BOOK :: ThinkGeek :: Robo Sapiens
Evolution Of A New Species
Visit the book's companion web site: robosapiens.mit.edu
"This is one of the most mind-stretching--and frightening--books I've ever read. It's also a tour de force of photography: the images reveal a whole new order of creation about to come into existence. No one who has any interest in the future can afford to miss it."
-- Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Around the world, scientists and engineers are participating in a high-stakes race to build the first intelligent robot. Many robots already exist--automobile factories are full of them. But the new generation of robots will be something else: smart machines that act like living creatures. When they are brought into existence, science fiction will have become fact.
What will happen then?
[...]

GENERAL :: FR :: Transfert
La famille robot
par Sébastien Gesell
mis en ligne le 7 mai 2001

Tomy va lancer au Japon une nouvelle gamme de robots jouets, les Dinkies, véritable petite famille interactive.

La famille Dinkie de Tomy s´apprête à envahir le Japon. Les Dinkies sont des spationautes robots, chaque membre de la famille étant doté de quelques fonctions interactives. Ces petites créatures de 12 cm de haut sont équipées de minuscules écrans à cristaux liquides sur lesquels s´affichent diverses expressions et manifestations d´humeur. Bien entendu, ces robots communiquent entre eux (à l´instar des animaux Poochi et Miaou-Chi de Tiger Electronics) et grandiront ensemble en totale communion. Tomy a même prévu des animaux de compagnie pour cette gentille famille ! Les Dinkies seront disponibles au Japon dès le mois de juillet pour environ 200 francs pièce. Le début d´une nouvelle saga à succès ?

SONY :: AIBO :: Sony empowers Aibo pet robot to read e-mail

By Paul Kallender , EE Times

URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010507S0059

TOKYO — Acknowledging that its prodigal robot pet did little more than talk back and eat batteries every couple of hours, Sony Corp. on Monday (May 7) unveiled software that will enable its Aibo robots to read e-mail messages and Web pages.

The company's Aibo Messenger applications software gives Sony's two-year-old robot the ability to inform owners that e-mail has arrived, to read the contents of a message, and to convey text-based information such as news and weather from home pages, Sony said.

The software is delivered on a CD-ROM and is uploaded onto the PC of an Aibo owner. The software converts e-mail or Web files into sound files, which can be played through the robot's audio speakers when activated by a key word spoken to the dog, a Sony spokeswoman said.

"Some people have commented that Aibo wasn't very useful and asked why it didn't do e-mail," the spokeswoman said. "Now we're sort of taking it another step; now it can do something."

[...]

GENERAL :: news.com.au - Display Story Page Cyborg couple

LONDON: Surgeons are preparing to create the first husband and wife cyborgs.

In science-fiction, a cyborg is a human being whose body has been "enhanced" by technical means.

Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at Reading University, and his wife, Irena, will have 5cm silicon chips implanted in their arms just above the elbow.
The chips will be surgically connected to nerve fibres to see if the pair can communicate sensation and movement by thought alone.