Word: robotical
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...JUNKYARD WARS (TLC) Comedy Central's robot-war show BattleBots has the testosterone and buxom babes. But this U.K.-imported engineering challenge has the real geek appeal. Turning teams of amiable tinkerers loose to build hydroplanes, rockets and the like out of scrap parts, it combines good-natured competition with just enough pseudo education that you don't have to feel guilty for not watching Nova instead...
...rises up on its wheels and lifts its occupant to eye level while maintaining balance with such stability that it can't be knocked over even by a violent shove. Kamen gets annoyed when the IBOT is called a wheelchair. It is, he says, "the world's most sophisticated robot...
...they were onto something bigger. "We realized we could build a device using very similar technology that could impact how everybody gets around," he says. The IBot was also the source of Ginger's mysterious code name. "Watching the IBOT, we used to say, 'Look at that light, graceful robot, dancing up the stairs'--so we started referring to it as Fred Upstairs, after Fred Astaire," Kamen recalls. "After we built Fred, it was only natural to name its smaller partner Ginger...
BOWWOW That perennial Comdex favorite--Sony's Aibo, the robot dog--arrived this year in two new incarnations. The 220 model, instantly dubbed the Terminator by showgoers, is a sleek and scary-looking hound with a built-in flashlight and a host of programmable robo-features. At the other end of the spectrum stand Latte and Macaron, cute little round-faced puppies with entirely touch-sensitive heads. Both models just went on sale, and to Sony's surprise, the pups are already outselling the Terminator. Go figure...
...Other artistic concerns in the Sydney show are more earthbound. Over the past five years, New York City-based Momoyo Torimitsu has sent a battery-operated salaryman robot, "Miyata Jiro," crawling the streets of London, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney. With the artist, dressed as a nurse, presiding, the whole robot tour is videotaped. For Torimitsu, the salaryman is the casualty of an economic war lost last decade, a shattered soul in need of nurturing...