Disney Robot Can Play Catch With Humans
Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk
Disney has an oddly rich heritage in the field of robots - or at least animatronics. And hopefully now Disney owns Star Wars, we can expect swift and confident progress towards the Protocol Droids of your dreams replacing all staff at Disney World.
Suspiciously, the entertainment giant has recently made a pretty big breakthrough - though we imagine it’s more to do with theme park rides than actually replacing staff with Servodroids.
Disney Research has invented a robot which can play catch with a human.
Using depth-perception cameras similar to those used in Microsoft’s Kinect device, the robot is able to track balls in mid-air and reach out and catch them.
Even better, if it fails to make the catch it knows it’s failed - and looks appropriately sad.
The company says that the robot might make its way into theme parks before too long. Though as Engadget points out, there’s no guarantee it won’t also make its way into deadly killer robots with a penchant for tossing grenades. And you know how Human Rights Watch feels about that.
Article from: huffingtonpost.co.uk
