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Video: Rescue drone swallows humans, carries them to safety
The Tokyo Fire Department faces somewhat stiffer challenges than your run-of-the-mill blown battery or imploding workstation, so we're happy to see them enroll the use of some hi-tech machinery into their arsenal. The latest entrant is a human extraction bot, designed to do the heroic fireman thing without risking the lives of any actual, uh, men. Operated by remote control, it gets into hot, wet or earthquakey zones, finds the unconscious humanoids and devours them for later regurgitation. What's not to love? We haven't got a name for it yet, though we know it has a bigger brother equipped with all sorts of cameras and environmental detectors, so we suspect this is a pretty intelligent little beast as well. Just mosey on past the break already, and try to keep the Soylent Green jokes to a minimum. [Via Ubergizmo]
Takara Tomy's remote control robo-Q robot is tiny, incredibly cute
Takara Tomy never fails to impress, and with its latest robot, it's done an excellent job at eliciting "awws." You see, the February-bound robo-Q bipedal robot is about the size of a human thumb, yet its heart and mind are big enough to understand commands via remote control. There's even obstacle recognition software built-in to keep it from toppling over gigantic foreign objects (you know, like toothpicks and push pins), which is awesome enough in and of itself to warrant the ¥3,675 ($42) price tag.[Via TokyoMango]%Gallery-43103%
