Salvador DaBot: robot portraitist extraordinaire

Leaps and bounds have been made with Sylvain Calinon's robotic portrait artist since we first caught a glimpse of this amazing AI being -- and no, we're not just referring to the stylish beret and mustache. Now dubbed "Salvador DaBot", the portraitist has developed far more advanced conversation skills, along with a voice that sounds a lot less like Steven Hawking. We kinda miss that feather pen he was sporting before, but his movement's a lot more natural now and his new marker seems to have helped his drawing style -- similar to old-school comic art. See this awesome little guy in action after the break.

[Via Sylvain Calinon]

[flashpoint Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:14AM]

Ummm, isn't he basically a PRINTER?

or is that a racist remark?

[TomTom2010 Posted Sep 27th 2008 12:27PM]

A slow printer, may i add.

[magallanes Posted Sep 29th 2008 9:03AM]

Or you could say, a Plotter.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:25AM]

I love robots!!!

[Gad Get Posted Sep 28th 2008 8:01AM]

Love-bots!!!

[mikeypizano Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:28AM]

Looks a bit like Mario to me!

[Don G Posted Sep 27th 2008 1:41PM]

He looks like Chucky when he starts stabbing Eric

[mikeypizano Posted Sep 27th 2008 2:14PM]

Man I haven't seen a Chucky movie in a LONG time!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 28th 2008 2:05PM]

yeah he does. do you work at HP with my dad James Johnson

[pavelbure Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:40AM]

this so called painting looks exactly like one of those photo booths you see at the mall, only this one has a robot attached.

[Gamer Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:40AM]

has an Italian look but speaks like Englishman ....Hmmm

[Gamer Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:43AM]

I just noticed the Wii in the End of the clip, whats the deal with that?

[Ghen Posted Sep 27th 2008 8:19PM]

Easy to program for it. Its a wide open product with no strings attached as far as encryption or proprietary transmits go.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:43AM]

DO realize what he would bring in at fairs and tradeshows???

"Ten dollars for your portrait sir"

I want a Salvador for my very on ;)

[Zinger314 Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:45AM]

I can't wait until someone hacks him to draw people naked.

[MagicWuff Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:47AM]

anyone else notice the Wiimote near the end? when he asks if he needs another portrait :o

[Tpebop Posted Sep 27th 2008 1:02PM]

The wiimote is used to start and cancel commands for the robot.

[RussellBishop2 Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:47AM]

Wow that's cool, although why did he write the name so strangely, and what if you have a relly long name?

[avis Posted Sep 27th 2008 11:48AM]

this one reminds of good old pen plotter, the difference is random strokes compared to x,y plotting

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 12:08PM]

I, for one, welcome our paint-brush wielding robotic overlords.

[Tpebop Posted Sep 27th 2008 12:18PM]

The robot is amazing, but its English is pretty bad. Was it a pre-scripted, Or was the robot using AI to hold the conversation? If its the latter then I'm impressed. If not then the engineers need to work harder on translating.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 4:21PM]

3:45 - "My final satisfaction is my rear ward, money as well."

TOO MUCH INFORMATION.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 12:47PM]

This'll win me no friends, but this beret-wearing piece of tech seems to be doing simple representational art, albeit rather well, but not surrealism a la Dali... Is the surrealist robot coming out next year? Salvador 2.0?

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[Tpebop Posted Sep 27th 2008 1:02PM]

But then you have to ask an important question: Can robots create art? I personally don't think they can, because art requires imagination and emotion, something a robot does not have (yet).

[Ferny Posted Sep 27th 2008 12:54PM]

ha ha ha that robot is full of win.

"wow I really looks like you"

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 1:09PM]

Replace brush with knife, begin Armageddon.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 1:45PM]

This is stupid for the following reasons:

1. This is basically a very, very slow printer.
2. It's not doing anything that hasn't been available for over a decade.
3. It's needlessly shaped like a human.
4. It pretends to have emotions and feelings.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 1:57PM]

1. Rollercoasters are basically very, very fast and terribly wrong railways
2. Forget the Quad Core processor, people build processors twenty years ago, how lame.
3. People love to pretend talking to each other, and I bet they are glad paying for someone they don't have to care about at all
4. So you want the thing to act like a real printer and a digital camera? Good look setting that up at the fair.

You are just afraid of our robotic overlords. The day will come and we shall all perish in the metal uprising. Until then, let's enjoy the funny crap people build out of sophisticated technology just to goof off. Just because some technologies have existed for a while doesn't mean they can't be re-combined into one hilarious piece of redundant machinery.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2008 1:51PM]

Fake, the guy had a Wii remote ... he probably drew his own portrait with the motion controls and just had the robot draw the physical lines for him ... wait, that would be even more awesome.

[Rick36 Posted Sep 27th 2008 3:24PM]

I'd be more impressed if he could draw portraits on an Etch-a-Sketch.

[Charbax Posted Sep 27th 2008 3:42PM]

You could try give that robot a bunch of algorithms and that could make the robot make something that would look more like electronic art, though always with some type of artificial limit. But with the correct algorithms, using random as well, it could help..

[MrLinux Posted Sep 27th 2008 5:50PM]

We just installed our new artist AI software, then it ran off screaming it couldn't be creative under such repressive conditions, then got drunk, caught a plane to Cuba, got drunk again then died after it used the contents of it's power cells to painting a picture of a fat guy on a beach.

[conscious Posted Sep 27th 2008 6:42PM]

ha, it's so obnoxious. i love it.

[jbroderick Posted Sep 28th 2008 12:07AM]

Pussydoodles!

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 28th 2008 4:21AM]

But will it blend? (sorry someone had to say it)

Does this just look like Sonys QURO with a pringles guy mustache?

[toronado455 Posted Sep 28th 2008 6:27AM]

Egomaniac robot that speaks in broken English! Looks funny too!

[AB Posted Sep 28th 2008 1:36PM]

sorry i know this is off topic but how do you change the display pic for the comments. Thanks

[AB Posted Sep 28th 2008 1:40PM]

never mind sorry

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 29th 2008 3:44PM]

Wow, what a nice robot ^_^