High schoolers create face-tracking spiderbot, Tom Selleck comes out of retirement
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Sep 15th 2008 8:45AM
posted Sep 15th 2008 8:45AM
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what they didnt say is that this bot was actually built to follow the girls they will never touch
I was waiting for it to find a face and tear it to shreds with its claws (they seemed more confused than the spider). Nice robot!!
Wouldn't Gene come out of retirement as well, as he was the original creator of the spiderbots.
Gene really did have the awesome hair. Tom had his moustache and his gun-toting values though.
Engaget, that is an an official Kiss Industries Kissbot 1000. For using its image, you now owe $1000.00 to the Kiss Empire.
Looks good, although at a quick glance I don't see what part(s) needed to be machined on a lathe.
My Daughter's high school offers a robotics class. Wish they had that kind of thing as an elective when I was in school. :(
That guy treats his friend like shit.
Socially damaged asshole!
+1 for the "Runaway" ref. But you could have also mentioned Gene Simmons.
From my cube you are a serious asshole. They are my friends from high school and this is a serious accomplishment. High schoolers creating something which can track human faces is a feat which i would love to see your blogging, pimply ass face do. SO in conclusion FUCK YOU from my cube
Settle down, Francis
Welcome to the internet sensitive loser
Why is this guy's "cube" so important to him?
I had a pretty cool engineering class in high school. Too bad I spent most of the class time playing deathmatches in Quake.
@Ross Schultz
DMY
I love Engadget headlines that make me laugh out loud! Thank you Joseph
Dude. Replicator. Don't trust it. Just go get a shotgun.
Okay, just watched the video.
Is anyone else a little disappointed to find out that it doesn't walk and it doesn't recognise faces?
Just what *does* it do?
Poor Kirstie Alley - she is now too fat to successfully evade this bot.
yesterday's college senior project is today's high school senior project. With similar results.
another semester and they should have decent results.
Dudes!! I've been trying to figure out the name of this movie for years, all I remembered was when seeing it as a kid (I was born in '85) was something about a man fighting robot spiders at the end of the movie. I know not much to go on. Thanks Engadget and Joseph!!
actually, "from my cube", both of these guys have had girlfriends that would make you (and many guys with higher standards than you) jealous. the "geeks can't get girls" stereotype is a defense mechanism used by the technologically and socially inept. and, since you seem to fit into that characterization, you're probably on the wrong site.
Trail - you're right, most of the parts were machined from polycarbonate on a gantry-style CNC router. however, if you look closely, the joints the servomotors mount to are machined on a lathe from aluminum, and then drilled and tapped on a mill.
and yes, it does use a proprietary face-recognition algorythm taken from a webcam. They did, however, program their own motion algorythm in C (the turning routine is finished, they hadn't completed the walking routine as of when the video was taken)
and they are high school students using high school equipment but this isn't part of a class. they designed the robot on their own time this summer.
staring at that photo makes my eyes go googly