Hospi
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ICYMI: Mind-controlled mice kill on command
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: You might have thought things couldn't get any worse, but you'd be wrong. A recent study published in Nature showed that first, mice could be bred so that the neurons in their brains respond to laser lights. Then, the adult mice were hooked up to laser light helmets and when turned on, the hunt and kill area of the brain was triggered so that mice instantly attacked crickets in their cages. I have one thing to say: You can watch the 2009 movie, Gamer, if you want a prophecy of our future lives.
Panasonic's medical robot returns after the first-gen sold but two
Remember Hospi, the digital porter from 2004? We wouldn't blame you if you didn't, since Panasonic only sold two of the things in the better part of a decade. Now, the company is looking for a do-over, having redesigned the robot to actually provide some use to Japan's hospitals. This time out, the Hospi is designed simply to transport medicines to patients and take medical records to staff members. Not that it's just carrying around the odd beaker or folder, since Panasonic's designed the gear to lug around 44 pounds of weight at any one time. Given that each robot costs almost $100,000, you'd think it might be cheaper just to hire some interns or plumb in a vacuum tube system -- but it transpires that one hospital used the latter, and it cost almost $10,000 a month just to keep it running.
Japan's 2007 Robot of the Year goes to...
Putin. Ok, actually another stoic, semi-autonomous critter is the winner of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) 2007 Robot of the Year award. The grand prize goes to the work-horse, industrial robot from Fanuc Ltd. called M-430iA. The multi-axis, greaseless (read: sanitary) robot is part of a food and pharmaceutical handling system. Unlike your unemployed uncle with his GED, this bot can work non-stop, 24 hours a day, accurately picking up 120 items per minute as they roll down a conveyor belt. Other winners are the dancing Miuro in the small- to medium-sized venture category and Matsushita's blood-toting HOSPI bot. The latter apparently winning due to its unique position to assimilate the human race. Hey, anyone else smell polonium?
Matsushita Electric Works intros blood-toting HOSPI robot
Although Matsushita usually spends its toiling hours crafting gigantic televisions and ultrathin LCDs, the hard hat-wearing Matsushita Electric Works is busting out a blood-transporting robot to waltz the long, white halls in medical facilities everywhere. Designed specifically for "research institutes" which deal with blood inspections, the HOSPI droids are designed to work in groups which transport vials of blood from one workstation to another, while it "automatically analyzes" the containers on board. The self-proclaimed "sample conveyance robot" can wheel around at a blistering 2.2 mph to various destinations sans the need for tracks or human guidance, as it relies on programmable maps to understand the proper routes it should take. Sporting dual CPUs, the 'bot can presumably continue to operate (albeit less quickly) if one processor fails, and it also boasts the ability to dock itself in a recharge station if its battery is running low. Moreover, it sports a "highly precise laser radar" to avoid crashing into its blood-running brethren, walls, stray wheelchairs, and unmonitored patients. No word yet on how HOSPI reacts to EMMA's incessant requests for a date, however.[Via Digital World Tokyo]
