

[mushrooshi @ Apr 14th 2008 7:48PM]

Looks like somebody is missing their spherical organic overlords.

[Otsego_Undead @ Apr 14th 2008 6:58PM]

I wonder if the King of the Cosmos knows about this stray cousin.. he's obviously the blacksheep of the family.

[pabs @ Apr 14th 2008 9:26PM]

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THE MACHINE TO THE LEFT IS ? LOOKS LIKE SEGWAY BALANCE CONTROL WITH A HIGH CLEARANCE CENTER, ANYONE ? THANKS

[audiocronic @ Apr 15th 2008 12:23AM]

WHAT?! SAY A LITTLE LOUDER! WE COULDN'T HEAR YOU! KTHNX.

=/

[Coreyfro @ Apr 15th 2008 2:49AM]

The machine to the left is K10, a NASA rover test bed hosted at NASA Ames at Muppet Field

[Justin @ Apr 14th 2008 9:37PM]

I smell Langoliers.

[Jon Doe. @ Apr 15th 2008 1:20AM]

This must be version 2.0 of those white spheres from The Prisoner.