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 @ Sep 27th 2008 11:14AM]

Ummm, isn't he basically a PRINTER?

or is that a racist remark?

[TomTom2007 @ Sep 27th 2008 12:27PM]

A slow printer, may i add.

[Magallanes @ Sep 29th 2008 9:03AM]

Or you could say, a Plotter.

[John @ Sep 27th 2008 11:25AM]

I love robots!!!

[gad get @ Sep 28th 2008 8:01AM]

Love-bots!!!

[mike @ Sep 27th 2008 11:28AM]

Looks a bit like Mario to me!

[Don @ Sep 27th 2008 1:41PM]

He looks like Chucky when he starts stabbing Eric

[mike @ Sep 27th 2008 2:14PM]

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

[Tray-J @ Sep 28th 2008 2:05PM]

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

[pavelbure @ 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.

[Ayman @ Sep 27th 2008 11:40AM]

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

[Ayman @ Sep 27th 2008 11:43AM]

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

[Ghen @ 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.

[Gavin Seim @ 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 @ Sep 27th 2008 11:45AM]

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

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

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

[Trevor @ Sep 27th 2008 1:02PM]

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

[Russell Bishop @ 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?

[siva @ Sep 27th 2008 11:48AM]

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

[0ddB0t @ Sep 27th 2008 12:08PM]

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

[Trevor @ 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.

[LarryLarryLarry @ Sep 27th 2008 4:21PM]

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

TOO MUCH INFORMATION.

[Neolight @ 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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[Trevor @ 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 @ Sep 27th 2008 12:54PM]

ha ha ha that robot is full of win.

"wow I really looks like you"

[Artie Lange @ Sep 27th 2008 1:09PM]

Replace brush with knife, begin Armageddon.

[Stiv @ 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!

[meist3r @ 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.

[meist3r @ 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.

[Rick @ Sep 27th 2008 3:24PM]

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

[Charbax @ 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..

[Richard @ 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.

[konshuss @ Sep 27th 2008 6:42PM]

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

[Jonathan @ Sep 28th 2008 12:07AM]

Pussydoodles!

[Ibanez32 @ 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 @ Sep 28th 2008 6:27AM]

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

[Aman @ Sep 28th 2008 1:36PM]

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

[Aman B. @ Sep 28th 2008 1:40PM]

never mind sorry

[Uuker @ Sep 29th 2008 3:44PM]

Wow, what a nice robot ^_^